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After the disappointment of Cyberpunk 2077 on the ps4 the anime gods blessed us with Akudama Drive except they only blessed half of it. Akudama Drive gives us amazing animation with cool visuals pact with great action that does not take ages to develop with a nice and unique story set in dystopian future in Kansai. Even though the story does fall a bit off near the end of the series it didn’t stop me enjoying the first half of the series which is the sole reason why I continued watching the series as a whole. __Plot 7/10__ Akudama Drive is a story about 7 criminals who have sentences of a minimum of 500+ years (basically a life sentence) and they do risky jobs for a large sum of money while being pursued by the police. The show was filled with great and gruesome moments notably in the very first few episodes when they were going to save cutthroat, it was very intriguing to see the main characters mercilessly murder members of the police force with no unnecessary dialog or development needed. The show doesn’t take long to develop and doesn’t keep the viewer at bay and gets straight to the point which I thoroughly enjoy. As a whole, the first half of the series was worth watching and time well wasted as there was a clear development and goal that I wanted to see. however, the same cannot be said for the second half of the series, even though there were clear developments between different characters and the story it was just not progressing the way I hoped it would, the story began to shift from logical and unique standpoints and started to become more like a battle royal with a hint of political rising and mass killings it just didn’t feel right. on top of that, it probably had one of the worst endings I have ever seen in anime a cliché battle against an enemy with zero development. __Characters 6/10__ Not much can be said about the characters in Akudama Drive because, one the story just went completely south in the latter half of the series and two only a handful of character development really mattered mainly because most of them ended up dead or were missing in action, but the ones that were developed were alright at best, the main character at first was seen as a completely innocent normal human being who has never committed a crime before, however as time went on spending time with criminals and building connections with different characters we saw a change in character and transition from being this innocent human being to becoming a killer who would save their friends when needed to, the writer made it clear that there was this shift in character and personality when he made the main character cut her hair which symbolised a new birth of character. In total it was Pretty generic but that’s pretty much the only character development we really got. __Art/Animation 8/10__ Akudama Drive brings a Danganronpa theme art style which I see as very unique and pleasant to watch, the art style gave a futuristic look while making scenes that emphasises poor neighbourhoods truly show the struggle some characters face, furthermore the animation was suburb, the fight scenes, the killings, the movement was all smooth with its own unique style, one scene that truly fascinated me was the very first fight between the executioners and Akudama even though there could have been some minor fixtures the fight scenes was amazing, packed with great choreographs fights that flowed amazingly well. Lastly the colours, one thing that Akudama Drive does well is using a mixture of dark and bright colours to make scenes better to watch, it also plays a great part in showing futuristic cities and gives an accurate view of how it might look. img(https://media1.tenor.com/images/4be941fec304dabcdc73356d930075e8/tenor.gif?itemid=18837874) __Music 7/10__ The ending and opening were great. They fitted with the style and plot of this show and what I mean by this is the sounds and instruments fitted the sci-fi/futuristic genre they were trying to express, the visuals in the opening and ending were beautifully fused with light and dark colours which amazed me as its rare to see animes with great visual openings and endings. Not much can be said about the ost mainly because the action overshadowed it but as a whole, it was pretty bland and generic. __Enjoyment 6.5/10__ Well, where do I begin. The show had a lot of potential with a good story pact with amazing visuals however as the episodes went on and the story started to go south my enjoyment started to decrease, it became very difficult to watch the latter half of the series as I just couldn’t see how the story was going to pan out it, fused with bland and generic storylines it just became increasingly difficult to watch, therefore I decided to give a 6.5 mainly because the first half carried the show for me without the first half my enjoyment levels would have probably been a solid 4. __Overall 7/10__ Overall This show was alright but it did begin to fall off near the end of the series, the plot was unique and was filled with beautiful art pact with great action fight scenes that was starting to form a great series, the latter half of the series well it did start to fall off a bit which did tarnish this series as a whole but the first half was enough for this show to be a 7. If this was a two cour or more the way this series was going it could have easily become a solid 5 or 4 but luckily this was only a one cour series. All in all, I would recommend people to watch this show however only up to episode 8 as that is where the series begins to fall off. As always thank you for reading make sure to check out my other reviews on Haikyu. If you want to talk about anime/manga or want to debate about the scoring that I gave in some of my reviews feel free to add me on Anilist or Discord. Discord: __Chungu5#1753__ img(https://i.imgur.com/56ReevR.gif?noredirect)

CeeJayz

Akudama Drive is a dystopian, cyberpunk rollercoaster ride of hype, excitement, and edginess that raises its stakes every episode that either adds to the enjoyment or irritation while watching, depending on what kind of entertainment viewers enjoy the most. Don’t expect a drama story that sticks with you because of how it deeply impacted your emotions, because the story in this anime is fairly straight-forward. It’s basically what a cyberpunk version of Suicide Squad is, except if Suicide Squad itself was actually a good movie in the first place. You get a bunch of criminals, make them a team whether they like it or not, and assign them a mission that can only be done as a team, forcing them to cooperate with each other through their unique special set of skills. Where this anime kind of diverts from Suicide Squad is with the main character, Swindler, an innocent bystander who is forced to join the team of criminals called the “Akudama.” Along the way, we get to see twists and turns, crazy fights, and high-octane action that is surprisingly decently written for the most part but kind of falls a little when approaching the end, which could be expected from a series that already has a chaotic premise and of course, its crazy cast of characters. It is near impossible to talk about this series without talking about its main “driving” point: its characters. If you’re here to expect relatable characters that undergo dramatic character development that turns their lives around, then you, the viewer, might as well be the one to turn around and stay away as you’re not going to find that much substance with the characters here in this anime, as most of the time, they are just characters that start off as one or two-dimensional shells that are unlikeable, which I find to be a double-edged sword in this case. On one hand, they do develop overtime, but not as deep as you might expect. On the other hand, their characters at times kind of feel lacking by the time they get the spotlight in specific episodes. Regarding the villains, they are also just doing “bad guys doing bad guy things” for the most part, except for some that do get some characterization to at least make them stand out. In short, the characters are exactly what you might expect from a series as chaotic as this, which can simultaneously be a good thing and a bad thing. While the anime’s characters certainly aren’t all that amazing, I couldn’t say the same for its art. Studio Pierrot, good job on you, as this anime really does capture the vibe of what a cyberpunk dystopia is. Its character design and animation is phenomenal and I feel that Studio Pierrot really outdone themselves with this anime, which makes me ask how do they pull this off while juggling two long-running series at the same time. Its music also does its job well as it helps set up the “aesthetically brutal” world that the characters are in. I’d say the production in this anime is pretty great and if the aim was to create this feeling of a dark, technology-driven world, they certainly pulled it off well. In summary, Akudama Drive is surprisingly good for its premise that I would consider to be risky, but it certainly delivered on its strong points while still having flaws that don’t really affect the overall enjoyment of the show. If you want a “turn off your brain while watching (for the most part)” kind of anime, this is definitely it. Otherwise, just skip it. (7.5/10)

SunlitSonata

When you’ve been in the anime community for long enough, you’ve likely noted the recurrent presence of “edgy anime.” Taking advantage of anime having less restrictions than western animation, there are a couple givens with these shows; a focus on dark lighting with the color red, loads of gratuitous sex/violence, characters constantly mugging the camera for their craziest face, trying desperately to suggest characters have depth by adding a surplus of angst and for bonus points, massive tonal swerves from gritty violent action to happy wacky comedy. All with a lack of tact and putting this shock value before the characters and the message. You’ve probably seen at least one show that’s fallen into some of these traps: Elfen Lied, Gantz, Deadman Wonderland, Another, Mirai Nikki, Akame ga Kill, most of Tokyo Ghoul’s anime, Akuma no Riddle, Ousama Game, Magical Girl Site, the list goes on. However, with every rule, there proves exceptions that can somehow make all of those elements work rather than have them sink the show’s integrity/intentional entertainment, and for the most part, Akudama Drive fits that exception. In a dystopian future, Akudama Drive bases itself around some kind of “suicide squad”: outlaws pilfering from the dystopia. As the show goes on, you’ll get to see numerous exciting action cuts, plot twists up the wazoo, lip service to its filmic influences and moments of meaningful character interspersed between the crazy plot. Now, if you were to look at the show from an overly critical lens who nitpicks every little detail (ex. ThatAnimeSnob, CinemaSins) you probably won’t enjoy it. There’s plenty of logical leaping and moments that put emotion before logic, but there’s still very contained pacing to its bombast. When watching Akudama Drive, I felt like it was designed specifically to be the length that it was as an original story. When need be, it’s brought forth by anarchic energy, via bikes defying the laws of physics or Doctor having instant healing capabilities that just aren’t there in real life. The show’s open mystery setups provide easy holes to enable more plot twists, whether from the conceit of the heists themselves, the Executioner’s purpose for hunting the Akudama in the first place or the puzzle of the show’s entire setting. The fact that these twists are presented with the gravitas they are is part of the appeal on a week by week basis. Understanding what the show is trying to be, rather than what ultimately inconsequential detail it missed in one scene, I think is the bigger picture. I mentioned before how it, for the most part, works to defy a lot of the pitfalls other “edgy” anime have fallen into, and it’s very much stunning the audience with the power it has in surfing those tidal waves. The amount of time to wallow in angst is limited and the post-punk style shines through all the way. Obviously, its dystopia isn’t developed to the extent of say, Psycho-Pass, but that just makes it more natural when things go hog wild. What really helps the show as it goes on is how incredibly self-conscious every character is. Kodaka’s work on Danganronpa proved he could be adept at creating characters with instantaneously recognizable designs and personality traits, and that carries through here as Rui Komatsuzaki’s designs translated to animation. Each one has a very distinctive look that gets their outlook with high expression values. From Doctor’s more slit eyes in conjunction with her lipstick and colored hair, to Brawler’s combo of dreads and vests, Cutthroat’s almost ghostly appearance clad in white, or the ever expressive big eyes of Swindler, there’s a lot to glean from an artistic standpoint to make each character stand out. But that self-consciousness for the most part carries to individual writing in the same way. Courier’s on the job mentality remains consistent throughout the whole series as a reflection of how he views the world against the absurdity of his bike, and Hoodlum’s intention to constantly play himself up with the Joker color scheme follows through with his character from beginning to end. Every character is as they are, so it doesn’t feel like depth or comedic asides are obfuscated; they're inherent. The divide between characters that have these insane superpowers and those that lack them is also capitalized on, much to my surprise. Swindler, Hoodlum and Apprentice are barely pieces in a world that moves along without them, and the show realizes that when sprouting its arcs for them while it progresses. Now, this isn’t to say this always works. Cutthroat’s relatively simple masochistic killer schtick works out when he’s paired up with equally big-headed figures, but when he’s isolated in Episode 9, it’s the closest the show ever comes to wiping out on the edge wave in punctuating the shock factor. The last two episodes do stress it a bit with the metaphors it wants to get across in a way that might seem weirdly out of place for the rest of the show’s tone, but ultimately I think its writing works out to its reason. The ultimate fates of the earnestly portrayed characters, the insane pacing and keeping the ball rolling with its plot make it rarely boring moment to moment. I wouldn’t say the insane thinktrain ever hits Baccano’s levels of intricate thought, but it’s damn solid attempt to make a 4-and-a-half-hour blockbuster narrative. The ease of immersion, constant momentum, and the impressive spectacle would help make the experience, even (or perhaps especially) for someone who may be tired of other anime and their meandering pacing problems. Although there is a noticeable dip as the show nears its conclusion, for the most part the show’s presentation is to its benefit, which enhances the hype factor. Rarely will scenes be content with flat lighting. Ambient lighting is constant, really making the look pop compared to other anime of its ilk; particular in episodes 1, 4, 6 and 12. Even with how the distinctive color choices enhance the designs of the characters, it’s able to make the environmental lighting give scenes that extra sense of pop-rock. This does mean though that episodes like 3 and 10 with their lighter environments tend to show the weaknesses of duller lighting and CGI pedestrians in different scenes, and the TV censoring can’t show all of the violence in full display. There might be some ruminations on the nature of violence, but you won’t see it stop for the “cursed” cycle of revenge; it’s in service of that “go, go GO” manic energy. But on a more positive note, the animation also borrows some techniques from the Danganronpa games to strongly distinctive effect, like the puppet skits to break up the action, and the way its locations are constituted as play sets for scene transitions. It helps make the compositions more artfully crafted than they might have been otherwise and helps establish trademarks of the style, which were ironically mostly absent in Danganronpa’s anime themselves. That playful, toybox feel to the plotting and structure is constituted with these particular transitions, as enhancements of the overall vision. “Vision” is what I see in Akudama Drive; a “drive” to perpetuate hype cycles through its wildly self-conscious characters and insane yarn of plot. Its brief 12-episode length helps to alleviate potential tiredness of the style, while its art design and characterization create a strongly distinct feel to spot it within a crowd. Akudama Drive isn’t a show that’ll blow you away with its characterization or satisfy the logical brain of putting everything together in insane theory charts. But it will present the type of exploitation and temptation-fueled balance of style and substance you won’t get outside the medium, and on that level, I can say, you done good.

