Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Akame ga Kill! Complete Collection (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Anime on Blu-ray review)

If you are looking for a heavy hitting action anime series with the theme of “fighting what you believe in, against all odds”, then “Akame ga Kill!” is recommended!

TITLE: Akame ga Kill! Complete Collection

DURATION: (Episodes 1-24) 600 Minutes

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9), English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATED: TV MA VL

Release Date: December 4, 2018

Originally created by Takahiro, Tashiro Tetsuya

Directed by Kobayashi Tomoki

Series Composition: Uezu Makoto

Character Design by Watanabe Asami, Nakamura Kazuhisa

Music by Iwasaki Taku

Art Design by Takamine Yoshito

Anime Production: C-Station, WHITE FOX

Featuring the following voice talent:

Saito Soma/Corey Hartzog as Tatsumi

Amamiya Sora/Molly Searcy as Akame

Kimura Ryohei/Adam Noble as Syura

Asakawa Yuu/Allison Keith-Shipp as Leone

Matsui Eriko/Carli Mosier as Suzuka

Majima Junji/Chris Patton as Run

Tamura Yukari/Christina Kelly as Mine

Akesaka Satomi/Christine Auten as Esdeath

Katsu Anri/Christopher Ayres as Daidara

Nabatae Hitomi/Clint Bickham as Nyau

Hosoya Yoshimasa/David Matranga as Wave

Konishi Katsuyuki/David Wald as Bulat

Nazuka Kaori/Emily Neves as Chelsea

Narita Ken/Jay Hickman as Dr. Stylish

Noto Mamiko/Jessica Boone as Sheele

Nakata Jouji/John Gremillion as General Liver

Takemoto Eiji/John Swasey as Bols

Goda Hozumi/Josh Morrison as Budo

Ohashi Ayaka/Juliet Simmons as Kurome

Hanazawa Kana/Kira Vincent-Davis as Seryu Ubiquitous

Iwasaki Masami/Mark Mendelsohn as Bolic

Ishii Koji/Marty Fleck as Honest

Tsuruoka Satoshi/Rob Mungle as Zanku

Taichi Yo/Shannon Emerick as Emperor

Mizuno Risa/Shelley Calene-Black as Najenda

Asanuma Shintaro/Ty Mahany as Susanoo

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu/Tyler Galindo as Lubbock

When Tatsumi set off for the Capital, it was with fantasies of earning riches for his poverty-stricken hometown. Instead, his friends were murdered and Tatsumi finds himself at the center of a bloody revolution. With an evil Prime Minister, the Secret Police, and the armies of an Empire on one side, and the elite assassins known as Night Raid and a handful of rebels on the other, it might sound like an impossible battle for Tatsumi’s new allies to win. However the playing field is leveled with the addition of a legendary set of unstoppable weapons, the Imperial Arms. Unfortunately, to use an Imperial Arm is practically a death sentence in itself, for while the Arms are indestructible, few wielders can survive using them for long!

Back in 2010, the manga series “Akame ga Kiru!” was created by Takahiro and illustrated by Tashiro Tetsuya. Originally serialized in Square Enix’s “Gangan Joker”, a total of 15 volumes were created. While a prequel titled “Akame ga Kill! Zero” was released in 2013, followed by “Hinowa ga Crush!” in 2017.

The manga would lead to a 24-episode anime adaptation in 2014 courtesy of White Fox and C-Station and while the story has similarities, due to the anime finishing up before the manga series, a story arc featured in the manga series is not in the anime. And most importantly, the ending between the manga and anime version are completely different.

But all 24-episodes of the anime series has been released on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks.

The series begins with a goodhearted fighter named Tatsumi who went with his two friends left the Capital to assist poverty-stricken villages who were being attacked.

Unfortunately, a bandit attack separated him from his friends and so, he tries to enlist in the army but is unsuccessful. To make things worse, his money is stolen by a woman when he falls asleep in the bar.

But Tatsumi seems to be in good hands when a noble family takes him in. As he, another man and the daughter of the mobile family are making their way to an area near the home, they are attacked by a woman with the sword. While Tatsumi does his best to protect the daughter, the man is killed. It appears that the woman that stole his money is part of the group that attacked them. Are they bandits?

