Back to CafeAnime's Profile CafeAnime's Profile

Overall Thoughts: B-

Sabagebu! is an extremely funny Shoujo comedy that accomplishes it's primary goal: to make you laugh and it doesn't try to do much else. There aren't any "deep" themes or complex messages that the crew of Sabagebu! are trying to make you consider. While it may not be doing anything outstanding enough to be remembered decades in the future, Sabagebu! is still an excellent experience for anyone who simply wants to relax and have a few laughs. It doesn't bombard the viewer with melodrama or degrade its characters through fanservice, but instead focuses on being as funny as possible. And that's good enough ... for me to give it a wholehearted two-thumbs up and recommendation.

Story: B-

The story is centered around transfer student, Momoka, being roped into joining one of the strangest school clubs of all-time, the Survival Game Club! A episodic Shoujo comedy, that follows Momoka’s various escapades with the other members of the survival game club.

So basically, it's your typical slice of life comedy anime, just with a lot more guns involved.

There’s never a dull moment in Sabagebu, and it’s this fast pace and over-the-top comedy that keeps the anime rolling along. The writer’s also do a great job of varying up all the different sketches that each of the 12 episodes are composed of, so the jokes don’t become stale and over-used. They do a good job with references and playing up certain things for comedic effect. There’s a Yakuza movie parody sketch that’s absolutely hilarious and they do a great job of shifting the focus on different characters and character dynamics with each different sketch so that you’re getting something new out of everyone.

It reminded me a lot of the other great anime comedies I’ve seen in the past like Gintama and Beelzebub, so if you enjoyed those shows, then you’ll more than likely enjoy this one as well.

Characters: B

The entire cast plays their roles extremely well, and they all provide a bundle of laughs. I’m not sure if it’s because I haven’t watched much Shoujo yet, but all of the characters seemed fun and several them had fairly distinct personalities I hadn’t very many times in anime.

Sonokawa, Momoka might be one of my favorite main characters to come out of 2014. Whereas the trend seems to be going towards protagonist who are built up to be perfect in every way, selfless and the Moral Compass of their respective series, righting every wrong and defeating every villain, Momoka goes in the completely other direction. She has a two-sided personality, She initially kept an appearance of a polite and kind schoolgirl but is actually sharp-tongued, merciless, and easily angered. She is prone to taking revenge, often disproportionately. She’s a vengeful, spiteful, jealous, petty, ruthless, and selfish person who has no problem betraying her fellow club members or allies, and has no qualms about pointing and shooting down anyone that gets her way. Cute little children, elderly people, cute animals, Cat-Aliens, her Mom, or even her own conscious! There’s no one she won’t turn her gun on in order to win or get what she wants, and this sort of ruthlessness is played upon to great comedic effect. It’s absolutely hilarious when someone’s tries to play upon her mercy or how cute and harmless they are, and then she puts a bullet right through their brain. It’s this sort of flawed character that makes her more relatable, and in the case of this comedy, the star of its humor. Her antics provide for tons of laughs.

Of course, she’s not necessarily that vicious, since they’re just paintballs, but she has no problem using others as a human shield, leaving people behind so she can get away, or any other dirty underhanded trick. She does have her tender moments though, that show she’s not so bad, but those usually come around to bite her in the ass at one point or another and at least once an episode she gets what’s coming to her for underhanded schemes and tricks. Seeing her get one upped by the other characters is always very funny to see and it sort of balances everything out for her rude behavior throughout the rest of the series. Well the other members of the cast are solid characters that provide for many, many hilarious moments, Momoka is definitely the high point in the character department and it's from playing off her brilliant characterization that the other characters are able to be so outlandish and funny.

Animation: C

The weakest aspect in the entire anime. There’s nothing animation or character design wise that really wows you at all, and well the fight scenes are well done every now and then, there’s nothing else that stands out at all. The art style is pretty standard, and doesn’t really make the characters pop at all. It’s pretty much average in this department, but that’s alright since this show isn’t about gorgeous animation or character designs and the way shots are presented and the use of quick cuts throughout the show are able to translate the humor from the pages of the script and through the screen well.

