Warning: Please read this, I beg of you. This may contain heavy spoilers and also, this review will be focusing on the anime itself and will not be compared to the manga. You've been warned. Now read on and enjoy!
Hello! If you remember my last Egg Tray post, I have been watching this anime called Akame Ga kill, which is based on the manga of the same name. Before I begin, I want to make it seriously clear that I will not be talking about how the show went on a completely different direction from the manga. Actually I will, and I will say it right now. For the people who have seen the anime and read the manga (or have at least done either), I agree with you. I was appalled when they made up that ending on their own, mostly because my heart grew heavy after that ending. Seriously any sane person cannot just watch that show and say it was not sad. Because it was! In this anime they're all dead, but in reality they're kinda not??? I feel very conflicted, you guys. But I do think they might need a remake or just leave it be and let others learn how to read the manga for a change. Anyway, let's get started.
Plot
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| Night Raid appears (dailyanimeart.com) |
Okay, let me break it down for you; Tatsumi is a highly skilled country boy who aims to earn a lot of money at the Imperial Capital for his home village. But then he learns how corrupt and terrible the place was, after finding his comrades and other innocent people brutally tortured to the death for no good reason. That's when he encounters Night Raid, a sub-group of assassins who each have a super weapon called the Imperial Arms. They explain to Tatsumi that they are part of a Revolutionary Army, fighting for the freedom of the people from the corrupted rule of the minister, who is treating the clueless child emperor like a puppet. They do this by killing every corrupted rich elite or official they intend to target. Tatsumi eventually joins this cause and continuously grows as a warrior and a man...okay, maybe the other members of Night Raid change too.
I really want to say I do not like the plot. Or at least, my feels do not like the plot. But I can't lie...the story was really good. For an adaption (it was barely an adaptation, in my opinion. They managed to follow the manga, but completely improvised at the ending. That's right, fans. Tatsumi, Mine, Kurome, Najenda, Leone, and General Esdeath are still alive. But I think Mine is close to death in the manga, as we speak), it was able to put everything a war story should have. A corruption element? Check. A rebellion? Check. Back stories that made you wish that they had normal lives? Check. Crazy yet scary sociopath villains? Not really necessary but check. Deaths? Double. Triple. Quadruple Check. As much as most of the viewers hated it, but that's how a war story should go. Death is inevitable, especially when a war becomes a main topic. So realistically, one death is not enough to achieve the objective. That is what this anime did and it was performed splendidly. I guess the reason why I had mixed feelings earlier is because I did one thing someone should not do when it comes to war stories; never become emotionally attached to the characters, which I will later explain. As for the setting, I love how it included actual events into the fictitious story. I mean, as a history fan watching an anime about bloodshed, I was able to notice that most of these events actually happened. For example, having a very young emperor happened before and it was actually a good but devious idea to let that stupid young kid to be heavily influenced by some fat guy who is clearly a megalomaniac. Otherwise, none of his subordinates wouldn't be so...intimidating. Even if the politics in this show do not make sense at all, it is very clear that there is no specific law. Only the emperor's words become law. Basically, this show did a good job at making the Imperial Capital look completely hopeless because the way I see it, it is ruled by psychotic people. And I haven't come across any dystopian plot or any plot for that matter, that has any simplistic but insane villainy in them. Plus, the story of each characters are quite adequate. It's already implied that most are already developed, so all there's left is to give them one more push before they meet their deaths. Sounds morbid, but that's how it went.
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| Night Raid Insignia (reddit.com) |
If I had to nitpick the show in any way, I guess I didn't get enough screen time for some characters. First is Wave. He is supposed to be the equivalent of Tatsumi because he has an imperial arms that's supposed to be an improved version of Tatsumi's. So if I can't really expect a fight between the two, I was hoping for him to go in action??? But no. The anime written him off as some lowly, all-talk, less do kind of guy. All he did was fuss over Kurome's health and complain about not being able to do anything. Kinda pathetic, if you ask me. Definitely not worth be equated to Tatsumi (since the whole point of assembling Jaegers, Wave's team, is to be the complement of Night Raid), who's clearly done many things in the anime. Next is Budou, the commander-in-chief that everyone fears for the past 20 episodes!!! Najenda mentioned that he has been a problem for the Revolutionary Army for years, yet he was easily defeated by a gun shot from Mine? You have got to be kidding me. He was supposed to be in the same level as General Esdeath and he clearly had a lot of man power and an impressive Imperial Arms to prove it, but he was dead after one episode. Really?
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| www.giga.de |
What really intrigued me was how the show managed to mislead me. For the past 23 episodes, I've been constantly asking myself why the show was named after Akame, one of the members of Night Raid, when the story revolves around Tatsumi. The whole reason why it was titled, "Akame Ga Kill" (Or Red-Eye Kill) was because Akame becomes the survivor of the war. And again, that's how it should be. Every battle has a survivor and Akame was the survivor. And I was taken by surprise, because I was so used to reading and watching many shows with battles that leave many survivors. And this anime managed to deviate from that perspective and realistically let Akame be the only one who lives. Again, I wanted to hate the idea but I kinda like it. I feel betrayed in some way, but I thought it was very well done. Since it is very similar to Kill La Kill, the show remains very loyal to its morbid themes such killing. Kill the enemies. Kill corruption. Kill the kingdom. Kill everything to make anew. Hence, the epic action scenes. Slay, people, slay.
