(Yin-Yang): Hello, welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well it’s August and keeping with the master’s tradition we’re going to do an arc to celebrate the end of summer. With that said welcome to the Badass Women’s arc. Throughout the month we’ll be looking at animes that at first seem like animes encouraging female empowerment but are in fact guy animes cleverly disguised. Some of these animes are good, others not so much. Like today’s anime Akuma no Riddle. Based off a manga written by Yun Koga in 2012, Akuma no Riddle follows the story of a girl trying to survive in a class full of assassins trying to kill her. In 2014 the anime studio Diomedea (Kantai Collection) took the anime and turned it into an anime. On the surface you think this would be a good idea but no, they mess it up completely, giving us an anime that I despise greatly.
(Chibi Isis): Oh come on Yin-chan it can’t really be all that bad.
(Yin-Yang): Oh Chibi, as much as I enjoy your optimistic thinking, not even you could find salvage in a series like this.
(Chibi Isis): Oh yeah? Well than let’s put it to test. Let me in on this review.
(Yin-Yang): You sure, there’s some pretty mature content that I’m sure the master doesn’t want to expose to you yet.
(Chibi Isis): I can take it. Besides, you still haven’t done a review with me. I know one of your goals this year is to do a review with everyone so let’s make that happen.
(Yin-Yang): Chibi. Alright, let’s do it. I’ll show you how unsalvageable this anime is. This is Akuma no Riddle.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yin-Yang): So the opening is “Soushou Innocence” by Maaya Uchida. It’s a rock song and it’s pretty good. At first Maaya’s voice sounds off but as the song continues she starts to get better and really just takes off with this song. The instrumental is also great to listen to.
(Chibi Isis): For this anime we got multiple ending themes for each episode and they’re each sung by one of the characters from the anime. They were all good, match up well with that character, and the VAs are good singers as well. Whatever ending theme you listen to you’ll enjoy it.
Episodes 1-4
(Yin-Yang): The anime starts off at a training school for female assassins (women make better assassins, you never see them coming) where we focus on a girl named Tokaku voiced by Ayaka Suwa a short blue-hair girl who plays the silent no nonsense girl with skills that could kill you (Chibi Isis: And she’s not bad looking either). After her training section she gets told by her supervisor a mysterious whack-job named Kaiba that she’s being sent on a mission to Myojo Academy and being put in the Black Class where she’ll be tasked with finding and killing a target amongst her 12 classmates who are also assassins (well at least they’ll have one thing in common to talk about). She arrives at Myojo Academy where we see the academy is pretty advanced technology wise (Japanese money spent wisely) and she goes to her first homeroom where she meets 5 other students (who are all just as equally dangerous as her) where she gets drawn towards a girl named Haru a sweet, innocent, and carefree girl who doesn’t have the scent of death flowing from her and just wants to make friends (oh thank God. All these other girls look like they would kill me if I tried talking to them but with you, I think I have a chance). She’s voiced by Hisako Kanemoto (Yuki from Is this a Zombie). Tokaku along with the other assassins believe Haru’s the target they’re supposed to kill (came to that conclusion very quickly huh guys? How do you know you’re not the target? What if she’s trying to assassinate you?) and Tokaku gets told that she’s the dorm leader for her class and she finds out that she’s sharing a room with Haru (Chibi Isis: Alright, kill her in her sleep and mission accomplished). She goes to her dorm room where the room is littered with bugs (Chibi Isis: The spying kind not the ones you wanna smash with a shoe) and she tosses them all away. For the rest of the episode we just meet the other assassins all of who have one thing in common. They’re all a little crazy (so chances are they’ll be good in bed). After encountering a majority of them (I think 2 or 3 of them are missing) Tokaku and Haru go to their room for bed where Tokaku is stomped trying to solve Kaiba’s text message riddle which reads “The world is filled with ___” (oh well that’s easy one, tell them Bosch: //youtu.be/gIyE-8w6LME?t=14s); she decides to ask Haru what she thinks the answer is and Haru answers forgiveness which Tokaku says is impossible but she writes it down anyway and guess what, it’s correct.