Sound: B-

The voice acting in this is absolutely phenomenal. All of the voice actors do a great job of showcasing the character’s spectrum of emotions and can change the tone of their voice at the drop of a hat and showcase they’re range in spectacular fashion. Everyone fits they’re character’s personalities perfectly as well. A special shout-out has to go out to Urara’s VA, who can go from high-pitched cutesy voice to dangerously low and ominous voice extremely quickly.

Both the opening and ending are extremely catchy and fit the mood of the show perfectly. It probably helps that both are performed by the voice actors of the characters in the show, and it really gets you ready and excited for each episode when you hear them.

The only problem in the sound of the anime was the fairly limited and repetitive tracks that played in the show. There didn’t seem to be a large selection to pick from, and while everything fit what was happening in the show, none of it was great and made you want to go listen to it on your own.

Personal Enjoyment: B+ grade.

I had a blast watching this show and every episode kept me in good-spirits and laughing throughout the entire 20 minutes. I never left an episode without a smile on my face, and the show did its primary job of keeping me entertained and giving me a fun half-hour every time I turned it on. By far one of the best comedies I watched in 2014, and it’s made me more interested in the Shoujo genre as a whole.

To be honest, when I first looked through the list of anime from 2014, I was expecting Fate/stay night to be near the top, if not the run-away favorite for Best Anime from 2014. I mean come on; it’s the not-really-a-sequel to Fate/Zero, one of the greatest anime of all time! It’s going to be just as amazing right!?

Wrong. Fate/stay night pretty much took everything that was amazing and a breath of fresh air from Fate/Zero and turned it back into the generic anime tropes you see in basically every show. You remember how in Fate/Zero, all the characters except for one were actually adults ... and because of this the tone and setting of the story was very mature, leading to one of the most suspenseful and serious anime you’ll ever see? Well now everyone’s in f*cking high school and 90% of the plot happens in f*cking high school! Remember how in Fate/Zero, each and every character was given equal and significant amounts of screen-time, leading to them all receiving great character development resulting in one of the richest cast you’ll ever find in any fictional work? Well kiss that good bye, since now you’ll spend all your screen-time with Generic Nice Guy Harem Protagonist #347 or with Frustrating Tsundere #288. Because that’s what we all want…right?????

None of this helped either by the fact that Type-Moon isn’t very original with their character designs. Making Fate/Zero fans say, “Hey, this is the same as the last one,” every-time a “new” character is introduced in the series. (Yes, I know that technically Fate/stay night came out first, but let me have this one joke damn it!)

Despite all these flaws, there is one saving grace to this show that makes its inclusion as one of the Top 10 or so anime of 2014 absolutely necessary. It has quite possibly the best animation you will EVER see in an anime TV series. Everything looks phenomenal in the show, from the set pieces to, backgrounds, character designs, and the action scenes, oh god the action scenes. They’re so incredible and intense that you’ll need a surgeon on hand in order to screw your jaw back into place after watching the fantastic fights in this show.

I also realize that my own personal enjoyment with this series was heavily influenced by comparing it to Fate/Zero the entire time, and for anyone whose crazy enough to have not watched that masterpiece yet, that won’t be a problem at all. The premise to the show is still great, and is good enough to keep you hooked onto the show even through all the High School BS. There are also some really awesome characters to be found in this show as well, mostly on the Servants side of things with Archer being the stand-out so far. Hell, even our female lead, Rin, can be a cool gal whenever she decides to be competent.

Mix all this in with an all-star voice-acting cast, an amazing opening, and great OST’s you end up with a really good anime. Does it live up to the reputation of Fate/Zero? No, but practically nothing can. Besides being a pretty good anime with some of the greatest action to ever grace the Silver Screen is a great thing to be on it’s on. Plus, we can always hope that the next season will rectify some of these flaws.

