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*Spoiler Alert*

Honestly, the ending sailed all the good ships and I guess that's some people are so happy about it. I still cant help but feel a bit disappointed tho, this anime had such a promising premise but it fails to deliver.

The title hints at the idea that the characters all have something dragging them down in the past, yet all we really see is Shinako and her deceased crush. Even then, the backstory is left really surface level. Haru's backstory was basically summarized in three comic frames. We get no real elaboration on her unhealthy fascination with Uozomi, nor do we find out why ... she changed from a shy schoolgirl to a delinquent (all we know is she got "tired of people"). Any sort of non-romantic character development from Haru halted at episode 3, all of the screen time in the following episodes were solely on her being obsessed with Uozomi. The younger brother is the second person given a more elaborate backstory, mainly because its linked to Shinako, but even if it evokes sympathy he is so unlikeable that no one cares. Worse off is that Shinako is even hinted to get together with him at the end. How? After 11 episodes of Shinaki claiming he's nothing more than family? What sort of bullshit? The main character, Uozomi, has one of the least inspiring developments. Sure, he goes from working part-time in a convenience store to working full time in a studio. But why was he working in 7-11 in the first place? "He was scared." What a crappy reason, sure if the anime managed to express that fear of commitment or lack of faith in his work in an intriguing way, that simplistic reason could still manage to be thought-provoking. But the studio fails to deliver. Why did he change and start taking photography again? "It'll help you be more confident when dealing with relationships." Holy fuck was it easy to convince him. I guess that was really what was most disappointing to me, with a premise that hinted at resolving past traumas, the show did little to showcase that in-depth with all of the characters, and the underdeveloped romance seems to overtrump every life decision. How is it that Haru meets Uozomi once 5 years ago and is still in love with him? I fuckin' love Haru, best girl for sure, but DAMN is there no better backstory?

If i had to really critique this show, I could go on forever. But honestly it isn't as bad as i put it out to be, the director made certain mistakes that just didn't sit well with me, and maybe i was too caught up in my expectations.

That said, seeing people rate the show 2's and 3's is pretty ridiculous. The show is disappointing for sure, but it doesn't take away the fact that it was engaging enough to binge all 12 episodes. I might have said that the studio doesn't really develop on character motives as much as I might have hoped, but at no point was I seriously questioning why people did what they did. Everything was believable and plot developments were gripping. Overall, a potential 9 that only achieved a 6.

This is my first time writing a review but this anime really pissed me off. Anyways, spoilers ahead:

If I were to use a single line to summarise this show, "Harem plot to necessitate edgy deaths."

Story: 5
Personally, I liked the message they were trying to get across. Life isn't fair, and death comes for all no matter whether they deserved it or not. The element of surprise and misconception is the only reason the rating for story is as high as it is. It is unique amongst anime of this genre, but that is not an excuse for plain bad storywriting.

I feel like killing off ... characters became more of a hobby of the director than any actual plot development. It's almost like they're writing the plot based on a timer before each character dies, "Oh! It's been about three episodes of no likeable characters dying! Let's kill her." Although the main arc pacing is decent, the deaths were just overly edgy and of no purpose to the plot. It gets repetitive to the point where I stopped giving a crap.

That said, the main issue is the execution of this theme. In order to force the characters death's to be sympathised, the writers decided that every single woman is going to join Tatsumi's harem! Of all the ways you could have gone about showing how unforgiving real life can be, using underdeveloped and unreasonable romance (the basis of basically any harem) is the worst way to go about it, it's a cheap shot. I'm ashamed I even cared enough to feel a pang of sadness for when Mine died. Oh right, did I remind you? They all die. As well as Tatsumi, naturally.

And why the hell was this anime even called Akame ga Kill? Akame had no functional plot purpose in basically half the series, she goes and fights her sister, and then fights her sister again, and does that for a couple more episodes. Then she somehow wins Esdeath, effectively stealing Tatsumi's spotlight.

That brings me onto the issue with characters.

Characters: 3/10
What a fucking disaster.