CodeBlazeFate

Story time. Redline, 2009. Takeshi Koike and his team spent 7 arduous years at Studio Madhouse to produce one of the most adrenaline-fueled, well-animated films in all of anime. It bombed hard to the point where almost no film production has gone down this path since. It may go down as a cult classic a decade later, but at the turn of the decade, it was a miserable flop. Keijo, 2016. Hideya Takahashi noticed a ridiculous sports manga about bodacious babes bumping boobs and buts off of water balconies. He and his team at Xebec took that fun action comedy romp and made it one of the biggest meme titles of 2016. It doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves, and the production values aren’t that great for TV anime standards, but it is a noteworthy title. Finally, Akudama Drive, 2020. Tomohisa Taguchi and his team at Studio Pierrot got drugged up on Hotline Miami and cyberpunk aesthetics before deciding to make a show about it. This is probably not how it happened, but simply saying “individuals with talent and creativity had a wacky idea they wanted to run with” is a reality too boring for a show such as this. It’s sheer balls to the wall glory. For the most part, it’s exactly what action anime has largely neglected to be. Can you guess what the term is? Do you know what anime has been missing for a while? Straightforward entertainment. Action anime is so focused on gimmicks and drama. A lot of the time, these productions would be so much better if they focused on being either over the top or otherwise just focusing on entertainment value to maximize their potential and aesthetics. There’s a reason Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure became a hit long before the nature of its ambition incorporated particularly dramatic storytelling. There’s a reason the Slime isekai is a lot more well-regarded than most of its peers. Hellsing Ultimate is mainstream for this as well. Prioritizing fun and aesthetics above all else has become criminally undervalued. This is where Akudama comes in, barreling through horde after horde of anime in post-apocalyptic 2020 with the biggest, stupidest grin on its face. Its characters are about as outlandish and simple, forcing their bombastic nature and chemistry to carry their weight. Otherwise one-dimensional characters such as the meathead Brawler or the red and blood-obsessed psychopath, Cutthroat, remain entertaining as a result of this chemistry and how their gimmicks are handled. Even the least asinine members of the group, such as the Ordinary Person and the Hoodlum, have enough comedic value in their interactions to fake their way in and react in perhaps even more over the top ways to the situations than everyone else. Even then, each of these weirdos has little personality quirks to help them all stand out amongst each other and butt heads on a consistent basis. There’s enough vibrancy to the characters to sell the insane nature of events in the show, perfectly complimenting the show’s wonderful presentation. Tomohisa Taguchi and his team must have had an absolute blast during this production. The vibrant cyberpunk aesthetic is stark, with tons of atmospheric lighting all around and combinations of red and blue being used to their fullest. The transitions are also hilarious, with environments shoving themselves into the screen. Perhaps the most hilarious scene transition is in episode 2, where after everyone is about to crash as Ordinary Person and Hoodlum are screaming, we fade to black and cut to an exposition dump on the setting of Kansai, which is presented by animals drawn on paper and held up by sticks. The show truly gives all and no fucks at once if it’s willing to present exposition this way. It helps that the show also has several gorgeous shots in both the calmer and more hectic moments. As for the character designs, they are both somewhat simple and somewhat busy, and are rendered in an interesting, slightly more realistic art style. The hair and especially eye detail is constantly on display, even when the action ramps up. The fight scenes are fluid and exciting, especially when the lighting changes to ramp up the intensity of the fights. There’s a sense of weight to each impact, and characters can get tossed around like ragdolls. This is, sadly, where some mechanical CGI comes into the picture and that doesn’t look great. There are also a few moments of reused animation and slideshows. However, when the action is this good and the collateral damage and laser beam effects are this wonderful, a few blemishes won’t hurt. We are dealing with some of the best digital particle effects usage in recent anime, after all. It’s just a shame that some of it gets censored since there are several drop-dead gorgeous sequences that further elevate this show to one of the most well-animated TV productions of the year. As for the soundtrack, it’s solid. There’s a mix of electronica, jazz, and more that get utilized effectively. Only a few tracks stand out, such as the menacing techno track that has so far been labeled as Cutthroat’s theme, and the piece that plays during the final fight between Brawler and the Master Executioner in episode 6. Regardless, they’re all still fine as they complement the show well enough, and more interesting pieces reveal themselves over time. There’s also an OP and ED but let’s not get into them, regardless of if they fit the show. As for the show and how it’s written, Akudama Drive is stupid. It’s over the top with characters uppercutting people with bikes, shielding themselves from radiation of some sort with weird unexplained tech shields, and characters crashing through walls all the time. Sometimes the show does take a breather to explore characters like Ordinary Person and Hacker a bit more or to even just take in the gorgeous atmosphere. It can even be surprisingly sweet at times. However, not only does the show earn it with its likable cast, we’re more often barreling through corpses than sitting down to eat, if that makes sense. The show’s asinine nature does somewhat come at a cost with unexplained things like Cutthroat surviving being thrown off a hotel or their employers playing flutes that provide unexplained barriers to keep them alive. Everyone has something for every situation, convenient or no, though rarely does the show become obnoxiously or detrimentally contrived. There are other issues. While the main method of exposition is cute, it does become repetitive after a while. It also comes after some inopportune times, such as after the blistering and emotional climax of episode 6. More importantly, the narrative and interesting world-building become more of a focus in the second half. Some of the reveals are just downright braindead, like the reveal of the fate of the moon in episode 7. The show also takes itself more seriously, and while it’s earned, that does make it harder for the show to maintain the bombastic edge that made it stand out in the first place. It also makes it harder to excuse some of the ridiculous reveals or moments where characters survived deaths they should not have. It’s not a complete trainwreck in the second half, as there are still some solid emotional moments. There are brilliant bits and pieces such as the comedic exposition broadcast being hijacked in episode 9, only for it to turn out that hijacking the airwaves during a time of Akudama-induced panic was a horrible idea. However, the show never completely recovers from the awkward, sometimes gaudy and nonsensical stumbling blocks of episodes 7-9. It’s fun seeing the character flaws of the Akudama start to erode the group, just as it’s fun to see the dystopia’s authoritarianism go absolutely haywire. However, the direction the show goes in never reaches the peaks the simpler first half did. Simple, straightforward fun is what Akudama promised. The first half of the show is what more anime should aspire to be, with its lively presentation and bombastic cast of characters. Unfortunately, it seems Akudama Drive was just a bit more ambitious than that, just as a lot of anime are. Ambition isn’t everything, and sometimes just being earnest and having the drive to be fun more than anything else is what we need. There will always be a place for drama, relaxation, and even titillation. Anime is a diverse market. However, whether it be in the form of spectacle or whimsey, the simple need to be fun is still important. It will always be welcome. This is an entertainment medium, after all.

Jamiebreeze

Akudama Drive is set in a futuristic city, in which there are criminals called akudama and the people who catch them are called executioners. It begins with our main character , Swindler, accidentally being thrown in with real akudama and having to work with them in order to fulfill the tasks given by a robotic cat. The story seemed straightforward, but somewhere in the middle it became a mediocre drama that occasionally had some good moments but the buildup was weak, and the backstory of the characters that were the "plot twist" was nothing impressive. The script had many cringe lines that could have been taken out of a telenovela. All the characters in the anime have no names, meaning they will probably be expendable, and for the most part that is the case. There is no need to be worried or care about most of the main cast since they will begin dropping like flies as the episodes go on. I have no issue with characters dying, but usually, especially if they are in the main cast, I expect good enough reasons as to why they passed away, or I expect their death to have an impact on someone else. We did get two deaths that filled this, but the two we got at the end felt like two much and it is beyond me why you would choose to kill off the other two decent characters you had, and then not show us if what they gave their life up for actually happened. The problems in their world are not touched upon as much as they should and come out of nowhere, and the conflicts and ideals of the characters are not pushed as far as they could have. It is crazy that the characters have the most characterization in the visuals that we get for the ending theme than in the whole anime. Their backstories are never revealed, including the main character, and whatever little character development we get is not great. Swindler started as a goody-two-shoes main character, and in the end, she is still a goody-two-shoes, but now she has murdered people (although she murdered guys who were human trafficking so they deserved it.), and she is so badass she can have her leg broken and not be in intense pain. Her development felt rushed but it made sense given what she went through so I can let it slide. She is still one of the good female characters we got in this season. The worst was probably the dialogue she had in episode 11 when she was trying to save the kids from having Kanto absorbed in them. It was just corny. That episode was bad in many ways too, since not only did another character just die for plot convenience, but the animation was lazy and the episode as a whole lacked emotional impact. The rest of the main cast is pretty normal and there aren't any qualities that you will remember them for in the long run. The senior executioner that died along with Brawler had the potential to be a great character but the show killed him off and made it seem like he was a character similar to Brawler. Maybe I misread or didn't pay enough attention, but when did the show ever bother to show us that the executioner was a person who loved battle so much that he would love to die fighting? we knew Brawler was all about fighting since episode 1 so that one I can understand, but all we ever saw the executioner do was try to do his job so killing him off in this way made no sense. The episode where both of them died had emotion and some beautiful images as well as colors but still. The reveal that the Doctor was this big bad who wanted to control death felt forced, Hoodlum sleeping with her did nothing for the plot, and well that's about it. All I'm going to mention about Cutthroat is that I am glad they left him as a cold-blooded murderer because he would have been ruined if they had tried to make him change. Courier is the typical bad boy who deep down cares but he is still just okay. Near the end, we got to see a bit of his backstory but the show didn't tell us who the person he was with was, so it added nothing to his character and it could have been removed to add something better. The character designs of everyone are modern and fit the vibe of the city. It is such a shame that we get good designs and no personality. I am surprised that this is a show by Studio Pierrot. It was consistent for the most part and even had some good animation cuts here and there. The colors are very vivid and the backgrounds look stunning. The music choice for the opening is hideous in my opinion, but the visuals used for it fit the song and were interesting to look at. The ending theme is beautiful in both song choice and visuals. The art style is also nice to look at. The use of CGI is not overdone and blends decently with the rest of the show. The fighting choreography is fine, but some of the movements, particularly in episode 2, look robotic and not like how a human would move. The ending is probably the worst about this show. The last two characters remaining of the main cast were Courier and Swindler, and ok their death makes sense when you know they wanted to get the kids to "safety". Their deaths had an impact, hell I even cried, but we are not shown if the kids made it to a safe place, because the show ends with them going off into the light. We just saw two characters give their life for these kids to escape, and you don't even show us if they were able to do so? will they even be fine at all? it is anticlimactic and just left a bad taste in my mouth. For people who are into action and don't care much about character development, and an enthralling plot, this is a show you will probably enjoy. The characters look cool, the action scenes look decent, and it is a good enough show to watch when you have nothing else to do.

Maxfire

Akudama drive is simply a masterpiece. Akudama drive was an anime that came out in a time where many people did not know what they were going to do, their livelihoods had been taken and family members lost. Akudama drive fixes none of this however it brought many people who watched it joy through the time it was running. Akudama drive seamlessly ties together cyberpunk fantasy, action, and heart-throbbing moments that touched us all. The main character is sagishi (swindler). It's a very minor spoiler however swindler gets her name from her first crime put into the akudama database (buying a food product but not paying with the stolen yen she had). Swindler for many people is not the favorite character however the contrast between her and the group of akudama she ends up working with is vast. We are directly shown throughout the series how swindler slowly turns from being a regular girl to becoming a true super S rank akudama. The story takes place in two main regions, Kansai and Kanto. For most of the story, our main and side characters are in Kansai however towards the end of the story they journey to Kanto. We are thoroughly explained through short bursts of dialogue in the story (the short clips of the cartoon shark and rabbit) that Kanto is widely seen to the general masses as a higher power of which reigns over the region of Kansai. Without any spoilers, we learn later in the story that Kanto is widely not all that it's cracked up to be (ahem). One of the most wonderful parts of akudama drive is the world and setting. The world the story takes place in is heavily fleshed out and though the exposition we receive from the shark and rabbit clips can be detrimental to the action-heavy plot for some people, I personally believe that having the main exposition in short bursts was better for people who may not have been paying as close attention. This is my opinion and if you believe that the shark and rabbit clips were detrimental to the overall vibe the show gave off, I can totally understand your point and perspective. In almost every scene we can see you can see the heavily cyberpunked' world. From neon colors to cybernetic arms the world pulls out all the stops to make sure the viewer is heavily engaged in the world they're watching. (minor) The way we meet all our characters makes the first episode one of my favorites throughout the entire show. We meet all the characters doing their respective poison, all receiving a message from an unknown source giving them a job paying out mass amounts of cash. However, the thing I thoroughly enjoyed in these meetings was seeing each character "calling card" This calling card featured the character in a near perfect art style for the theme of the show. The calling card featured the exact amount of information it should have, showing the person's "calling" I.E. swindler, brawler, courier ETC. These cards didn't talk your ear off nor be there for no reason either. The last thing I will be talking about is the emotions portrayed in the show and how wonderfully they were done considering this is mainly a show about super-criminals and heists. The emotions we see from each character are extremely raw and from both standpoints of the villain and victim, you can see their respective ideologies and understand both sides making it extremely painful for the viewer to see the two tear into each other while the heavy rain pours down upon them(if you've seen the show you should know exactly what fight I'm talking about). Throughout most of the story, we see a desperate girls' attempts to try and protect two children who are caught up in a scheme more than we could ever imagine at the start of the show. We see the raw emotions as she gives her all to protecting these children and throughout the show, we see just how much she sacrifices just to let these two have a happy ending. I am not going to talk about the ending of the show because it makes me wanna tear up all over again--. But just know that the show handles this ending thoroughly well and will leave you heartbroken for the ones lost along the way but hopeful for a better future. (extra notes) CAN WE JUST SAY HOW AMAZING THE SOUNDTRACK WAS? Like that soundtrack went hard especially in moments of tense struggles between characters in the show. And my personal best boy (courier) swinging around the city on his spooder man bike was just glorious to the eyes. In conclusion... I want that spooder bike with a stupid op railgun attached to it for my birthday, "he's making a list he's checkin it twice, he's gonna know if you got that spooder bike".

