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- BirthdayOct 9, 1997
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Apr 5, 2022
"I don't need a scabbard to sheathe my mind."
Juuni Kokuki. A profound, thoughtful, feminist masterpiece directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi (Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma) and written by Fuyumi Ono (Shiki, Ghost Hunt). If you like rich and carefully constructed fantasy worlds, this might be for you. I can't think of any other series that excels in this discipline as much as this one.
Picture this: It's a perfectly normal day at school. Suddenly, a weird magical man appears out of thin air and demands your consent to protect you, after which your school gets full on assaulted by huge bird-like creatures. You are given a
...
magical sword, with which you are prompted to kill one of said creatures, which is four times your size. Then you get kidnapped and thrown into another, dangerous world, that works, looks and feels nothing like your own. You are left to fend for yourself, alone.
What would you do? If your answer is something along the lines of "I'd totally be down, I don't like this world anyway!", then kindly stop lying to yourself, you little nerd. We all now we would be crying for our moms. This is something that, unlike a lot of modern Isekai shows, Juuni Kokuki gets completely right. In that regard, Youko might be one of the most realistically written character I've ever seen.
I've seen some people online being annoyed with her, since in the beginning of the show she's a rather timid, naive, and kind of spineless girl. She would rather blend in with the crowd and be a picture-perfect daughter to her parents, then stand up for what is right. To me, the stark contrast between this and how she develops throughout the show makes it all the more gratifying to watch.
*mild spoilers for Youkos character development*
She changes. Like a lot. But at no point does her development feel unmerited or forced. Through dangerous encounters, bitter betrayals, but also alongside new allies she slowly transforms into a confident and strong woman, and eventually a worthy queen of a kingdom she owes nothing to.
I'm not going into further detail about her development throughout the series. Let me just tell you, it is one of the best written character developments I have ever seen.
Alongside her, it's truly a joy to travel through this strange, wondrous world, experiencing its ugly and its beautiful sides and slowly coming to understand its ways and people.
Unfortunately, the show was never completed and dropped mid-story, leaving most major questions unanswered and a lot left to be desired. I decided to disregard this fact for the sake of this review, because I don't think you can really hold it against the show itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 25, 2015
Does a show have to contain blood, death and tragedy to be considered "good"?
I recently started to ask me that question. Why do shows like Shingeki no Kiyojin and lately Akame ga Kill! experience such a hype? What makes them so valuable? Are we just wanting to see people die?
Apparently yes. Taking into consideration the cinematic value of these shows, there must be something else than just good story-telling or well written characters. Something apart from the factors that make a good show, something that these hyped shows have in common. Which is in many cases violence and tragedy. Not wanting to discuss
...
human nature now, I want to write a review that considers this and therefore only features my honest opinions.
I'll try to avoid heavy spoilers!
STORY 7/10
The story of Akame ga Kill! is not a very deep or experimental one. Roughly summarized: We have our usual suppressing kingdom under which the poor have to suffer. And we have the rebels, the heroes, the main cast or whatever you want to call it on the other side of the coin. They name themselves Night Raid and fight against the government as assassins by murdering the corrupt, also fighting their "main enemy", which is kind of an autonomous counter organisation that works under the kingdom called 'Jaegers'.
Although this is not a very new or fresh concept, I don't dislike it. The happenings weren't random and you were able to see, what certain battles effected and how little events more or less influenced the situation on the whole. I also kind of liked the fact, that nobody was safe, since Akame ga Kill! doesn't seem to care about the importance of certain character. That built up tension on the one hand, but created sort of an carelessness towards the loss of characters on the other.
All in all, I think the story was a good one.
In short:
Coherence +
Tension o+
Enjoyment +
Universe o
Creativity -
ART 7/10
To be very honest, during the first few episodes I was flirting with the idea of giving a 6, or even a 5 here. The animations were -from time to time- just not more, sometimes even less than "fair". And especially in anime that focus on fighting, I want to have epic and fluent animation. Also, I even now believe that the art style isn't more than a fair 6, too. It is nice and clean, but doesn't do anything memorable or unique.
As the quality gets recognizably better throughout the last half of the series and provides the epicness and the fluent and nicely done animations I was missing in the first half, my rating in the end is a 7.
In short:
Art o+
Artstyle o
Animations o+
SOUND 8/10
As so often, there is not much to say here. Both packages of OP and ED were great, the songs were fitting the atmosphere of the show, they were dark but didn't sound too depressing. The soundtrack was a good one, too, it never attracted negative attention or appeared distracting. Kinpaku, the third track from the original soundtrack especially was very outstanding and unique. Also, the voice actors were well-chosen and did a decent job.
All this leads to the final rating of a 8.
In short:
OST o+
OP+ED +
Voice actors +
CHARACTER 8/10
Yes, eight out of ten. Despite the fact, that the characters are really stereotypical, they are actually well-written, at least as good as can be expected under the circumstances. Nearly all of them have more or less relatable motives and goals and all of them can be likeable in their own way, also no character was really annoying.
Another thing I liked about Akame ga Kill! was the very thin line between "good" and "evil". The methods and values of both of the two sides can be raised to question equally. Who is to decide what is right and what wrong? Is assassination, taking a life sustainable, if you kill according to your own sense of justice? Turn people into enemies, just because they support other methods, values or convictions? Can people that stand against you automatically turn into your victims, not taking their precious life into consideration? All these questions play a role in Akame ga Kill!.
To give an example for this controversy: Many of the characters I liked most are part of the 'Jaegers'. Also, one of the deaths that touched me most was the death of one of this same group.
As you know my point of view now, I think you are able to relate to my rating on this point.
In short:
Authenticity +
Coherence o+
Uniqueness o-
Development +
Char. Design o
Enjoyment 8/10
I did enjoy this show. I cannot say anything else. I know other reviewers did not, some even hated Akame ga Kill! and I can totally relate to what most of them say. But I don't think Akame ga Kill! was bad. I like to determine the rate of enjoyment by observing my behavior while watching. For example, how often I paused the video and did something else, or how badly I wanted to watch the next episode after finishing one. By doing that, I'm simply forced to give an 8 at this point.
In short:
How badly did I
want to watch +
the next episode
How often did I
pause and did o+
something else
Having said all this, I want to revert to what I asked myself in the beginning. I'm aware of the fact that many people indeed watch certain shows to watch other peoples suffering, either intentionally or non-intentionally. But I don't think that splatter and dramatic losses are enough to make a show "good" and ,as a function of this, make them experience quite a big hype. Yes, Akame ga Kill! features lots of these things and yes, they are an undeniable big attribute of shows like this, but there is more to it. I think Akame ga Kill! is a good example for this. Therefore I come to the overall rating of:
7.6
, which is mathematically rounded up to an overall rating of 8.
.............................................
I hope you liked my second review. I'm aware of the fact that my english is not exactly brilliant, but I'm trying my best as a not-native speaker anyway! :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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