Akame ga KILL!

Episode 18

While Tatsumi and Wave both contemplate the losses on their respective sides, Wave also worries about Kurome's shaky health and Tatsumi returns to the verbal scrapping he did with Mine prior to Chelsea's arrival. The Jaegers speak to Borick, the Imperial spy in the Path of Peace religion, about defending against an anticipated attack by Night Raid, so he dispatches his own elite force, the four Demons of Rakshasha, to hunt them down. One uses his body manipulation ability to confront Akame, while two others locate Lubbock (despite his best efforts to go incognito) and try to take him out. They soon discover that his Cross Tail is nothing to be trifled with and that Lubbock is quite capable of holding his own in a stand-up fight, while Akame's attacker, a former fellow assassin, also finds out that Imperial Arms can have some nasty side effects when used deviously.

Episode 18 is one of those episodes which flies by so quickly that less seems to happen in it than what actually does. That is due in large part to it breaking its trend of primarily focusing on one large running fight and instead splitting its time between two smaller ones, each of which offers plenty of high-powered action, spectacular moves, and applications of Imperial Arms and no shortage of bloodshed. (In other words, the series' bread and butter is well in evidence here.) Akame getting another starring turn is to be expected, but this time the wire-wielding Lubbock also gets the rare feature treatment, and as has been hinted at before, Lubbock is no less a bad-ass than anyone else in Night Raid. That he is quite capable when confronting foes that depend mostly on skill has been well-established, but here his ability to stand up even against foes that rely on brute force also shows, and he is no less pragmatic than what Tatsumi or the others have come; when he accomplishes his objective, he attempts to retreat rather than duke it out until the bitter end. Seeing a hero who can flirt with and admire a pretty opponent but not let that keep him from being merciless in finishing her off is also a pleasant change of pace.

Otherwise the series is mostly up to its usual tricks. You have a powerful individual (Borick) who is using drugs and perhaps other influences to effectively enslave nubile Path of Peace followers so that he can enjoy his job; in other words, yet another competitor that the series offers up for Overblown Bastard of the Year and a villain that audiences can thus easily hate. Those scenes and shots of some of Akame's clothing being damaged in her fight deliver the series' requisite minor doses of fan service, but even so the series is still not even close to being on the same level as the more concentrated fan service titles out there this season. No, the true fan service here is the graphic bloodshed, and on that count it delivers, too.

None of the foes directly faced were Jaegers, though, so this episode's battles felt like merely a warm-up for the next main event, which based on the Next Episode preview should be immediately forthcoming. The action and side scenes are good enough to merit the rating, but the juicier bits will require more meaningful opponents.

Rating: B

Akame ga KILL! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.