xlilblu

# I definitely enjoyed it overall, I would absolutely rate a 9 out of 10. My reasons behind this are: *** Art Style: **10/10**, gave me a very cyberpunk feel and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Definitely very pleasing to my eyes. Music: **9/10**, there are a handful of good songs in this anime, some were questionable. But the music was very diverse, you had jazz, electronica, rock, it was a beautiful blend. Only a couple just stuck out as "not fitting" to me. Animations/Cinematics: **8.5/10**, watching the first fight reminded me a lot of GOH in a way, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was very beautiful and the way how the cinematics are, it's very appealing to the eye. My only complaint is that it did feel a little *forced*. It felt as if they were trying to mimic GOH in a way, but that changed as the season went on. They developed more of their own style as time went on. Character Development: **10/10**, I was very pleased with the last episode, considering how much everyone had developed (keeping it broad to avoid spoilers) Plot: **10/10** to a degree, I will say it truly did keep me engaged. While I am someone who has a hard time focusing on an anime if I'm not engaged, I tend to get distracted doing other things-- With this one I didn't get distracted with other things and I did thoroughly enjoy this anime. Not a single episode had me looking at my phone, this is big for me. Pacing: **10/10** , Like said above: I did thoroughly enjoy the pacing and it was kept up to pace with me. Character Background: **8/10**, this is where the score drops to a 9. I really wanted to know more about more of the characters, even if they were temporary or a side character. It didn't quite feel complete, but maybe I am just a little too picky. *** You'll find yourself starting to feel emotions for the characters you once found annoying, or just simply didn't like. You'll hop back and forth between who's your favorite. Every episode is a new cliffhanger, and it's definitely bingeworthy. I fell in love with this show and I am going to watch again in the future. Personally, I didn't think I was going to like it from the people talking about it when it first started airing-- but I tell you what. This anime has a phenomenal soundtrack, beautiful scenes (truly beautiful art style), great plot, and astounding character development. *** If you're stumbling upon this because you found it appealing, I can almost assure you that if you're anything like me and enjoy fast paced anime with good character development, I promise you'll enjoy this. There is one character that I could not stand the entire time, and I do believe that is dire for an anime. *** # I've seen lots of mixed reviews on the show, some say it landed flat on it's face, some say it's a masterpiece. If you feel like you would enjoy the anime, I suggest watching it. You'll never know for yourself, until you watch it. Either you love it, or you hate it-- and that's okay. Give it a shot if you're debating it!

shirogain

this is the ONLY ANIME after 7 years of watching (cuz i am very picky at watching anime thats why only 117 ig animes completed even after 7 years) i gave it a full 10/10 on every anime rating platform possible. A 500 yen coin can lead you to soo much mess and can even change your life. who was bad?...who was good? who was in the worng side? who betrayed and why? everyone has different perspective on the world and they tried to achive. this anime as an original production did the best, those motherfuckers at studio perriot did thier best after getting shit-tons of money from Naruto,Black Clover,Tokyo Ghoul and made this best animated masterpiece. dont get me wrong fighting makes me turn on but also i am not that type of guy who will give god of highschool a 10 just cuz it has good fights fuck that shit. Akudama Drive has good story line and with the story line to be compatible with the anime the locations, the time is all set up. ofc you dont want the same story to be situated in the medieval ages do you? the charterer development on this show is nice too and it relates to most of the story of those 5 characters and their past and shit idk. but it relates to it. This anime may inspire you at some point that some people even die when they want to achieve something from thier heart or they want to prove it that they can do something for themselves or to others. The voice acting was on point specially the girl dik her anime name but voiced by tomoyo kurosawa is the best, she can increase and decrease her tones so perfectly with that character and it binds so well. and the anime is full with edgelords ofc if u dont like it then i guess u will give this anime a 3/10 thats what i thought to give it after watching the 1st episode. FULL MOTHERFUCKING ACTION WITH FULL GAS, NO BRAKES , enough to make a 13 yr old or me turn on with a high amount of gore.. and yeah speaking of gore the amount of censorship they did was good enough with the amount of blood and gore they did on this show. THE ANIMATION is the main reason people are attracted to it in the first place, in a city like CYBERPUNK 2077 with a concept like that, and ofc u dont want queen bee to make this anime right OwO. SOUNDTRACK is good not the best but its still good. at somepoint the soundtrack doesnt match with the secnes and someshit but that can be easily ignored, i mean yeah it can be. MAIN REASONS TO WATCH THIS ANIME? -made by studio perriot (yes u mfs its the same studio from naruto u fucking sakuratards) -nice animation -edgy charceters or i can say edgelords -feast to the eyes -nice ending ~!-charecters die!~ so overall. sound tracks- 7/10 story - 7/10 animations - 10/10 characters - 8/10 enjoyment - 10/10 idk about you but i like this anime.

OhWowzers

Review #3 - Akudama Drive Winter 2020 anime, Akudama Drive, is an anime that's pretty self-aware of how crazy it is. I was pretty interested in watching this show because the cyberpunk genre has been a minor theme of 2020 entertainment wise, with Cyberpunk 2077 being talked about a lot for the past year, and then released later in the year. The anime starts off pretty quickly with intense action, and introducing characters and see how insane they are. When they are introducing the characters though, they only show you what their personalities are like and the special abilities they have, but they don't really share their backstories except for maybe one, but that's later in the season. img500(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzczZTQwMTItNjlkNy00MDcxLTk1ZTctODIxOTRjOTFiOTM1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODMyNTM0MjM@._V1_.jpg) So the story, the story is pretty comprehensible to see where its going to go. When they started introducing each character, I could already tell that they at least might be teaming up together in the show or something. I could also already tell that with all these different personalities, they might not all like each other that much. Story takes place in futuristic Japan, in the dystopian city of Tokyo, filled with criminal activity. The most wanted criminals that are the most dangerous are called the Akudama, which is what are main characters are labeled as. So again, the story starts off pretty quickly, and even though they do introduce the characters, the way that they did it, it's enough for me to be attached to them. I mean, do I like them?....yeah some of them, but not enough to the point where I would be sad if any of them died. I don't know their history well enough and the story is basically all gas no breaks that its hard to care about them emotionally. The pacing is one of the shows problems for me. I already mentioned one of the reasons why, but the other reason is because I just feel like the show is trying to hard to become interesting. Sometimes, a lot of BS scenarios/twists are thrown at you story wise. I feel like too much is going on in just 12 episodes. Not only that, but some things also happen that makes me say "how the hell did that happen." For example, there are a couple times where maybe a character gets caught in a giant explosion and somehow survives it. Not only that, but their were sometimes things that were left unexplained, like their is a character who is immortal and I question how. I know he was tested and was like, some project, but I need to know more than just that. I also question the characters and their decision making, like in the first episode, we have a character chasing a cat end up in the road, and nearly gets run over as the character doesn't look to see if there are cars coming. This person is like 20 btw, and is acting this dumb, and is also the most sane character in the show. The second half of the show is kind of a mess. The story takes a completely different direction in a split of a second it feels like. Not much is happening in this second half, just characters running around trying to protect themselves. Characters are randomly against each other. Pretty much, the second half of the show is some fights and again, characters trying to protect themselves and find peace. The story becomes too simple at this point, but the show has too lay down more BS to keep the show entertaining, but it just makes the show feel cluttered. Like I'm sure you would see an explosion are some craziness happen like every 2-3 minutes, barely enough room to catch a break. The ending of the show is somewhat satisfying I guess, but with at least a few more explosions added of course, but at least it has an ending and feels complete, I guess even while I have some unanswered questions. My favorite characters from this show would be either Courier or Doctor. I like courier because I like his idgaf attitude, he is also the only character that we do learn a bit of backstory from so you know why he acts a certain way or does certain things. Doctor is an interesting character because she actually has a decent motive for doing things. She has a calm but snappy type personality which I like. I just wish he had a bit more from her because of how cool i thought she was and her goal was pretty interesting. ~!We didn't get to see more of her because, obviously she died, we had to focus on the other characters more because they felt more important. I was pretty unhappy with how she died tbh, because what basically killed her was another BS scenery of random people storming making her distracted and then she's stabbed and trampled on.!~ My least favorite character has to be cutthroat. I thought he was annoying and too stupidly edgy. Idk why cutthroat was a fan favorite in this show, all he does is act crazy over blood, constantly screams the word 'red', and has crazy expressions over things. I think fans who like cutthroat more than any of the other characters listen to Pierce the Veil or maybe Of Mice and Men or some other out of date emo band. The art/animation stand out a lot. It's very pretty to look at, and the animation feels crisp especially during the fight scenes. The fight scenes are very entertaining to watch. Even though I feel like there are too many fights going on, at least its cool to watch. The character designs are dope. The characters have those dangonronpa style eyes, cool clothes and accessories on the characters, they just have a cool overall look. The music is pretty good. I thought the OP song was kind of corny, but it did look nice. The OST was solid, but the moment when the OST was great was probably the final episode. img400(https://media1.tenor.com/images/76cdc7627ce49c945cd6c5c8c8e56711/tenor.gif?itemid=18818603) Overall, I thought the show was pretty average. Not really for me but if you love full throttle all gas no breaks balls to the wall action type of shows, then I think this is for you. I'm surprised this wasn't that popular in the anime season it was airing in. Pros: +Great art/animation (not a major pro, but good animation is still something that's needed) +Great action scenes (entertaining) +Nice character designs (aren't a major pro but still cool) Meh: * Some characters are likable, while others were just ok * Has a decent ending Cons: -The story is paced too quickly(which creates another issue which is......) -Was unable to get attached to any of the characters emotionally, wouldn't care if they died -Lots of BS happening in the storyline that makes the show feel cluttered/confused

PhosEnjoyer3575

Going into Akudama Drive, I did not know much about it other than: 1) It's set in a dystopian society 2) The art is killer 3) A lot of people I know love it So my expectations weren't very high. I went in for the pretty art and animation, and stayed for the pretty art and animation. And Swindler. And the creepy rabbit and shark TV brainwashing program. That's pretty much it. First, I'll list everything I loved about the show. I found the animation to be super consistent. It never disappointed me, and that's why if I rated my anime based on the art purely, I'd be giving Akudama Drive a 10/10 without hesitation. I also loved the soundtrack, they certainly felt unique enough that I did not dare skip the opening song, and stayed until after the ending song multiple times. It's an interesting pairing with the anime itself. Had this been a slice-of-life, the pairing would make a lot more sense. I loved it this way though, it made it feel like the anime wanted it known that this story doesn't want to be "just action" or "just cool". The music gets a 7/10 from me. I also loved how our main character is a girl in her 20's. She's an ordinary person, with no tragic past, and no specific character traits that would mark her for the danger she gets thrown into later on (other than her honesty and kindness). It was incredibly refreshing to see in anime. She was not sexualised, but she also wasn't bland in terms of her character design. I enjoyed the moments Swindler was on screen. It worked perfectly for (what I felt like) the anime was trying to tell it's viewers: anyone can fall into the "wrong" path easily. Allowing people to judge those that fall into darkness with such absolutism will probably ruin a society. Example from the show? The executioners. Oh the executioners. The way I feel about them is very mixed. They were shown as typical "heroes" for the first few times they appeared on screen. And then that seemed to shift to them... being evil? I did not like it. It could've been done a LOT better. I think the producers themselves might have also had mixed feelings. There is a clear shift in tone where the show changes it's direction and goes off the rails. In the first half, the executioners were developed a bit more, and one of them (the young apprentice) seemed to have more growth waiting for her at the second half of the show. But, of course, there wasn't. And so we lost sense of who the executioners are and what they are. The anime just wanted them to be branded as the "bad people" and it was left at that. The Kanto plot was also a bit of a disappointment for me. Surely the technologically advanced city of the future (MAJOR SPOILER) ~!that literally does not care or need physical existence anymore can do better than... putting an entire virtual city inside the bodies of children....? Right?!~ It felt extremely far-fetched. As Hacker said (SPOILER ALERT): ~!What a crazy twist, right? A world inside a supercomputer... who would've thought Kanto would be some overused sci-fi trope?!~ If only the show's awareness of it's own tropes went anywhere. Note to story writers: making a character break the fourth wall and voice the future criticisms of your viewers is NOT good writing and it is NOT going to make those criticisms disappear or be less relevant. Breaking fourth walls is in and of itself not always a great thing to do in a story so focused in it's own world and separated from the viewer. But you know what? The ending makes everything worth it!! Not. There is a single scene that I LOVE, and it is Swindler's last confrontation with the executioners. They surround her and stuff happens and then she says "zamamiro", and I love it. I died fangirling, and then died trying not to be sad. Lol. It's stuck with me now, such an iconic scene. Other than that, the ending wasn't that great. Overall, I enjoyed the show, but I wish I could've seen another Akudama Drive. The Akudama Drive the first half introduced seemed like it would be amazing, not only a must-watch for the season, but BEYOND that. The Akudama Drive I was left with made me feel glad that it ended so short and stopped wasting my time. 6.5/10 and not lower for Swindler <3< /p>

