"Akuma no Riddle" definitely isn't your typical schoolgirls anime. After all, it's not every day you find one where nearly every major character is secretly an assassin, all of whom are targeting one of their classmates in order to have some kind of desire granted. Sadly, while it does provide a decent and entertaining action anime to sit through, "Akuma no Riddle" never even comes close to living up to the potential of its premise, making it an unfortunate yet all-too-common case of "what could have been."
Story (5.5/10):
"Akuma no Riddle" is set at the fictional all-girls boarding school Myojo Academy, where 12 girls have recently transferred and enrolled in a special class known as "Class Black". What very few people know, however, is that this class is actually a gathering for killers, some of whom kill as a profession and some as an act of pleasure, and are tasked with eliminating the only non-assassin Class Black student, Haru Ichinose. Each of them is given an advanced kill notice, which they must give to Haru once they decide to make a move, after which they must kill her within the next 48 hours. If they succeed, they will be granted any one desire that they can think of. One such assassin is our protagonist, Tokaku Azuma, who becomes Haru's roommate through sheer coincidence. Soon after, Tokaku learns that Haru is actually just as far from being an ordinary girl as anyone else in the class- specifically, she's been a target for assassination her entire life, with her entire immediate family having died to save her when she was just a child. What's more is that she knows what the other Class Black students are there for, describing Class Black as a test of hers where she must survive. Upon hearing this, Tokaku decides that she will work with Haru, not against her, becoming her protector against the rest of the class. From there, the series follows Tokaku and Haru as they defend themselves from the assassins one-by-one, with the goal of having Haru survive and ultimately graduate from Class Black.
While I did enjoy most of the individual stories of each episode, particularly as you get to know each of the assassins and learn their various motivations, the actual plot leaves a ton to be desired. Now, I am generally very tolerant when it comes to characters making stupid decisions. I've made more than a few myself over the years, after all. However, the sheer number of bone-headed choices made by the characters, Haru in particular, really made me want to slam my head against the wall. Considering Haru knows full well that everyone in the class except Tokaku is there to kill her, you'd think that would give her the hint to stay away from them as much as humanly possible. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as she constantly attempts to befriend her classmates because she believes that if she can get all of them to be her friend, she can convince them to give up on killing her, and that way nobody has to die. Of course, this being an action anime about assassins, things are NEVER that simple, and so she constantly paves the way for others to trick and manipulate her, leaving her in all kinds of dire situations that could easily have been avoided if she simply thought things through. And while Tokaku is significantly smarter than Haru, and indeed doesn't hesitate to call her out for being foolish, she's not above making some bad choices herself. For example, while tearing apart her kill notice in front of all the other assassins and vowing that she'll protect Haru from them seems awesome on the surface, it becomes less so when you realise that it would have been smarter, not to mention more interesting, for her to turn on them in secret and pick them off from the shadows. Sure, she likely would still have been found out eventually, but it would give her a head start on them if nothing else.
A smaller, but still notable, problem is that despite the fact that the series is called "Akuma no Riddle", the riddles Tokaku receives on a semi-regular basis ultimately have no real bearing on the actual story, and the reasoning behind them proves to be pretty anticlimactic, to say the least. I honestly didn't get why they were even in the series at all, since they ultimately serve no purpose other than to give the series its namesake. The story also never evolves beyond its typical "villain of the week" format, which it very much is despite a decent effort to appear otherwise. That means that, from beginning to end, you'll see Tokaku and Haru be targeted by a different assassin every episode, and watch as the class gradually shrinks with some characters leaving while others stay and get more focus. All in all, the writing has a LOT of issues and wasted potential, and ultimately the story is the last thing you should watch the series for.
Art & Animation (8.5/10):
“Akuma no Riddle” is a very good-looking series, which is a pleasant surprise given that Diomedea is not a particularly well-known animation studio. All the character models are very well-drawn and distinct, the environments look just as good and the fight scenes are consistently well-animated, with even the rare use of CGI being done extremely well. That said, there is an effect where background characters are greyed out with no colour, similar to that found in “Durarara!”. Nevertheless, it’s neither as noticeable or frequently used as it is there, and they at least do a decent job at making the greyed-out models look like actual people.
Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
“Akuma no Riddle” has a lot of things to be disappointed by, but one thing I doubt anyone will complain about is the music, which is best described as a mixture of electronic/synthetic music, orchestral music and piano music. It’s a strange combination to be sure, but that’s precisely what makes it fantastic, as it means it always has a track for any scene you can think of. The opening theme is very good, but the real standouts are the ending themes, for which there is a new one for every episode, though they vary a fair amount in quality. My personal favourites are “Paradox”, “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, “Concentration”, “Poison Me”, “Escape at Midnight” and “Queen”. The voice acting is great as well, with Morgan Berry’s Tokaku being the highlight as she manages to capture the character perfectly with her low yet unmistakably feminine voice. Considering the cast also contains Colleen Clinkenbeard, Monica Rial and Alexis Tipton (the voice of Haru), Morgan Berry delivering the best performance of the bunch is definitely an accomplishment.
