The shounen genre of anime has always been close to my heart mostly because it was those kind of shows that got me into anime in the first place. Racing home from school to watch Dragonball and Yu Yu Hakusho was my introduction into anime. Of course, the more anime I have watched, the more eclectic my tastes have become. However, I do enjoy a good shounen anime every now and then whenever I'm in the mood for some good, fluid, and kickass action. This past anime season, we were treated to Akame ga Kill! a truly classic shounen fighting anime that takes the classic shounen formula and pushes it into darker and edgy territory.
The plot of Akame ga Kill! is pretty straightforward; swordsman Tatsumi sets out from his humble village to the Capitol in order to join the military and earn money for his village. However, Tatsumi quickly finds that the capital is not the place he envisioned in his head. Instead it is a depraved and corrupt place which has been tainted by the rule of a corrupt Prime Minister who wield massive influence over its child emperor. After nearly falling victim to this corruption (Tatsumi gets taken in by a seemingly nice family who instead love torturing outsiders for sport), Tatsumi finds himself recruited by Night Raid, a faction of the Revolutionary Army made up of assassins who are looking to clean up the Capitol's corruption. While Tatsumi initially does not approve of how the group does their business, he decides to join up with them seeing this as an opportunity to truly help the starving people of his village. Each member of the group wields what are called Imperial Arms, special weapons that each have incredible powers such as: a blade that can kill enemies with just one cut thanks to a deadly poison, a belt that can turn its wearer into a beast and heighten their senses, a rifle that has power equal to how much trouble its user is in, and several other interesting armaments. The members of Night Raid are an eclectic bunch as well; the stoic Akame (the titular character), the ditzy Sheele, the powerful Bulat, the tsundere Mine, the brash Leone, the butt-monkey Lubbock, and their leader Najenda. Each of them have their own character quirks that make them stand out and make for some highly enjoyable dialogue.
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| The members of Night Raid (Left to right): Mine, Najenda, Akame, Lubbock, Sheele, Leone, and Bulat |
What proceeds from this is some classic shounen action. Fights in the series are sights to behold as each member of Night Raid turns out to be awesomely badass in their own way. However, Akame ga Kill! is still largely style over substance. The overarching plot is that these characters are fighting in order to make things better in the Capitol, however, that plot seems more like an excuse to pit characters against each other and have them fight. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing because all of the onscreen action is fun to watch and highly enjoyable. In fact, its actually nice to watch a show that lets you simply enjoy what is going on. That comment is more to say that it is very easy to forget what exactly the characters are doing other than just fighting and dicking around. What sets Akame ga Kill! apart from other shounen series is that it takes a much darker tone and the level of gore puts it more in line with a traditional seinen show. One criticism that could be leveled against this show is that just because a show violence and gore doesn't mean one should rush to call it dark and edgy. That sort of thing is reserved for a show that makes that violence pointless and is only really there so that it can be viewed as some dark and mature anime series. Akame ga Kill! is a show about assassins, in a world with magical weapons, rebelling against a powerful Capitol. It is a dangerous line of work and the tone of the series reflects that. This is a very much a show that avoids the traditional shounen Plot Armor that ruins other shows. At any moment a member of the main cast could die and very often that is exactly what ends up happening.
Where Akame ga Kill! really struggles though is when it tries to balance its darker and more serious elements with its comedic ones. For example, in the first episode Tatsumi finds out that the family who took him in actually tortured and killed two of his best friends, he even watches one of them die in his arms. It is one of the most well done scenes in the show and gives us a greater understanding into how depraved the Capitol truly is. Tatsumi has had not only his worldview shaken but has just lost two of his childhood friends. However, not wanting to let things get too serious, Tatsumi is quickly whisked away by Night Raid's Leone and Akame to the rest of the group, cracking jokes and suddenly turning into a comedic scene. Suddenly, a should-be-in-shock Tatsumi is the straight man to Night Raid's wackiness. This isn't an exception to the rule either as this is merely one example of a serious moment being undercut by something silly. This dichotomy in tone can make the series hard to take seriously. Luckily the second half of the series is much better about letting its serious moments be, rather than reducing them to rom-com anime levels.
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| May result in mood whiplash |
A second point where the series struggles is with its "Anyone Can Die" theme. This is quite the double-edged sword. As said before, reducing the Plot Armor on the characters creates more tension and makes the odds of a tragedy happening much greater. It suits a show like Akame ga Kill! very well. However, it once again undercuts the emotional impact of each character's death because it only spends an episode on each character. About six episodes in was when the first character died and shame on me but it was hard to really feel anything because I hadn't been given much reason to care about the character. If anything, I was more shocked that the series killed off a major character so early since shounens are famous for having their characters survive everything (look at you Code Geass second season). Since the first two characters die without being developed beyond singular episodes it makes one wonder whether its worth getting attached to any characters if they could just be gone in the next episode. While this didn't heavily impact my enjoyment of the show, I will admit that this thought was present frequently in the back of my mind.
