Post by dravite on Mar 16, 2016 16:01:16 GMT
A topic I wanted to make about another anime I don't think really deserves it's praise, a lot like Sword Art Online and Attack On Titan do. AgaiLazen made a topic like this on Tremorton Boards about Attack on Titan, I figured I'd make one about another anime like this, "Akame Ga Kill."
Not to be confused with Kill La Kill. I'd describe it as like a less-futuristic, magic-themed version of Code Geass, with lots of assassination, conspiracies, corrupt government officials, and more.
I certainly do not think it is a good anime though. Why? A lot of reasons. Few series are perfect, even some of my most favorite shows I admit have some problems, but this does things that are especially repulsive, at least to me.
And I will refrain as much as I can from using reasons linked to it being too bloody for me, or my love of cute things.
Spoiler warning. If you've fallen for the hype like myself but have wisely put off seeing Akame Ga Kill, leave now.
-First of all, the title of the series is really False Advertising, which is a very big problem.
"Akame," isn't the main character, or any one of the main characters at all. Tatsumi is really the central main character of the series. Akame is actually a minor character who does not get very much screentime, as the title would lead you to believe. Why can't you just call it "Tatsumi Ga Kill" then?
I think the only reason the show was named after him is that he's the only character at the end who doesn't end up dying.
-Second, the series has very little consistency and established things are usually tossed aside just to have stuff happen.
One perfect example is this part. Throughout the series, the characters, both good and bad, find and use these Mystic Magical Relics of power called "The Imperial Arms," which they use throughout their adventures. It was established at one point that one person can only use one Imperial Arm at a time, using two or more would kill the user due to too much magic energy overload.
Well then in one episode, Wave wields Two Imperial Arms at the same time, and nothing bad happens to him! Hey, you just established a while ago that THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT!
I'd like to quote some things from TheMysteriousMrEnter's Animated Atrocities reviews to help explain my point. These come from his review on "Fanboy and Chum-Chum: Cold War."
"Look, this isn't some cartoon from the 20s. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW A SET OF RULES!!!
The good news about fictional series is that the rules can be whatever you want. You can have stuff like a Dog with the ability to morph, or a land where flying horses control the weather. But the thing is that you have to Follow The Rules you created for your series, and you can't just change the rules all willy-milly when you think it's convenient for the plot!"
"I would like this Wizard character and say he's one of the best parts of the show, if it weren't for the fact that he is used constantly as an excuse to throw out any and all logic."
(What he meant by that is in the show he reviewed, there was this one character who is a Magical Wizard, and many times stuff happens like characters suddenly being able to do stuff they aren't supposed to be able to do, or things happening that don't even concide with the series's logic, let alone real-world logic, and they just say something like "Oh it's just because of The Wizard, and HE'S MAGICAL!")
"Remedial Writing: Having Magic Users in a show means MORE (Consistent) Rules, not Less!"
-Third, Tatsumi and Wave needed to be more conflicted and tougher in their interactions with their teams.
One of the most massive issues I have with this series, which probably could be considered a personal one but I'll mention anyways, is that Tatsumi and Wave are some of the most spineless characters that I've seen, and they almost never question orders given to them by their colleagues or any decision either.
I'll admit that Tatsumi at least isn't a Mary-Sue like, say Kiroto in Sword Art Online. That's certainly a plus.
Wave though could be a Mary-Sue of sorts, for reasons like I just explained earlier.
-Finally and foremost, is that this series has so many wasted characters. One of my massive peeves with this series is that it literally gives you a whole treasure trove of characters who barely do crap all throughout the series, and yet they're all set up like they will be very important characters who will be reoccuring foes or major protagonists. Too many minor characters who SHOULD HAVE been Major Characters, and too many Major Characters who should've been minor characters.
I'll give a couple examples.
-The Three Beasts, Esdeath's Elite Bodyguards who seemed like they'd be really big reoccuring foes. Set up as dangerous, they're killed like they were no real threat.
-The Four Rakshasa Demons? Like the Three Beasts, they were set up as dangerous, then they all went down way too easily.
-Wild Hunt? Again, set up as dangerous, but then completely forgotten about after Syura died.
-Then the villainous and corrupt Prime Minister Onest, one of the biggest of these moments.
He was set up like he would be the main head honcho, and perhaps the Last Boss of the series, and even lasted lots of episodes. But then Onest, out of the blue, gets assasinated in a hallway by Leone, a random nobody who didn't appear to have anything against him beforehand, and hardly got any screentime earlier.
If he was the main bad guy, he should have had a more epic defeat, a more powerful Imperial Arms, or died facing a smarter or tougher enemy. Tatsumi or General Najenda would have been better choices for the one who killed Onest, but no, have some random guy just kill him right there.
Even the actual Final Showdown, which I won't reveal due to that being too much of a spoiler, was so disappointing and lackluster. I've seen so many better endings, but this just wasn't that good of a Last Boss Fight.
To describe it, I felt like how Saitama from One-Punch Man feels after practically every battle he's been in. It's just so unsatisfying, I want more of "The Exhilaration of a Real Battle!"
These aren't even like Surprising Plot Twists, just random events that happen out of the blue and are so out-of-place and wasted potential. The best way to sum it up is that the series needed LESS deaths. While I appreciate the fact that this series has the guts to kill off characters at any point whatsoever, and make it to a point where no one is safe in a city full of assassination and conspiracy and such, the major issue here is that there are simply far too many character deaths with only a handful being remotely impactful.
I admit that the show started off okay, but then everyone started dying with no rhyme or reason, just like "This person is here, let's kill 'em." In fact, Tatsumi even once said he wished for an Imperial Arms that could bring back the dead, but yet there aren't any like that.
