Reviews for Akudama Drive

20xx Somewhere in the Pierrot office Yuuji Nunokawa (smoking a big black cigarette): — Guys, we have a fucking ton of money from Naruto, Bleach, Black Clover, and other beloved and popular franchises. Any ideas about what should we do with them? — Finally, give Black Clover a proper adaptation! — Stop milking Boruto, I guess? — How about Yona of the Dawn s2? (sudden random sounds of violence)Security (holding a gun):

— Sir, five hundred feral Tokyo Ghoul fans are assaulting our office right now, and all of them wanna talk with you about something. Maybe we should give them a real manga adaptation instead of root a?

Yuuji Nunokawa (stops smoking):

— Nice ideas, but I have something better in my mind. Listen here.

(making a call)

— Oh hi Kodaka. It’s Yuuji Nunokawa, Pierrot CEO. I played your danganronpa thing a week ago, and it’s pretty enjoyable. Can you give us 12-episode anime like this but in DYSTOPIAN KANSAI FUTURE? Cyberpunk 2077 was postponed again, and I have nothing to play.

— Yeah, but…

— I’ll give you a fucking ton of money.

— Ok. How many edgy characters do you need?

— ALL OF THEM

— Say no more.

Akudama Drive is one of the most enjoyable things that I watched this year. It’s illogical, it’s a bit retarded, it’s edgy — but it also doesn’t give a fuck about it at all, and that honesty is understandable. No annoying crybaby Japanese students, no boring fan service, and no dull plot twists — only awesome action and magnificent visual style.

Yeah, the animation here is surprisingly superb: combinations of 2D and CGI, stylish backgrounds, and well-done fights are nearby with the Ufotable level of greatness — and unlike the Fate franchise, people here don’t speak a lot while fighting. What? Characters development? Well-written story? Are you a fucking nerd or something? Shut up and enjoy a wild cyberpunk ride — or you will die soon. God bless Kodaka!

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 andyou 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.

Episode one of Akudama Drive is all gas, no brakes. Four badass edgelords who are aimlessly wreaking havoc upon the most over-the-top cyberpunk setting imaginable are offered a ludicrous amount of money to rescue a fifth badass edgelord who is scheduled for execution, and the madness and violence which ensues throughout the course of the first episode is the result of this bounty which they were all happy to compete for, but after having razed the world before them to complete their task, they’re met with a talking cat who has the very man they saved snap collar bombs around their necks and the necksof two other nobodies who just happened to get caught up in the chaos, and the episode then swiftly ends without having explained any of its craziness, of which there was plenty. Episode two, on the other hand, begins with the following exposition, and while dissecting a scene or two usually wouldn’t be enough to review an entire show, things change when every scene is the exact same. The purpose of the painfully meticulous structure of the review you’re about to read is to illustrate the fact Akudama Drive would be a perfectly fine show if you didn’t put any thought into it whatsoever.

The talking cat begins by expressing its gratitude towards everyone for showing up, and says he shouldn’t have been surprised since they are all veteran Akudama, a phrase this show uses as a proper noun which literally means “bad person.” After a short discussion which still somehow felt too long, the talking cat reveals he is a robot cat and the mastermind who sent them the original bounty. The few sane individuals present protest the collar bombs around their necks, but the cat refuses to remove them stating this is all part of a larger plan they are now a part of, and while the two nobodies in the group weren’t originally part of it, the fact even they remained standing after the previous episode’s carnage is proof of their skill. More of them protest, simply not wanting to continue taking part in a conspiracy they have no observable interest in, but when a character called “Brawler” attempts to rip his collar bomb off and walk away, the robot cat implores him to wait and pays them all for successfully saving the prisoner, the task he now describes as Phase One. Before he can explain what this means, the character called “Hacker” asks why everyone was paid, when the single individual who actually freed the prisoner should’ve been the only one rewarded. The robot cat responds who best preformed wasn’t his concern, alerting Hacker and all the other Akudama to the fact this Phase One was merely a test, and when asked if they passed, the robot cat affirmed they did so with flying colors. He proceeds to entice them into participating in Phase Two of his plan by boasting the fact no Akudama has ever passed it before. Phase Two consists of attacking the site known as the Shinkansen, the only entrance to the territory in which they reside which is revered as sacred grounds by many who live there. To dismiss their hesitation, the robot cat announces this next job will reward them with an even greater sum of money to make them an offer they can’t refuse, but their conversation is interrupted when the remaining armed guards from the previous episode’s bombastic prison break storm the area.