Characters (7/10):
When first introduced, Tokaku comes off as a very cynical and borderline heartless young girl, being willing to kill Haru while asking for nothing in return and answering the riddle “The world is full of ___” with “torment”, among other morbid things. By the end of the second episode, however, it becomes clear that she is anything but heartless, as she decides to go against the nature of Class Black and protect Haru from the other assassins, albeit for reasons she doesn’t quite understand. Additionally, we learn early on that despite being a supposedly master assassin who comes from an infamous and feared family of assassins, Tokaku has yet to actually kill anyone, resulting in her being derisively called a “virgin” by one of her classmates who finds out. This is due to her aunt and mother always being against her becoming an assassin like the rest of the clan, and as a result she is unable to kill even to protect herself. However, Tokaku hates this limitation, as she feels that she’s being dragged down by the demands of those who are no longer here, which is preventing her from living her own life. Unfortunately, while this does make for a rather interesting conflict, the ultimate resolution to it is less than satisfactory, and ultimately she doesn’t undergo any major growth other than gaining a true reason to live. Nevertheless, she’s still the best character in the series, being consistently likeable even with her cold exterior and more than living up to her status as a badass assassin despite her inability to kill.
The other main character of the series, and my second favourite, is of course Haru Ichinose, though I definitely found myself very frustrated with her at times. While it’s a common anime trope for characters to do poorly at school but be very smart outside of it, Haru is the exact opposite- her grades are among the best in the class, yet when it comes to common sense and survival skills, she’s astoundingly lacking. Despite knowing full well what her classmates’ intentions are and Tokaku’s repeated warnings, Haru constantly lets her guard down around them and always believes the lies they tell her, no matter how obvious they are or who she’s talking to at the time. While her intentions are noble, the fact remains that the very first person who tries to kill her is an unrepentant serial killer who desires to be above the law so she can continue her killing spree forever, which should have made clear to Haru that there are people who don’t want to be your friend, aren’t worth the effort, or both. I wouldn’t have minded this so much if it was the set-up for a character arc where Haru gradually becomes less naïve and learns who to trust and who not to. Sadly, she never seems to grow or learn from any of her mistakes, with the story repeatedly bending over backwards to fit her viewpoint, which would make her tiring to deal with if her actual personality wasn’t so likeable.
Besides Tokaku and Haru, there are 11 other Class Black students who serve as their opponents, making for 13 students in total. Unfortunately, most of these don’t get any real focus outside of the episode in which they’re the antagonist, with Tokaku and Haru facing a different one in each episode. While these individual episodes do a decent job at fleshing out the characters and their desires, which often say a lot about who they are as people, ultimately it takes more than just one episode for me to get truly invested in a character, resulting in a supporting cast that’s both underwhelming and underdeveloped. There’s even one who gets no focus at all, to the point that we learn pretty much nothing about her. On the other hand, there are a couple of characters that I felt got too much focus compared to others, including one who tries to kill Haru before the assassinations even officially start, yet sticks around for most of the series afterwards, even though trying to get the jump on everyone else should logically have gotten her disqualified. Besides the students, the number of notable characters can literally be counted on one hand- there’s the chairwoman of Myojo and supervisor of Class Black, Meichi Yuri, Tokaku’s trolling confidant Kaiba (no, not THAT Kaiba) and the Class Black homeroom teacher, who’s often so dense and oblivious that he makes Haru look like a genius. Overall, the cast is decent, but there’s definite room for improvement.
Enjoyment (7/10):
“Akuma no Riddle” is an entertaining series for sure, with a fair amount of variety in the fight scenes, but it does take a while to get to the good parts. In fact, the assassinations don’t truly start until episode 3, which doesn’t sound like a bad thing until you realise that the series is only 12 episodes long, meaning we only have 10 episodes in the actual story. The tone is also rather inconsistent, as while the backstories of the characters tend to go to some very dark places, the series itself isn’t really dark at all, making hard to know exactly what kind of story the writers were going for.
Overall:
“Akuma no Riddle” is definitely far from essential viewing, and those with very high standards would do well to stay away from it. Nevertheless, those who like assassin stories or just shows with strong female characters should find some enjoyment in it. If the actual story and characters were developed anywhere near as well as the visuals and music, “Akuma no Riddle” could have been a truly great anime, instead of a merely good one.
Score:
5.5+8.5+8.5+7+7=36.5/50=7.3/10
