Note: This review is from someone who has not read any of the manga and will not contain any comparisons to it. The opinions are formed purely from the anime. (Also spoiler free).
I hate how MAL lays out reviews. For example, it is easy to click on any anime, go to the review tab, look at the score in the statistic section or the first couple of reviews, and dismiss it as complete garbage without even watching it. I think there should be a sticker or something added to the top of the review that says "Worth your time to watch and form your
...
own opinion," and I believe Akame ga Kill would deserve that sticker. Now this solution obviously has its flaws because many reviews tell you if you should bother watching the anime or not (which is usually the point of reading a review, right?), but it does counter the situations where relatively "good" anime are given bad raps because most of the reviews rip it apart for plot holes, rushed story, bad character development etc. There are many anime that may have these problems but can be incredibly enjoyable at the same time (which is the point of watching anime right?). I believe that Akame ga Kill deserves to be given a chance by the average anime watcher who may or may not care about its shortcomings.
(Still love you MAL)
Story:8
Read the synopsis and you will get a brief glimpse into the world of Akame ga Kill. Although like most synopses, the summary definitely does not do the anime justice. A general overview of the anime reveals a typical shonen plot where the protagonist (Tatsumi) is put into an adventure situation to achieve a goal. Further into the anime you realize this is true, but the story carries a dark twist to it. Without revealing too much, I will say one thing: The anime introduces the concept of death, and fairly well if I might add. This is important, because many shonen anime try to stray away from this concept and I felt this was a nice touch to the overall story of Akame ga Kill, and definitely set it apart from many anime. From a pure anime watcher's perspective I enjoyed the story and can honestly say I was at the edge of my [sofa] for many of the episodes. Although for a couple of the last episodes the story did feel a little bit rushed/disorganized regarding many character's "outcomes," and I know many people were not happy with that. However, based on the series as a whole (Which should be the determining factor of the story's score and not the last few episodes) I believed the anime wrapped things up nicely.
Art:8
I am by no means an expert in animation or character design, but I can honestly say I really enjoyed how the characters looked and the fight scenes. The animation dropped in quality in some episodes (like in many other anime) but nothing that genuinely irritated me. The fight scenes were epic and the OP and ED displayed top-notch quality. The colors were vibrant and the environment was visually pleasing, which is always a plus for me.
Sound: 8.5
Honestly the BGM is good, but nothing spectacular or memorable. There was one guitar riff during the entrance of Night Raid that I really enjoyed but that is about all I remember. The OST was also heavily reused for many fight scenes and other dialogue scenes. However, Akame ga Kill scored big points for sound in its OPs and EDs. I loved every single one of them and didn't skip any. My personal favourite is OP2 "Liar Mask" as I believe it lived up to the anime's epicness. The OPs also did a good job of hyping me up for the start of the episode, which I believe is an important factor of Anime openings. The ED songs definitely did a good job at portraying the bleak and gloomy atmosphere given off at the end of many episodes, and as a pianist I thought the piano was put to good use. The character's voice acting was also top notch in my opinion I enjoyed all of the character's laughing, crying, and screaming :) throughout the series.
Character: 7
Akame ga Kill provides a great variety of characters that you probably shouldn't get attached to. It actually might be hard to get attached to the characters at all, but that is mostly due to fitting this vast story into 24 episodes. The 24 episode limit definitely capped a lot of the character development, and I felt this could have been done better. However for what episodes they had, I believe most of the characters were fleshed out to the best of their ability given the time limit. Most of the characters were also very likeable and had their distinct traits that made them memorable. Although in terms of character development it was mainly displayed in only a couple of the main characters. All of these problems could have been addressed by making the anime longer or adding another season, although from what I understand, the sales were too low in Japan to permit a second season. This is a disappointment as I believe that Akame ga Kill could have definitely improved in this area by providing more character back story as well as development. I also didn't really enjoy the typical shonen aspects of the characters such as the "humorous dialogue " thrown in every episode. I believe a more serious tone projected by all of the characters would have made Akame ga Kill a lot better, and definitely would be more appropriate for the overall theme of the anime.
Enjoyment:9
Finally, the most important factor out of all them, enjoyment. These last couple of seasons have provided many enjoyable anime and I am genuinely happy about that. It shows that the medium of anime is not dying (yet) and can still provide some top-notch shows. During the airing of Akame ga Kill I found myself impatiently waiting for each episode’s release, because something awesome usually went down each episode. This shows that Akame ga Kill did something right, especially since I was incredibly busy (and still am) with uni. This feeling is what I want from anime shows and I can safely say Akame ga Kill achieved it. Honestly the enjoyment level for this anime was at a 10 for quite a bit of the series, but was held back in the last few episodes. I really wanted put this at a 10 because I enjoyed most of the anime quite a lot, but some blatant plot rushing and some "wtf moments" brought the score down by one. Overall enjoyment is still at a MAL rating of "great."
Overall: 9
Now if you look at the math of the total of the scores it averages out to 8.1, but I gave the series a 9. This is because I always weight enjoyment much higher than the other features of the anime because as I previously mentioned, I believe enjoyment is the most important aspect of watching anime. So if you put the numbers into
"J-YO's MAL score Algorithm" --> You get 9.
Akame ga Kill is an action-packed series, that steps out of the boundaries many shonen anime's have bound themselves in. Although it is held back by problems many anime face today, I believe it is definitely worth your time if you don't mind violence, gore and some fan service. Go into the series for pure enjoyment/entertainment and it will most likely provide. It gets my sticker of approval that says "Worth your time to watch and form your own opinion."
(I hope MAL implements it)
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Dec 14, 2014
Akame ga Kill!
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Note: This review is from someone who has not read any of the manga and will not contain any comparisons to it. The opinions are formed purely from the anime. (Also spoiler free).
I hate how MAL lays out reviews. For example, it is easy to click on any anime, go to the review tab, look at the score in the statistic section or the first couple of reviews, and dismiss it as complete garbage without even watching it. I think there should be a sticker or something added to the top of the review that says "Worth your time to watch and form your ... |