The scene transitions to our cast (inexplicably) relocated to a rooftop somewhere where they impatiently await a “bus,” which in this setting, is apparently a blimp. When one doesn’t come, Brawler jumps off the rooftop and soars through the air straight through the window of one of these so-called buses. Having successfully hijacked the vehicle and murdered its driver, Brawler asks the others how to drive it, only to be unanimously deemed a moron. Hacker does something seemingly advanced with his hands which kites the airship to port, and inside the blimp, he remarks how primitive its systems are and quickly commandeers its controls to fly them to where the cat had specified. In flight, the character called “Delinquent” praises Brawler for his superhuman jump, but Brawler says it’s only natural, since, after all, he is the world’s greatest brawler. Before they can arrive, the character they all saved from being executed, “Cutthroat,” randomly presses a big red button on the control panel which sends the blimp speeding into overdrive. Hacker exclaims that was only for emergencies, and when asked where they’re headed, he shrugs, and they crash into a high-rise hotel at mach speed. Having all miraculously survived, they have a conversation in some hallway where Delinquent praises Brawler yet again for being unfazed by a crash which would’ve killed any normal man, and the police originally chasing them catch up almost immediately and begin firing at them indiscriminately down the hallway. Hacker and the character “Doctor” don’t react at all, and Brawler continues to stand in the middle of the hallway within a spray of bullets which refuses to hit him. Outside, two oddly normal, twenty-first century looking police officers stress over the current state of affairs. The deputy suggests to the detective their men are utterly outclassed and will continue getting slaughtered by the Akudama, and the detective begrudgingly acknowledges the deputy is correct, but when they’re radioed by headquarters and told two “Executioners” are on their way, the detective becomes frustrated saying they didn’t ask for help.

Inside the hotel and past the now-dead policemen lying in piles of gore, the cast sits down and continues their exposition dump where its determined all those present have skills necessary for Phase Two despite the fact one of the two nobodies is self-admittedly useless and the other is at the very least known to be useless by the cat, and they do so on a screen inside a random hotel room which somehow contains and can display all the cat’s files and graphics relevant to the proposed heist, but that’s enough narration, because at this point the fact should be clear: nothing about this sequence makes sense. First of all, the briefcase of collar bombs given to Cutthroat had enough to put one on everyone there, but the plan was to only enlist the original four the cat sent the bounty to. If this apparent miscalculation wasn’t enough, the cat is constantly portrayed as being highly intelligent throughout these exchanges, yet at no point does he see the plainly observable fact Delinquent and the character called “Ordinary Person” aren’t in any way the badass edgelords he’s looking for, even going so far as to say their mere presence proved their skill, despite the fact we viewers witnessed the events of episode one ourselves and know they literally stumbled their way into this situation. Speaking of episode one, Brawler is introduced as a loose canon who loves nothing more than brutalizing the police and those who tell him what to do, yet when a talking cat tells him to stop taking his collar bomb off, he complies with no resistance or talk-back whatsoever, completely betraying his character. His subsequent jump into the blimp is dumb in and of itself, but what’s even sillier is the fact he then has the described exchange with the other Akudama still on the rooftop despite being dozens of meters away in an aircraft, a distance no human ear could hear from. And in the blimp, he blows off the praise he received from Delinquent by stating the fact he can preform superhuman jumps is a natural effect of being the world’s strongest brawler, even though hand-to-hand combat has nothing to do with such a feat.

