(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Me, Shizuku, and Seras aka The Legion of Insanity are back and we’re here to review the second half of Akame ga Kill. In the first half we saw the death of two of our main characters, one main character earn the affection of an insane general, and just a lot of uncensored gore and death and I’m pretty sure the second won’t back away from this. So let’s continue our review of Akame ga Kill.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Seras): The second opening is “LIAR MASK” by Rika Mayama and I have to admit it’s way better than the first opening. I like how it starts off like a music box being played but then accelerates into this full-blown rock opera of going to war and fighting for what you believe is right. The song even has moments where it slows down to let that sad atmosphere sink in as we remember that we’ve lost many comrades in this war and will lose more in the future but we must keep pressing forward and fight to honor them and to protect the people still alive.
(Shizuku): The second ending is “Tsuki Akari” by Sora Amamiya and yeah this ending is way better than the first one. This ending maintains that sad tone from the first one but it focuses on the bond between Akame and her sister Kurome. It’s a sad song showing how the two sisters were so close to each other but their different views caused a rift between them and now they’ve become bitter enemies trying to kill each other. Sora sounds great here. This is the Sora I was looking for in the first opening.
Episodes 13-17
(Shizuku): In episode 13 strange human beasts have been attacking the capital and Jaeger has been assigned to finding and kill them as has Night Raid who also want to protect the innocent citizens from dying. Esdeath believes that the creatures were created by Dr. Stylish (even in death that man is stylin’) and someone might have released them on the city for some unknown reason (Seras: I know why, to piss people off). At night, Night Raid splits into teams of two to scout the area and keep an eye out for the beast. During this time Lubbock opens up to Tatsumi (Nitsuj: No Lubbock! That just raises the death flag higher on you) about how he comes from a wealthy family and had everything he ever wanted but was bored with life (and if you can believe it this is the sad part of his story) that is until he met Najenda who he fell madly in love with and joined the army just to be with her. Even when she left to form Night Raid, Lubbock followed after her, made it so he would appear dead in the records, and joined Night Raid to stay by her side (Seras: He turned the whole world against him just to be with the person he loved. (Nitsuj: Mad respect for Lubbock. (Shizuku): Yeah. Too bad he’s a pervert who constantly peeps on others. (Nitsuj): Well there’s a difference between loving someone and loving your desire to spy on cute girls. You can read about it in Miroku’s latest book: Love and Peeping. It’s an engaging read). Tatsumi scouts ahead and from the sky comes his sadistic lover Esdeath who’s so happy to see him that she slaughters a group of beast creatures in two seconds flat (don’t get between a girl and her boy toy).
So in episode 14 Esdeath and Tatsumi are reunited (Nitsuj: And it feels so good. (Shizuku): For Esdeath I’m sure but for Tatsumi I’m sure it’s painful) where a hooded man comes out holding in Imperial Arm teleports them to some tropical deserted island in the southeast. While the two are there we learn a little more about Esdeath’s past. We find out that see was born in the north where her tribe fought against other tribes and dangerous beasts to survive the harsh climate. It was also here that she learned from her father the philosophy of the weak dying and the strong surviving. While out on a hunting mission their tribe was completely wiped out by another tribe and she went to the capital where she joined the army, drank the blood of an Imperial Arm that gave her the power of ice and ultimately made her the strongest warrior in the capital. Eventually they find a way back and Tatsumi uses this chance to escape Esdeath (Nitsuj: Give the guy credit he had so many opportunities to do stuff with her yet he fought against it. If I had been me I would have submitted to that forbidden fruit especially since she’s leaving herself wide open) and comes to the conclusion that Esdeath is a person who can’t be saved or convince because there’s nothing to save her from. This is who she is she is, a person who enjoys crushing those weaker than her, making others submit to her, and looking down on others (Seras: She is a product of the environment she was born in).
Not a whole lot happens in episode 15. The Revolutionary Army is preparing to make their move on the capital by using a religious’ group insurrection as cover to move their troops into position for battle (thank you God) and they’ve sent Night Raid in to take care of the Jaegers. Following into Najenda’s trap, Esdeath splits her troops into 2 with one group going south in pursuit of Night Raid while the other group goes East in pursuit of Najenda. Esdeath, Seryu, and Ran head east while Wave, Kurome, and Bols head south to fight Night Raid where they run into Akame, Tatsumi, Leone, Mine, Susanoo, and Najenda (you dun fucked up Esdeath). They get rid of Wave quickly because their targets are Bols and Kurome (Nitsuj: Makes sense. Wave’s just a kid walking with the wrong crowd) and the two sisters finally meet where we see that Kurome’s sword Yatsufusa has the power to manipulate corpses (Seras: So Akame’s sword kills people while Kurome’s sword wakes the dead. (Nitsuj): Sounds pretty similar to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru).
