Starting this review has been difficult. I have rewritten this opening multiple times and finished watching several days back. My thoughts are just that hard to put into words.
I will not apologize, though. This is one of the least apologetic, most honest series I’ve seen in a good while. When you watch the first episode, you know exactly what this show is about and if it will be for you. I have to applaud it for that.
How does this series begin
It’s a straightforward dark fantasy that starts midway through a political uprising against an empire. The main character (Tatsumi) and his two best friends are far from most of the “plot” and instead are embarking on a quest to save their home village from poverty. They eventually get separated due to a vicious assault from a group of monsters. Elsewhere, a group of assassins called Nightraid are being hunted by the Empire.
Tatsumi makes it to an agreed upon rendezvous point (at the Capital), discovers his friends are missing, gets conned out of all of his money by a voluptuous blonde haired barbarian type at the local pub, and later found on the streets by a young noble woman. She invites him home out of what appears to be the kindness of her heart and offers to help him find his missing comrades.
Nightraid attacks later that night and the woman that stole his money happened to be a member. The entire scene that plays out afterwards could easily be called “edgy BS;” they plunder and kill the mansion’s inhabitants for being very "evil". The young woman that took Tatsumi in had taken in his friends; she molested, tortured and killed his missing female comrade with her own hands and used his guy pal as a test subject for various different diseases, drugs and physical extremes. All nobles in the kingdom will be portrayed in this light but rarely will show their faces throughout.
In a fit of controlled rage, our main character murders the young noble woman with his sword without hesitation. It catches the eye of our band of assassins. Leone, the blonde that hustled our main character at the pub earlier in the day, pays it forward by taking him under her wing and dragging him back with them to their base. He becomes their newest assassin (with much hesitation for what is alluded to as several weeks but shown over the course of a handful of episodes).
What Kind of Setting is It
The world of Akame ga Kill! could be classified as a medieval dark fantasy (ala Berserk) crossed with several post apocalyptic elements (due to there being advanced technology from previous civilizations, the monsters coming about because of an Apocalyptic event and war prior to the start of the story) and a light dashing of both Nazi German expansion from WWII and pieces of the US American Revolution. It's a very unique blend of elements and made for a fascinating watch when those elements were explored more. It also allowed for unique weapons, locations and a "flexible" power system.
What About the Characters
Typically, I will do a detailed run down of all of the cast here, but most of them are one or two dimensional; the main character and the villains are the main focus with most of Nightraid being traditional archetypes that are slightly defined by their Tengou - powerful weapons created centuries ago by the "Eternal Emperor" to protect the world from tyranny but now used by anyone that is compatible on both sides of the conflict. If you've seen your fair share of Shonen battle series, you've seen most of them done better elsewhere. They did make some alterations to the formula that were welcomed by me but they will offend many demographics; I am not qualified to dive into this topic in a sane way but would love to discuss with people that are.
This manga and its adaptation were both marketed as Shonen (meaning appropriate for young male teenagers) but the Anime (haven't read the manga) is very Seinen (adult male oriented) and multiple characters could be problematic for shaping their world views. Example: Gay Super Sentai JoJo protagonist mashup (Bulat) that is just horny for the main character for much of his time on screen outside of combat and training moments. Another example would be Bolz, a later villain that is a "family man" but wears bondage gear, a dominatrix mask and a ball gag while murdering his foes with a flamethrower and different types of old explosives; when his origin is revealed and you find out the names of his special attacks, it's heavily implied that he's a direct reference to various WWII Nazi German war crimes that you see displayed in the media to this date. Many of the characters fit this mold.
What Did I Like
This is a post-Steins;Gate but pre-Re:Zero White Fox production. Studio White Fox has never been the best animation studio, but they aren't the worst either. The vast majority of what I've seen from them have been clean and very consistent in terms of production values; this is mostly on par with their typical output. They use quite a bit of 3D CG when it comes to monsters and certain character transformations but I never felt it was off-putting or took away from the rest of the visuals; 3D CG is great when composited correctly but often can distract for me. There were a small handful of moments where character models and faces were off a bit but I've come to expect that from longer running series. It was never truly bad here.
None of the characters felt out of place for the setting; they all had unique designs with most having dub voices that fit what I viewed them as sounding. The backgrounds and environments were all unique and the world felt more fleshed out than many of its contemporaries during its time of release. I don't recall any music that felt out of place or took me out of the experience. Both OPs were tracks I listened to outside of the series on the regular, so hearing them and seeing animation tied to them was a treat. The EDs were less interesting for me but still a positive addition towards the overall experience.
The series finale was also one of the better ones I've seen that tied things up in a sane and absolute final no possibility of continuation kind of way that took everything that had been laid out prior to a sensible conclusion. I won't spoil it for you, but it was satisfying for me to see where it went, despite being Anime original (the manga continued for several volumes afterwards along with having a prequel series and other media mixed in).
What were My Problems
The world building, setting and characters felt flat and had way too little depth given to any of them despite all having fascinating elements alluded to but then dropped not too long afterwards. Some of the lighter elements and character backstory scenes could have been cut or replaced with other ones. The tone of the series kept going all over the place, ranging from pure gag comedy moments, chibi character faces and throwaway lines to straight-faced, dark and possibly triggering moments of "philosophy." It's not uncommon for most series to bounce between both styles, especially in the Shonen sphere, but I felt that it should have followed the darker elements all the way through and explored the characters in a better way. There's not enough Anime that have this kind of setting that are able to explore it and make it feel real.
The series also "male gazed" its female cast members way more than was needed. When I say that, I mean the camera focused on their breasts and legs way more than I would have liked for what the series was about. There's a place for fanservice and having beautiful women is never a bad thing for me when the series is about that; here it was distracting for me when it came up often due to the timing of it. It would frequently happen during moments of world building or serious moments that I was invested in.
There were other elements I disliked but they were of so little value to me that bringing them up here would make them seem more important than they are. They didn't take away from the overall experience and were more just minor annoyances that I will never put too much thought into. If you are interested in them, feel free to comment down below, and I'll share.
My Final Words
I had an ok time with the series. It wasn't the best for what it was trying to do but I never was bored and don't feel my time was wasted at all. What it showed in episode 1, that was what the series was about all the way through. I never felt lied to; keeping the trust of your audience during the full runtime by never presenting yourself as something you're not from the word go is something that I wish more shows would do. I would recommend this series for those that want to not think too hard about what they're watching. I would say stay away if you have issues with anything I've brought up here.
Series Info
Genre - Dark Fantasy, Action, Comedy, Shonen (? really should be Seinen)
Production Studio - White Fox
Episodes / Airing Season - 24; Summer - Winter 2014