In episode 2 the remaining students finally show up for class and the tension is silently high (Vegeta, what does the scouter say on the killing intent in this classroom? //youtu.be/SiMHTK15Pik?t=9s). In class the 12 assassins receive a message telling them about a meeting to discuss the rules of their mission. Later on that day Isuke one of the assassins who likes to wear perfume and was adopted by a gay couple (progress) decides to get the jump on everyone and tries to eliminate Haru before the mission can begin. She goes to Haru’s room for tea with Tokaku skipping out and going to the field to train (Chibi Isis: Why would you leave!? You know Isuke is trying to kill Haru so why would you leave her alone!? //youtu.be/qileP4bAzek). Isuke drugs Haru’s tea which knocks her out (spiked it with alcohol) and is about to drown her in the tub where she notices all of the scars across Haru’s body (and there’s a lot of them. It’s like somebody tried to carve her with a pumpkin knife). Getting an anonymous tip from Isuke’s roommate Tokaku rushes back to her dorm room to save Haru and she fights Isuke where we find out that Tokaku is a virgin when it comes to killing people (*smacks forehead* you sent someone to assassinate someone who hasn’t killed anyone and put her in a gauntlet match with 11 other trained assassins who all have experience in this field? Kaiba, I have this to say to you: //youtu.be/yytbDZrw1jc). With Tokaku’s hesitation to kill, Isuke takes the advantage, knocks her out, and escapes. Tokaku wakes up and she and Haru have a talk where Haru reveals that she knows that everyone is trying to kill her and that graduating is all a part of this trial she has to go through in order to become the next head of her clan. She also reveals that a lot of people including her family members have died protecting her. After all of this Haru ask Tokaku why she saved her even though she’s out to kill her (because she likes you)? Tokaku says that she’s defecting to Haru’s side and is going to protect her no matter what. That night all the assassins gather for their meeting where they discuss the rules for their mission (what rules? Just find Haru and kill her it’s as simple as that). Rule 1, the person to kill Haru will be granted one wish of anything they desire (oh so we’re going Twisted Metal up in here. Word of advice, be very specific in your wish otherwise you will get screwed). Rule 2, no getting outside people involved in the assassination (Chibi Isis: That includes students, teachers, family members, and the school cat that everyone takes turn feeding). Rule 3, all assassins get one shot at killing Haru. When an assassin has submitted their red slip they have 48 hours to kill Haru. If they should fail to kill her within 48 hours or violate rule 2 they will be expelled and asked to leave the school. After these rules are announced Tokaku comes in, takes her red slip and shreds it right in front of everyone telling them that she’s going to protect Haru (this is going to be a fun school year).
In episode 3 Takechi a serial killer who feels sexual pleasure only through killing people (damn) gives her advance notice to Haru saying she’s going to kill her. Her wish is to have life time serial killer insurance (Chibi Isis: 0_0, huh?) which according to her means having immunity from police, detectives, any form of public order in general and having all of her kills (sex plays if you will) cleaned up behind her where ever she goes (I get it, she wants to achieve orgasm without having anyone stop her). Haru hides the notice from Tokaku because she doesn’t want her to get hurt and begins hanging around Takechi trusting her and believing that she’s not gonna kill her but instead gonna befriend her like Tokaku (I’m sorry I gotta use this clip again, //youtu.be/yytbDZrw1jc and lots of it). While Takechi is alone with Haru she knocks out Haru with some flowers and goes to Tokaku who finally thought to rummage through Haru’s stuff and see if she got a notice from an assassin (was the fact that Takechi was constantly clinging to Haru not an obvious sign?) and sees that she did. She’s about to head out but Takechi shows up and tricks Tokaku into believing that someone else sent the notice and tricks her into going into the basement where she locks her in (wow. Worst and dumbest bodyguard ever). Tokaku gets out via vents and makes it to the botanical garden to fight Takechi where Takechi is about to pierce Tokaku’s eye with the edge of a saw (I don’t know whatever gets her off) when Haru gets loose and manages to use the flowers to knock Takechi out saving Tokaku (now kill her while she’s unconscious). They leave her in the garden (no, kill the serial killer) where she wakes up the next day and finds out her 48 hours are up and she has to leave the school. But she refuses to leave because she really wants to kill Haru (no you don’t you wanna have sex with her) and she attacks the observer where in turn she gets herself killed.