When Zankyou no Terror, also known as Terror in Resonance, first came out and right after finishing it's run during the Summer Season of 2014, it was a show that had a lot of buzz for “Anime of the Year”. It’s easy to see why, since it’s a show directed by Shinichirō Watanabe (a critic favorite, most known for his work on a little show called Cowboy Bebop) and the soundtrack was composed by Yoko Kanno (whose noteworthy compositions are too numerous to count). With this all-star crew working on the show, many people were already locking this into the top spot from this year ... and after an explosive first episode they seemed to be vindicated. Finally! Something extremely original and totally different than 99% of anime we get these days! This has got to be the best anime this year right?

Well…kind of? Because when you look at the technical side of this show, it’s absolutely fantastic. Watanabe and Kanno absolutely knocked it out of the park with this anime, combining a gorgeous, super realistic and distinct art style alongside a brilliant score to create the best made anime of the year. It was great to see an art style that was able to make each and every character unique without having to rely upon outlandish costumes or physics-defying hair to make everyone look original. The animation was absolutely breath-taking as well, with everything looking absolutely stunning: from simple backgrounds to the numerous explosions and chase scenes throughout the show. Moving onto the sound of the show, it’s absolutely incredible and the OST is one I consider to be some of Kanno's best work. There’s not a single track that’s not good or better and the music is placed perfectly throughout the show to intensify whatever mood that particular scene is trying to invoke in the viewer. The opening is absolute perfect fit for the show, and is a good song to boot, and the ending is really great as well. Hell, even the voice acting is spectacular, and with the exception of this girl (who’s the root of most of the show’s problems) Terror in Resonance has the best English I’ve ever heard from a Japanese cast.

The problem’s creep up whenever we dive into the show’s script. As you could probably gather from the anime’s title, this is a show about terrorism. Story-wise, it’s an incredibly solid show, and it does a great job of getting you hooked early on with a couple of amazing first episodes that makes you intriguing to discover the mystery that shrouds our two teenage terrorists. It also establishes the show as extremely mature and has a very serious tone throughout the story that meshes perfectly with anime’s super-realism style. You honestly feel like this could happen in our world since Terror in Resonance does a great job of making sure that its character’s master plans and schemes are logical, simple, and realistic. It was really cool to see a couple of Chessmasters at work that could actually exist in our world, not reliant upon supernatural powers in order to make their convoluted schemes actually work.

However, near the half-way point, a new primary antagonist is introduced and this is where the story is knocked off course to “Amazing Plot Station”. From this point onward the situations the characters are put in and the plans of our Antagonist begin to feel more and more unbelievable, with plot conveniences being thrown around like confetti at a New Year’s Eve party. At times it was tough to watch the show in the later half as you just became increasingly frustrated with everyone’s incompetence and questioning how Five is allowed to get away with what she’s doing (especially since it’s later revealed that her handler could have stopped her at any time and didn’t because…we need a plot somehow right?).

And now we arrive at the weakest aspect of this show, its uninspired cast. Coming from the crew that brought us some of the most colorful and well-developed characters of all-time within the cast of Cowboy Bebop, it was extremely disappointing to see how bland and one-dimensional all the characters in Zankyou no Terror ended up being. After 11 episodes, pretty much every single character of importance can be summarized as: “A Genius Who Doesn’t Play By The Rules!” the Cold, Distant Edition (Nine), the Perky Version, the Psychotic One, and the Grumpy Grandpa. Not to mention that one of our “main” characters is the epitome of fail and literally doesn’t affect the plot except for one point in the entire show. Terror in Resonance was so concerned with keeping a shroud of mystery over our two main characters-Nine and Twelve-that the writers’ never gave us time to get to know them beyond their actions and actually emotionally invest in them as characters.