Hacker’s motivations and consistencies are questionable as well, since he and Doctor were complaining about the blimp not picking them up, but after Brawler did his stunt and failed to steer the blimp, Hacker just brought it down to pick them up anyway using techno-nonsense, with nothing to suggest he couldn’t have just done so from the start. The first thing he says when he enters the cockpit is its systems are primitive, yet when Cutthroat sends the blimp into overdrive he just stands by doing nothing while they all crash into a building. Putting aside the fact he panicked when Cutthroat hit the button yet was completely calm mere seconds later for a completely unfunny joke, the fact he could take complete control of the blimp from outside the damn thing yet not do the same from inside the cockpit is absolutely preposterous. But specifics themselves are pointless to dissect, since the entire premise itself makes just as little sense. These assholes just crashed a blimp into a concrete building at rocket speeds, and every single one of them, including Ordinary Person, a teenage girl with no connection to the comically badass Akudama edgelord anime gods, survives. Forgetting how laughable it is this fact is accentuated by Delinquent praising Brawler for walking away from the crash without a scratch despite the fact he did the exact same, this is by no means the only instance of this utterly farcical nature of the show’s presentation. I mentioned Brawler standing in a hail of bullets down a straight hallway and still not getting shot, but I didn’t even have space to discuss Doctor literally getting her throat slit and surviving by somehow sewing it up herself before bleeding out, a process which should’ve been nearly instant. Even the characters who look like somewhat normal people are internally broken in the first half-minute we see them. The police detective outside is introduced coming to terms which the fact he and his unit are completely outgunned by the Akudama and can’t subdue them alone, but when he learns the Executioners are on the way, he clicks his tongue and remarks in contempt.

I know it may seem like I gave way too much attention and devoted way too much analysis to a sequence which spanned only half an episode, if that, but every scene in this show is intrinsically broken for all the same reasons of forced contrivance and unapologetic contradiction, so such analysis of really any scene would’ve functioned as a perfect encapsulation of the show’s fundamentally broken presentation. Akudama Drive is an anime which began as and ceaselessly proceeded to be a gimmick on every level. The nameless cast of characters defined by the tropes which stand in for their non-existent personalities carry the story of ridiculous visual action which is set apart only by its constant insistence on breaking the laws of physics, and the characterization for our empty cast extends only as far as their paper-thin backstories, many of which make the likes of Kirito Kamui seem sensical. Despite the potential in the art design, the show turned out to be downright ugly in a truly A-1 Pictures fashion, with little attention paid to consistency and polish, but every attention paid to the action sequences and fan service which will ultimately be selling the show to its young audience. While its sheer absurdity can put a smile on your face, and while the fan service is nice in the form of Doctor’s tits, what ends up being far more masturbatory is the show’s hyper-violent gore which often begs anatomical belief. The unexpectedly provocative geopolitical commentary behind the setting and its facilitation is kind of respectable, but it’s also just an inferior imitation of the world in Rolling Girls which explores the same themes with cooler concepts, a well-built society, personable characters, and a jaw-dropping animation production, whereas Akudama Drive does its thing through an unanimated exposition dump in the form of a literal puppet show. When you really sit back and look at all this in conjunction with its Blade Runner cityscape and its Danganronpa character designs, mascots, and plot devices, the more you’ll see just how much of this thing is and always was a pure rip-off.

Thank you for reading.

Akudama Drive is a dystopian anime that, at simple site, is a bunch of edgy characters with a simple story with a lot of blood and chaos on it. And that concept is pretty close to what it is yet, at the same time, it’s a little bit more than that. I wouldn’t call it “a hidden gem” because is not hidden and less is a gem, but certainly an interesting anime to take account. You are told a story in an original way (I mean, what can be better than having puppets as narrators) about the current state of the city in Akudama Drive andhow a war turned it into what they show. Kansai and Kanto are the main cities here. Kanto is the one that won the war, and Kansai is where the story takes place. Kansai responds to Kanto and obeys it, and the difference between both of them is the level of life. For what they say, Kanto is a marvelous city where things are perfect and is clearly superior, while Kansai is the dependant city where regular people coexists with the criminals, better known as Akudamas, who are increasing in number. The dependance of Kansai to Kanto is well managed, showing off how everything is ordered by Kanto and how even the big associations responds to them. The regular people of Kansai live controled by technology, frightened of the violence that surrounds them and resigned to the life they got to take because of the war’s resaults, and they are persistenly brainwashed by the puppets that are presented in big screens all over the city, and that perform like a childlish sketch to make them (and us) understand in a few words why they have the lives they have and why you don’t mess with Kanto, making them see that city as their dreamland, even teaching them to praise the train that comunicates both places as a god itself, as a ticket to their wonderland. That was a nice detail. Although, of course, Kansai is not easy to handle, and since they live between regulars and criminals, and since the city is progressively more troubled because of the delincuency, people hate Akudamas, and when the things get crazy, so do the people and they get plunged into turmoil and starts a rebelion. In consequence, later on, as a vulgar display of power, the Akudama’s Executioners, who are the law in the city, decrete every rebel or disturber is an Akudama, which couldn’t be more accurate to our reality and, possibly, the future itself. So, Akudama Drive, more than a story about edgy criminals, embraces a concept that is wider: the rebelion of the marginates and the underdogs.