The battle between Night Raid, Kurome and Bols begins in episode 16 where Kurome’s army of the dead proves to be quite an opponent for the group since they can’t die and even when you cut off their heads they still continue to move (Nitsuj: Talk about desecrating the dead. This is worse than that ninja technique used in Naruto). Akame takes on Bols where Kurome’s dead soldier keeps getting in the way and Kurome actually chops off one of Leone’s arms (Seras: Oh that bitch you do not hurt my favorite character). But despite this setback the group manages to overcome the dead soldiers and force Kurome to fight them. On Akame’s side she and Leone manage to incapacitate Kurome’s dead soldier and Leone manages to destroy Bols Imperial Arm making it useless (they may be the strongest weapons in the world but they’re easily destroyed). Bols realizing he’s beaten decides that if he’s gonna die he’s gonna take them down with him so he launches his canister into the sky and sets off a massive explosion in the area to end the episode.
In episode 17 the girls survive the explosion by hiding behind a riot shield (Nitsuj: Wow, durable. (Seras): I’ll say). Bols also survived the explosion somehow and got to a safe area only to be tricked by Chelsea and killed by her (and I gotta admit his death is pretty sad. Scene here: //youtu.be/MI6Zopj6ciE). After killing Bols, Chelsea goes after Kurome alone who used the explosion to escape and recover from excessively using her powers (drugs tend to do that). During this time we see her past where she and Akame were taken from their village and put in a trial to find the perfect subjects for the ultimate assassin. Determined to live and keep the other alive they both passed the trial but were separated from each other where Kurome was taken to the capital and given a drug that enhanced her body but also took a heavy toll on her body so she has to keep eating these snacks in order to regain her health. Chelsea approaches her in the form of Bols where she waits for the right moment and uses her needles to strike Kurome’s vital point and kill her (2 for 2 Chelsea). As she’s walking away we see her backstory (Seras: White flag ahoy) into how she served under a corrupted viceroy but discovered her Imperial Arm and used it to kill him freeing the people and earning their praise. Just as she’s walking away Kurome gets back up with a black aura surrounding her body where she says that after Akame left they created a new more powerful drug that made her body indestructible with the only surefire way to kill her is either crushing her head or squashing her heart. Chelsea tries to escape but Kurome uses her powers to send her zombie soldiers after Chelsea where they destroy her Imperial Arm, kill her, and to add insult to injury they take her dead body back to the city cut her head off, and impale it in the city square for everyone to see (oh damnit I liked this character. Tag in I’m done).
Episodes 18-20
(Seras): In episode 18 the group arrives in Kyoroch to take out Borick, leader of the religious sect in the Empire and Honest’s most corrupt followers. If the group can defeat him than the Revolutionary Army will have a clear path to the capital (Nitsuj: This is sounding very Assassin’s Creed like) and since Honest knows this he’s sent the Jaegers to protect Borick who uses the religion to corrupt the minds of young maidens and turn them into sex slaves (well everyman dreams of having a harem). Borick says he’ll be alright because he’s being protected by the Four Koukenji Rakshasa Demons a group of assassins who are non-Imperial Arm users but have been genetically enhanced to fight against them and have even won a few fights against them (impressive. But it means nothing when you’re facing main characters). While the Jaegers are waiting for Night Raid to appear (Shizuku: And waiting for the Rakshasa Demons to die) we see that Wave is concerned about Kurome who is still feeling the effects of Chelsea’s attack and isn’t 100% (Shizuku: Good. She’ll die a lot easier now). Wave wants her to sit this mission out but she doesn’t want to out of the fear that she’ll be removed from the team and killed because she can’t perform. After that sweet moment between the two characters we get to see some action as one of the demons attacks Akame in the cemetery (Nitsuj: Oh good half the work is done. Now what do you want on your tombstone? Little shit killed by badass swordswoman?). She beats him with ease but Run sees the fight and escapes. But the real MVP of this episode is Lubbock who not only fights two of the demons but manages to save a spy from being killed and he killed both of the demons impressively all by himself (okay, I normally don’t say this but he deserves an award. Lubbock deserves to be kissed by Najenda or better yet have a bath with her. He earned it).
