[Master]

Before it started airing, Akame Ga Kill was the anime I was most looking forward to. Sadly, that excitement was brutally murdered even before the end of the first episode—and nothing in the remainder of first half of the series did anything but push me further away.

Now before we get into it, let me be clear up front. There are a lot of things done well in Akame Ga Kill. The art style is great, the animation is fluid, and the music does a good job of supporting the action—which likewise is a ton of fun to watch. Thus, what ruins it for me is more along the lines of the setting and the way in which the story is told.

[Note: To properly discuss the shortcomings of Akame Ga Kill, this article completely spoils the ending of the first episode and has minor to moderate spoilers for the rest of the first half of the series spread throughout.]

Spoiler:

On premise alone, Akame Ga Kill sounds great: A country boy comes to the city looking for work so as to help his poor village—only to find out that the government is hopelessly corrupt and the rich prey upon the poor—literally, in some cases. Thus he has no choice but to join a group of rebel assassins and fight “the Man.” The first episode pulls an excellent bait and switch. Tatsumi, our naive hero, comes to the big city where he is treated like crap by the soldier enlistment office, taken advantage of by a thief (thus losing all of his money), and forced to spend the night on the street. But as the story progresses, he is spotted by a kind, noble girl and taken into her loving home.