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A male transfer student that goes by the name of Tatsumi transfers to Capitol High, where he joins a club full of delinquents as opposed to the student council. In that club, he meets a clumsy girl, a tsundere, a gluttonous kuudere, a playful kitty, an overprotecting senior, and a guy that gets repeatedly shunned by members of the opposite sex. This is a perfect scenario to be in for Tatsumi, as almost every girl in the club feels inclined to be romantic with this fine young man. However, the student council is livid by the fact that Tatsumi rejected their offer to join their ... establishment. The council president, Esdeath, also bears feelings for Tatsumi, because he is the hottest free agent on the main character market.

Now THAT right there would have been a solid show. Instead, we get the bastardized version of this wonderful schoolyard harem, called Akame Ga Kill! (AGK). AGK seems to suffer an identity crisis, because on one hand, AGK it is a light hearted comedy that we should all watch to settle down. On the other hand, AGK is about darkness, corruption, and tragic deaths. Not to say that you can’t have both sides of the spectrum in one show. As a matter of fact, many great shows have clashing genres. AGK just does it so poorly, to the point where it’s hard to get emotionally invested in this show as it’s intended to be.

The story itself is not even worth mentioning. The basic principle of the story is good vs evil, or the Revolutionary army vs. The Empire. There is minimal excitement generated by the story because what is expected to happen usually happens. The appeal with AGK is its characters, and how they interact with each other. If you are a fan of crazy yandere characters, you’d probably like Esdeath. If you are into the innocent type, you’d probably like Akame. Even though the characters fall under fairly typical archetypes, they are definitely fun to watch. There is a reason why AGK is so freaking popular, and it’s because of the bipolarity of the characters. Man wouldn’t it be awesome if the lovely ladies in AGK were real girls? They are so cute and fluffy on the outside, but deviously thirsty on the inside. Guys seem to really dig that.

Even if the characters are awesome, it does not excuse the fact that they are given little screen time for us to actually get attached to them. AGK seems to sell the fact that they have a “no character is safe” mentality. That is all and dandy, but are we actually expected to feel emotions when someone dies a tragic death? There are just too many characters, and most of them suffer the same fate. The lack of screen time combined with zero element of surprise truly plagues this anime. It was a pleasure watching AGK. But it’s nothin’ special.