Episode 19 is a personal favorite of mine (Shizuku: Same here. (Nitsuj): Why is that? (Seras): Oh you’ll see and I think you’ll love it). The time has come for the group to take down Borick and they plan on doing it on the anniversary of the religion (pray to whatever god you want. In the end we know you’re going to only one place). Tatsumi and Mine disguise themselves as decoys and get the attention of the guards where they escape to the outskirts of an abandoned temple where they get into a fight with Suzuka the last member of the demons and Seryu (Nitsuj: You bitch you killed my Sheele) and her dog Coro. Tatsumi takes on Suzuka where he tricks her into a temple and causes a rock to fall on her killing her (Nitsuj: It was a big rock). Mine and Seryu’s fight is where the real action is where we get an amazing gun fight between the two ladies with Seryu using all kinds of weapons and Mine even pulling out a gun module which turns her gun into a machine gun. Despite the two on one fight Mine does well fighting against the two and once her emotions are at an all-time high and she’s in a big pinch she supercharges her gun turning it into a lazer and slicing those two in half (Nitsuj: Yes! How do you like that bitch! Now this is the kind of justice I can agree with. I think I see why you girls like this episode so much). Despite being cut in half Seryu activates her last weapon which is a bomb hidden in her brain (what is with Jaeger and bomb suicide?) which will take out everything within the area (Shizuku: If I was you Mine I would RUN~). Mine tries to get away but is too weak to do so, the bomb goes off and she gets saved by Tatsumi. Back with the rest of Night Raid, they infiltrate the temple with Leone and Susano fighting against Kurome and Wave. Borick panics and uses a secret passage away to escape despite being told to stay in his room by Esdeath where he gets cornered by Akame and Lubbock and killed (Shizuku: May the saints have mercy on your soul, because I won’t).
Episode 20 is where the anime messes up big time. They pull an FMA (Nitsuj: Oh that’s not so bad) season 1 (Nitsuj: Motherfuckers). Yep, the anime skips over some of the earlier events from the manga and instead gives us an alternate telling of the story. While I can understand why they’re doing this considering that around the time of this episode the manga was only at around chapter 53 where Tatsumi and Lubbock had been captured and tortured leading to one of the most tragic deaths in the series it’s still a pain to sit through and to see such an awesome series like this diverge from the manga give us its own story (Nitsuj: I hear what your saying but I’m gonna maintain my optimistic outlook on the series and hope that the anime’s ending isn’t all that bad). Okay, so in the episode the Revolutionary army has begun moving to the capital (Shizuku: Viva la revolution). Esdeath is called away from the capital to deal with fractions of the Revolutionary army and the remaining members of Jaeger are put on standby while Esdeath is away. Night Raid has begun infiltrating the castle where Tatsumi and Lubbock have snuck into the castle by an agent of the Revolutionary Army to take out soldiers from within. Little do they know that Honest has created a new elite force to protect the capital led by his son Shura a bastard son who just like his father looks down on everyone (like father like son) and treats them as his toys. He’s also the one responsible for releasing the danger beasts all those episodes ago and is the one who teleported Tatsumi and Esdeath to that tropical island (Shizuku: Well that was nice of him. (Nitsuj): Yeah too bad one of them was a sadistic psychopath who wants to make Tatsumi her slave). Shura takes out the insurgents in the capital and takes on Lubbock while Tatsumi takes on Budou commander-in chief of the capital’s army who has an Imperial Arm that gives him the power of lightning (that’s one dangerous person). Shura also has an Imperial Arm that gives him the power to teleport wherever he wants as long as he has marked the area he wants to teleport. Because of this Shura has the upper hand against Lubbock who has nowhere to run or hide and gets betrayed by one of the insurgents who out of desperation switches sides in the hopes that she can earn favor with Shura and save her parents (Shizuku: Traitorous bitch. I hope you die). Shura slashes her neck for getting in the way of his fun (Nitsuj: Oh big mistake buddy. Don’t attack women on Lubbock’s watch) and Lubbock gets pissed and uses his strings to cut Shura’s hand (Nitsuj: AH! That was my Friday night fun hand! Damn you Lubbock) that was holding his Imperial Arm. Thanks to all the running around Lubbock did he manage to surround the whole area in his string so now Shura has nowhere else to hide and the guards can’t make a move at the risk of getting killed (Nitsuj: What are you waiting for kill him now). Just when it looks like Lubbock has the advantage the insurgent gets back up and stabs Lubbock in the back (Shizuku: Oh my God you bitch! Read the situation he had this all under control) lowering his guard, allowing Shura to get his hand back and teleport Lubbock to an alternate dimension with no escape. But Lubbock refuses to go out alone. He uses his string to pull Shura into the dimension where he uses his string to destroy Shura’s heart (flawless victory *nothing happens*. Hey where’s the- (Nitsuj): It only works for me. Flawless victory, //youtu.be/FfvTXACPv30?t=4s) which kills him and they both appear in the sky with Shura dead and Lubbock falling to his death by getting impaled (Nitsuj: Damn it! I liked him too. (Seras): Oh you think this was bad, wait till you read the manga. You’ll be grabbing your family jewels and everything). Tatsumi gets captured and imprisoned where he’s handed over to Esdeath for torture (now tell me, who’s your waifu Tatsumi?) and will be executed tomorrow. As for Honest, he takes the death of son pretty bad (oh who am I kidding the bastard gets over it in like 5 seconds. Scene here: //youtu.be/spLPLiDYtQE).
