Akame ga Kill / First Impressions

「妹を斬る」 (Imouto wo Kiru)
“Kill the Little Sister”

It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be predictable though. It feels like a nice break before the big finale and the death comes with good reason and a proper back story. My sources tell me that Kurome still hasn’t passed away in the manga; in fact, she does a lot more in the later chapters of the manga that were never animated. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to go through all that extra story and I can understand their reasons for killing off Kurome at this point in time. The Jaegers have been lingering around long enough (except for Esdeath who is out and about) and with Kurome’s declining health, it’s about time that she got her proper send off as well. Although Kurome is not a character that I particularly liked or had an interest in, it’s still sad to see her killed by none other than her own sister. I’ll never understand why the two just had to kill one another. I’m assuming it’s because they don’t want the other to die by anyone else’s hands, but to me, I would never have the guts to kill any of my siblings. Although, I’ve also never had to put my ideals of changing the country ahead of my family either so our situations aren’t necessarily relatable.

Putting Akame and Kurome aside, I think this episode gives a lot of depth to Wave as well. Wave has been shafted for half his screen time since he appeared and he definitely deserves better. I knew from the get-go that Wave was a great counterpart to Tatsumi, but it doesn’t mean anything if Wave doesn’t get enough airtime. This episode shows that Wave and Kurome clearly have a special relationship going (similar to Tatsumi and Akame) and I empathize with his situation of letting Kurome walk into a losing fight. No one would want to see their friend/collegue/significant other(?) walk into a battle knowing that they’re already slowly dying on the inside. Seeing Wave pick up and carry away Kurome was probably more than I thought she deserved, but I think it shows the appropriate closure for this couple. Looking ahead, I don’t think we’ll see much of Wave and Run anymore, so it was a nice final moment touch. It wouldn’t make sense if Wave or Run suddenly jumped the gun to join the Night Raid – nor does it make sense for them to suddenly attack the Night Raid – so I’d imagine that they’d journey somewhere else after the country’s Prime Minister dies.

A lot of people were speculating at the end of last week’s episode that either Mine or Susanoo were still alive, but this episode confirms that they have officially moved on. It’s nice that they gave a few moments for mourning, despite it being brief. I wasn’t expecting any sort of pause before the next big fight, but here we have the Prime Minister plotting something with the Emperor and Esdeath is battling out the outskirts by herself. I still think the ending is rushed more than it should be, but with only two episodes left, there’s almost no time to tie off the loose ends. So my predictions are as follows: One episode to kill off the Prime Minister and another episode to rebuild the country. Perhaps there will be a time-skip, but I don’t anticipate many more deaths either after the next episode. The Night Raid might boil down to just Akame and Tatsumi, with Esdeath, Run and Wave still kicking around somewhere. I don’t think they’ll kill off the Emperor (since he’s just an easily impressionable child) and someone will likely guide him to being a better leader. The ending can always end up more gruesome than I’ve imagined, but I don’t think there are many others that the series can kill off at this point.

Bottom Line – @RCCherrie: Not a terribly unpredictable ep of #AkamegaKill but nice to see some closure on Akame and Kurome #akame_anime

Full-length images: 15, 30, 32.

 

Preview

35 Comments

  1. I wonder if we’ll be lucky enough for this show to get the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood treatment once the manga is done or nearly done. Although Fullmetal got it just because it was so incredibly popular and Akame ga Kill is probably no where near generating the kind of sales that Fullmetal generated. One can dream though (and while I’m at it I’ll dream up reboot of Soul Eater too).

    Absaroka
    Reply

    1. Kill the Logic

      – Last episode, people were cheering for Tatsumi’s execution & now all of a sudden they’re rebelling???
      – A danger beast that has been under a church for decades awakens bec of a sword fight? No bombs, no explosions, just clashing swords. How convenient.

      If they’re gonna do an anime-original ending then it should still at least make some sense. Bad nonsensical writing is bad nonsensical writing.

      esdesu
      Reply

    2. +1 for those remakes. Akame ga Kiru!, Soul Eater… add Claymore and Rurouni Kenshin too.
      Tenkû Senki Shurato aswell, wikipedia says it’ll be a remake but that’s as fake as it seems, lol.