The good (or bad, depending on your perspective) is that Akame ga Kill! does feature a fun gallery of characters. Tatsumi, in my opinion, was a breath of fresh air. While many anime protagonists now seem to love the soft-spoken often emotionless protagonist (Aldonoah.Zero and Sword Art Online), Tatsumi subverted this trend. Most shows would have Tatsumi constantly whining about Night Raid's moral ambiguity, making him useless and annoying. Instead, Tatsumi is quick to understand that killing is necessary in order to achieve Night Raid's end goal. Since he embraces this, we are able to see Tatsumi develop into a stronger man and fighter over the course of the series. His strong sense of purpose is his best attribute and he refuses to let the superior abilities of his fellow Night Raid members deter him from simply giving up. The rest of Night Raid make up an enjoyable crew. Akame is the titular character but doesn't impact the plot any more than the other Night Raid members until the very end of the series. Despite this, I still found her to be a fine character on her own. For all the members of Night Raid (and most named characters in the series really), everyone can hold their own in a fight. Akame is probably the strongest of everyone in Night Raid and it was clear the animators had a lot of fun doing her fight choreography. Akame's charm comes from her comedic seriousness and despite her stoic nature managed to be one of the funnier characters in the show. The rest of Night Raid doesn't entirely stand out, mostly being character types that we've all seen before. However, I still enjoyed them a great deal. Bulat reminded me a lot of Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in his relationship with Tatsumi. Leone even gets to take on a sister role similar to Yoko from the same show. Mine was the standard tsundere but manages to be charming at the same time. What Akame ga Kill! really does well is that it respects the strength of its characters. Characters lose fights because they were beaten fairly by their opponents and not because of "main character powers" or other deus ex machina. This show, despite its policy on character's lifespans, manages to give most characters the kind of respect that they deserve.
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| Esdeath was one of the most sinister and terrifying villains I've seen but good luck disliking her |
The star character of the show however has to be the series' most present antagonist, the Capitol's General Esdeath. While the Big Bad of the series is the Prime Minister and the Emperor, they are still hardly the threat that Esdeath is. In fact, the series isn't shy about telling the audience that Esdeath is the biggest threat, not the Capitol's leader. The minister is often played for laughs and is ahrd to take seriously considering he's always eating and generally seems corrupt and clueless. Esdeath was truly a treat as a villain however. Many shows will try to humanize their villains and give them psychological excuses for why a character is so sadistic. Esdeath however simply loves killing and loves torture but at the same time has intense love for her subordinates and in her private moments can even be quite kind. However, her power on the battlefield was truly something to behold and she was truly a villain to be feared and at the same time loved. Her yandere obsession with Tatsumi, while first looking like it would detract from her appeal, ended up becoming one of her best traits. It is really an achievement to make such a chilling and strong character. Esdeath's team, the Jaegers, was also filled with likable characters. Seryu Ubiquitous however was a poorly developed character. Akame ga Kill! does an excellent job of giving us both sides of the conflict and just because Esdeath's group was on the opposing side they weren't necessarily evil, just people doing what they believe their duty. However, Seryu was the lone exception here. Her character is always seeking what she believes justice. In some appearances her character has a sweet demeanor but then switches to a manically cackling and bloodthirsty persona when she fights. It would be one thing if her character was meant to show how an extreme form of justice and how that can pervert a person but never are those aspects of her character mentioned. In one episode Mine calls her out for this hypocrisy but just because the show is self aware of how inconsistent Seryu's characterization is that doesn't mean its okay. Regardless, the Jaeger's are a great bunch that are meant to be parallels to Night Raid. Wave is similar to Tatsumi, Kurome to Akame, and so on.
As I said before, Akame ga Kill! is a slickly animated piece of work. The action looks great and the characters and world are well designed. Adding in magical weapons like the Imperial Arms really allowed for the animators to flex their muscles. However, the music wasn't entirely up to snuff. Both openings and endings aren't really anything special and the BGM, while it was passable, was hardly anything memorable. Ultimately, Akame ga Kill! was about the action and the bits of comedy, so as long as it looked good I was hardly going to complain.
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| Akame ga Kill! looks great and action scenes are incredibly slick |
Overall, Akame ga Kill! is a fun ride and wildly entertaining. It isn't without his flaws and has the potential to frustrate people in the early going. Its habit of undercutting its own drama and at times shamelessly killing its characters may be a turn off for people. Despite these flaws, it still manages to poke its head into the upper echelon of the past season. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is looking for a good shounen that has great action elements while managing to avoid the Plot Armor trap that most shows in the genre fall into. While its hardly perfect, Akame ga Kill! is extremely entertaining and is almost worth watching for Esdeath alone.
My Score: 4/5
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