Episodes 21-24
(Nitsuj): Episode 21 is a pretty sad episode (Shizuku: I’ll say, they’re fucking up the story). Esdeath tries one last time to convince Tatsumi to come to her side (join me Tatsumi. Become my pet and sex slave all in one) but Tatsumi says no leaving Esdeath no choice but to execute him out of love. The next day comes and as Tatsumi is about to be executed in front of a live arena audience, Night Raid shows up to save him (all the girls want Tatsumi). Najenda and Susanoo take on Esdeath while Leone and Mine take on Budou. As for Akame, she breaks into Esdeath’s office and retrieves Tatsumi’s Imperial Arm killing anyone who gets in her path (like a boss). Through a very intense fight Mine manages to defeat Budou but at the same time sustains a lot of serious injuries that are life threatening (Seras: Betrayal to the highest degree anime). Things go south for Najenda and Susanoo as well as Najenda is forced to use Susanoo’s last trump card and sacrifice himself in order for the others to escape. Things get even more sad when Tatsumi is carrying Mine back to the hideout only to have her die on the side of the road where she confesses her love for Tatsumi and gives him one final kiss before dying (scene here: //youtu.be/0_AB7hzUers. (Shizuku): YOU’RE KILLING ME ANIME).
Episode 22 is another sad episode. Thanks to Chelsea’s attack on Kurome she doesn’t have much time to live so she wants to settle things with Akame in one last duel (couldn’t we just settle this in smash?) alone. No outside help, no interference, no Night Raid or Jaegers, just two sisters fighting it out to the death and seeing which one is worthy of the title of best assassin (Seras: That’s easy, Ezio. (Shizuku): What! You’re crazy! Everyone knows Altair is the best assassin). The two have their fight at a destroyed church building where the two were reunited after their years of training and where Akame betrayed Kurome and joined Night Raid (alright kind of mix bag of emotions here huh?). The two have their fight where they clash swords, summon the dead (Seras: Can we please stop desecrating the dead?), kill a giant danger beast, and the fight finally comes to an end with Akame winning and killing her own sister (scene here: //youtu.be/whb-AMMPQK0, first she betrays her sister than she kills her. Akame just lives a cursed life).
In episode 23 it’s the final battle where everything is on the line (and we finally see who’s gonna live and who’s gonna die). The Revolutionary army and Night Raid attack the palace while Tatsumi, Leone, and Akame sneak into the palace and try to kill Honset (Seras: Oh I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time). They find Honset and the emperor (which now that I think about it did they ever give us his name? (Shizuku): No. (Nitsuj): I didn’t think so) where the emperor activates the greatest treasure of the Empire, Shikoutazer said to be the strongest and most powerful of the Imperial Arms. Its powers are said to be that of a god and can only be controlled by the royal family of the Empire. The Emperor goes mad and begins attacking the city under the commands of Honset (Shizuku: Dance puppet. Dance for the glory that is Honset) all while fighting Tatsumi and Wave who has come to help Tatsumi after burying Kurome (Seras: Who Wave obviously liked and wanted to bang. (Nitsuj): Yeah I wonder how Akame would respond to that?). Tatsumi discovers the weakness of Shikoutazer and unleashes the full power of Incursio where he Falcon punches the damn thing stopping it and possibly killing the young emperor (a moment of silence for. . .God what was his name again?). As Shikoutazer is falling down (Seras and Shizuku: My fair troll~. (Nitsuj): Shut up) Tatsumi sees that it’s going to fall on a bunch of citizens and sacrifices his body to save them. The episode ends with Tatsumi a bloody mess and dying (scene here: //youtu.be/5ayQXsWt6KE, Esdeath is gonna kill everyone within her sight).