CountZero

We occasionally get new Cyberpunk anime every now and then, though usually, the protagonists of those series have some degree of… license by the establishment. The Major in Ghost in the Shell is a government agent. So are the protagonists of Cyber City Oedo 808. The Knight Sabers from Bubblegum Crisis are superhero mercenaries who contract with the government. Rare are the cyberpunk anime that have protagonists who work for hire, not only outside the law but in violation of the law. Akudama Drive is one of the series that fits that theme, and utterly nails the concept. Akudama Drive is set in a cyberpunk dystopian Osaka. At some point in the past there was a spectacular, catastrophic war between Kansai and Kyoto, and Kansai got the bad end of it. Since then, Kansai has been rebuilt, and is a vassal of Kyoto, with television programming issuing propaganda about how great Kyoto is, and the Shinkansen – the bullet train between Kansai and Kyoto, viewed with literal religious reverence by the people. The ultimate authority of the law is the Executioners – people with authority granted on them by Kyoto to murder any outlaw, or Akudama, on sight, in a very “Worst offenses of the samurai at the end of the Shogunate” kind of sense. They cannot designate people as Akudama themselves – only the police can do that – but once designated, they can feel free to kill them, using their service weapons – which are basically Light-jitte. Government propaganda also generally treats Akudama as inhuman – stripping them of their identity and otherwise referring to them solely by their crimes. So, the majority of the public buys into this more or less explicitly. img220(https://i1.wp.com/countzeroor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/akudama-drive-episode-4.png?ssl=1) Clockwise from Top Right: Brawler, Hoodlum, Courier, Black Cat, Ordinary Person/Swindler, Cutthroat, Doctor, Hacker. The show follows an Ordinary Person (that’s their name in the script), who ends up getting caught up in a group of Akudama – Hacker, Courier, Doctor, and Brawler, after ending up getting arrested due to trying to pay for Takoyaki with plastic at a place that only takes cash, when she had enough money to pay for the Takoyaki but didn’t want to use it because it was dropped money she wanted to return. Ordinary Person gets caught up with a low-level Akudama – Hoodlum, when the first four break into the police station to free a fifth Akudama – Cutthroat, for a job to break into the Shinkansen in order to steal a shipment from the train. In an attempt to keep the other Akudama from killing her, she refers to herself as Swindler and goes along with the heist – though admittedly she has no choice when she, Hoodlum, and the other 5 Akudama get explosive collars put on their necks. Complete the job, they get a million Yen. Try to run, the collar goes off. However, as the show goes on, the writing starts very aggressively interrogating the world of the setting. It starts off with the propaganda-and-worldbuilding broadcasts start saying some of the quiet stuff out loud, in terms of totalitarian dictatorships – asking the wrong questions will get you killed, in a totalitarian state (like an occupation government), the people are subordinate to the government, etc. Then, without doing too many spoilers, at the end of the series, the show finally does the thing that I’d been annoyed a lot of other shows weren’t. For example, this past season we had Ikebukuro West Gate Park, which was an anime series about gangs and solving mysteries in the Tokyo underworld – which looked a lot like it would be a less urban fantasy Durarara – only for the first episode to end with the protagonists working with the cops to bring down the “bad guys” by planting drugs where the cops wanted them to. While the source material for that show was from the ’90s, in this age of Black Lives Matter and ACAB, that played _extremely_ poorly. On the other hand, Akudama Drive basically ends with what I’d basically describe as the Black Lives Matter protests escalated from “riot” to full-fledged insurrection, as the people of Kansai have the wool taken from over their eyes and rise up against the Executioners in response to their brutal methods without any oversight. This past year had plenty of shows that greatly lacked any self-awareness of their depiction of policing. Like Millionaire Detective, which was fun, but still uncritical about the fact that the “joke” of the series was a 1%-er using money and the badge to operate outside the limitations of the law. Or there was ID: Invaded taking murderers, even before they’d actually been charged with anything (nevermind convicted), off to a de-facto black site without interrogating the concept (something that Psycho-Pass was absolutely willing to interrogate). For Akudama Drive to end with protests against Executioner brutality escalating to the point of an actual uprising, and for that to be shown as an unquestioned favorable ending wonderful, and kind of what I wanted this year. For all of this to happen in a serious, violent, yet still goofy Pink Mohawk cyberpunk story made all of that even better. I’m very glad I watched this show, and I’d probably consider this one of my favorite shows of the year. Note: This review originally appeared on my blog at https://countzeroor.com/2021/01/01/akudama-drive-anime-review/

laurynxeve

I had no idea what I was going into watching Akudama Drive since there was barely any manga chapters out, but I was pleasantly surprised and I'm surprised that I haven't seen more people talking about it. Yes it has some flaws but overall its a fairly unique sci-fi show that I really enjoyed and kept me intrigued. The concept of having a group of majorly wanted criminals, or akudama, working together is an interesting concept on its own, especially when they all have very different personalities and goals. I enjoyed seeing how all the characters interacted with each other and their different fighting styles. The mystery of Kanto was present throughout the series which left you wondering what the other region was like to be so great and mysterious, and this stayed right up to the end with an admittedly weird but still interesting reveal. The fight scenes were very well done, with just the right amount of blood and gore for the situations. I'm glad they actually made the criminals act like criminals with bad morals and killing people, rather than having the lame 'misunderstood' or 'falsely accused' trope. These people are bad people, and the show didn't try to make you feel bad for them, and some of the time I wasn't even routing for them to win, it was just interesting to see how the plot would play out. The visuals are undoubtedly stunning with super bright colours that made the intense plot seem lighter somehow. I also really liked the 3D aspects they included like when a new setting was introduced. One thing I noticed about the animation however is how they make characters conveniently disappear when they aren't needed. Like when Cutthroat is trying to kill Swindler in episode 9, Courier and the sister seem to vanish and show back up again even though they were in the same room. The music didn't really stand out very much to me, the opening was okay but nothing amazing and the I couldn't even tell you how the ending went. As for the characters, I enjoyed most of them. None of them were anything new or unique and they did annoy me at times. But what I enjoyed about them was seeing their motivations and how their clashing personalities worked together. I found Swindler more likable the more the show went on, but I do still find her to be your average kind, pretty boring female MC with forced character development in the second half, As for the other akudama, I found Hoodlum surprising likable, especially near their end with how his actions were guided by his respect for Brawler.~! I also found the Doctor's betrayal a nice twist that I genuinely didn't expect, although her ability to constantly come back from the dead made it dull to watch her in a fight scene as you knew she'd survive it anyway.!~ --SPOILERS BELOW-- I really enjoyed seeing how the executioners went from being seemingly all powerful and being able to do whatever they wanted to becoming essentially akudama themselves.!~ I always enjoy seeing politics in anime, especially when its clear that it would happen if it was in a real-world situation.For example, if the police started randomly killing civilians after falsely reporting them to be criminals, an uprising would definitely happen, which it did in Akudama Drive. I'm also glad they decided to kill most of the characters off, because it made it more realistic, especially after seeing how some of them seemed unkillable, it was nice to be proven wrong. I was honestly waiting for Swindler to magically come back to life in the last episode, because you can't kill of the MC! So it was nice to see them actually go through with her death I did however find the first half of the show more interesting than the second, as once they saved the children and arrived at their goal it all seemed slightly disjointed, almost like they didn't know where to go with the plot once their initial goal was met. However, I don't think it completely lost its way after that, it introduced a new darkness to the show such as Swindler's character development and the civilian uprising, however, making this dark turn made the show lose the comedy aspect it had in the first half, which made it a more depressing viewing experience The main criticism I have with the show is the lack of world building and over complication. I'm not saying there was no world building, because there was, I just wish they went into more about the war and its impacts. I know it was meant to be left a mystery until the end, but the whole destroying of the moon was just brushed over and I still have no idea how Kanto being a quantum computer or whatever actually works. But naturally it is only 12 episodes so its difficult to get any more detail in there at risk of losing actual plot. The way hacker rescues them in the last episode isn't explained whatsoever and neither is the 'power' of the Shinkansen. It just felt at times like they were trying to make the show seem smarter than it actually was, again its a lot of things to cram into 12 episodes !~!~ Overall, its an enjoyable sci-fi show that keeps you hooked with gorgeous visuals and fun characters. I would recommend it to someone who wants a quick show with lots of blood and gore and plot twists. 8/10

Noosekun

#Contains Spoilers --- Simple with underlying complexity. Art style is oddly appealing- reminds me of tron and infamous second son with neon colours, taking on 80-90s vibes. Transitions and scenery were also a treat. Contains historical Japanese context I’m unaware but would be cool to know about. Funny how they worship the Shinkansen in a futuristic setting. #__Characters + thoughts on some complaints:__ Peoples opinions on this show vary but I enjoyed the show’s face value, and what I'd like to believe were the creators’ intentions. Viewers' complaints regarding characters names didn’t understand they were MEANT to be nameless. Their societal label as _akudama_ is reflected through the nameless narrative portraying outsiders’ perspective; that they’re just evil people, and thus not caring about their backstory (which made them akudama in the first place). I appreciate when you don’t need to know their backstory as a foundation for attachment, as what was done in Akudama Dive. You gain all the attachment needed during their mission as they interact w each other, especially with characters’ traits and charms despite their situation were easily noticeable. Unsurprising but of course I enjoyed brawler and hoodlums brotherhood- it was nicely developed throughout the mission, as our enjoyment for them did. They all tried to fight each other at the beginning but developed attachment except doctor (although she technically became attached to the thought of controlling life/death upon meeting the offerings). I see a lot of complaints with how everyone died and it’s another Akame ga Kill but u have to remember THEYRE CRIMINALS w literally hundreds of yrs of sentence eg. cutthroat was supposed to be executed at the start for his 999 headcount. Kuroneko also mentioned that no akudama had ever completed phase 2 foregrounding its difficulty. No one was expected to survive, it’s merely the offerings’ and viewers’ hopeful thinking. --- #__Ending Thoughts: Did Swindler make the right choice?__ Obviously it’s her fault for not getting out of the easily avoidable takoyaki mess initially but I mean regarding the saving of the siblings. If they gave up and allowed it to happen, the final riot could’ve been avoided, Kantou wouldn’t deteriorate (for better or worse), hacker would live, courier and herself could’ve escaped, apart from them no one but higher ups would know of Kantou’s true nature as data. But as Courier constantly mentioned, Swindler couldn’t keep her emotions apart from the mission. To me at that point, I wasn't concerned with right or wrong, just that it was within her nature as herself and as an ordinary person. I really enjoyed the fulfilment of her role throughout the show and in the end, she swindled everyone in the first half that she was an akudama whilst identifying otherwise, then led society to believe that she was an ordinary girl right after her acceptance to be Swindler, the akudama. My only lingering question is with satsujinki, how could he see the halo? Could just be his delusion but it’s kinda broken seeing as he had no leads to find her. Except for her whereabouts at that takoyaki place she couldn’t have been found unless he unknowingly went to the Centre because that’s where Brother would be if he assumed Swindler would go there to reunite the siblings. --- __Some other very agreeable points:__ MODERN CLASSIC | AKUDAMA DRIVE Episode 12 Review youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm26vC8FyMo&feature=youtu.be)

youkey

With an extraordinary start, Akudama Drive is an original anime series that should have been a game instead. The creator, Kazukata Kodaka is so intent on getting a perfect shot on a drop of rain land on The Ordinary Person or those foreshadowing of classic Cyberbank elements that correspond to the corruptive society, however neglected the depictions on characters. Those ingredients make the first half of the anime pretty and incredible, but the audience does not only want to see how lovingly a died protagonist lying against a cross can be. My first impression of The Ordinary Person is she must be a great swindler who eventually deceit herself, but the truth is: the protagonist is actually an ordinary citizen who accidentally join those Swindler because butterfly effect of five hundred yen. Ironically, the police can take her immediately as she cannot afford five-hundred-yen for buying a Takoyaki but arrived so slowly during the Shinkansen heist. Moreover, a normal citizen can disguise herself as a Billiken Transport employee that no one would notice; she also can avoid the attack from the police. These makes characteristic of the protagonist unexplainable. However, character depiction is a big issue. The Ordinary Person must have some relationship that can be anything that relates to the siblings, otherwise, she doesn’t have the motivation for saving those siblings. But the truth subverted my view again, our protagonist is a person who very compassionate and protective of others. Kazukata intends to portray she as a desperately compassionate figure that eventually sacrificed under the Cross – a biblical reference to Jesus. But, such a holy figure does not care about the result of saving the siblings, where half of the city destroyed and so many people died. Therefore, my impression of The Ordinary Person in episode 11 is a selfish person who has a desperate obsession with the sibling and the cat. Similar issue to the Execution Division Apprentice, we hopefully expect this girl would change after her master’s death, but she didn’t. I first thought she might stand out or protects the junior ones as she lost one of her important ones. Just like what Part 4 JOJO did, where Josuke lost his grandfather which allows him to make the decision of protecting his hometown. However, this might because the anime only has 12 episodes that the creator does not have much time on other plotline. After the death of the Execution Division Master, the whole Execution Division then become so rubbish which died so many people. Sometimes we expected to see some change within each character but they stay the same from start to end. Overall, Akudama Drive gives the audience an amazing visual effect in the first two episodes that anime successfully combines Japanese culture with Cyperbunk elements. One of the LED boards in Kansai is the woodblock print of ‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa,’ by Japanese artist Hokusai, which is also on the coin. This is symbolic of the idea of overcoming adversity and bravery. Even the last scene when the Brother and Sister walking in the tunnel is reminiscent of the last scene of the horror film “Train to Busan”; that represents the unknown future and hope. Here, the first 2 episode is so amazing with amazing plotline and symbols, but lack of logic and some explanation which did not reached expectation.