In episode 4 it’s exam time and racking her brain studying isn’t the only thing Haru has to worry about, but she also has to worry about Kouko who’s said to be the smartest girl in class and is taking her shot at assassinating Haru. The only problem is Kouko sucks as in assassin. I mean it, she’s not physically strong, she’s a bad shot, and when it comes to CQC she makes a grade schooler look like Bruce Lee (Chibi-Isis: Oh you’re exaggerating she can’t be THAT bad). In the episode we see that Kouko was an orphan girl taken in by the Lutheran church that was secretly a church of assassins and was training orphans to be assassins as well (Chibi-Isis: So what were they some kind of inquisition or something, //youtu.be/yQKG6_0mMfo). At the church she befriended her senpai Irena who she looked up to as a sister and one night when she was rigging a car with explosives along with Irena she accidently set the timer wrong and it exploded killing Irena in the process as she was escaping (big time mistake on the rookie’s part). Kouko continued serving the church and was assigned the mission to assassinate Haru where her wish will be to be done with this assassination life all together and be free from it (Chibi Isis: So you wanna stop being an assassin and an order to do that you kill someone? Pretty contradicting if you ask me). She sets up traps in Haru’s room but Tokaku sees through all of them and disarms them. The next night Haru wants to sneak into the library to search for a book that’s said to bring happiness to whoever writes their name in the library card. Haru and Tokaku sneak into the library and using her sense of smell Tokaku is able to find a hidden passage way (how the hell do you find a hidden passage way with your nose? This makes even less sense than Toucan Sam being able to smell Fruit Loops while flying hundreds of feet in the air) that leads to a secret part of the library (//youtu.be/59GwT_Qlj0Y). In the room Haru finds the book but there’s a bomb strap to it and Tokaku manages to save Haru just in time. Tokaku goes after Kouko where the two have a knife fight with Tokaku easily beating Kouko with only one attack (Chibi Isis: Wow she really does suck). Kouko accepts her defeat and leaves the school and we find out that Haru scored the highest on her test (Chibi Isis: I don’t believe you).
Episodes 5-8
The next assassin to take her shot at Haru in episode 5 is Haruki a girl who unlike the other girls so far seems to be quite selfless with her wish. She has a number of younger siblings and only wishes that they all live the good life even if it means she has to die in order to make that wish come true (a noble wish but even if you die they won’t be able to live the good life). During the episode we also learn a little more about Tokaku and her family such as knowing that she comes from a long line of assassins that date all the way back to ancient Japan (Chibi Isis: How ancient are we talking here?), she has never met her father before (he’s a lousy dad disowning such a lovely daughter), her mother died giving birth to her (hey she did kill someone after all), and is the next head of her family. Getting back to the story Haruki lures Haru into the school gym where her class will be performing the play Romeo and Juliet (Chibi Isis: Oh that’s been done to death do something else like Phoenix Wright or turn one of the Miyazaki movies into a play it’s possible) and she decides to go with a simple approach by just choking her with invisible wire (sometimes the simple approach is usually the best approach). Tokaku shows up (will you stop leaving Haru alone you know there’s a whole class of assassin girls trying to kill her so why leave her by herself?) and a fight begins where I have to admit Haruki has some good CQC but once again Tokaku figures out her fighting style and she’s able to turn the situation in her favor. With her back against the wall, Haruki uses the ace up her sleeve and uses her wires to bring the whole set down hoping to crush herself and everyone in the building (talk about bringing down the house). Tokaku and Haru reach a safe spot and survive as does Haruki who despite having a large steel support beam fall on her she manages to leave with a broken arm and a few non-fatal wounds (we are really suspending our theory of disbelief here greatly aren’t me?). Realizing she’s lost Haruki takes her leave the next day and their teacher does the cliché noooo~ at seeing his set destroyed (Chibi Isis: If it’s any consolation the play was gonna be a snooze fest from the start).
