Akame ga Kill!

I heard about Akame ga Kill! in an anime in 2014 review. Labeled "the edgiest anime ever", the show had my curiosity.

The show is extremely dark and sad while having comedic moments and lighthearted fun. These themes aren't exactly well balanced and some may have trouble taking the who serious after it turns from extremely light to extreme dark. This is really the show's only major flaw.

The best feature of Akame ga Kill! has to be the characters. A wide variety of characters is presented. Each character, protagonist or antagonist, is giving a healthy amount of development and each is easily enjoyable. No antagonist is "too evil" and mostly of them are in the moral grey area. Most characters are given special powers. There is a decent amount of balance in powers, but some are weak while others could be considered overpowered.

The action sequences are masterfully done and simply beautiful and progressively get better as the show goes on. Romance is mildly touched on, but certainly not a major theme. The plot and the setting is great. The setting matches the plot and characters well. The pace of the show speeds up as the show progresses which some might welcome while others might not.

The show's imbalance might not agree with some, but the show is certainly worth the view. Prepare for dark and violent themes, extremely sad times, and a good helping of your typical comedic anime moments.

A lot of people absolutely love this anime, a lot of people hate it to its core. The question is, is it good or bad, which one is it.

First of all, lets talk about the aspects everyone agrees upon. This anime has- 10/10 music, 10/10 animation, 9/10 fighting seq. Great right?? So why so many people hate it?

This anime has a unique story development. It only tells bare minimum. People often criticize the lack of back-stories of the main characters, lack of world-building materials. However, all anime should not follow the same path. This anime tells a story about the contribution of a certain organizations part in a rebellion. The organization members never had much empathy for the people or independence, or even justice. So the back-stories about the characters, the anime-style-epic-B&W-flashback scene, the relation / interaction between some characters was somewhat avoided and I think it is for the good.

Some people hate it for the deaths. I think it certainly is a fresh and bold step, far from the no-death cliche. Also it somewhat moves away from manga ending. Some people don't like anime-original endings.

This anime ventures to a place where no anime had the courage to go before. Like it, or hate it, this is a must watch for all anime fans.

A perfectly well told story. Each episode is shocking, with spectacular battles, stories with which everyone connects. All the characters are unique, interesting and with well-defined personalities.

This anime has a quite boring beginning (first couple of episodes), but as it unfolds the main-plot, it becomes one of the greatest fighting animes I have seen and it doesn't drag out, but is focused on telling a story. The story that is told is great, maybe the greatest story I have seen in an anime. That is why I would rank it in my top 3, already. It is not only the story, but how the story is conveyed that makes this anime so great.

The plot focuses on Tatsumi who is a boy from a poor village travelling to the capital to earn some money to save his home-town. He has learned to fight as a kid, being taught be a teacher in his village. He then meets a band of assassins and the story unfolds. I won't spoil any of the action as everything is part of the build-up, which makes this such a great anime. It is very simple, too. This makes it even more impressive, because I am quite shocked that no-body had made such a story-line before (in such a context).

The theme of the series is assassination, heroism and social values (good and evil especially and love of course). It is the value-part and how it is conveyed that makes this anime into something special.

The animation is quite great. It is simple, yet characteristic, and the fights are really great.

The main focus is the progression of the story, though, and how the characters are related to in the sense of the main theme, which is good and evil I guess.

I give it a 10/10, because it surprised me and tried something new and I liked it all together - better than most shows. I would compare it to "Attack on Titan", which is also a new show. AOT focuses on mystery and survival, while AGK focuses on societal and heroic problems (almost solely). I liked AGK better, even though AOT has better animations, because of the message AGK has speaks to me more! It is simpler, yet more striking.

Right away, it is lost that it is not an anime for children, with a heavy theme about necessary murders and political idealization, weapons with magical powers appear but very well contextualized without losing their meaning. Throughout the anime we follow the growth of the main character and his companions, strong motives, terrifying scenes of the human capacity to do evil, and everything is completed in an unusual end. Whatever you think you know or guess about the ending, forget it and wait.