Characters
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| Night Raid From left to right: Akame, Tatsumi, Mine, Leone, Sheele, Bulat, Lubbock, Ex-General Najenda (www.kpopstarz.com) |
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| Jaegers From Left To Right: Seryu, Dr. Stylish, Bols, General Esdeath, Wave, Kurome, Run (pinterest.com) |
For me, this was the best part of the series. The characters that made my heart soar. Basically this anime's tactic was, "if you can't develop a character, kill them". Like I said, most of the characters made it clear from the beginning of the show, that they've already been through a lot of things and those hardships already made them who they are. So it's not surprising that most of them were already self-actualized and very prepared to die. Tatsumi, being the only one who needed a lot of building, was such a good character. I can't even explicitly explain why I like Tatsumi. He's not a very fresh idea, since there are many others like him in many anime shows. However, I love how well-grounded he is for a hillbilly. He takes things way too seriously, but it somehow fits in the situations he's been.
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As for the members of Night Raid, they were all right I guess. Unfortunately, I can't say much for them because most of their archetypes clearly conform to the anime world. But their back stories are really good. They were done adequately and none of them tried to be more important than the other, which seems very important to me when it comes to books, shows, or even films. I also really like the perception of romance in this anime. It is seen as a reward and not as something that needs to be pursued right away. This immediately affects the relationship between the characters. And I just love how they regard each other. They're like family, which made the anime even more painful to watch.
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| Chelsea, the first recruit (Youtube) |
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| Susanoo, the second recruit (www.popcults.com) |
I am even impressed with how this anime was able to squeeze in new characters and make them impressionable. Chelsea had a similar characteristic to that of Mine but managed to have a bit off development before her demise. Susanoo, in spite of being just a human-based imperial arms, still becomes this memorable, adorable, yet head strong person for the team and a good mentor for Tatsumi. I like how they weren't exactly out of place, but they were just there to replace the ones that fallen and none of them felt like odd pieces to the puzzle. Their stories prove that war stories will be forever tragic. Especially if the death involves an assassin.
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| akamegakill.wikia.com |
I could say the same for the villains. First, we talk about Jaegers, who are supposed to be the copycat version of Night Raid. I hate and love the fact that they treat each other like family. Clearly, most of them are not fully aware by what is going on behind the scenes except Run, surprisingly. What's worse is that the majority of them are people with good intentions. And that hurts. In other words, you can't hate these guys. They treat each other right, too. Esdeath proved herself as actually a great leader by being very fair to her subordinates. I'm not kidding, guys. She's a very good general, even though she's... crazy. The torment I felt in this show was very serious.
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| General Esdeath making the prince her B---- (www.levelup.com) |
As for the major villains. Okay, they're really crazy. What's worse, they run the world like The Plastics run North Shore High. They only have two objectives: Get everything and Kill everything. I'm not saying that it's the most violent show I've seen (because I've seen worse), but these people have no reasonable or any particular agenda at all. For example, General Esdeath--as much as I lover her--tortures an entire town because she's into it. She enjoys that kind of thing, that's all. Now imagine ten more copies of her running a kingdom. That's the Imperial Capital. Boom. The anime didn't really want to complicate things, so they just stuck the masses with really messed-up leaders. Which only makes sense for assassins to murder each one of them.
Music
The music is great. It's a mixture of metal, rock, and opera. So it makes everything sound grave, dangerous, dramatic, and thrilling all at once. My favorite was the second opening of the show, where it reveals Night Raid facing Jaegers, and the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, I cannot share that because it reveals too much of the story. No worries, I shall tease by showing the first opening of this show with the song entitled, "Skyreach", so you will know what I am talking about.
Art
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| ganbareanime.com |
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| Tumblr |
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| Blogger |
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| akamegakill.wikia.com |
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| Photobucket.com |
Aside from the weird parts where they cut each other's arms, the art is really good. The violence animation is not too violent and not too bloody. The art appears innocent, but sadly these characters do not wear positive faces all the time. If they did, they simply put on a game face, or a look of determination. They are designed to look grim, dangerous, angry, fierce, and power-hungry. But no worries, even the villains can still pull a soft or comedic face, once in a while. The best for me are the costumes. It was a mixture of eastern and western, both contemporary, and ancient. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be General Esdeath's because I find military uniforms really sexy and Esdeath's looked really great. Move over, Elsa. But the cold definitely never bothered her.
I'd like to eliminate this anime for hurting my feelings. But putting that aside, it gave me the most realistic yet most entertaining war story I've ever seen. I love the characters, both bad and good. So I'm gonna give Akame Ga Kill, Four eggs! Soft-boiled!!!
That is it! Till the next post~
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