This is a shame too, since this could have easily been fixed by having Nine or Twelve tell their backstory and/or motivation to Lisa-our tagalong female lead-and by extension us the audience. It would have allowed us to easily associate this tragic past with our two leads, causing us to sympathize with them and feel more attached to both characters. Instead, this information is revealed to us by a third party who has no real connection to our protagonist to yet another third-party who’s been trying to catch Nine and Twelve the entire show. Giving us our main character’s backstory in this round-about way makes it much harder to associate it with or feel anything for Nine and Twelve because of it. It’s the difference between actually watching someone’s house burn down right before your eyes and simply hearing a house burned down. With the latter, it’s just something you hear about, shrug and then forget about. Sure you feel a little bad for those people, but you feel a whole lot worse if you actually see it happen for yourself.

A lack of character motivation is the primary downfall for pretty much everyone in this show. Nine and Twelve’s full logic and motivation isn’t completely explained until literally two minutes before the ending credits of Episode 11. Five, our primary antagonist, motivation is left entirely in the dark except that she’s apparently obsessed with Nine because of wouldn’t you like to know. Lisa’s just there because she has nothing better to do and the detective character’s motivation is based on a flimsy-ly handled Politic Corruption sub-plot and because he thinks nuclear weapons are bad *slow sarcastic clap video*. Because none of the character’s motivations are properly established this led to them all feeling less like characters and more like plot devices solely there to move the story from Point A to B.

Despite these fairly significant flaws though, I was never once bored while watching Terror in Resonance. The mature and serious tone of the show was a refreshing change of pace from what you usually get from anime, what with all the fanservice and otaku fetishes you usually find today. Plus, the story rebounds from a subpar middle with an excellent climax and appropriate, satisfying conclusion to the story. So while the story and characters weren’t quite good enough to keep up with the show’s presentation and be worthy of “Best Anime of 2014”, it still ended up being a really good anime that’s a great watch for any fan of the “Psychological Thriller” genre.

So Studio Bones was able to make a great anime in 2014! Just not the one everyone expected...*flashes an image of Captain Earth*

Noragami is just an extremely solid show, with no real significant flaws in either its story-telling or in the presentation of that story. It’s benefited by having a very intriguing premise, as our main character is actually a minor god named Yato who doesn’t even have a single shrine. Because of this, he pretty much becomes the Gintoki of the gods, doing whatever odd jobs he can find for a mere 5 yen so that he can slowly build up his wealth and ... one day realize his delusions of grandeur. Our other two lead characters are Hiyori, a sweet high-school girl that Yato saves from dying in a car accident, only too accidently gain the ability to separate her spirit from her physical body and be dragged into the world of gods and phantoms, and Yukine: an angsty teenager who has the ability to transform into a weapon that Yato can use in order to fight against Phantoms: which are your typical Hollow/Kishin/Apparitions/bad souls that you find in pretty much anime about the spiritual realm. All three of these leads receive great development throughout the show, leading to each of them feeling like fully-fleshed out and rich characters. The character dynamic between our three main characters are an absolute blast to watch as well and ends up being the best and most balanced Power Trio from this year.

The story’s sort of a mix of the Monogatari franchise and Soul Eater, since while it’s similar to Soul Eater in that there’s the whole “people that are weapons” thing going on, a lot of the plot focuses more on the character’s backstories and drama related to spirits like in Monogatari. As is the case with both of its counterparts, Noragami is able to balance comedy and serious moments almost effortlessly, leading to you having a show with both some great emotional scenes and hilarious light-hearted moments. So if you’re a fan of either of these series, you’ll probably find yourself enjoying Noragami.

Another similarity to the Monogatari series is that this show possesses a very unique and appealing art style. Every character design is unique and gorgeous to look at and Bones returns to form in order to bring us some downright amazing animation whenever the action ramps up in the series. Alongside an appropriate score, incredible voice acting, and a super catchy opening, there’s really nothing to complain about in the technical side of this anime.