Tatsumi learns that the noble family he is with is responsible for killiing and torturing innocent people. Tatsumi looks to a shed and sees his two friends, one was tortured and the other was tortured and barely alive. He tells Tatsumi the truth of what happened and how they were taken in by a noble family and then tortured and they were going to do the same to him but he is happy one of them lived and then his friend dies. Tatsumi starts to learn of the evil in the nation.

The woman that robbed him named Leone takes Tatsumi along with them after seeing his fighting skills and has him join their assassin group, The Night Raids. While Tatsumi does not want to kill anyone, he learns to train and eventually become a valuable teammate to Akame (a woman who is deadly with her sword); the beast fighter Leone; the sniper tsundere girl Mine; the scissor-wielding Sheele; the deadly string manipulator Lubboc; the armored warrior Buat and their leader Najenda, a former leader of the imperial army.

Night Raid is part of the revolution that is trying to overthrow the prime minister known as Honest who has manipulated the young emperor for personal gain and letting their nation suffer. But just as the Night Raid has elite assassins, the imperial army has elite soldiers led by a sadist general known as Esdeath.

Will Night Raid succeed in their revolution and defeat Honest, Esdeath and her beast soldiers?

VIDEO AND AUDIO:

“Akame ga Kill!” is presented in 1080p High Definition. The anime series is absolutely vibrant with character designs showing great detail and shadows and background art also detailed. I saw no problems with artifacts or banding issues.

The lossless soundtrack is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Voice acting on both the Japanese and English tracks are well-done and the English having more of an edge in terms of soundscape due to the 5.1 soundtrack. But for the most part, both Japanese and English voice acting are well-done.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Akame ga Kill! Complete Collection” comes with the following special features:

AkaKill! Theater
Japanese Promos
Clean Opening and Closing Animations

“Anime ga Kill!” is a very interesting storyline about Night Raid, a group of revolutionary fighters trying to take down an evil empire. And showing the reactions on both sides of the coin, when it comes to loss and tragedy.

When “Akame ga Kill!” was released as an anime series, many people loved the series for its action, violence but its tragic story. Not every anime series should have a happy ending but a logical one and for action film fans who have seen similar storylines, war sucks, there is always tragedy involved but you can only hope for the good team to win.

But one thing that people weren’t sure of, was it the anime series and the manga series would end the same way.

With popular, long lasting series, they can add many filler episodes in order to make sure the storyline compliments the manga series. Or an anime series is given a reboot/remake in which the anime series is closer to the mangaka’s original intention.

With “Akame ga Kill!”, while a lot of the storyline remains intact up to episode 19, because the manga series was ongoing, the writers had to create their own buildup for the final 24th episode.

Not long after the anime series ended, the author supposedly said that the anime ending and the manga ending would be the same, but as years have passed when the manga completed, mangaka Takahiro probably had second thoughts because the manga series ended much differently.

I can say that both have solid endings but one goes the route of pure tragedy (anime) and the other, the manga series with an ending that probably would appease more fans and is not as tragic.

So, it really comes down to viewer or the reader and what kind of outcome you want. Personally, either outcome works for me but it’s all subjective.

Part of the entertaining factor of “Akame ga Kill!” is the characters, especially for the Night Raid side, the character development was done well and you do care for these characters but in the beginning, people may have thought Tatsumi would be the main protagonist, but in essence, it’s the actual team, Night Raid, that the story focuses on.

And to be truthful, the last few episodes featured an ending that I wasn’t expecting to see but I can see where the writer was going with the storyline and that for every revolution, especially in war or battle, not everyone survives.

For the most part, I enjoyed “Akame ga Killl”, even though I know the manga series is different, I felt the anime series was entertaining and certain situations for characters were unexpected and I like that. In fact, similar to how an American comic book series has a different live film or TV adaptation, one can look at “Akame ga Kill!” the same way in that sense. Enjoy both for their story but know that there are going to be differences.

If you are looking for a heavy hitting action anime series with the theme of “fighting what you believe in, against all odds”, then “Akame ga Kill!” is recommended!

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