In episode 6 we see that the group has repaired the stage just in time for the school festival (damn, now I gotta sit through Romeo and Juliet. I’ve seen so many adaptations of this play I can recite the whole thing by heart now). This time around we focus on the yuri couple of Hitsugi and Chitaru. Hitsugi is a girl who looks like an elementary girl but in truth she’s a dangerous assassin known as Angel Trumpet who kills people with poison. Chitaru is a girl who has the appearance and aura of a mature prince (basically the Makoto from The Idolm@ster of this series) and has no interest in killing Haru (than why the hell are you here?). Instead, Chitaru’s main purpose for being here is finding the assassin Angel Trumpet and killing her because Angel Trumpet killed the daughter of Chitaru’s teacher (well. . .this is going have a serious impact on the yuri relationship going between Hitsugi and Chitaru. Kind of a shame really. I mean Chitaru was tall and had red hair while Hitsugi was short and had light blue hair. They had a nice little yin-yang thing going on there). Anyway, on the night before the play another assassin named Shiena is planning on killing Haru on the day of the performance and is putting her warning notice in Haru’s script book (Chibi Isis: To be or not to be? I’m going to kill you on the play be). As she’s doing that Hitsugi comes in and poisons her forcing Shiena to drop out of the competition (oh we never got to hear her wish. I bet it was something dirty). Tokaku and Haru see this because they were looking for Haru’s script and Hitsugi gives her notice directly to Haru (well at least she was straightforward). On the day of the play we see that Hitsugi planned to kill Haru with poison (okay we get it you like poisoning your victims) by pouring it all on the props and swords (this was your plan? Poisoning all the props and just hoping the poison would reach and kill her. Lame. (Chibi Isis): That is pretty lame) but Tokaku easily notices the obvious set up and wipes the poison away. As Tokaku is wiping away the poison Chitaru notices it and jumps (big time) to the conclusion that Haru is Angel Trumpet and attempts to kill her but Tokaku stands in her way and the two go outside to have a sword fight where Chitaru breaks Tokaku’s prop sword (hey, that was on loan) forcing her to switch to a knife. Tokaku tells Chitaru that Hitsugi was the one who poison the swords as well as Shiena (and this took you long to tell her why?) but Chitaru is hesitant to believe that the innocent Hitsugi would be capable of such an act. She goes back to the auditorium and goes through Hitsugi’s stuff where she finds the poison confirming that what Tokaku said was true. She goes out on stage staying in character telling Hitsugi that she knows everything now and Hitsugi is okay with Chitaru killing her. Chitaru grabs Hitsugi and stabs her on stage killing her but still feeling sadness for killing her best friend. Chitaru takes the poison and drinks it killing herself with the audience believing that this is all part of the play (okay I take it back this play was actually quite sad and tragic. (Chibi Isis): Though the acting could have been better).
(Chibi Isis): Episode 7 probably has my favorite assassin attempt in the whole series. The girl this time around is Suzu a girl who if you can believe it or not has Highlander syndrome. This disease stops a person’s body from aging entirely, a man could be 78 years old but have the appearance and body of an 18 year old. Because the syndrome is so rare and unknown nobody is sure how to cure it. I’m not entirely sure if this is a real disease or not I did some research but I don’t entirely trust the sources I found. I remember Batman: TAS having a character named Baby Doll who had a rare disease that stopped her from aging and she had the appearance of a little girl when really she was 20 something years old if not older. Again, not sure if this disease is real or not but if it is that’s some disease. Anyway, Suzu probably does her assassination attempt the best. Instead of physically going after Haru like the others she instead puts a bomb around her neck that’s set to go off at midnight (why is it always midnight why not 1am or 11:50pm?) and the only way to stop the bomb from going off is to punch in the correct code on the collar but if Tokaku puts in the wrong combination three times the bomb will go off anyway (Yin-Yang: Man, this is like Jigsaw/The Riddler territory right here). So the race is on for Tokaku to find the four numbers to the collar which Suzu has hidden in the school’s indoor waterpark (Yin-Yang: Oh great a fanservice episode and boys can’t enjoy it because somebody could possibly explode right in front of them) with riddles to where they are located. Tokaku and Haru figure out the first 3 riddles but on the last one Tokaku figures out that it’s in the water tubes and gets trapped in a cage which sinks to the bottom of the pool where the key to the cage is at but the key also happens to be holding the last number for the collar. In order to get the last number Tokaku must sacrifice her life for Haru’s life (brilliant. Even if Tokaku gives her life to Haru, Haru will be left defenseless and the other assassins will have no problem killing her off). As Tokaku is drowning Haru dives in, kisses her (Yin-Yang: Took them long enough), and uses the card key to open the cage that Tokaku was stuck in. With the last number unknown, only a few minutes before midnight, and only one chance to guess the right combination (they tried it twice earlier but failed) Tokaku comes to the conclusion that the combination is Suzu’s birthday 0714 (of course the birthday, that’s like the number one combination everyone uses) but Haru tells her that the combination might be 0715 which is the birthday of Suzu’s friend in the past who she had a crush on (Yin-Yang: Oh~ the crush’s birthday as your number combination. That’s actually not a bad idea). Haru’s hypothesis is correct and the bomb collar comes off. Suzu accepts her defeat, leaves, and to make this scene even sadder we find out that it’s her birthday and she’s lived so long she doesn’t even know how old she is (man I really feel sad for her).
