Unfortunately Akame Ga Kill commits the greatest sin of dumb edgy shit, it's just kind of boring.
I was promised a violent, dark shounen that would not not be able to handle the themes that the creators wanted to cover, and I just got the latter.
Plot: Evil empire, plucky rebels, struggle for the future of the common man..... look it's an incredibly common plot, it's basically written on autopilot.
Worldbuilding: the imperial arms are incredibly anachronistic. They were made 1000 years ago, why hasn't technology progessed?
Why don't we ever see the rest of the rebel army in the first 18 episodes?
Why are Akame and her sister in Japanese school girl outfits and everyone is is in sort of vague medieval cloths or WWII fetish gear?
Essentially nothing is thought out, and the narrative needs to charge on at breakneck speed so no one notices.
Characters: I was really confused that Akame doesn't really seem to do anything, since her name is in the title.
The rest of the rebels are all standard archtypes, and I have forgotten all their names.
Esdeath is camp perfection. She's an utter moron, her motivations are hilariously underwritten, and I love her. She's at Frieza & Dio levels of camp. She is the best part of the show by a mile, and every second she isn't on screen is utter torture.
Pacing: the series just Flys through plot points with wild abandon. Characters die before you get to know them, are replaced, and then their replacements die. It's a truly numbing experience, mixed with the drudgery of endless bland shounen fights in the same old anime forests and canyons.
If this show had been from Esdeath's perspective it could have been a classic. Not a good classic, a classic like Freddy got Fingered, a classic of trash. But instead it was another bland battle shounen.
