Forum - View topicEpisode Review: Akame ga KILL!
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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So I finally watched the final episode and I thought it was a fitting end, although I thought the previous episode was stronger. Overall though I really enjoyed this series. There are usually only a few anime that I am super excited for when the next episode comes out and this one was one of them for the past two seasons. It's no masterpiece but I really, really liked it, and its one I want to rewatch again. A B- is a fair score, though I would have probably rated it higher (just cause I liked it that much). The fact that the series was actually willing to have practically everyone die permanently also earned my respect. And I have to agree, Esdeath flicking the blood from her stump to blind Akame was pretty cool (as was Leone's smashing the prime minister's face in, complete with some really disgusting sound effects).
Oh and I thought that Akame's final imperial arm attack was really dangerous to her, that's why she said she had to be careful when polishing the sword. I mean, she seemed to be in a lot of pain when she used the attack, she was coughing up blood, and she was left with some pretty bad looking scars when she was finished using it. That can't be good for one's health, which is why I assumed she never used it before. |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I didn't say the show lacks any dramatic flair whatsoever. I have been saying that the level of drama has been sufficient to elicit some emotional response, but has never gone overboard. Your critique is especially inneffective as, back at the time Sheele died, numerous people were claiming that the show didn't do ENOUGH to create a real sense of drama from her death. Now it's too much drama? No. It was gentle drama before she was brutally sliced into pieces and fed to a dog. If they hadn't given us ANY drama under those circumstances, her death scene would have simply been excessively cruel.
Anime evaluation is full of assumptions. You are making TONS of assumptions in your response right here about how she could have or should have used it earlier. It seems more prudent to me to just go with a single assumption (she decided to keep it a secret because she is a secretive assassin) rather than the numerous assumptions you are going on. |
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Calsolum
 Posts: 898 |
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@leatherhead333
I didn't mean that Exdeath respected tatsumi's belief but his tenacity to not abandon them despite how much she threatened or rewarded(to the point of ignoring his affilations) him, of course I do realize the contradiction in this but I think she values his life more than his ideals at the point she was trying to prevent him from being executed. I actually think this is the sign of her frozen heart being thawed and of her tolerating another point of view(an agree to disagree moment) contradictory to everything that she knows. if it were anyone else she wouldn't bother and simply execute them. And(at least I think it should be) it's really hard for her to think of tatsumi's beliefs other than 'weak' since she grew up her entire life with that belief that the strong always subjugate(defeat or kill is also covered) the weak, and if you don't subjugate the weak then you are not strong. It is clear from her back story on the island that she wasn't 'right' in the head as a 'normal' human but because of that she was considered to have the perfect mindset to survive her environment; her father was the first to realize that and perhaps(speculation on my part) if she she had gotten 'professional' help she could have turned into a normal human with the ability to choose 'good' or 'evil'. Her desire to torture people relentlessly in my opinion comes from a need to affirm that she is indeed stronger than them so she has the right and is obligated to show them their place. if they were strong they wouldn't have to endure this so because they are weak they must be punished as severely as possible by me because i am strong. keep in mind this is only my theory of Exdeath as a person, not a 1 dimensional character and based on the established past events. Something can easily pop up in the manga that completely crushes my theory but until then unless someone can prove otherwise i believe it to be a 'logical' interpretation of her. on another point while it is true that there wasn't any subtle indication(or any) from akame that her imperial arms had a 'secret' move, but did any of the other ones have any either? The only ones i recall being hinted at before occurring was susanoos and Exdeaths. Bols used his trump without any hints to it, lubbas last threads wasn't hinted at, God's Wings had no prior setup etc. as to why it wasn't used in life threatening situations till now I believe it is because she valued the overall aim of nightraid more than she did her life and the individual mission therefore she always held it back because it was not the right time. or she needed to stay alive no matter what to stop kurome and with her now dead that restriction was lifted. either explanation can be applied to akame and i dont feel that it is unnatural To be honest I don't think she really cares about her other subordinates that much and she's only pretending to. Sometime earlier in the anime or manga she said spoiler[that the more you care for your subordinates the more they are willing to risk their lives and produce results ] @ChibiKangaroo to add on to your comment i think youre right that Anime evaluations is full of assumptions but it think some should be considered 'stronger' than others provided there is a logical reason for arriving at it. which is what was done regarding akames trump |
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leatherhead333
 Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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Well Esdeath DID simply stand there and let Akame do her transformation. Wasn't nearly as long as a SSJ transformation but still  .