Things get pretty interesting in episode 8. In this episode a typhoon is coming and they change things up by instead of just one assassin going after Haru it’s instead two assassins going after her at the same time (Yin-Yang: OOO. Chibi, cover your ears *Chibi Isis covers her ears*. Well that’s fuckin’ genius. Why didn’t they do something like this in the first place? Everyone just go after Haru at the same time I’m sure one of you will kill her it’s not like Tokaku can take on 11 assassins at once). The assassins up to bat this time are Isuke the sadistic girl with the gay parents from episode 2 and Mahiru/Shin’ya a girl with split personalities. During the day Mahiru is a shy girl who’s very timid and doesn’t like hurting or killing people but when the sun sets her other personality Shin’ya comes out and she is borderline insane (Yin-Yang: I wonder if her and Fukawa from Danganronpa are friends I could totally see all four of these personalities hanging out and talk about killing people). During the episode we also learn a little bit more about Isuke’s past. It turns out she lived with bad parents who neglected her and her brother greatly. Heck, they even tried to kill both of them. But luckily, her mother came in to kill the parents and save her but he was too late to save her brother. He decides to adopt her and bring her into the world of assassination (because she hasn’t been traumatized enough). When the typhoon comes Isuke attacks Tokaku and Haru head-on (have you learned nothing from the other assassins that plan backfires and fails? Follow Suzu’s approach she almost won. Sure she screwed herself over at the end but hey out all the assassins so far she came the closest and had a very elaborate plan that was entertaining) and Tokaku holds her off by throwing dirt in her face and escaping (Yin-Yang: Kill her woman! Now’s your chance to graduate from being a virgin). They escape back to the school where Tokaku barricades Haru in the biology room and leaves her to go face Isuke (am I crazy or does this sound like the dumbest thing to do in this kind of situation? You left the target alone? Come on that’s like bodyguard 101 don’t ever leave the target alone). While Tokaku is fighting Isuke, Shin’ya breaks the barricade with a huge mallet (heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere’s Shin’ya) and makes her way towards Haru prepared to kill her (this wouldn’t have happened if Tokaku STAYED WITH THE TARGET).
Episodes 9-12 and OVA
The fights continue in episode 9 with Haru on the run from Shin’ya who seems to be enjoying the hunt. While that’s going on Tokaku continues to fight Isuke where Tokaku uses a taser she had hidden in her shoe to shock Isuke and escape her (Yin-Yang: You know what also would have been nice to put in your shoe? A gun to kill the bitch that is strangling you). Tokaku begins searching the school looking for Haru (follow the mallet marks and you’ll find what you’re looking for) but Isuke comes back (Yin-Yang: Now will you kill her, please) and pushes Tokaku into a trap where she falls out of the school building and onto the ground below (Yin-Yang: She’s dead). Isuke makes her way to Haru who gets cornered by Shin’ya in the visual audio room where Isuke turns on the projector which scares Shin’ya because when she was a child she was photographed a lot by this strange man who was holding her hostage. This of course resulted in her split personality being born and killing the strange man to escape. Yeah, not gonna lie I’m a bit confused by this. The show really doesn’t go a whole lot into Shin’ya’s past or explain it all that well. In all honesty I’m a little bit confused on what happened in her past. The flashbacks are quick and really don’t tell us a lot. The only logical explanation I can think is that the man raped her and after it photographed her but if that’s the case than how come in the flashback she still had her clothes on? Like I said I really don’t know what to make of Shin’ya’s backstory. If you got it please tell me because I feel as if I’m being left in the dark on this situation. Anyway, while Shin’ya begins to freak out (camera shy much?) Isuke comes in and knocks her out so she can kill Haru. And what does Isuke want? Nothing, she’s just here to kill Haru. What about Shin’ya? No idea never explained or told (they are really dropping the ball on such a complex and interesting character). Tokaku survives the fall and begins to remember her past where we finally see where Tokaku’s inability to kill comes from. It turns out it came from her aunt who followed her sister’s wishes not to have Tokaku grow up to be a killer like the rest of the clan. She tried to escape with Tokaku when she was still a child but the grandmother discovers their plan and kills her own daughter right in front of Tokaku (Yin-Yang: Damn lady you cruel as hell. And right in front of the child too. Talk about traumatizing). As she lays their unconscious remembering this she comes to understand that all this time her mother and aunt were just protecting her in their own way. With this knowledge she’s now able to overcome her hesitation and is able to kill (wait what? Time out. Did I miss something because I’m really confused). Isuke finally catches Haru and begins to strangle her (why you little) but Tokaku comes in, throws her knife piercing through Isuke’s hand, and kills her (alright congratulations from being a virgin Tokaku). Tokaku and Haru take their leave and head back to the dorms to end the episode (and then there were 2 assassins left).
