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Asshole or not? You decide.

Akame ga Kill is finally over. The last two times I talked about it, I projected a +++. Regrettably, it fell short.

Manga Grade: ++

Anime Grade: +

My biggest miscalculation was predicting four years ago that the manga would wrap up in two years. In order to extend a story that kills off all its characters, you have to either add new characters or bring back dead ones (which Naruto proved is a terrible idea). The new round of mid-bosses wasn’t quite filler but certainly didn’t add much. It bogged down the previously excellent pacing and forced some of the characters’ powers to escalate past the point of absurdity.

Aside from the pacing and the powers, the good points of the first half of the manga more or less remained. The mood was dark and the characters died left and right. Some saw this as a gimmick, because they prefer “battles” in shows like Kill la Kill where everyone plays patty-cakes and runs away. In real battles people die. Constantly going into battle and surviving is the real gimmick.

Esdeath, despite being a pedophile herself, was an elite object of the non-pedophilic gaze. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the anime being underwhelming is that there were no (good) doujin of Esdeath at Comiket (and extremely few Akame ga Kill goods in Akihabara in general). In equal parts due to Esdeath being awesome, my advanced age, and having something vaguely resembling a sex life for the first time in my life, I doubt I’ll ever crush this hard on an anime character again.

The manga had really cool art. It’s a bigger reason for my liking the manga that I’d like to admit, but I realized it pretty quickly, and I knew that the anime’s substandard production values would dig it into a hole. I’m not good at quantifying these things, so the best I can say is that the anime didn’t give off the same vibe as the manga. Ultimately, the anime wasn’t bad, but it certainly didn’t do the manga justice.

One question remains. Am I an asshole? On one hand, I recommended an unfinished series at its peak. On the other hand, it didn’t turn out as good as I’d hoped, so the monthly wait caused less pain and suffering than anticipated. Perhaps debating this is my penance.

8 Replies to “Asshole or not? You decide.”

  1. Looking back at the dates, it’s been almost four years ever since I recommended this one to you. Time sure flies by.

    With that said, I’ve ironically never finished the manga. The Wild Hunt arc was not to my liking so I had little issues with the anime skipping that and once the anime was done, I was satisfied with the overall package. The manga kinda following the anime events anyway albeit with some variations hardly convinced me to follow it to its end. For that reason, I’d recommend the anime over the manga any day despite its lacking audiovisual execution (modern Taku Iwasaki simply doesn’t do it, reinforcing my conclusion that C had his best OST). A controversial opinion, no doubt.

    Since you seem to be very fond of stories of people dying left and right in misery, you might want to check out on the Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku anime. Hearsay also has it its source material going past the anime events is quite amazing and you know Japanese anyway (luckily, it’s also getting an English release), so there’s that.

    • I think I soured on the anime after its subpar handling of Tatsumi and Esdeath’s island adventure. I can’t believe that was all the way back in chapters 26-27. There was no good reason for the manga to last 3 times longer. With that said, I assume the Wild Hunt arc works better when marathoned.

  2. Well. If it makes you feel better, you’re an asshole for other reasons, not just for this. Now that we’ve done the obligatory joke, the anime didn’t go exactly the way I thought it would. I was prepared for invincible OP Shounen mains and useless side characters that sit aside and talk about how strong the guy is during the final battle. Also, there’s nothing really wrong with liking/appreciating the artwork and production values of a manga or anime. Rarely do visuals detract much if anything if the story is good enough, and if the story is crappy you can always say something looked pretty. Now, if it was a terrible story with bad art….
    We’ve all gotten quite a bit older. I’m married with a kid, but every now and again, there’s a character that that really resonates. I guess as we get older what defines a “waifu” changes up. Younger years, it was the yandere character because the thought of having someone that devoted appealed to me on some level. Later on, I had a thing for those sloppy professional Christmas cake type ladies. The ones who work hard in the office, go home, get wasted in their clothes strewn apartment and lament the fact that they aren’t wife material anymore because they’re mid-twenties. Now, I lean more toward the put together professional woman and/or gentle maternal types like Akari from 3-gatsu. It is a fine line though; sometimes they are too motherly. Well. didn’t expect to expound upon my ideas of static vs dynamic waifu ideals. Back to the original prompt, yes you are.

  3. You know, I had stopped watching this show around episode 12. The ONLY reason I picked it up again was you. Now not saying it was BAD but it also wasn’t that great either. Oh well I marathoned it over 2 days so there’s that. So not really asshole.

    BTW I’d have to agree with The Waker. Despite being married and with the same person for over a decade, you can still enjoy your anime waifus!

  4. Esdeath is so freakn hot as fuck with tatsumi. Ep.10 where tatsumi was taken to esdeaths Manson and slept together, but tatsumi was forced in the ending of ep9. To me I like esdeath she has a cute face but with a hardcore but a pedo look. Esdeath is in her early 20s while tatsumi is a teen boy.

    • Well the guy who posted this isn’t the Asshole here. IT’S YOU.
      ESDEATH IS SCUM, ESDEATH IS SHIT, ESDEATH Is HYPOCRISY Personified. And all you care to think about is having that fucking overrated retarded piss drinking buttfuck have everything she wants because she’s pretty, or because she’s strong?
      Fuck that, fuck her and fuck you man. Estrash is not cute, Esbitch is not hot, Esdeshit is nothing of the like being anywhere even remotely within the cool genre spectrum. Yet every self ass fucking gutter trash loser assfag on this retarded cesspit of a shithole planet seems to look the other way on that cuntish twat’s horseshit tendencies because they’re all too fucking busy wanking, and fapping and being lesser forms of subhuman anal licking streetgrease to see, Beauty does not Excuse goddamned ATROCITY.
      Or to sum it up for the pea-brained, asinininy, dumb-fucking-shit faggy femboys. Death to ESDESHIT and all her ESDEFAG supporter scumshits. Your all the absolute lowest forms of retarded scat slinging underevolved primatives the world has ever seen.

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