Really, the biggest flaw in this show is that it really deserved more episodes than the twelve it got. It has that typical just “Full-Stop” ending you get in a lot of ongoing manga adaptations and it just left you wanting more from this series. Still though, even with a lackluster ending, Noragami ends up being a great anime that is definitely worth the watch. And if we’re lucky, we might get a Season 2 in the near future!

Overall Thoughts: B+

Haikyuu’s core theme is the team. It’s about learning to trust each other when you’re in a team, it’s about winning and losing as a team, it’s about overcoming obstacles as a team. For being that team-focused, Haikyuu really spends lots of its time for the viewer to get to know the team, and handles its characters with great care, even though the plot is by no means unique. It has great animation, a fitting sound and a wonderful voice cast. If you are debating whether or not to watch this, then don’t hesitate and start Haikyuu. You won’t regret it.

Story: B- ...

The overall story is fairly generic for a sports anime, and doesn’t really deviate at all from the Common Sports Anime Plot. The first half of the show is spent gathering up all of the team members, who weren’t playing for one reason or another but were extremely skilled. Then they had to go and get a former player to be they’re coach, who refuses initially but after watching them play caves in for the chance to coach this special team. It follows Kuroko’s same basic storyline (and be extension, Eyeshield 21’s plot) almost to a T, with there being two major tournaments left before the third-years/Seniors graduate. The Fall Tournament is built up to be the big one, their last chance, and they manage to have an impressive showing, but as they should, they end up losing in the semi-finals to a more cohesive team that they aren’t able to overcome yet. However, after losing and having their confidence shaken a little, the team rallies and prepares for one last run at Nationals in the Spring Tournament.

The biggest divergent from the stereotypical Sports Anime plot, is that the first episode actually ends with the Goofy and Energetic Underdog finding out he’s actually going to be on the same team as the Serious, Short-Tempered Genius Rival character. And that was a brilliant subversion of Sports Anime tropes that set up the amazing character interactions and development that made this anime great and worth watching.

The comedy was pure gold in this series, and since at least half the cast had that sort of goofy, light-hearted attitude and tone to them, it made the story flow nicer and really made the entire situation seem a little more realistic. These guys weren’t just solely obsessed with being the best at volleyball, they also were just out to have a good time. With this sort of light-hearted tone to the entire series, it made the entire thing a bundle of laughs and one of the funnier anime I’ve watched in 2014. Everyone gets in on the jokes as well, which was great to see and made almost every member of the team extremely likable.

Another point about the story that I really liked was that unlike a lot of other sports anime, there were no “Superpower” elements in it, which was awesome! Everything was extremely realistic in how they portrayed everyone’s abilities (unlike in something like Kuroko, where there are players who can make every shot from anywhere on the court and ridiculous stuff like that). It made the show more believable, and actually helped you relate to the characters more because there was no disconnect of you thinking, “There’s no way someone could actually do that,” which was really cool to see.

Characters: A-

The greatest strength of Haikyuu!! is its extremely relatable, realistic, and lovable cast. This is where Haikyuu!! thrives, since the main team, Karasuno, has some of the best cast chemistry and interactions that I’ve seen in a long time. It really made this show stand out from other sports anime because of just how likable almost every single member of the team was, and it made it highly entertaining to just sit and watch the team member’s interact with each other.

There are seriously about 9 members of the main team that get serious development and screen-time, that helps endear them to the audience and causes you to become attached to the team and really makes you root for them. This is in stark contrast to some of the other major sports anime, like Kuroko’s where on your main team there are only about 2-3 players that really get fleshed out well, and then the best characters are the antagonist, or on the other teams that our Protagonist are playing against. It was cool to see that the majority of the focus was on the team we’ll be with the most.

They did a good job of not info-dumping all of the team members on you at once. Each major player on the team was given one or two episodes for you to get to know them before moving on to introducing the next character, which helped give everyone they’re moments to shine and for you to fall in love with them. There’s not much more you can ask from an anime in terms of number of likable characters, character development, and character relationships, so this gets an extremely high grade.