Given that the premise of the plot revolves around people's perception of justice, why was literally no one's motivations to fight more relatable? Sure, arguable they all had fucked up backstories, but the backbone of a good characters revolves around how much we relate to them. Tatsumi's friends died as they were on their way to the capital. That's great and all but it feels weak. He experiences occasional flashbacks of times they shared together, but none are especially striking to the reader. It feels tad out of place how quickly he is convinced to become an assassin. He occasionally utters how he has to fight for his friends but where is all this coming from? We never get a solid answer. His "resolve" is developed within 4 episodes of the series. And how is that achieved? Sheele dies, and he gets scolded by Night Raid for being emotional. How retarded. He is also an optimistic, determined, handsome, gentlemanly dude, all these traits being reflected through his growing harem throughout the episodes. It's really stupid how this show tries to be special by "breaking" common tropes, but the characters really don't resemble this at all.

All other characters in Night Raid had weak backgrounds. The general witnessing her comrade being an asshole. Some posh girl being discriminated. A slum rat. A klutz who was seen as useless. There's probably many more but they had so many characters it's just too forgettable. I mean, all these stories could have been developed much more thoroughly, and we could have seen much more promising characters with clear cut motives. The scriptwriters throw around the word right and wrong to justify people's aspirations. "I've suffered so and so as a child, it is wrong, I don't want others to suffer like me." These claims might not necessarily be wrong, but when it's passed around every 5 minutes, they feel like empty claims. It's not that easy, people are not that righteous. It's impossible for anyone to take these people seriously. The most ridiculous one being Lubbock, joining Night Raid because he had a crush on the leader. I mean, bro really... I'm a fan of romance and all but this is just taking it to the extreme, it doesn't fit well in an anime that tries to be ultra-edgy.

As for the Jaegers, I personally found it to be pretty surprising to add likeable characters into the squad. It was a nice twist, but again the execution was lacking. Wave, the second Tatsumi, has zero backstory. The flamethrower guy is just weird, he joined the Jaegers to fuck his perfect life up. The angel dude was decent, but again his motivations are plain unrelatable. He tries to avoid the fight to save the Empire, so he joins the Jaegers to simultaneously also stop violent revolts. Fair enough. But when the Night Raiders break through and basically verge on winning the country over, it would be way more reasonable to let them win (knowing that their goals are the same) and then fix whatever was wrong in the country. Nooooo, of course he had to step in and be a complete idiot who lacks common sense despite being a teacher. The character in Night Raid with most depth was Seryu, but she's a fucking psychopath. Smart idea to develop the least relatable, least likeable character in the entire series. Though it is true she functions well as a counter to Night Raid's ideals, her idea of justice being much more twisted to the point she justifies killing as a method to prevent any form of injustice however justified. I felt like the route they should have gone was to make her realize she was fucked in the head, but I guess that's too unedgy. She had to be cut in half and self-destruct. Psycho to the end.

Esdeath. I don't even want to go on. The writer's didn't even try to make her feel human, her only humane element being that she fell in love. She is represented as a beast that lives the law of the jungle, to kill or to be-killed. And when she finally IS killed, Akame slips a one-liner that implies how much of a dumb-bitch she's beem: "Those feelings you had for Tatsumi, are the very thing you said you'd never understand." Again it's my point of the characters being way too unrelatable. Lazy writing, making the main villain likeable because of a harem plot.

There are so many characters that were introduced, hardly any of them got sufficient screen-time for development. When the amount of characters in a series are more than the number of episodes in the series - that's a problem. I'd say cutting down on the number of characters would have helped a lot. Sheele, the four body manipulating idiots, flamethrower dude, lightning general, the Emperor's son, the doctor who helped Seryu, all these character served to be general time-wasters. So much more time could have been spent on developing far more important characters. I had way more interest in Chelsea's backstory than hearing about how fucked up the mad scientist is.

Art: 8/10
It's fine, I enjoyed watching the animated fight scenes. Occasional changes in art style also managed to reflect the atmosphere. Character design was also recognisable.

Sound:6/20
Never cared much about sound. Nothing special about this one either.