We start episode 10 with Takechi (what!? She’s alive? I thought she died). It turns out all this time she’s been in prison and now she’s broken out and wants to kill Haru (Yin-Yang: Well she has been blue balled since episode 3 so yeah go for it). Back at the school the last student Sumireko invites Haru to a tea party at night where the two can talk with each other. Sumireko is said to be the daughter of a CEO to a major company. Sumireko’s family and Haru’s family have some kind of connection with each other but we’re never really told what that connection is. As Haru and Tokaku are preparing for the tea party Takechi has re-entered the school (way to go school security) and is about to go into their room but gets stopped and knocked out by Sumireko who decides to invite her to the tea party as well. Haru and Tokaku go to the tea party where it starts off on a creepy note with Sumireko having robotic puppets of everyone who failed to assassinate Haru at the party (Yin-Yang: *whispers* what. . .the. . .fuck. (Chibi Isis): You say something Yin-chan? (Yin-Yang): Nothing). After that creepiness, Sumireko opens up to Haru saying that she too knows what it’s like to be hunted by people since she herself has also been hunted by many others ever since she was a child. Haru asks Sumireko not to try and assassinate her (you really think asking them at this point in the game is gonna work?) but Sumireko says no because her wish is to be named the number 1 queen in the world and Haru is standing in her way (okay I feel as if I missed something here. You wanna kill Haru just to prove you’re better than her?). She hands her notice to Haru and decides she wants to make this match fair by giving them a fighting chance so she opens up the walls to show that they’re filled with guns of all varieties (Yin-Yang: Oh if Isis could see this). Sumireko uses the puppets to separate Haru from Tokaku and she makes her way to Haru while a bullet proof window splits the room in half but just before she can make it to Haru, Tokaku pulls her back over to her side and the two begin fighting. Tokaku tries shooting her but bullets have no effect on her because a majority of her body is made out of mechanical parts (well I did not see that coming). Yep, in the past her body got shot up so her father used his assets to save her life replacing her body with mechanical parts that increased her physical abilities entirely (Yin-Yang: So basically she’s the billion dollar girl). Tokaku fights her and has trouble beating her even with the help of Takechi who gets knocked out by Sumireko easily (why are you here again?). Sumireko tells Tokaku that Haru is using her like a queen bee using a worker bee (Yin-Yang: Please don’t start getting philosophical on me anime, you guys are pretty much softcore yuri). Tokaku causes the chandelier to fall on top of Sumireko but that doesn’t stop her and she throws the chandelier at Tokaku greatly injuring her (I’m surprise she still alive). Since she can’t destroy the bullet-proof glass, Haru grabs a grenade launcher and blasts the locked doors running out trying to get Sumireko to go after her and spare Tokaku. Sumireko falls for this obvious trap (//youtu.be/yytbDZrw1jc) and goes after Haru where she thinks Haru used the elevator to escape so she opens up the doors and goes into the elevator only to discover Haru isn’t in the elevator and is still on the top floor. Haru drops a bunch of grenades onto her but Sumireko is still alive and moving (Yin-Yang: Geez the girl is just as hard to kill as the terminator). Their fight leads them outside where Sumireko tries to grab Haru with her grappling fingers and misses grabbing the railing instead (Yin-Yang: How are you the superior queen again? Seriously, Tokaku is down and you still can’t even kill Haru). Haru grabs Sumireko and jumps off the side of the building with her where Haru grabs onto the wires and separates Sumireko from her arm where she falls to her death (looks like Sumireko *grabs sunglasses* could use a hand, //youtu.be/6YMPAH67f4o. (Yin-Yang): Ohhhhhhhhhhh~). Haru goes to check on Tokaku (Yin-Yang: Okay when did Haru get awesome. Where was that earlier in the series?) where she tells Tokaku that she has her own secret but she can’t tell Tokaku yet (you’re really a boy aren’t you?).