It doesn't get perfect marks though, because while there were many likable and the entire cast was written extremely well, I'm not sure if there's an All-Time great character in the cast of Haikyuu!! The cast as a whole is able to stand tall with other great casts in anime, but there's no individual member of the cast that ever stands out and is instantly makes the audience gravitate towards them. The closest character to reaching this pinnacle in my opinion is Tanaka, who is one of the best comic relief characters I've seen in a while, but I'm not sure if he quite reaches the ranks of "Best Ever". This could be a testament to the fact that every character in the story is given equal attention by the author, and I'd love to see more authors take this more ensemble cast approach, but for me, there has to be at least one All-Timer in the show to get bumped up to a perfect score in the Character department.

Animation: A
The animation was excellent throughout this show. Production I.G. did a great job with this show, proving once again that they are currently the masters of Sports Anime. The scenes look crisp and the characters' movements always appear fluid.The animation does a great job of ratcheting up the intensity in certain scenes and they do a great job of showcasing the sport. Some of my favorite shots in the series are when players are hitting the ball, and it switches to a 1st PoV. Those are really cool to look at. This anime is a visual feast and absolutely phenomenal to look at.

I take off a point from the grade because the character designs are a little odd at first and take some getting used to and because of this weird thing were they have character’s faces being visible through the nets and the net’s line disappear during these shots. Making it awkward to look at whenever this occurs.

Sound: B-
The soundtrack fit the mood of what was happening on screen which is great, but I never felt the urge to go look up any particular track. That's a must for me to push the Sound of an anime to above anything but "good" is that the soundtrack can't just compliment what's happening onscreen, but it also has to add an element that would otherwise not be there if that track weren't playing then. For me, Haikyuu's OST never made me think that once. The two openings were very catchy and got you in the mood for the episodes, but I felt like both endings were kind of "bleh".

The voice acting was superb, and it was cool to hear some new voices and relatively new VA’s in this series in major roles . Particular shout-out to Hisoka, for doing a great job with Oikawa!

Personal Enjoyment: B+

I had a ton of fun with this show. It made me laugh several times just about every episode and I was completely engaged with pretty much every match the played in. This anime was just a blast to watch and kept me thoroughly entertained throughout all 25 episodes, never seeming a beat during my marathon of the series. I’ll definitely be waiting in anticipation for a Season 2, which can’t come soon enough.

If you're interested in more content from me, check out my Youtube channel: Cafe Anime. Until next time!

Intro:

While surfing through the anime community, I noticed that for one anime in particular, there seemed to be a lot of confusion from its fanbase about why it was that many of the more critical reviewers hated one of their favorite shows from this year. As you could probably tell already, the show in question is Akame ga Kill, a Fantasy Action/Adventure anime that aired during the Summer and Fall seasons of 2014.

Well, I decided that today I would attempt to answer that question. Why do the critics hate Akame ga Kill so much?

Story Undercuts ... its own Drama:

On premise alone, Akame ga Kill sounds like it could be a pretty good show. I mean, who doesn’t like hot assassins, a rebellion against an Evil Empire, and knights with magic weapons? The inclusion of these must-have’s for any Fantasy story is helped out by the fact that the first episode pulls an excellent bait and switch in an attempt to completely sell viewers on this show. Tatsumi, our naive hero, comes to the big city looking to earn money to help his poor village. Upon arriving though, he is treated like crap by the soldier enlistment office, taken advantage of by a thief (thus losing all of his money), and forced to spend the night on the street. But as the story progresses, he is spotted by a kind, noble girl and taken into her loving home.

The twist is that she and her family are all sadistic murderers. And on top of that, they have previously captured his two friends in the same way, with one already tortured to death and the second eventually dying in Tatsumi’s arms. This unexpected turn does a good job of playing upon our expectations, which up until this point had been a generic beginning, and then twisting them into something legitimately surprising. It was a great way to catch the audience off-guard and intrigue them with promises of being a show that constantly is subverting your expectations. But more importantly than that, it is an extremely emotional moment for Tatsumi, where not only is his very worldview shaken but his best friends are dead. This should be the moment in the show where we form our emotional connection with the main character and really sympathize with him over this tragic turn of events.