The story has a clear beginning, development and end. Even though at first the story is a little bit confusing since you don’t completely understand what’s going on, but then it grews in a master plan that only the highest Akudama-rank criminals could make, and it’s still intriguing as no one explains why nor who is commanding that extremely dangerous mission. However, once it gets on the road, you get involved and it gets really interesting as the mission advances.

All Akudamas are reunited by a message that offers them a great reward if they get to save Cutthroat, another Akudama-rank criminal, in the place of the execution itself. Because yes, that’s how the law prevents people from becoming a criminal, showing off the executions online, like some sort of deep web site, as a way of saying “that’s what awaits for you if you missbehave”. Anyway, people enjoys it as though they were watching a football game. When they get there, the main character appears there too because she’s chasing a cat in order to protect that damn animal, risking her life just for that. After that, the party begins and when they archieve the goal they’re paid and forced to complete another mission, that consists in retrieving a capsule that is going to be sent to Kanto by the Shinkansen (the beloved train I mentioned before). After a lot of trouble, blood, laughs and fights, they get to the capsule and when they open it they realize that their actual goal was to save two kids inside it. Of course, the main character becomes the big mamma and kinda adopts them. She couldn’t let a cat alone, why would she let two children by their own? However, as these kids are pretty important to Kanto city, the real explotion begins. The story is original, indeed, but it didn’t blow my mind.

I just wanna make a pause right here to say that every episode is named after a famous movie, and that’s GREAT. The first one is called Se7en, referencing to the movie about the seven deadly sins, and the Akudama gang is conformed for seven members lmAO. Another good detail.

My only BIG problem with Akudama relies on the characters. Something I appreciate in a show, regardless of the story, is the character development. I don’t need an evangelism, but at at least give me SOMETHING I can get attached to: a past, a reason. That’s where it has terrible lacks. Let’s start by the fact that they don’t even have a name. Not one of them. They are Cutthroat, Courier, Swindler, Doctor, and so on. Even the rest of the characters that don’t even form part of the main gang, they all are “executioner”, “Onii-san”. I’m not gonna lie, that really surprised me and it seemed an original concept to me, but as it progresses, you realize that that only marks a line of distance between the viewer and those characters. You don’t have a name, don’t have a background, don’t have the less idea about what they are doing there nor why. When one of them dies, it doesn’t matter if it’s a main or a secondary, you don’t feel moved at all, because you don’t connect with them since they are total strangers. Of course, they’re likeable though, I really had fun with Brawler, specially. He’s a personage that is the stereotype of a brainless strong fighter, but I emphatized with him even though he is shabby and plain. The rest of the group is similar, flat, edgy and generic (And as I always state, “generic” is not a bad perception to me, as long as I can connect with them or actually like them, or as long as they have a background or growing. This is not the case). Cutthroat is the typical sanguinary guy whose only ability is to kill, he doesn’t even know how to speak as a normal person. Doctor is really similar to him, just an egocentric and violent milf, whose only purpose is to accomplish a bunch of fetishes: doctor clothes, lencery, glasses, oppai and milf. Courier is a cold super-edgy guy that only cares about his job. Hacker, even though he is the most useful out of them, is just that, a nerdy hacker that doesn’t care for anything else. He is just a person who needs a huge challenge to make his life worth. And Hoodlum is the one I kinda connected. He’s the weakest of them all and is a weepy and fearful guy. At the beginning he is unbearable since all he does is to scream and hide, and is easily manipulable, but as it advances, I realize that he’s the only one realistic in that group and he even has a little development. Also, I really had fun with his relationship with Brawler, and actually felt them as bros. Is not a great character, but is the one that I can save in this mediocrity of personages.