blekmus

As all my reviews go. This is just me turning what I felt into words. So, please don't consider this anything more than a fan talking about what they love. Meaning, constructive and flawless criticism is already out the window. __Haven't watched the show yet? Then get the hell out of here. I will be spoiling the living Jesus out of this show__. ___ Ever since I was a wee child. I used to climb this tree that was in a far corner of our front yard. The tree had since been cut. Though I still cherish the memories of the fruits I used to eat from it. It's a tree with small oval-shaped leaves that give off the colour yellow. Its fruits are like small green pumpkins hanging in the hundreds from each branch. When fully ripe its full size is only an inch in diameter. As if the colour had a say in the taste. The fruit is at the pinnacle of what you'd consider, sour. The Nelli tree and its fruit which bears the same name. Is one of the sourest fruits I've ever tasted. Even if eating it means your teeth going numb and your tongue slightly burning from the acid. I loved it. I ate it straight from the tree. I ate it crushed. I ate it mixed with sugar, water and spices (achcharu). I ate it in all the ways I could find. Though, even if the method I ingested changed. One thing didn't. It's how sour this fruit really is. If a person hasn't eaten a single pea-sized Nelli before. They would wonder at length the reason why I would even eat such a fruit. If it pains to eat it, why eat it in the first place? To that, I would say. Because it's bittersweet. I love it and hate it at the same time. I love the acidic taste it has while I hate its bitterness. Watching Akudama drive reminded me of this fruit because the show itself is very reminiscent of Nelli's taste. There are things I love about the show and there are things I utterly hate about it. The show really is a mess. Not in a sense that it messed up when it came to delivery or visuals. But rather, it sometimes enforces what makes it good by sacrificing itself to the devil. The result, however, can be superb at times and devastatingly futile as well. I really don't understand how a show can be this indecisive. When it excels I'm simply blown away and when it fails. It fails like a cook who's so bad at cooking, they have to use the smoke alarm as a timer. Yea, it gets that bad. Let's start off with the OP. It's simply magnificent. This is the kind of opening I expect from a cyberpunk show. Okay, I'm not gonna lie. The song sort of sucks big time. But the visuals dammit. It's enough to more than forgive the poor song choice. Its neon-filled ruthless aura is exactly what a merciless show like this needs. And doesn't it fit well? One of the first things I came to love about the whole show is its colour palette. There are only a couple of anime I can say, I loved its colours. One is Bloom Into You with its pinkish tenderness and then there's Akudama Drive. I'm simply in love with the neon colours it uses. The show doesn't use the whole neon spectrum but a specific portion of it. Hell, if you were to only watch the OP itself. You'd fully understand the whole colour palette of the series. Yea, that's how good I think the opening is. However, it's not just _how_ the anime uses colour, I fell in love with. It's how the show uses it in different contexts. The perfect example of this is the fight to the death between Kenkaya and Shishou. May their souls rest in peace. Well.. when you think about it. May all souls of the Akudama rest in peace. Anyways, when the two monstrosities were fighting to their death in the old amusement park. They were having the standoff of the century. And right behind them was a freaking Ferris wheel. Now, anyone who's watching would be like. Why the hell isn't that thing lit up. There's a fight going on here. Who forgot to switch the lights on? Then out of nowhere came a bolt of lightning. I'm sure you can guess what kind of chaos ensued afterwards. The Ferris wheel lit up and with it, the silence was lost and the fight resumed more ruthless than ever. This is one of my favourite scenes of the whole show. Especially the choreography and the rain. Oh man, the rain. It was so satisfying to watch the whole thing. From its hues to the slow-motion to the fighting to the goddamn rain. A touch I love about that scene is how the Ferris wheel loses all its colour when the opponents are at their weakest level really made me love this scene even more. Then there are the characters. I've sort of got mixed feelings about each and every one of them. But all in all. I love how the show managed to give them a good amount of spotlight while having that whole Kansai vs Kanto thing going on. Man, the show is a lot to unpack. No wonder it's a mess. One of the most memorable things that come to mind when thinking about character development in the show is when Courier and the Swindler with everyone else enter the decontamination zone. I loved how the show not only progressed the plot and the world-building but the characters as well through that one plot device. The sneak peek into Courier's life through the simulation was really smart. Considering he was almost the only Akudama left in support of our best girl the Swindler. And we knew nothing about him. The best way to pierce a rock-solid man is by opening it up from the inside. Then there's Chinpira. For some reason or the other, I found myself sympathising with him a lot. There used to be a time in life when I was forced to wear a mask like the one he's wearing. A mask made out of desperation to help you survive. To help you make it until sunrise tomorrow. Even his connection to Kenkaya. I found it utterly wholesome. A real bro to bro tag team. This reminds me of that scene at Expo Part. The Japanese name for it is simply hilarious. Anyways, when the gang is heading towards the launch platform. When Chinpira gets excited by the relics, in excitement he starts telling his best buddy about how interesting everything looks to only look behind and be reminded of the brutality of reality. Once you die, you're dead. And just like that, every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes. Jokes aside. That scene almost made me shed a tear. For some reason, I got attached to some of these characters way more than I ever hoped I would. It's not only the characters. I got attached to the whole show in ways I never thought I would. This was really surprising to me. Considering how bad at times the show is. Even when I'm reminded in each episode how shitty some parts of the plot are. My mind simply washes it away like a dirty cloth being washed clean by a mother's delicate hands. Yea, I know I'm weird and I agree with you a 100% on that one my friend. Alright, now to the nitty-gritty. Let's get down to the shitty aspect of the show. First of all the plot. Like WTF. There are so so many plot holes and logical inaccuracies. The best example of this is when the Akudama first boarded the Shinkansen. Firstly, everyone from the cat-kid to the genius Hacker considered the force field at the front of the train to be basically impenetrable, right. This is what gave Swindler's whole, weighing less than hacker scene all its value. So, after the train left the station. How did the Executioners board it? They literally came in through the forcefield. And how did they come in? By using their very very cool looking plasma blades. Now, if it was that easy to cut through the barrier. Why didn't the Akudama do it in the first place? It isn't like it's hard to acquire one. Well, you could argue that they didn't know much about the Shinkansen, to begin with. But wait, I'm just getting started here. After both Executioners boarded the train. Hacker and Swindler started hacking the doors leading to the vault. Courier decided to stay back to reunite with his bike even though two highly trained killing machines were in his way. Talk about loving a bike more than a wife. Get it. Anyways, the door-busting team decided it's not worth waiting for him. While they were out busting the doors. The two alphas are down fighting to their deaths again. And guess what happens. They literally bust through a couple of doors like it was literally nothing. Now, if the doors were pitiful enough to break because of two monkies fighting. Why didn't the door beaking team consider using the rail gun mounted to Courier's bike to vapourize all the doors at once? I mean, they did end up using it at the end to kill off that robot thing. So, why not earlier? I'm just scratching the surface here when it comes to stupid plot directions the whole show takes. Stuff like that's littered literally everywhere. Another part of the show I wish to pay special attention to is how governance is handled in the show. To start things off. Let me tell you a story. Consider you one day you wake up to a world with no consequences to your actions. A world where there exists no laws or punishment for actions of immoral and illegal nature. Do you think people would go through their day as nothing if happened? Or do you think they will condescend into a state of anarchy? As human nature goes. The most probable answer is the latter. Even if people do not wish to be as such, a minority of the population would force them to. A world amidst people who no one can trust. To solve this issue people came up with a sort of contract. Think of it like a three-sided agreement. Take for example the cliche movie sequence where the protagonist has the briefcase full of money and the antagonist has the protagonist's wife at gunpoint. They would spend an eternity arguing about who to give what first. The antagonist would be asking for the briefcase first and the protagonist would be asking for the girl first. It’s a stalemate that cannot be broken through words alone because none of these two people can entirely trust each other. So this is why there’s the other guy with an AK47 pointed towards both the protagonist and the antagonist to ensure the transaction goes smoothly or they both die. This person holding the AK47 is the authority or what we'd call a government. When we bring real-world ideologies into the equation, the role of the guy with the AK47 is fulfilled by the state. If this were medieval times. It would be the king. It is his duty to uphold the natural rights or the safe exchange of goods and services between parties who do not trust each other. This adds another question back into the equation. How can the people trust the state or the person in charge? This was achieved by showing the people what happens when a person defies the state. And how did they show it? Public punishment. Think of cutthroat's public execution. A state does this to show its people its power. Inturn giving the people a reason to trust the people who are in power. There were however other reasons authorities in the past chose to opt-in for public punishment as well. Take this for example. Say you're a poor peasant with no job nor coin. Across the road you see a bakery selling fresh bread. Felling an intense growl of hunger. You consider stealing a loaf of bread to satisfy yourself. But the shop is empty except for the Baker. Thinking it's too risky to pounce now. You, decide to wait a couple of minutes till it gets crowded and provides you with cover. Fifteen minutes pass and you see that a lot of people are gathering next to a towering building just a few spaces next to you. Still in hunger and eyeing the bread on the baker's stand. You see there's still four left. Thinking it's alright to stall for a few more minutes. You decide to go and check out what's causing all the commotion. So, you start walking off towards the now, large gathering. You wonder what's happening. Eying for a clue, you find a poster attached to a candle pole. Seeing it you understand what's happening. A man is being executed for having sex with the wife of a senator. Seeing as you've got nothing much to do, you head towards the centre of the gathering. At the heart of the commotion, there's a thinly built wooden podium. On it, you see a fully naked man. With red scars going all throughout his back. Seeing this makes you question if he even deserves more punishments. Then two men who looked like they were of the royal guard climbed onto the podium. On their hands, each had two jugs. They were full of something but the wooden stage was too far to see it clearly. Feeling an uneasiness you turn your head to look back at the way you came. Even now, no one occupied the bakery's premises except for its owner. Everyone is supposedly joining in to watch the punishment. Then you hear a sudden scream. The uneasiness you felt before started to turn into fear. Knowing where the sound came from. In a flash, you turn your head towards the nude man. With his inexhaustible scream filling your ears. You see that the two guards were pouring a liquid from the jugs onto the man's skin. It boiled the moment it made contact. That's when it clicks. They're pouring molten wax. Unable to look at the sight before you. You decide to head back. At that moment a thought comes into your mind. What if I got caught stealing. Would I have to go through punishment as gruesome as what he had just witnessed? Woah, why did I even write that paragraph to prove such a small point? I'm an idiot. Anyways, for a state. Corporal punishment has many benefits. It ensured people's trust was kept in them. And it also made criminals think twice before committing a crime. Less crime there is. The easier it is for everyone. However, there's an issue with this whole power dynamic. It introduces volatility for those in power. If the people of the state consider those in power are somehow not able to keep the populace safe. Like when the public execution of cutthroat failed catastrophically. Or when the shinkansen, an object of spiritual significance is blown to pieces. It is very easy for people to assume that the state is not capable of fulfilling its end of the bargain. Plus for the people, there is no confusion at all about who's calling the shots and who's to be taken down if they don't feel like the current sovereign body isn't acting accordingly. This made the job of being a person of power a seriously risky and insecure thing to do back in the day. The person who's taking that seat in the anime is Boss. She's literally at the top of the food chain in Kansai. So, when people see an issue. For example, after they deemed rioters as Akudama and decided to kill innocent people. The people knew exactly who to target to bring about a revolution. Boss's order to turn ordinary people into Akudama during the raid is in my opinion one of the stupidest writing decisions of the whole show. What leader would think such a decision would not backfire. I'm surprised at how the show managed to show handled the gradual change in how people think. How they lost their faith in the state. Kudos for that. However, this also brings into question a major issue with the whole anime and its power dynamic. It's the question of whether authoritarianism would exist in a cyberpunk world. As mentioned before, the three-sided contract was enforced by the state by using violence as a catalyst. But do you see public executions now? No, why? Because the way people saw punishment changed. With the renaissance, humanist movements started to develop. This made the usefulness and effectiveness of keeping crime at bay through the fear of punishment diminish with it falling out of favour by the general public. A solution proposed to this issue was the Panopticon. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham's brainchild, the panopticon was originally a system of control designed for prisons. The basic concept of the design was that a single warden or security guard can from one place observe every single inmate without them knowing they were being watched. And from an inmates cell's perspective, they can never know if they're being watched or not. So they are forced to act as if they are in surveillance at all times. This makes the life of the prisoner one of constant surveillance with strict adherence to a normalized standard of behaviour. Because, if they're unable to tell if they're being watched, how can they behave in a way differing from the standard set forth by the person in charge of the prison. This in addition to rigorous examinations can be used to make sure a prisoner sticks to a set, set of behaviours. What Bentham introduced was a three-pronged method of retaining power through manipulation. First is the public spotlight (i.e. constant surveillance). Second is a set standard of how a good or well-behaved person should be thinking and behaving (i.e. normalization). And the third is a constant process of examination and re-examination where a score or grade is given to measure how well you correspond with what the person in power decided as what a good person should be a reflection of. Now apply this same power dynamic to an enterprise for example. If you were in a position of power in a corporation and use these tactics, you wouldn't have to treat your employees like slaves to make them stick to a set of ideologies you want them to maintain. No, no, no, you only have to make the chain long enough so they don't feel the weight of it. They wouldn't even feel it's there. Not only would they fall into the set of behaviours you need them to follow. They would even police themselves to adhere to the normalized standard you put in place at all times. Because their life at work is one of surveillance, normalization and constant examination. Surveillance in the form of supervisors, deadlines, and monitoring software. In addition to this, creating a highly competitive workspace would result in employees trying their best to not get any dirt on themselves which motivates them to adhere to the normalized set of behaviours set forth. Then there are the examinations, with the monthly, yearly and quarterly evaluations or employee of the months to determine how well of a team player or achiever you are or in other words how well you correspond to exactly what the person in power says you should be. China is a country that does this exceptionally well. I mean they are the country that sort of use 1984 as a handbook for how to maintain a country. Anyways, keeping feelings aside. What I've been trying to say is why and how a society that's progressed far enough as Kansai still uses authoritarian tactics to govern its people. When a much better alternative exists. You could argue saying the disarray the state is facing is stopping it from implementing a panopticon like justice system. But if that's the case. How did it manage to build up authoritarian governance with freaking killing machines? Executioners don't train themselves. You need massive amounts of discipline and commitment to create soldiers like them. Plus look at the economy. It's probably running a cryptocurrency under the hood. This just screams bad writing. It's like the writers are deliberately making the show stupider to bring about more conflict. I'm not saying it's bad. But doing it the way it was done here just seems lazy. ___ Man... that felt good. To write down both the negativities and the positivities is like taking a huge weight off my chest. However, it also reminded me why I hate critiques so much. For a work of fiction to improve you need criticism. I'm not saying that people shouldn't point out issues of a work of art. To get better at what you do, you need to know where you went wrong. But... When you try to focus on a piece of art through the lens of objectivity alone. It blinds you from what the stories are trying to say. Your eyes focus on its flaws. This in turn diminishes the enjoyment you can get out of it. Anime is primarily made for entertainment, right? If looking at it objectively decreases the net fulfilment, isn't that the opposite of what we should be supposed to be doing? Shouldn't we be trying to maximize the enjoyment we get out of it? Idk. This is way outa my scope. Hmm... Now that I think about it. I didn't at all talk about the drive parts of Akudama Drive. Isn't it supposed to be the main takeaway of the show? Huh. I'll probably need to go into human morality and ethics for that. Woah, I wrote way more than what I expected to write. I still have lots of thoughts about the anime. Like how Swindler's death started a revolution. Or how hopeless the people of Kansai are, because more often than not when a government falls. Their economy and production go on deep dives. Or how hopeless the people of Kanto are, now that they're sort of doomed. It's been a while since I've thought this much about a show. I really gotta hand it to it. Though this show had its flaws. It certainly ended up leaving a mark. Hell, even its issues weren't simple. I had to bring back memories from reading French philosopher Michal Foucault's book Discipline and Punish and English philosopher Thomas Hobbs' Leviathan to even start talking about governance. I can't believe a thought that started off as a note ended up being this mess of an essay. I really don't think what I wrote deserves to be a review. Anilist really needs to increase the max character count of notes from 6k to huh... I wonder how long this is. Oh, it's 21k. Ehhh.. guess it's me who's problematic.