Instead, the series proceeds to completely ruin this dramatic moment by immediately having the other characters crack jokes as they kidnap Tatsumi in a very slap-stick manner; and he acts more like the straight man in an anime rom-com than a person in shock. This jarring and massive tonal shift completely dispelled any sense of tension or drama in the previous scene we had just witnessed. It’s at this point I believe many critics jumped ship in this series, since it just shows how amateur the writing in this show can be.

You see, using Mood Whiplash in a situation like this is about as big a no-no in storytelling as there is. Since when you’re crying, you don’t feel like laughing; and when you’re laughing, you don’t feel like crying. So, if you’re objective with a certain scene is to, oh I don’t know, show a character experiencing the most tragic moment of their life so far and thus create sympathy for this character from the viewer, you shouldn’t immediately go into a goofy scene filled with silliness and slap-shtick humor, since you’ll end up undercutting your own drama by not giving the audience enough time to process what’s happened and feel any sort of connection to the character who is undergoing this emotional moment. Not to mention, now your comedic scene is ruined so all the jokes seem in poor taste since, you know, this guy just had a childhood friend die in his arms. This is a textbook example of an Immersion Breaking experience and it sucks the viewer right out of the story.

It’s not like this was a one-time deal either. The failure to smoothly and logically transition out of dramatic moments is quite common in this anime. This makes it the show’s biggest flaw, since these colossal shifts in tone completely undermines every single one of the series’ emotionally powerful moments. When drama is constantly interrupted and replaced by comedy, it makes me think “if the characters don’t take what is happening seriously, why should I?”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s completely possible to have comedy and serious drama in the same show. Series like Cowboy Bebop and Hunter x Hunter are some of the best anime out there, partly because of how well they are able to balance comedy and drama in the same show. However, the difference between a show like Bebop or HxH and Akame ga Kill is that they make sure to keep the emotional scenes and comedic scenes far apart from each other, so the audience isn’t left confused about whether they should be taking the dramatic moments seriously or not. Instead of you know, having them literally 30 seconds apart from each other, which leaves a bitter taste in your mouth every time the show attempts to take itself seriously.

Fails as an Action Anime:

Now, before all you Akame ga Kill fans that are miraculously still here stop reading and jam your fingers from pressing the Dis-like button, allow me to explain what I mean here. One of the most common rebuttals I’ve seen from this show’s fanbase is that sure, it’s not the best written story in the world, but it’s still a fun, enjoyable show because of its’ cool action scenes. Or, to put it another way, it’s got the same appeal as something like Sword Art Online, only Akame ga Kill is more “mature” because of all the blood and gore.

Here’s the difference though, in SAO, they actually have REALLY great action scenes that are well-animated and beautifully choreographed. Some of it’s even so good that even us hard-asses forget all the flaws Sword Art has and are lost in the kick-ass fights in the show. Akame ga Kill doesn’t even have this going for it because during the production of the show it seems like the animators forgot what they’re primary job is when adapting a manga is to…you know…bring the story to life by ANIMATING IT!!

And this is what I mean when I say that Akame ga Kill fails as an action show. Whenever there’s a fight in the show, they hardly ever animate anything! You just get a bunch of still-image frame shots of the after-effects of a blow, or of a character preparing to strike, but you never actually get to see the blow itself.

You see, basically what happens in Akame ga Kill is that the animators just color in the panels from the manga and then turn them into a PowerPoint presentation while animating as little as they possibly can.

To illustrate my point in greater detail, let’s take an in-depth look at the Tatsumi vs. Zank the Executioner fight. This, according to the wonderful Youtube community, is the best fight in the entire show, and even here you can see the flaws in this show’s animation.