Going on with this, the main character is the one I disliked the most. Swindler is the only one of the group that is not actually a criminal, she’s there just because she got caught up in that mess, and pretends to be an Akudama-rank criminal to survive, choosing the name of Swindler. I dare to say she is the most boring main character of the season. She is the stereotype of the good girl, and all you can say about her is that she is SO GOOD, and that’s really all you can say. She doesn’t have another atribute. You, unlike me, can really love her and empathize with her if you feel so, but one undeniable thing is that she’s a good unmarkable person and nothing else. She is kind to everyone, she’s caring, she meddles in the gang’s plans since she doesn’t want anybody to get killed or hurted, and that’s a pain in the ass to me. As I’m not going to get any character development or depth, I enjoyed Akudama Drive because of the action and the art, and if there’s a gang of bad guys, it’s annoying that this girl intervenes every time the sauce begins just because she doesn’t want people to die. I thought that the fact of her being the only Akudama that is a regular person was going to mean that she would be the only one with a backstory or something like that, or that she would be the bare representation of how hard it is to be a Kansai citizen, but I ended up with my hands empty. Although, she has some growing during the series, even though is really predictable, is, at least, something that actually made me like her better.

The only characters that got a background are the sibilings that appear later in the series, and they’re children. Is easy to feel pity for them, but still, none of them has a feature that will get to you; they’re like both robots (pretty close though, lol). And the worst character, beyond my tastes, is the real villain, the traitor of the Akudama group. Since the beginning this character doesn’t have no depth at all, no background, no anything, as the rest of the gang, but when the betrayal is devealed and this person starts to be an antagonist, is an awful one. This personage’s reason to become a traitor and a despicable human being, is that wants to be released of the “Akudama” name to adquire the title of a regular person, in order to kill freely without the consequences, and you know why? Just because this person desires to control life itself, enjoying the assassination because of the exciting feeling of killing people, deciding how long they live and how and when they die, like some sort of god complex. And that’s IT. That’s the only info they give you about the new enemy, and don’t expect another development or redention, because you won’t have any. Is an objectiveless antagonist with no personality as such. My only thought was “k, when are you going to die? Shut up”

Then, I didn’t want, but I have to. I have to talk about the Akudama’s Executioner association. My god, what a SHAMEFUL affiliation. This consist in, as its name indicates, a huge group that dedicates to exterminate the Akudamas. But they fail loudly, all the time. They function as the main enemies of the Akudama gang, of course, but they don’t accomplish anything. I had the impression that they were there just to make the main gang look cooler, since all they do is to loose battles against them and to say stupid things like “I will kill every Akudama!!!” when they can’t even harm them. Just one of them is kinda respectable, the first one, but also he ends up ashamed. His kouhai, a beginner, is even worse. Is the typical useless female character who is just a burden for her superior, and she is specially arrogant, constantly defying the gang as if she could fight with one of them without fainting in the process. Disgusting. They alll are pitiful and their boss is EVEN WORSE, a woman who obeys the highest commands and whose only line is “Why did it have to happen when I’m the boss?” or “I will kill every Akudama!!!”.

After ranting the characters, I continue. The animation surprised me entirely. I hate Studios Pierrot, so I was rather relunctant to watch this when I saw it was a work from that studio. Nevertheless, is surprised me in a good way. It was decent, fights seemed nice for me to watch, I positively enjoyed them. The art is very striking, with its nuances and bright presentation. Considering this is a Sci-Fi, they are at the correct standars, because is really futuristic and the edgy characters’ design is adequate too. To me, specially coming from the hideous Pierrot, it is memorable. The sound is pretty good too. Music gets you hyped and the seiyuus do a great job, specially with the first Executioner and Cutthroat, who was actually spooky.

In conclusion, Akudama Drive is a show that I don’t regret watched, actually, I enjoyed it a lot and it wasn’t boring to me in no moment, even though its big flaws. Even if I disliked the characters, that didn't restrain me from having a good time with it. If you’re looking for a sci-fi anime, audiovisually good, that is full of action and a lot of violence with interesting fights and revolution, this is definitely for you, and please enjoy. If you’re looking for an awesome writting or top-tier in depth-developed characters you can love and care, or personages that can blow your mind, this is not for you.

This one is seriously THE hidden gem of this season. And it was really a joyride from episode 1 to 12. Plot synopsis is already given. So, let me tell you what this one will be offering. Story : 7/10 First episode was very good. There was a hit of a story building around battle against system, but episode 2 just take the story towards another direction. By the end of episode 5, Akudama Drive really developed a good story with lots of mysterious questions surrounding them. And then real story starts to unfold one by one. By the end of your journey, you will definitely feeloverwhelmed by lots of actions, lovable characters, fanatic characters and just your average not so cool character proving their worth.