In episode 11 we finally see what the class full of female assassins has been all about. Yuri, the chairwoman of the school and sponsor of this whole game who happens to be a relative of Haru tells Tokaku and Haru that the whole point of this ordeal was to see if Haru was worthy of being the next leader of her clan and her ordeal was to see if she could survive in a class full of assassins (next time let’s just do a writing test). Yuri tells Haru that she has an ability called Primer an ability that allows Haru to manipulate anyone around her whenever she feels her life is in danger. Yuri tells Haru that she unconsciously used this ability to control Tokaku and got her to protect Haru but Haru doesn’t believe that she would do something like that and runs away (well I say she took that information well). Yuri then turns her attention to Tokaku where she declares Tokaku the winner of this little game and earns the right to have anything she wants (remember, be very specific so you don’t get screwed over). At the time Tokaku is unsure what to do and is unsure if she protected Haru because she wanted to do it or because Haru unknowingly manipulated her into doing it (Yin-Yang: Gotta admit it’s quite the dilemma). So Tokaku keeps her distance from Haru where Haru gets taken by Nio the last student who’s been serving as the observer for the whole event to visit the family grave which is beneath the school (well that’s comforting, going to school on a graveyard. That’s not creepy or nightmare fuel at all) and allows Haru to explore the beehive themed graveyard (I’m not kidding it seriously is a beehive) to see the many names of people who have died all in the name of her clan for the greater good (//youtu.be/N_q2wBzT6uU). As Haru explores Tokaku shows up with a sword (Yin-Yang: How the hell did you get down here? Better yet, how did you know she was here?) and presents her advanced notice to Haru and we end the episode with Tokaku attempting to kill Haru (well this escalated quickly).
In the final episode the whole show pretty much screws us all over and by that I mean they messed up big time. Okay, so as Haru is being attacked by Tokaku another Tokaku shows up claiming to be the real Tokaku saying that the Tokaku trying to kill her is really Nio using hypnotic suggestions to take on the appearance of Tokaku (//youtu.be/qxqm6htwcwk). The Tokakus fight each other with the real Tokaku (please stand up please stand up) winning and stabbing Nio in the chest with her own knife (and this was the worst assassination attempt throughout the series). Then in a strange and stupid event Haru charges at Tokaku with a knife fully intending to kill her to prove to herself and Tokaku that there was no special pheromones or hidden powers of any kind at work here and that Tokaku protecting Haru was of her own freewill (Yin-Yang: And trying to kill Tokaku and see if she would kill you or not is the best way to prove this? What’s the big deal? So what if Haru subconsciously used her queen bee whatever powers to manipulate Tokaku into protecting her. In the end the question the characters have to ask themselves is was the friendship they had real? Was Haru just pretending to be Tokaku’s friend to get her to lower her guard and feel sympathy for her? In my opinion no, Haru really did want to be friends with everyone and graduate with all of them and we see throughout the show that even though she knows everyone is trying to kill her she still tries to befriend them all. This whole situation of the two friends trying to kill each other is stupid and makes no sense). So in the end Tokaku stabs Haru and she faints only to be rushed to the hospital where she will most likely die because of the severe wound and blood lost (still think this was a good idea Haru?). We then fast forward to the end of the school year where Haru is still alive because the titanium plate in her chest protected her meaning in the end Haru is the sole survivor of her class and Tokaku is forced to leave the school (Yin-Yang: Oh it gets stupider). During the graduation ceremony we find out that all of the assassins that we thought died are still alive (//youtu.be/e4rw-TS1pe8). I’m not kidding, they’re all still alive even the ones who we saw die on screen are still alive and doing well. The series ends with Haru taking everyone’s graduation scroll and heading outside where she meets Tokaku and they head off to give the graduation scrolls to all of their classmates (//youtu.be/Ek1ktZO3lLw).