TellMeSenpai

Intentaré ir cronológicamente lo cual pido disculpa si hago saltos extremo de la nada. Todo empezó por recoger una moneda de 500 yenes donde justamente el local indicado no aceptan el sello "transferencia" y por un acto de buena caridad le quiere devolver el dinero, pero la señora malinterpreta esto y se llevan a nuestra "protagonista" a detención... Donde justamente a Asesino lo va a ejecutar la policía, cosa que me parece tonto sabiendo que una mínima falla puede literalmente hacerlos añico y me extraña la no presencia de los Verdugos o que estos mismos no lo mataran en el acto teniendo la sentencia más alta del grupo además... ¿Cómo lo atraparon? Dudo que un verdugo lo dejara con vida o que la policía sea tan inteligente que lograron capturarlo desde mi punto de vista. Aunque quieran infundir temor a los Akuma, creo que lo mejor sería tener mínimo 2 escoltas Verdugo siendo el caso, Ahora el tren parte desde X lugar hasta la ubicación que todos conocemos, me pregunto ¿Cómo los niños tienen conocimiento de que son los Akuma y como logro ese gato ir más rápido que el mismo tren? Además, ¿Cómo es posible que el tren pasara 2 veces en el mismo día? ¿Recordemos que a mitad del capítulo hace por primera vez su aparición y después cuando intentan ir tras él sale nuevamente? Se supone que es un tren bala y no demora mucho en única estación, lo cual me dejo un poco xD. Esto es una opinión personal, pero opino que me hubiera gustado ver a los verdugos con ropa negra y franjas rojas para dar un toque más de "¿poder"? Deberían de tener una jerarquía si hablamos de los criminales, donde Akuma es el top, ya que me parece tonto llamar Akuma a alguien de 4 años de sentencia. Me hubiera gustado que realmente estafadora tuviera alguna habilidad, puesto que me cuestiono a veces su supervivencia a solo suerte cof cof "Makoto Naegi" Me parece raro que Luchador sea el que tenga la sentencia más baja del grupo, por el hecho de que la policía no lo puede detener. Ahora cuando van a ingresar al tren me asombra que tenga tantas defensas, si a los últimos capítulos la gente lo aborda sin recibir daño y algo que quizás no sabían es que el arma de los verdugos puede atravesar dicha defensa, cosa que pudieron robarlo en el primer enfrentamiento e intentarlo, estos verdugos no me gusto cuando ya perdieron por 2.ª vez, ya que no emociona las siguientes peleas y menos añadirle un pupilo a la chica cosa que literalmente no aprende de su maestro. Lo estúpidamente loco es porque hacen una prueba de ingreso, si al final la chica es únicamente una carga, estos verdugos deben estar preparados para todo ya sea ejecutar si se les ordena o no dudar de nada, por algo tomaron la decisión de ingresar a esta policía especial. Es estúpido que sabiendo que la doctora puede reconstruirse no cortarla en pedacitos teniendo la oportunidad de oro cuando la atraviesas a la mitad y que el tren no tenga defensa dentro de esta "personal humano" es inaceptable, las máquinas son eso, un humano puede hacer la diferencia si colocamos verdugos dentro de este. Lo que nunca entendí es que no pensaron en que sus sellos pueden ser bloqueados, ya que tienen sus rostros y que el paso sea mediante sello, cosa que simplemente el estado puede congelar o quitarle ese dinero por el simple hecho de ser Akuma "en un caso en que todo está centralizado" No me quedo del todo claro que dejaran sin registro a la Doctora cuando le ordenaron no dejar sobrevivientes aun si este les ayuda debieron de ejecutarla porque desobedece órdenes directa. El grupo era un poco disconforme pese a que cada uno tiene sus puntos fuertes, perdiendo a Luchador y Asesino las cosas se les podría complicar mucho, ya que Mensajero depende de la moto y la doctora si es herida, pues su prioridad es ella y después los demás cosa que la pueden eliminar como mencione anteriormente. Me inquieta saber de qué material está hecha la mano de Mensajero que puede repeler el sable de los verdugos mientras que los demás tienen que esquivar esos sables, graciosamente el cohete a mi punto de vista tiene un parecido al de dangaronpa 1 el juego. No me quedo claro el cómo construyeron las vías del tren hacia kanto pudieron usar bots, pero como descontaminan esos bots si aún no tenían dicha tecnología para limpiarlos después de construir las vías, además la radiación debilita constantemente tanto a los robots como a las mismas vías del tren. ¿Por qué matón no finalizo la vida de la aprendiz del verdugo? Una herida en el ojo dudo que calme tu odio por matar a Luchador, además como ella se dejó hacer eso teniendo el sable del sensei... Me esperaba que algunos de los Akuma sobreviviera, pero recordé que la desesperación gana... El dibujo de los personajes me recordó mucho a danganronpa y lo aprecio. El motivo por el cual doy esta nota es que no quedaron resueltas mis dudas y porque le dieron mucho protagonismo a ese duo de verdugos.

ACasualViewer

Are you tired of boring Rom Com series with dense protagonists that never go anywhere? Would you rather quit anime altogether than watch another basic Shonen series? Do you enjoy high octane action driven series set in a well-developed gritty cyberpunk world? Well Akudama Drive is the right anime for you. Every moment is either action, world building, or characters explaining something important, not a moment is wasted in this breakneck paced show. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Story: 8 Imagine Suicide Squad the anime, throw in a futuristic world where crime rankings are a power level and authoritarian police that were implemented during some civil war and you got Akudama Drive in a nutshell. The show for a lack of a better word, is just plain wild, there is a plot to the madness however its best to just take the show in as it unfolds and think about it later. Most of the story is told visually and through character interactions, there aren’t many instances of significant narration or long winded explanations, everything occurs during fights, adorable little shorts produced by Kansai, planning stages or chases. This somehow actually works perfectly for the series, it keeps the show from getting bogged down and lets the story stay fast paced while delivering a very thoroughly built world, an excellent and interesting cast of very unique characters, and slowly building up the mystery of why they are working together and for what purpose. On the note of the mystery, this anime was directed by the creator of a rather popular survival game battle royale style anime and his work in this series lives up to the standard he set before, so you can definitely look forward to how it unfolds. There are a lot of sci fi themes thrown in including cloning, genetic engineering, repairing a destroyed world, and post scarcity technology, they are not heavy handed and are handled well overall, the story is definitely a solid 8 and one of the better this season. Art: 9 The artwork is absolutely pristine, the action scenes are gorgeous and beyond any expectations one would have for a studio like Pierott, in fact it might be the single best looking show produced by this studio and the very first episode might have had the best visuals of any first episode this year if not for the Journey of Elaina coming out in the same season as well. The direction for the fights and their choreography were smooth, pretty much movie quality, and there were no shortcuts for the animation or any lazy camera work that is normally typical for this studio. The most notable fight scenes were nearly as long as an episode and at no point was there any laziness in delivery, there is some censorship if you watch the tv version of the anime but it’s nothing that ruins scenes. Characters were very uniquely designed, and all the girls were super cute looking but still blended into the dark color pallet and atmosphere of the series. The character designs clearly had a lot of work put into them, they heavily reflected the nature and personality of the characters, they also were designed with significant detail which meant that animating them would have been a challenge. Despite the high levels of detail, almost no CGI was used for character movements, outside of massive waves of robots for obvious reasons. Side characters like the executioners all had interesting introductions, outfits, poses, and overall, just overflowed with style. Background art is something that specifically has to be noted in this series, the amazing world building was only half visual storytelling the other half was the art. The city was truly detailed to look as shiny and futuristic as possible while still carrying the dark and gritty atmosphere expected of a series like this. The sound: 8 The OP was among the best this season, if not for the incredible line up of impressive anime opening songs this season it definitely would have taken first place. From banging combat sound effects to a lit techno-rap soundtrack, Akudama Drive has some of the better music in the season it aired in and most of the music here is worth listening to even outside of the show. The soundtrack during fights was also quite hyped up fights and were easy to get lost in, the music selection is among the best this season and heavily complements the world the story takes place in. Characters: 8 Excluding the main girl, the characters are all immoral criminals brought together over a shared mission with a high pay out but instant death if they fail. The executors who are essentially Judge Dredd style law enforcement are quite interesting as well, they feel very similar to the enforcers from Psycho Pass but with significantly improved fighting prowess, I especially love watching them continuously try to outsmart the Akudama and its nice to see competent law enforcement in anime. The characters are not actually named, they have codenames and it’s a good idea to not get very attached to any of them, this series does not shy away from building up characters and then killing them when the time is right. One of the most impactful scenes in the show involve a girl whose mentor was killed and them crying in the rain but it barely being noticeable, subtle moments like this really help elevate the impact these characters have despite only having a few episodes to build them up and not giving them names. There are also instances of betrayal and characters not being who they appeared to be initially, however there is usually some build up for this and it does not ruin their characterization, some of it was predictable while one betrayal was a complete surprise. Overall: 8 The art style, the original feel, the characters, and the overall world building along with excellently delivered story lead me to giving this series an 8. If you enjoyed Psychopass and like series set in futuristic worlds with lots of well-choreographed action, then this show is definitely something you will enjoy.