Art : 9/10

I wasn't expecting anything from this anime. Thought it will be another 6-7 rated anime. But, the art is really exceptional. By the end of episode 1, I was thinking of episode 2 already.

Characters design, direction is top notched. Especially in Ep 4, there was a great chance to take on director's exceptional talent by one frame change, after episodic info guide. That was really good.

Characters : 9/10

Tbh no character is boring in this anime, at least to me. Every character is really likable from friends to foe. Their not so friendly, yet bond is truly enjoyable. Every character has his/her own traits and they always shines on their own ground.

Voice Acting : 8/10

Voice acting is really well documented in this anime. Sakura-San really proved to be a good va. But two female characters va is also good. Emotions are well captured by almost every va

throughout the season.

Enjoyment : 10/10

If you want some fast going action to action anime, this one is really your pick. This one really offer something not so original, yet refreshing take, yet this one will certainly entertain you more than action anime offered in Fall 2020 i.e. DanMachi 3 or Mahouka Koukou 2.

Rating :

Episodic : 8.5

MAL : 9.0

I think the score should be higher then 7.83 (as of 27.12.2020)

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 thebiggest 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 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.

First 4 episodes impressions. A title with potential ruined by a shoehorned stereotypical braindead female "protagonist" who's only job is to stay around, be pretty and sell merchandise. "Courier" character introduced with a pseudo Akira bike looked interesting until everything broke apart with comical levels of physics defying stunts worse then Batman Forever's Batmobile vertical wall driving. Bikes 3D render is so cheap it feels straight out of a late 90's series. What saves to series so far are the visuals, the world setting and the rest of the characters. Hopefully they dont pull more cheap stunts and useless stale doll characters. EDIT: completed series is a below average titlethat will go in the forgettable bin of cheap stereotypes, bad story and no substance.

Akudama Drive and Great Pretender were the only two anime that stood out to me in the year 2020, and both of them were originals. While the two weren’t adapted from particular source material, such as manga, light novel, or webtoon’s manhwa, they were still able to cater to an audience, respectively. Great Pretender, by WIT Studio, was a Japanese crime comedy anime, and Akudama Drive, by Studio Pierrot, is a Japanese Cyberpunk inspired anime. The most prominent and well-known series such as Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, and the critically acclaimed 1988 film Akria for those who’re unfamiliar withthis sub-genre. If you’re a fan of any of those series, this show is worth the investment.

The story follows a group of criminals, generalized by the name of Akudama, as they were assigned a job to rescue a prisoner named Cutthroat, who was held by the Kansai Police force, for a large sum of money. As with these types of Cyberpunk shows, the setting is a very futuristic and technologically advanced city--but with the 80s vibes. In the first scene of the first episode, you’re presented with breath-taking visuals of the city that then transitions from the mist skyline to the convoluted city streets. From there, it unravels its futuristics from the intricate details of lights, buildings, and inner parts of the city to the mundane life of its citizens and its societal structure. With these first transitional shots, it sets up the tone and expectations of the show from episode one, which then the show exploits the already established structure to introduce the rest of the casts and build a foundation of the story.

A girl named Ordinary Person--later adapts the name of Swinder--who coincidentally joins the group after being arrested and sent to jail for a trifling incident: Not paying for her food at the spot. With this arrest, the show presents a strict and controlled society, which correlates with the setup atmosphere from the first transitional shots. At the same prison, she meets the rest of the cast, who’d later form into a group with a mutual goal: free Cutthroat. With their violent entrance to the prison, it immediately initiated a police pursuit of the Akudama. The police force is the representation of its utopian society, which again, cultivates what was established early on. From there, with no significant spoilers, begins the fun. It’s revealed that their meeting with Cutthroat was a devised plan by a Black Cat--who later revealed to be a different being entirely. The gang was tasked to seek out the truth of their utopia. Throughout their excursion, we experience how each gang member interacts, discovers, and learns to trust and rely on each other. As the show progresses, the bond between the members grew, which helped deliver some emotional moments later on in the series.