In the final episode Esdeath and Akame have their fight and I have to admit this is the best fight in the entire anime. Two strong and beautiful women going at it with each anticipating the other one’s moves and both playing their trump cards but in the end its Akame who wins (scene here: //youtu.be/K7hU5Po2z_Y). After that battle we see Honset trying to escape but Leone finds him (oh no, you ain’t leaving this anime alive you fat piece of trash). Honset uses his Imperial Arm to destroy Leone’s Imperial Arm returning her to a normal woman and he shoots her a few times but that doesn’t stop Leone who punches him to the ground and pounds his face in killing him (thank you Leone). With Honset and Esdeath defeated and the Emperor captured and executed at the guillotines the revolution is a success and the new regime takes over the city and slowly begins rebuilding. Najenda stays in the city working to rebuild it, Leone unfortunately suffers from the multiple gun shots and dies in an alleyway (Nitsuj, Shizuku, and Seras: FUCK), and Akame takes on the crimes of Night Raid and goes on the run as a fugitive to end the series.
Final Thoughts
(Shizuku): So that was the anime version of Akame ga Kill. How could such a great series with so much potential fall so easily?
(Seras): I don’t know I quite enjoyed the anime. While the ending is bad I don’t think that takes away from the overall enjoyment I got from watching the series. What do you think Nitsu?
(Nitsuj): I’m down the middle. While I can understand why people don’t like this anime because of the way it ends, just like Seras said, it didn’t ruin my overall enjoyment for the series. The anime starts off on an amazing note with Tatsumi not being afraid to kill people he knows are evil and him slowly growing and changing over the course of the series. The second act where we have the fights between Night Raid and the Jeagers was great as we got a lot of great action scenes and got to see both sides suffer losses. It’s only until that third act where things start to go downhill but I really can’t get mad at White Fox for doing what they did. The manga wasn’t completed yet so they had no choice but to make up their own ending. Was it a good ending? No, and even when you compare it to the original ending there are a few events that play out just like the anime but the original ending in the manga is way better and more satisfying than the anime’s ending. So yeah, the anime’s ending is bad it didn’t completely destroy the series for me.
(Shizuku): Okay. I can get behind that boss. But this anime still has a few problems with it. For starters, too much comedic moments if you ask me. While it’s true the manga had its funny moments they didn’t have as many as the anime puts in. I would have liked to see the anime be more dark and less funny especially as it progressed towards the end. The development and interactions of some characters could have been done better. Tatsumi goes through quite the change in the manga. While he develops a little in the anime it pales in comparison to his develop in the manga as he goes from being a kid who has doubts and worries about what he’s doing to a man dedicated to the cause and seeing it through the end no matter what. Also, they make him look kind of weak in the second half for some reason. I also would of liked to learn more about the other members of Jeager such as Run and his past, why Wave is so dedicated to the Empire even though he knows how corrupted and evil it is, and Seryu’s warped viewpoint of justice. It also would have been nice to see more interactions between the teammates of each team.
(Seras): Those problems are big I admit but what the anime gets right it gets right big time. The fights are great. I like how they don’t censor the gore or blood for anyone or anything. The music was enjoyable, the animation is good as the characters really do look life-like and when the anime wants you to feel sad and disheartened about something they make you feel it. The anime may have problems but there’s no doubt that the people working on it liked the series and did their best to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the manga.
Final Score
(Nitsuj): Alright guys it’s time for final score. I’m giving the anime a 6/10. The first two acts were good and the third act sucked but it didn’t ruin the whole anime for me.
(Shizuku): I’m giving the anime a 4.5/10. Terrible third act, bad handling of the characters, and a bit too much comedy at some points in the series drags the anime down for me.
(Seras): I’m giving the anime a 7.5/10. I really did enjoyment up until the final act but I really can’t get too mad at it because they ran out of source material and this was probably the best they could do at the time.
(Nitsuj): With these scattered scores that brings the final score to 18/30 and giving us a 6/10 as the final overall score for Akame ga Kill. The anime is good until those last episodes. It does capture the overall atmosphere of the original manga.
(Shizuku): Which we highly recommend checking out. It just ended not too long ago and I say you skip episodes 20-24 and just pick up the manga. It leads to a better more satisfying ending.
(Seras): Now with that all said and done let’s move on to our next debate, the best assassin in the Assassin’s Creed series.
(Shizuku): We’re still having this debate? I keep telling you it’s Altair.
*Seras and Shizuku begin to argue with each other as Nitsuj slowly gets up and leaves*
(Nitsuj): Looks like this’ll take a while. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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