RebelPanda

Akudama Drive is pure madness. It has all the action-packed mayhem of a 1980s B-movie, taken to ludicrous extremes with orgasmic animation and insane characters. It uses the classic cyberpunk aesthetic to tell a story saturated with razor-sharp social criticism and vibrant neon lights. This anime is a combination of Blade Runner and Psycho-Pass, lovingly brought to life by Kodaka, the creator of Danganronpa. It shouldn't work, but it does. And it's god damn amazing. The story follows an ordinary person, a girl mistakenly labeled as an Akudama; One of the most dangerous and highly skilled criminals in the city of Kansai. She becomes known as "Swindler" for being falsely accused of a petty thief. Along with six other Akudama, she must evade the militarized police pursuing them. If they manage to escape alive and retrieve a package for a mysterious bidder, they'll each earn 10 million dollars. All seven Akudama are wildly entertaining; each has such a unique character design and a distinctive persona, they could lead their own shows. It might seem strange at first, but we only know them by their criminal labels: Swindler, Cutthroat, Courier, Hacker, Brawler, Hoodlum, and Doctor. Their faces are plastered on billboards with these names. They only matter because there's a bounty on their heads. Real names are irrelevant in this world. In Kansai, a person's life is worth less than a candy bar; human life is a commodity, just like in real life. People fight, buy, and sell human beings. One of this anime's clear messages is, human dignity is gone, alluding to a very plausible future. Watching these unstoppable badasses fend off executioners and deliver surprisingly hilarious one-liners is always exhilarating. Wisely, the anime ups the stakes by pairing its merciless and seemingly impenetrable Akudama with Swindler, an empathetic and innocent bystander. The action is easy to follow, with a violent neon visual spectacle overflowing with sakuga and impressive visual effects unseen in modern anime. Once you become an Akudama, you no longer have human rights. The police will mercilessly execute you without trial. Kansai's government isn't a democracy; it is a world owned by the top 1%. Anyone, even innocent people, can be declared a criminal; It's eerily similar to how the police abuse their power every day. That's how Swindler gets wrapped up in everything. She's our window into this crazy world—like the audience's avatar. Rarely are blank slate characters done right, but Swindler's is one of the lucky few. Her hollow personality is like a sponge; she absorbs all of the fucked up things happening around her and develops into an entirely new person. A lot of people have criticized her for lacking characterization, but they're missing the point. She is you, and she's everyone. She's relatable in the sense that she also has no idea what the fuck is happening. As she learns about the world, so do we. Often, she comments aloud on what's happening, like a narrator. Her commentary is helpful when the action gets intense. Then there are times when it feels like the show is holding our hand, which is fine. The pacing is so fast that it helps to have someone fill in the blanks. We're smart enough to figure things out. Misguided critics have said that this anime is unrealistic, too stupid, and comical. No shit, sherlock. This show is self-aware. From the beginning, it's clear the only logic it adheres to is the rule of cool. Courier rides his motorcycle on the sides of buildings, equipped with a massive railgun and grappling hook. Brawler can catch bullets with his teeth and shoot them like a gun. The logical consistency of Akudama Drive is in its themes: Capitalism, policing, colonialism, the death penalty, and fascism. I can't overstate how bloody this anime is. It is cartoonish, and the color palette is straight out of a comic book. I can't say it's realistic, but it's impactful—blood sprays everywhere like fountains, guts, and gore spill out in plain sight. It might be humorous at times, but this is intentional. Death is meaningless to the police in this world—not even the main characters are safe. Every death is impactful and serves a purpose in the story. Every criminal and citizen is disposable; if they disobey the executioners, then they are labeled a criminal and killed on sight. The reason why criminals exist in this world is to justify execution—not to protect people. This anime makes a great point at saying none of the Akudama deserve to die: Brawler simply likes fighting with other super-strong people, Swindler saves cats and would never hurt a fly, Hoodlum is an average joe with great hair, Courier just does his job, and Hacker never hurt an innocent person. They're all fine people: except for Doctor and Cutthroat, who are abusers, manipulators, and traitors to the real Akudama. The writers make a point to give the abusers exactly what they deserve. Throughout the show Swindler and Hoodlum especially endure abuse, however, they are the focus. We enter their headspace and they get a chance to seek revenge. It's magnificent how they handle abuse 100 times better than your average anime. Purely as a sci-fi action show, it's brilliant; Incredible tension, animation, and visuals. Akudama Drive achieves its visual excellence through the marriage of 2D art and CGI. Not the overreliance on one or the other. The kinetic action sequences are dazzlingly realized with digital compositing by Kazuhiro Yamada. He was responsible for Attack on Titan's excellent action sequences blending 3D background art with 2D action animation. He also worked with the animators to render all the holographic neon effects, beautifully enhancing the background art and every action sequence. Similar to Danganronpa, the background art transitions piece by piece as if a stage is gets rearranged. All of its visual idiosyncrasies culminate in one unique aesthetic. Like all great sci-fi thrillers, Akudama Drive uses over-the-top action to tell a story about social inequities in modern society. Cyberpunk settings are hard to make unique. Yet Akudama Drive provides a brilliant new interpretation of the genre—this is a show that pokes fun of our modern-day police system and the corrupt government. Kansai is quite literally a militarized police state. It's a frighteningly believable totalitarian state controlled by a politically motivated police force that watches the citizens' every move. In this world, resistance equals death. If you protest the government, you won't just be pepper-sprayed and arrested—the police will mercilessly slaughter you. The Executioners live in a tower right beside upscale hotels. The wealthy and privileged overlook the smog-filled city. Citizens live in slums below, a neon-lit wasteland covered in advertisements, garbage, and populated by the middle-class and homeless people. Kansai's version of a sporting event is public executions where the worst criminals get beheaded. Hundreds of bloodthirsty citizens fill a stadium to watch. The two executioners who pursue the Akudama squad are multilayered villains—consumed by nationalism, all they have is a desire to serve their fascist state. In this world, police officers craft their plans to kill criminals. Their only purpose is to punish rather than rehabilitate. Their duty is to "Remove the dregs of society," which means anyone who opposes their fascist control. They destroyed their political opposition in a war and then rebuilt their land as a paradise for the ultra-wealthy. These two characters are the personification of a failed justice system. A system that focuses on crime after it happens. Instead, they should focus on preventing crime by creating a better quality of life so people wouldn't need to turn to theft and murder in the first place. The anime uses its corrupt justice system to tell a potent message: If we treat people like animals, they'll act like animals. Barely any time is wasted on pesky exposition. Thank god it doesn't bother explaining sci-fi technology, unlike most modern anime. It follows the "Show-don't-tell" rule very well. If you care about stuff like world-building, there's plenty of visual story-telling in the background art. However, it may take multiple viewings to pick up on everything. We also get pieces of info for each episode in a diegetic puppet show. It plays out like a kids educational TV show with slapstick humor. I found it to be an excellent way to transition between settings while explaining introducing new concepts. People have plenty of minor critiques of this show, some deserved, but most are nitpicks. It has its fair share of contrived situations and plot conveniences. You could wonder, "Why didn't the woman at the food stand ask for Swindler to give the food back? If she was so serious about being paid, why wouldn't she ask for payment before giving her the food?" But at the end of the day, all of those critiques would be nitpicks. The sheer bombast and messages it tells alone are enough for me to forgive these flaws. If fast pacing will put you off, this isn't going to be for you. It purposefully moves quickly, but I was always able to follow it. The plot itself is procedural. Though it is sometimes cliche, you can never guess where it'll go. The twists feel earned rather than shoehorned. There are clues throughout the show to build up the mystery. This attention to fine details gives the show so much heart. You can rewatch the show and pick up on new things you didn't realize the first time. Minor lines of dialogue and subtle details in the background art contribute significantly to the rewatch value. Akudama Drive is a love letter to every Sci-fi classic of the 20th century. It waves its inspiration like a flag while providing a fresh and culturally relevant critique: It released at the best time in history. It's not without its flaws, but I love everything about it. Although the premise is simple, it has more thought-provoking story beats than you'd expect. With only a 12 episode show, it managed to tell a fantastic complete story, with one of the best endings in recent memory. You owe it to yourself to watch this underrated gem; this is one I'll be returning to in the future.

Juliko25

_Akudama Drive_ is an anime that seemed to come out of nowhere. Before it aired, all anyone knew about it was that it was made by a bunch of the staff behind the _Danganronpa_ games, which I admit I've never played. Plus, it was initially set to air in July of 2020, but was pushed to October of that year due to dealing with the pandemic. But once it started airing, people were talking about it like crazy. I didn't bother with it at first because it didn't seem like my cup of tea. However, a podcast I follow was praising it, along with the English dub, so out of curiosity, I decided to sit down and watch it, since I was bored and didn't have much I wanted to watch. Well...there are things I like about _Akudama Drive_, and I can see why people would like it, but...I don't know. It didn't really jive with me. So the story goes like this: In a dystopian future where Kansai became a vassal state of Kanto after a great war long ago, the power of the police is waning, and criminals known as Akudama run the streets with an iron fist. Four particularly skilled Akudama are sent a mysterious message from an unknown sender, tasked with freeing the death row serial killer Cutthroat from his impending execution. They break into the Kansai Police Headquarters to earn a big payday, with both an ordinary girl and a low level criminal getting roped into their spectacle. But as it turns out, the job is actually part of a bigger scheme arranged by a mysterious black cat, who wants all six of them to work together on a much bigger job: Infiltrating a train known as the Shinkansen, which the people are made to worship as a deity, and steal a vault containing precious cargo. The six must work together to finish the job and earn their large payday, all while avoiding the Kansai Police's Executioners, who are tasked with dealing with the Akudama when the police are unable to. First off, the animation for this series is pretty stellar. This was animated by Studio Pierrot, which is famous for working on shows like _Naruto_, though I mainly know them for other stuff like _Fancy Lala_, the old _Tokyo Mew Mew_ anime, _Fushigi Yuugi_, and so on. Their series tend to be wildly inconsistent in terms of quality, if the various episodes of _Naruto_ haven't clued you in. I'm gonna make a bold statement and say that _Akudama Drive_ is probably the best-looking show they've ever produced. The anime is very flashy and embraces it whole hog. The backgrounds are futuristic and well designed, the actual animation is pretty consistent, with the action scenes having some really well done choreography, and even the CGI is surprisingly well integrated. None of the CGI felt like it clashed horribly against the 2D environments, and I didn't notice any obvious animation goofs either, so good on Pierrot for making _Akudama Drive_ look great. I don't have as much to say on the soundtrack, as I'm admittedly not a fan of hard rock and heavy synth, but considering the show's setting and tone, it does fit the feel of the show. The characters are where things get rather murky. Other than Swindler and two other characters whose backgrounds get revealed halfway into the show, none of the Akudama evolve much past their initial archetypes. We've got the femme fatale, the lone wolf, the spineless coward, the crazy serial killer, and so on, and the series never really expands on their backgrounds or why they became such hardened criminals. I heard somewhere that the creators for the show deliberately didn't write backstories for them because whatever they went through in the past doesn't change the fact that they're hardened criminals, which I can understand, but I don't even know if they even said something like that or not. All the characters are pretty much defined by their one personality trait; Brawler likes fighting, Courier is a lone wolf, Hacker likes hacking into stuff, that's pretty much it. Plus, with the series being short, some of them start to behave in ways that seem out of character for them, especially since the anime doesn't show why or how they decided to change. For example, one character is apathetic and unsympathetic towards another character's death, but shortly after that, he becomes more emotional and when certain other characters die, he suddenly mourns them with hardly any explanation or development as to why he suddenly does so when it contradicts his earlier characterization. Honestly, the only character who really changes in a meaningful way throughout the show is Swindler, who actually does have the best arc, even if her first impression makes her comes off as kind of insufferable. Lady, if a guy tells you he doesn't want a coin that he dropped, leave it be! Don't go out of your way to give it back to him and use it as an excuse to not pay for food you tried to buy! It's no wonder you got caught up in the whole Akudama brouhaha, something the show itself even points out! _Akudama Drive_'s inconsistent writing also extends to its storyline and themes as well. Without spoiling anything, it seems to want to be both an epic sci-fi and a commentary on important ongoing social issues like police brutality and oppression under a corrupt government, but the show has a lot of trouble balancing these two genres. For one, a lot of the reveals later in the series raise a whole boatload of questions that not only don't get elaborated on, but are left hanging without any kind of resolution whatsoever, from the way its world works to the nature of certain characters' circumstances, to pretty much everything involving the true nature of Kanto. Furthermore, the anime really wants you to sympathize with the people who are oppressed by the cruel police regime, but the way it depicts the citizens' actions fail to elicit any sympathy, so for a show that has a lot to say about police brutality, it actually winds up having the so-called evil police shown as being in the right. I think part of this is because _Akudama Drive_ as a show is trying to mash two genres together and not doing a good job at fleshing either of them out. Let me put it this way: A blogger I like mentioned that in order to make a good drama series, you take a few ingredients, juggle them together and let them culminate into a powerful climax, with some mid-climaxes inbetween, and if something has too many of those ingredients, it overcomplicates the dish. I think this describes _Akudama Drive_ to a T, because it really, REALLY tries to be as super edgy, dramatic, and action-packed as possible, but in doing so, its attempts at trying to be more than just a silly, flashy action series with lots of blood and gore fall flat because it took on too many different ideas and doesn't try to adequately flesh them out in ways that allow said ideas to blossom and meld together. I've heard somebody say that _Akudama Drive_ is basically a giant love letter to movie tropes, and all of its episode titles reference various crime films. Maybe _Akudama Drive_ would have been better off if it just picked one or two of the themes/genres it wanted to explore and critique rather than trying to tackle too much at once. That does seem to be a problem with quite a lot of 12-13 episode anime, doesn't it? So yeah, _Akudama Drive_ is a super edgy cyberpunk anime that tries to tackle important issues but falls flat on its face because of being unable to decide between being a commentary on important issues or a rip-roaring sci-fi heist. But if you're into that kind of stuff, _Akudama Drive_ is definitely the anime for you. There is one thing I do want to say though: The English dub for this anime is absolutely amazing. It's pretty much the main reason I decided to watch this, as Kocha Sound (The studio FUNimation hired to dub it) went all out in utilizing remote recording and getting extremely experimental with casting both newcomers and veterans all across the US, and the end result is absolutely one of the best dubs of the 2020s. Also, hey Crunchyroll! Hire Kocha Sound to dub more of your shows, especially the ones you don't give a shit about, like _Uma Musume, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, Heaven's Design Team_, or _Do It Yourself!_! You are literally sitting on a mountain of dubbable content that could easily sustain training a generation of actors, as well as adaptation and engineering crews, in remote recording pockets while also cultivating the Dallas pool and you can't even be bothered to do that!! Studios like Kocha, Sound Cadence, Nano, Central Command, Okratron, and pretty much every LA dubbing studio ever are also better at promoting the stuff they dub better than you do, back when you didn't swallow FUNimation like a boa constrictor! Stop being stingy about remote recording and treating actors, dubbing studios, and engineering crews decently and get your shit together!