When you watch the video, you’ll notice during the first attack sequence by Tatsumi, his sword swings are never actually animated. All we see is him constantly about to swing his sword and then in the next frame it transitions to after his blow has already been delivered and dodged by Zank, which also isn’t actually animated, and the closest we get to seeing the actual attack itself is a blue afterimage which is literally just a thick line that the artist put into the shot. We never get to see an actual blow go from start to finish in one fluid motion.

Oh no! The animation budget ran out! Don’t worry, we’ll just take a picture, shade it differently than how the rest of the anime looks, then do a slow pan up on the image (an effect even I can do on Windows Movie Maker) and everyone will call it “epic”!

Now they’re splurging here by having Zank in an animation loop of dodging these dangerous blue flashes of light! Oh, here comes Zank’s attack! Oooooh, look at that! Instead of seeing him actually attacking our hero, we get to see some pretty sparks and lights instead! Fancy.

Let’s contrast this with a fight that actually has some effort put into its presentation shall we? The Lancer vs. Archer fight in Episode 0 of the new Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works anime. Notice how in these clips, how you can clearly see each and every move that the combatants make from start to finish. Every strike is extremely fluid, detailed, and flows beautifully from action to action so that you can’t help but get pumped up as the two fighters exchange blows. This is because you’re just completely and totally captivated by the amazing animation since each and every move made by either character is presented to us in full during this breath-taking action scene.

In Akame ga Kill, it just feels like every action scene was put together by the animation crew lazily. Like they were putting it together using as little effort (and by extension time and money) as possible in order to say they’ve put an action scene into the show. Honestly, it seems like the majority of the time, the animators were more interested in drawing the blood and making the anime “edgy” and gory as possible than they were in delivering us passable fight scenes. Because of this, the animation in the show is nothing more than mediocre and no different than you could find in any other Action or Battle Shonen out there. It also begs the question: “If it wasn’t worth the animators time to give proper attention to the show’s action scenes, why is it worth my time?”

Conclusion:

And that leads us to the real reason why many critics, myself included, don’t like Akame ga Kill. We just don’t believe that it’s worth your precious time. Because here’s the thing, if you like and enjoy Akame ga Kill, that’s awesome. We aren’t here to tell you what you can and can’t enjoy, no critic should, but it is our job to tell you if something is worth your time.

The problem with Akame ga Kill in this regard though is that pretty much everything that could be viewed as a strength or a reason to watch this anime, has been executed better in other shows that are more worthy of your time. It’s not so much that we critics don’t think people can or should enjoy Akame ga Kill, it’s just that we believe that your time would be better spent on shows that-if you liked Akame ga Kill-you will enjoy even MORE.

For example, if one of the reasons why you watched and enjoyed Akame ga Kill was because of its Fantasy setting: one that we honestly don’t see that often in anime, then I would recommend that you watch Rage of Bahamut: Genesis. A super-fun, cool, adventure show that came out during the Fall Season which builds a very interesting Fantasy world in half the episodes of Akame ga Kill and is executed ten times better. Hardly anyone ended up watching this show though because it got ran over by the Akame ga Kill Hype Train, which is a shame because I would wager that every fan of Akame ga Kill would love Rage of Bahamut.

And this is the case for pretty much any merit that can be found in Akame ga Kill. If you want a Gory/Edgy Fantasy series, then you would be much better off watching something like Berserk. An anime that is very mature, has plenty of blood, characters dying in gruesome fashion, and is filled with much more complex and badass characters than Akame ga Kill could dream of.

Or, if you REALLY want something that’s exactly like Akame ga Kill but with much better action and animation, then you want: A Goofy Harem with Lots of Blood, Action, Tits and Ass, but unlike Akame ga Kill, doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that and ends up being much more enjoyable and fun ride because of that The Anime. AKA: Highschool of the Dead.

If you’re interested in more content from me, check out my Youtube channel: Café Anime! Until next time!