In the end, too many people died for no good reason and it killed the series' enormous potential. It should've been called "Everyone Except Akame Got Killed."
Does anyone else here think the same about Akame Ga Kill?
Not to be confused with Kill La Kill. I'd describe it as like a less-futuristic, magic-themed version of Code Geass, with lots of assassination, conspiracies, corrupt government officials, and more.
I certainly do not think it is a good anime though. Why? A lot of reasons. Few series are perfect, even some of my most favorite shows I admit have some problems, but this does things that are especially repulsive, at least to me.
And I will refrain as much as I can from using reasons linked to it being too bloody for me, or my love of cute things.
Spoiler warning. If you've fallen for the hype like myself but have wisely put off seeing Akame Ga Kill, leave now.
-First of all, the title of the series is really False Advertising, which is a very big problem.
"Akame," isn't the main character, or any one of the main characters at all. Tatsumi is really the central main character of the series. Akame is actually a minor character who does not get very much screentime, as the title would lead you to believe. Why can't you just call it "Tatsumi Ga Kill" then?
I think the only reason the show was named after him is that he's the only character at the end who doesn't end up dying.
-Second, the series has very little consistency and established things are usually tossed aside just to have stuff happen.
One perfect example is this part. Throughout the series, the characters, both good and bad, find and use these Mystic Magical Relics of power called "The Imperial Arms," which they use throughout their adventures. It was established at one point that one person can only use one Imperial Arm at a time, using two or more would kill the user due to too much magic energy overload.
Well then in one episode, Wave wields Two Imperial Arms at the same time, and nothing bad happens to him! Hey, you just established a while ago that THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT!
I'd like to quote some things from TheMysteriousMrEnter's Animated Atrocities reviews to help explain my point. These come from his review on "Fanboy and Chum-Chum: Cold War."
"Look, this isn't some cartoon from the 20s. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW A SET OF RULES!!!
The good news about fictional series is that the rules can be whatever you want. You can have stuff like a Dog with the ability to morph, or a land where flying horses control the weather. But the thing is that you have to Follow The Rules you created for your series, and you can't just change the rules all willy-milly when you think it's convenient for the plot!"
"I would like this Wizard character and say he's one of the best parts of the show, if it weren't for the fact that he is used constantly as an excuse to throw out any and all logic."
(What he meant by that is in the show he reviewed, there was this one character who is a Magical Wizard, and many times stuff happens like characters suddenly being able to do stuff they aren't supposed to be able to do, or things happening that don't even concide with the series's logic, let alone real-world logic, and they just say something like "Oh it's just because of The Wizard, and HE'S MAGICAL!")
"Remedial Writing: Having Magic Users in a show means MORE (Consistent) Rules, not Less!"
-Third, Tatsumi and Wave needed to be more conflicted and tougher in their interactions with their teams.
One of the most massive issues I have with this series, which probably could be considered a personal one but I'll mention anyways, is that Tatsumi and Wave are some of the most spineless characters that I've seen, and they almost never question orders given to them by their colleagues or any decision either.
I'll admit that Tatsumi at least isn't a Mary-Sue like, say Kiroto in Sword Art Online. That's certainly a plus.
Wave though could be a Mary-Sue of sorts, for reasons like I just explained earlier.
-Finally and foremost, is that this series has so many wasted characters. One of my massive peeves with this series is that it literally gives you a whole treasure trove of characters who barely do crap all throughout the series, and yet they're all set up like they will be very important characters who will be reoccuring foes or major protagonists. Too many minor characters who SHOULD HAVE been Major Characters, and too many Major Characters who should've been minor characters.
I'll give a couple examples.
-The Three Beasts, Esdeath's Elite Bodyguards who seemed like they'd be really big reoccuring foes. Set up as dangerous, they're killed like they were no real threat.
-The Four Rakshasa Demons? Like the Three Beasts, they were set up as dangerous, then they all went down way too easily.
-Wild Hunt? Again, set up as dangerous, but then completely forgotten about after Syura died.
-Then the villainous and corrupt Prime Minister Onest, one of the biggest of these moments.
He was set up like he would be the main head honcho, and perhaps the Last Boss of the series, and even lasted lots of episodes. But then Onest, out of the blue, gets assasinated in a hallway by Leone, a random nobody who didn't appear to have anything against him beforehand, and hardly got any screentime earlier.
If he was the main bad guy, he should have had a more epic defeat, a more powerful Imperial Arms, or died facing a smarter or tougher enemy. Tatsumi or General Najenda would have been better choices for the one who killed Onest, but no, have some random guy just kill him right there.
Even the actual Final Showdown, which I won't reveal due to that being too much of a spoiler, was so disappointing and lackluster. I've seen so many better endings, but this just wasn't that good of a Last Boss Fight.
To describe it, I felt like how Saitama from One-Punch Man feels after practically every battle he's been in. It's just so unsatisfying, I want more of "The Exhilaration of a Real Battle!"
These aren't even like Surprising Plot Twists, just random events that happen out of the blue and are so out-of-place and wasted potential. The best way to sum it up is that the series needed LESS deaths. While I appreciate the fact that this series has the guts to kill off characters at any point whatsoever, and make it to a point where no one is safe in a city full of assassination and conspiracy and such, the major issue here is that there are simply far too many character deaths with only a handful being remotely impactful.
I admit that the show started off okay, but then everyone started dying with no rhyme or reason, just like "This person is here, let's kill 'em." In fact, Tatsumi even once said he wished for an Imperial Arms that could bring back the dead, but yet there aren't any like that.
In the end, too many people died for no good reason and it killed the series' enormous potential. It should've been called "Everyone Except Akame Got Killed."
Does anyone else here think the same about Akame Ga Kill?