      Nico
      Reply

  3. +1 on reboot of Soul Eater….but I kinda want them to keep that cool painting-like art style. Also, I just feel bad for Kurome. True, she was a brainwashed maniac high on drugs, but our imouto was still in there 🙁

    True
    Reply

  6. The only thing I felt was off in the fight was that random giant Danger Beast appearing. I just wonder what the point of it was besides just a convenient excuse to kill off Kurome’s last two puppets and filling up time.

    Otherwise, enjoyed the fight and giving a bit of character development to those involved.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

    1. I’d say the obvious answer to that was to show how well the sisters could work together and what a team they could have made if they didn’t get separated both physically and mentally.

      Sure it’s filler and anime original but it was still pretty fun to see.

      Geebun
      Reply

  9. Damn… I know Kurome was ax-crazy killer, who made her victims into pet fighting zombies… but still can’t but feel for her this episode. Too bad Akame could not get her to defect back when she escaped herself… Their little stint together against “wild Danger Beast appears!” shows what a wonderful fighting pair they could have been.
    With this settled, and both Lan and Wave but a step from defection or at least abandoning the Empire cause, we have practicvally one obstacle to overcome: Esdeath. She is still insanely powerful and neither rebel Imperial Arms users not legions of redshirts seem to even bother her a bit. I predict a titanic battle ahead…
    But, apparently, that bastard Minister has yet one trick up his sleeve, manipulating the young Emperor into using some “ultimate” Imperial Arms apparently only usable by royal blood. I am not beyond suspecting that Wave and Lan might team up with Night Raid to stop it’s rampage…

    ewok40k
    Reply

  11. Yeah Manga Wave would never have let this happen. He far too close to his companions in the manga to let them go into a fight that could kill them alone. (In fact he dislikes Night Raid purely because they have killed several of his friends.)

    Envyus
    Reply

  12. Also I still hate the fact that Mine killed Budo last episode. Given that it was just shown that Mine with her most powerful shot ever while capable of overpowering his attack was not enough to actually hurt him.

    He was also stated to be Esdeath’s equal and the anime skipped over his hate of Honest and his statement that after the rebels were dealt with that he would remove Honest from power.

    Envyus
    Reply

  13. Any chance for covering the manga after the anime ends? The last few chapters form there have been pretty good IMHO… (and it hurts so much to see how many things have changed from the source material).

    But oh well, thank you for your posts every week Cherrie!

    SpaceSurvivor
    Reply

  17. …you know, the implication seems to be that in this anime version, Chelsea really did effectively kill Kurome all those episodes back – it’s just taken this long to take.

    (Of course the random danger beast was just utter nonsense, though.)

    Corin
    Reply

  18. https://randomc.net/image/Akame%20ga%20Kill/Akame%20ga%20Kill%20-%2022%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
    As the series went on and we found out more about Kurome’s backstory, I gradually began to warm up to her, so to speak, since she wasn’t just a straight up villain since she was taken away, experimented on, and manipulated. Sure she was crazy as a result, but I was sad for her and felt she was just the opposite side of the same coin as Akame.

    https://randomc.net/image/Akame%20ga%20Kill/Akame%20ga%20Kill%20-%2022%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
    It’s just too bad it had to end this way. RIP Kurome.

    Impel Down Hippo
    Reply

  21. – Mine and Lubba died, were almost instantly forgotten, and the characters moved on with life.
    – Najenda’s tears are for the loss of her teigu instead of the guy who loved her.
    – Megazord / evil robo Emperor as final boss. When all else fails, just add mechs or fanservice.

    Ok.

    ReylandAZ
    Reply

    1. It doesn’t have to be a mecha, it could be a giant danger beast covered in armor like the one we saw this episode … after all the imperial weapons that both Night Raid and Jeagers use are made from danger beasts.

      As for Najenda, as far as i remember Lubba actually never confessed to her how strongly he felt about her, and she isn’t a psychic to figure out that he really loved her.

      Hunter-Wolf
      Reply

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