True they had to be coaxed into unleashing their true power but there was almost always a reason for it. For example Goku knew he didn't stand a chance against Buu unless he went SSJ3 but doing this would cause him to lose time faster on earth which is why he hid it until their fight. Goku's Spirit Bomb has always been a last resort due to the fact it takes literally episodes to charge and isn't usually practical unless his opponent is distracted or over confident. In fact the main reason most of the villains never revealed their true power was overconfidence which a completely different issue altogether. Frieza and Cell are pretty much classic examples of this. However we're talking about someone who conceals her power to be intentionally secretive not someone who doesn't use their power because their opponent is beneath them.
There was no sense of drama because she was barely an established character in the series. She had her origin story right before she was killed off. So in that sense the series was expecting you to care about her on the level you would someone who has been properly developed as long as Mine and Tatsumi were before they were killed off. This is why her death was particularly melodramatic. The show tries to force all these sad emotions on you about a person that barely got any screentime. The next episode was even dedicated to the characters getting over her. Now that's not to say that episode didn't have good stuff in it (I've already said how I liked that scene with Tatsumi and Akame) but all this stuff over someone who was practically irrelevant to series and we were given hardly any time to become attached too? It's just like watching the news about someone who was killed in an unfortunate accident. You'd probably feel a little sorry for them but NEAR the level you would if it happened to someone close to you. Might sound cruel but that's reality. Overall Sheele just had a quirky personality and there wasn't much else to her. Killing her off quickly would have been cruel but would have been appropriate in establishing just how suddenly a good friend can be taken from you and the pain of bearing the resulting sorrow.
But I'm not really making assumptions. I'm simply debating what practical reason she would have for not using this power sooner. The anime simply gives no explanation for this. It's almost like last minute fanfiction. If you are in a battle or death why wouldn't you use something to make yourself stronger when in a pinch? As I said she didn't receive any sort of backlash from the transformation. She grunted a little bit at first but other than that she was perfectly fine. Did the transformation shorten her life? Was she secretly doing some training that would have subtly hinted she mastered the power of her sword? Of course not. I think there is a difference between making a characters powers secretive to the other characters and making their power secretive to the other characters AND the audience. It's fine that she would hide this from other people but revealing this at the LAST second just opens a pool of questions. This could probably be due to the fact the series barely focuses on Akame at all which one the show's bigger faults. I think it's possible to surprise your audience but then later they could go "ah that makes sense when you take note of this and this". I simply can't make any reasonable excuse for why or how Akame's powerup makes sense not being revealed or even hinted at till now. It's far more likely that it's just the series going with cool fights > logic which is normally fine to me had this not been the final battle against the most powerful character in the series.
That's pretty much the same conclusion I came to as well actually. Esdeath is one of the only characters that received a decent amount of characterization. And although I didn't like how the series treated her over time she was interesting enough to the point I was willing to look past her track record to see what the anime would do with her. The showcasing of how she is set in her own ideals DOES make sense so I'm not really against that. It's just the fact she was never really given time to develop due to Tatsumi that makes her relationship with him so far fetched. Referencing back to their first meeting Esdeath was madly in love with Tatsumi before he ever said a single word to her. It was based off his innocent cute smile and potential to mold him into her own ideal image alone. The bedroom scene further attributes to this considering Esdeath treats him more like a puppy than a person. And even their following moments together are pretty much the same cycle of pleading and bargaining with him. Combine that will how over the top they play it their love almost felt like it was merely for comedic and shipping purposes instead of an organic part of Esdeath's character. While I initially thought the idea of a person like Esdeath being in love was ridiculous I found myself liking the concept only to be disappointed that it was cut short of it's potential. But that's just the cynical romantic in me talking 
Bols had a reason to hide his though. Not only did it involve likely blowing up his imperial arms but he'd receive a good amount of damage from it despite being trained to be resistant to explosions (which I'm not even sure how such a thing is possible btw  ). Sussano's true power was a great strain on their leader's body and took years off her life.