(Yin-Yang): We do get an OVA of this series where the group gets stranded on an island in order to initiate a scramble game. In the game the students are each given a charm and tasked with forming teams of two to get Haru’s charm using whatever weapons they find on the island. We get some needless fighting where the losers go to the loser area and have a BBQ and at the end the teacher manages to get Haru’s charm and is allowed one wish in which he wants everyone to have an enjoyable school life. Pretty pointless, not really worth your time, and doesn’t fit anywhere in the story.
Final Thoughts
(Yin-Yang): Well Chibi what did you think?
(Chibi Isis): Yeah, it’s bad.
(Yin-Yang): Exactly, this anime sucks. The whole anime is a huge letdown that takes the idea of assassination and just insults it. The ending to this anime is one of the worst endings I have ever seen in my life. We seriously saw a number of students die only to find out in the end that they’re all alive and well. What the hell? The actions of Haru and Tokaku in the last episode literally make no sense and leave you wondering what’s going on and why did they do this instead of that? There’s really no development on the part of Tokaku and Haru, character interactions are minimal at best, the action sequences aren’t really that inventive and are just slow, and the animation isn’t really that much to look at. We never learn why Haru has to go through all this stuff to be the head of the family and never learn that much about her family to get an idea of what’s at state. Even Tokaku defecting to Haru’s side doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’m not against it but she never gives a solid reason why she’s doing it. I’m not saying I’m against her doing this I just want to know why she’s doing this and how she came to the conclusion that this is what she wants to do. Like I said I really can’t find anything salvageable in this anime.
(Chibi Isis): Actually there is something salvageable in this anime. The assassins.
(Yin-Yang): Say what now?
(Chibi Isis): The assassins. While I agree with what you said about the anime and even I too think the anime is bad there is one piece they did well. The assassins. During their episodes we were able to get a backstory about a majority of them and get an idea of why they’re here and what they want to wish for. Suzu was hands down my favorite assassin as her story is quite sad and tragic and her attempt was the best by far in my opinion. Each of the characters have different personalities that separate them from each other and use a different strategy to get their target. It’s actually quite fun to see their attempts and compare them to each other. I admit one or two of them aren’t explored as well as they should be but for the ones they showed you clearly got an idea of why they’re here. Also, I didn’t think the entirety of the anime was bad. The first nine episodes are good but once the tenth episode comes that’s when things start to go downhill for the anime and this anime becomes unsalvageable.
(Yin-Yang): I’ll be damned. You’re somewhat right. They do a decent job giving us insight into the other assassins by telling us why they’re here, what they want, and developing a few of them and I have to admit I did like the way they handled the series in the first nine episodes. It was done well, the execution was good, the development on the part of the assassins was handled rather well, and I really got into their attempts and looked forward to seeing what they would do next. I don’t believe it, you actually managed to find something salvageable in this shipwreck of an anime.
(Chibi Isis): It still sucks.
(Yin-Yang): Oh definitely.
Final Score
(Yin-Yang): My final score for Akuma no Riddle is a 2.5/10. It was originally a 2 but thanks to Chibi’s insight you guys get a half point.
(Chibi Isis): I give the anime a 4/10. It’s bad with the only thing enjoyable being the assassins and ranking their attempts from the first 9 episodes. So with that, our combined score is 6.5/20 and averaging all that up using our system we get a 3/10.
(Yin-Yang): It’s sad to see an anime that had the potential to be good fall through the cracks like this but such is the way of life. We win some, we lose some, and unfortunately we lost one here. Good news is, we can only go up from here and I can say the only good I got from this review is knowing that I can now say I did a review with everyone on team Project Nitsuj and I owe it all to Chibi for suffering with me.
(Chibi Isis): My pleasure Yin-chan. Well, thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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