Flintz

~~~ Akudama Drive: Uma Insanidade Linda~~~ O gênero Cyberpunk sempre foi algo que me chamou com o lançamento do jogo "Cyberpunk: 2077", no qual eu fiquei extremamente apaixonado depois de jogar e terminá-lo, e como qualquer pessoa quando se interessa por algum gênero novo, fui atrás de mais do mesmo tipo, principalmente em animes. 'Ghost in The Shell', 'Akira', 'Serial Experiments Lain' e 'Psycho-Pass' além de um rpg na qual joguei com os alguns amigos com o tema de Cyberpunk, foram experiências que me fizeram querer saber mais e mais do gênero, fazendo com que eu chegasse em 'Akudama Drive'. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/29/ba/98/29ba987f62f06c4f98e06d8082170ca3.jpg)~~~ 'Akudama Drive' se passa em 'Kansai', __uma cidade que te cega com suas cores neon e propagandas surgindo de todos os cantos.__ Nessa cidade existe todo um misticismo em volta de um lugar chamado __'Kanto'__, na qual as pessoas de Kansai são devotas graças ás ações que o povo de Kanto realizou diante de uma guerra que ocorria em Kansai, na qual os fizeram ser vistos como salvadores sempre agradecendo ao __'Shinkansen', uma espécie de trem-bala na qual o governo de Kansai envia oferendas à Kanto e sendo retribuídos com presentes vindo do local,__ tal qual é possível ser visto pelos trilhos externos que passam por Kansai emanando um áurea colorida por onde passa, porém as cicatrizes da guerra são notadas tanto pelos destroços que uma enorme bomba causou à uma grande parte de Kansai, no qual são possíveis ver ao redor do local de impacto da bomba, além de ser responsável __pela separação de Kanto e Kansai, causando um ponto de explosão tão forte que criou uma 'zona-neutra' ao redor do impacto que é impossível qualquer pessoa ir sem ser morrer no caminho.__ Conforme a história passa, descobrimos o que realmente é Kanto e o que aconteceu com os moradores de lá, e suas verdadeiras intenções com Kansai. A cidade de Kansai apesar de mostrar toda a beleza de suas luzes fortes e sua auto idealização de paraíso, __esconde um mundo podre, corrupto e cruel.__ ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e3/bc/17/e3bc179a5b790f08848fd6be6609c970.jpg)~~~ Na cidade de 'Kansai', aqueles que cometem crimes, são intitulados de 'Akudama', porém, há aqueles Akudamas que são mais perigosos que outros, e nossos personagens principais são esses tais Akudamas perigosos, __bem perigosos.__ Os Akudamas de classe S são combatidos pelos 'Executores', um grupo especial da policia na qual são especificamente treinados para lidarem com esses Akudamas. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/66/cf/0d/66cf0d63e3e6c76e4f71328bbe55347a.jpg)~~~ A história acompanha a principal protagonista __'Trapaceira'__, na qual é dada o codinome. Ela é nos apresentada como uma cidadã ordinária de Kansai, que cumpre o horário de trabalho e vive sua vida normalmente, até então. Após um longo dia de trabalho, Trapaceira vai andando até sua casa, quando no meio da rua, avista um gatinho que iria ser atropelado, rapidamente ela corre em direção ao gato para tira-lo do caminho dos carros, quase provocando um acidente, após um pequena comoção ser gerada no local, ela corre dali e vai parar em um beco aonde deixa o gatinho, nesse mesmo beco ela avista um estabelecimento que vende __'Takoyakis',__ um prato que segundo ela 'Faz anos que não come um', então, aproveitando a fome, ela se dirige até o estabelecimento, lá, um outro homem faz um pedido de outro Takoyaki, porém, o mesmo deixa uma __moeda de 500 ienes cair no chão sem perceber__, porém, nossa protagonista percebe a moeda, e ao tentar devolver a moeda ao dono, ele recusa em um tom de arrogância dizendo que 'Dinheiro que caiu no chão traz azar', e __sai com sua moto deixando a garota ali__. Após o ocorrido, Trapaceira guarda a moeda de 500 ienes, pretendo devolve-la ao homem, porém quando vai pagar a comida, percebe que está sem dinheiro, porém, o Takoyaki custa 500 ienes, mas ela se recusar a usar dinheiro que não é seu para pagar a comida, o que faz ela ser denunciada pela dona da loja por comer sem pagar, fazendo com que as autoridades levem ela à delegacia para ser penalizada. Lá ela tenta resolver o problema argumentando como robô atendente que está dando um sermão nela, quando, de repente, __o local é atacado pelos Akudamas de classe S__, causando um enorme caos dentro do local, com todas as pessoas lá presente fugindo de lá, a garota tenta fugir também, mas ao avistar um gatinho passeando pelo local, vai atrás dele para tentar salva-lo daquela loucura. Ao finalmente conseguir alcançar o gato, ela acaba no meio de uma briga entre os Akudamas. Todos os Akudamas ali foram convocados por um mesmo fornecedor para resgatar um outro Akudama que havia sido aprisionado, se completassem a missão receberiam 100.000.000 de ienes (se não estou enganado era essa a quantidade), porém o tal fornecedor se revela ser o__ mesmo gato na qual a Trapaceira estava tentando salvar __(não literalmente o gato, mas alguém controlando ele), fazendo com que os Akudamas parassem a briga ao ver que teriam que agir junto, porém, Trapaceira não era constatada como Akudama, fazendo os outros ameaçarem matá-la, forçando ela a mentir sua identidade dizendo também ser uma Akudama, tendo que contra sua vontade cooperar com os criminosos. Todos os Akudamas são conhecidos pelos codinomes, assim foi que a protagonista se intitulou 'Trapaceira'. Após resgataram o último Akudama, o gato faz uma proposta para os Akudamas, com o pagamento de 1 bilhão de ienes, o plano era simples, entrar no Shinkansen e roubar a oferenda destinada à Kanto. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/12/73/cd/1273cd1d984e34ea97306e85c89a9fc9.jpg) ~~~ __'Mensageiro'__, um dos Akudamas, é o mesmo homem na qual a protagonista encontrou na barraca de Takoyaki. Ele é o mais quieto de todos presentes e tem um ar misterioso que paira ao seu redor. Ele também é um dos personagens principais com mais destaque assim como a Trapaceira, ele sempre cumpre o trabalho que lhe é alocado. (Sem muitos detalhes por que é muito bom ver o desenvolvimento dele) ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/93/6c/87/936c87f23be8bbf0dc919a82c39d0b5f.jpg)~~~ 'Lutador' é o clássico personagem absurdamente forte fisicamente que sempre anseia por um desafio que soa impossível. Ele peca na inteligência, mas é um personagem super carismático e que desenvolve uma relação de admiração e irmandade com 'Malandro'. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/db/eb/e9/dbebe9dc75b4a6089c9bf5cee2e44eb1.jpg)~~~ 'Malandro' é o famoso mentiroso compulsivo, ele mente tanto a sua sentença de prisão, quanto seus tais 'feitos impossíveis' apenas para se gabar para seu 'irmão' Lutador, o qual desenvolve uma grande amizade. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/60/cd/c3/60cdc3035043178806159bc47726781b.jpg)~~~ 'Doutora', como o nome já diz, é uma doutora psicopata que gosta de ter os destino das vidas da pessoa e de si mesmo em suas mãos, ela sente prazer em ter esse controle e faria de tudo para se auto beneficiar. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/de/e8/d7/dee8d7f582d5a641f4b6f6de2f6f3764.jpg)~~~ 'Degolador', um puro psicopata que seu maior prazer é matar, tem um vício com a cor vermelha e não se importa se perde um ou mais membros do corpo, ele também sente uma enorme atração pela Trapaceira, fazendo com que a protegesse a todo custo. Ele também é aquele Akudama que foi detido e resgatado no inicio do anime. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/2e/54/c92e544f3ce6183b60be50d7ad86f256.jpg)~~~ 'Hacker', também auto explicativo, é um hacker extremamente habilidoso, considera um gênio, que anseia sempre pelo mais difícil e adora superar as próprias capacidades. Todos esses personagens defendem seus interesses e tem seus ideais por trás de suas ações, fazendo alguns deles serem mais do que __'criminosos por que sim'. __ Apenas dei um grande resumão de todos eles. Há também outros personagens como os Executores, que apesar de não terem tanto desenvolvimento como os Akudamas, são extremamente importantes e decisivos ao decorrer da obra. ~~~img220(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/cf/d4/27/cfd427a778b7c59e286cf8a2d6b4aa60.jpg)~~~ Akudama Drive se tornou um dos meus animes favoritos, seja pela sua estética impecável, por seus personagens incríveis (alguns deles), pela protagonista extremamente bem escrita e super carismática, pela animação linda e cenas de ação sensacionais e intensas, pela história com diversos plots e mistérios com uma pitada de terror por trás, pelo questionamentos que a Trapaceira faz sobre bem e mal, além de seu final IMPECÁVEL, um dos melhores finais que já presenciei em um anime, é simplesmente fantástico o decorrer dos 3 últimos episódios que eu considero os melhores junto do episódio 6. Akudama Drive pode não agradar muitos por causa de seu ritmo acelerado ou das leis da física que o anime quebra, mas eu sinceramente acho meio injusto você querer que um anime assim não tenha grandes liberdades criativas, principalmente se ambientando num mundo Cybepunk. Minha única reclamação talvez seja a quantidade de episódios, mas isso é culpa do material original, acho que poderia haver mais desenvolvimento de alguns personagens, porém, isso não afeta no quão incrível todo o resto é. Tem bastante gore, mas infelizmente eu vi a porra da versão censurada que eu odiei. Aliás, apreciem uma das melhores aberturas dos animes: youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ8iRrphkQo&pp=ygUVYWt1ZGFtYSBkcml2ZSBvcGVuaW5n)

Lunchtable

~~~SPOILERS BELOW!~~~ ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/3jvt3p.png)~~~ ~~~__Production__~~~Animation was really great, I was honestly surprised by how well the CGI blended with the 2d animation throughout the show, although CGI was only used sparingly. Animators did a great job of bringing the cyberpunk city aesthetic to life with a healthy dose of vivid neon colors, detailed and busy city backgrounds, and a sharp artistic vision that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. Combat/action scenes were also very well animated with great camera movement, pacing, and some decent hand to hand choreography to top it off. ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/raeed1.png)~~~ Soundtrack was good, I thought some song choices were a little odd for what was happening on screen but nothing too damning. I loved the sound design of the gunfire/explosions, overall I'd say the sound design just lent itself really well to what was happening on screen, more intense scenes were met with an equally chaotic soundtrack that really helped bring some of the most important action sequences to the next level. ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/2y2kzs.png)~~~ ~~~__Plot & Characters:__~~~Unfortunately I think the underlying story/characters don't hold up to how awesome the production for this anime is. Pretty much the entire cast of characters here is just so underwhelming, we really don't learn anything about these characters at all beyond a surface level, and it really makes it hard to get attached to them in a meaningful way. I think this is especially true for the main character Swindler, by the time the show ends you know just as much about her as when you started. Swindler adapts to being a part of the Akudama crew way too quickly, so much so that it makes her less believable as a character. Any regret or remorse she has is shown through only a few scenes which consist of her just sitting away from the rest of the group staring longingly at the ground, we don't get any insight into her thought process really, and I think this presents to be a problem for the show as a whole. ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/nei2tz.png)~~~ One of the biggest tools an author can make use of to better develop a character is internal monologue, showing how characters all react differently to events/things around them, showing characters different thoughts on their current situation, so many ways a characters own thought process can help show their motivations and morals and yet throughout the entirety of Akudama Drive this is something that is pretty much wholly absent. Characters like Courier and Swindler just do as they are told, even when Courier does refuse to do something it only takes the bare minimum amount of convincing for him to comply, his thought process on the matter not showcased at all, making his character fall flat. This lack of thought process and reasoning behind any of the characters actions makes them feel forced, and it becomes hard to feel anything for these characters during emotional moments like Brawlers death. Similar to Swindler, the side cast as a whole barely get any backstory at all. What is provided is really just the bare minimum information needed for the character, and some characters don't even get that. Characters like Hacker, Brawler, Hoodlum, and Doctor are the worst offenders when it comes to this. Apprentice had great potential to be an awesome character, but the show ends before her arc really completes properly. In the second half of the show she is seen struggling with her beliefs and even sympathizing with the Akudama at one point, all culminating in a scene in the final episode where a little girl asks her why the executioners killed her parents, only for the camera to cut away and not come back to her at all, we don't get to see the result of this interaction in the slightest, a complete fumble of her character by the writers. Despite my criticism, I do think the final episode of the show wrapped things up nicely, and Brother and Sisters arcs were fun to watch. ~~~img500(https://files.catbox.moe/z7j1c3.png)~~~ ~~~__Conclusion__~~~PROS: + Great production and style + Character designs are fantastic + Great action sequences CONS: - Plot leaves a lot to be desired - Characters are barely developed if at all - Overall lack of depth to story I think if you are just looking for some well produced, fast-paced action reminiscent of an anime like Cyberpunk Edgerunners, this might satisfy you. Otherwise, if you are looking for a deeper story or characters of any kind, I'd steer clear of this.

Akudama Drive

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