Esdeath's wasn't used simply for the fact she enjoyed fighting her opponents and only used it for on opponents who's strength she had to forcefully accept as equal to hers. Finally I don't think Lubba ever had a trump card. The thread he used in his last fight was to counter the guys portal ability if I recall correctly but wasn't particularly special. He was using the same thread he always has. As you can see the main point here is that most of these trump cards had repercussions to them which is why it makes sense they weren't used practically. Akame's was a strain on her body but not to the point it did anything aside from causing extreme exhaustion from overusing it. But she only ended up overusing it because she was fighting the strongest fighter in the series. Against pretty much anyone else? She'd crush them almost instantly. There is no way they'd be able to keep up with her. One slice practically means instant death. Soooooo when her friends are in danger she still decides not to use it why exactly? There are to many plotholes with that logic in my opinion. Your assumptions only raise questions I've asked like WHEN she gained this power or WHY exactly she refused to use it till now. Regarding your comment to Esdeath I think the fact that she took the time to visit her dead subordinates graves shows she at least cared a little about them despite their failings. She even thought about sharing food with them after they came together again (before their deaths). I think it's safe to conclude that Esdeath was sincere in caring for her comrades. While what she said in your reference might elude to the fact she doesn't really care for them I think there is to much evidence against that to consider it a true claim. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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The point is, Akame is an assassin. She is secretive by nature. That is the one concrete assumption that we are safe in making. She doesn't have to give a reason to any other character or the audience as to why she would keep her trump card secret until the end. That is just baked into the characterization of a secretive assassin. You can speculate if you want about it, but I think it is kind of pointless. Besides, as someone else mentioned, most of the characters never revealed their trump card until the last possible moment (WHICH MAKES SENSE FOR A TRUMP CARD). People are over-analyzing this issue.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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First of all she did more than keep it secret by omission, she actively went against something she had said earlier. We have not been given any reason to suspect that she was lying at the time, and the only reasons anyone can come up with for her lying are not supported by any material in the anime. You're essentially making unsupported assumptions and grand generalisations to then create scenarios to "support" your assertion of her lying, which is just very shaky reasoning. You're second-guessing a character's motivations when there is no evidence to go on, not even crumbs. Secondly, your logic fails because you try and claim that any ass-pull by the writers could be passed off as just Akame being secretive. Let's use reductio ad absurdum. Had her powerup been transforming into a dragon and she had chomped Esdeath in two, would you have been so willing to pass it off as just Akame being secretive? Of course not. You would have been baffled by where the hell that came from. So your blind assertion that the circumstances of Akame's powerup do not matter because she's secretive by nature does not hold water. Come on man, I expected better from you. |
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ChibiKangaroo
Posts: 2941 |
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There are only two rational explanations for the discrepancy. Either the writer(s) just forgot about what she said (your belief), or they just decided to have her lie to Tatsumi to keep her trump card a secret (my belief). Given that there are only two rational explanations, it is not like this is some crazy assumption or "grand generalization." It is a simple choice between two plausible explanations. I chose to give the writers the benefit of the doubt given that 50/50 choice. You don't. That's your choice. Mine is completely consistent with her character, so I feel perfectly fine in accepting it.
That's a ridiculous example that would not be in any way supported by the character. My explanation is supported by her character type and what we've seen thus far. She was a secretive assassin since she was a little girl. That allows for her to lie and keep secrets from her fellow night raid members. That does not allow her to turn into a dragon and chomp Esdeath in two. |
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Calsolum
Posts: 898 |
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well we seem to be spinning in circles on certain topics so ill take this moment to jump off some topics unless we get some new angle or content.
@leatherhead333 YMMV but i thought it was necessary for such an extended scene regarding Sheeles death specifically because hers was the first and the show wanted to portray how much the death of a friend hurts tatsumi since he is where our focus would be directed at and how tatsumi observes the others taking it. unless im mistaken the time taken for him and others to reminisce over fallen comrades was never as long again. on a side note, though sheele gets little screentime the deceased members of nightraid are given more character via flashbacks and side stories "I think there is a difference between making a characters powers secretive to the other characters and making their power secretive to the other characters AND the audience." IMO revealing akames powerup/gamble at the LAST second (given that my assumptions before are not invalidated) does not strike me as 'bad' but from what i can interpret you see this as a kind of Deus ex machina event. and as long as you cant accept my train of thought it will indeed be that so im afraid i dont see any more points to argue on, though id like to remind you that not all Deus ex machina plot events are a bad thing. lol the Cynic in me says that Esdeath wasnt capable of truly caring for her subordinates and everything was an act but i must say it would be for the best if im proven wrong oh about lubbas trump earlier i kinda got the anime and manga mixed up, so yeah as far as the anime is concerned he did indeed use his regular strings |
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