The aesthetics of Akudama Drive is perhaps the major selling point of this show. There’re many elements that the show does right with this type of creative field--those being the art, animation, designs, coloring, and atmosphere aesthetics. The artistic expression, along with its settings and characters’ designs, bolstered its dark utopia atmosphere and helped to ground the series, which further enhanced the show’s relatability. Alongside its top art, the fluent animation of its fights, motion, and detailed designs of its characters were the highlights of the show as well. Each of its characters got its own distinct hairstyles, clothes, and body types that make them stand out in this convoluted cast show. The directions of its fights and motion were displayed conveniently to deliver an even bigger impact to its already flawless animation. Akudama Drive, without a doubt, is the show that’s the most eye-pleasing of art that I’ve witnessed in the year 2020.

I don’t find the characters in Akudama Drive to be particularly unique or memorable. As each of the main casts barely has any depth and development. I see them as a group of misfits, which I believe is what this show wants to covey. Each of them embodies a personality and quirk, and that’s what they are throughout the show, with a few instances of conventional developments that don’t mean much. Most of their behaviors are the personality types that we’ve seen numerous times. To name a few, the show has a savage, dumb, but buff guy that’s used for strength and comedy. It has a quiet and reserved but omnipotent in technology/electronics expert. A level headed but apathetic person that has the characteristic of a “man of few words.” Individually, they aren’t amusing to watch. As I’ve aforementioned, it’s their personalities that play off each other as a group is what makes it mesmerizing.

Akudama drive is one of the few standouts of the season and 2020 as a whole. It’s a captivating show that’s unconventional and unique. It has sufficient appealing elements while staying faithful to its genre. If you will, please give this show a watch.

Score: 6/10

Have you ever come across a show, or a series where you wish it was longer than 24-30mins? Then you found it in Akudama Drive. Let me explain. The story takes place at a much more future like kind of Japan, with bright lights, and fitting gloomy areas when need be. We follow our Ordinary Girl, which she pretty much, caught up in a big ol mess with other wild and wacky bunch of criminals that are unique in their own rights. All came together, and ending up on a team to pull off one big heist. All the while our Ordinary Girl is caught upin this, putting herself up to be something she is not. It's bundles of fun from end to end.

It really does give the element of how they're gonna progress, but also how our Ordinary girl is going to continue within all of this. It's exciting, it brings a sense of mystery with whoever the one in charge of this is, but also keeps us on our toes with in your face energy, that'll make the 24mins fly by.

The characters are bundles of fun. Sure, it might seem they are one trick ponies in terms of their personalities. But if you put them all together, it all brings out tons of fun, and makes for a great show. Cannot go wrong with a show that has so many rememberable characters for who they are, but also all together to make for an entertaining show. They're part of the reason why the show is so good, great cast of characters.

As I've explained when it comes to the art and animation. It's bright, it's colourful, and can look the part when it comes to night time too. It's really well done, and surely is a great piece to look at. Much like the sound of the show in general, it's all top notch, and all blends together so well. Nothing looks out of touch, or out of place. Cannot say a bad thing about it.

It's flashy, it's fun, it's wild. Need I say more? Honestly I would highly recommend it. It's only 4 episodes in, and it's already a blast, and a stand out for this season for sure.

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" forbeing 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.

-----no spoilers---- Such a great work of art the story of this anime had me hyped up af for it to begin airing and hopefully it didn't disappoint me STORY ---7/10---- it's not a big deal i mean it's the typical bungo stray dogs or gangsta or baccano story but it's a good one that i think will have deep meaning because it's from the same creator as danganronpa ART AND ANIMATION ----10/10------ the art in this anime is something legit also the colors are really really good , now let's talk about te animation , the animation is something that is expected from a first rate studio likepierrot inside the fights the animation is even better.

CHARACTERS------9/10-----

characters in tis anime are really good you know the types of characters that complete each other like bungo stray dogs and other animes we have the hacker,the doctor,the courier,the brawler the cutthroat also the cutthroat and that green hear dumb...

OSTS---------8/10--------

good osts that gives you the vibes of danganronpa with a little bit of persona combined with cyberpunk

overall a pretty enjoyable experience...

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’veprobably 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’s 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. 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.

Its late and im definetly not composed enough to write a well thought out review. But I NEED to praise this show, NOW. Story:____9 Art:______10 Sound:___ 8 Character:_9 Enjoyment:10 Overall :__ 10 Everthing bejond here will be kinda spoilery due to blablabla bla

bla

you gone? good.

The incredible twists the story takes. There is no reason to spoil any in particular but they are so increbile that I woudnt wanna tell anybody it happens.

There are Cool af , iconic characters, sakrua magic everywhere. well thought out dialouge, dynamic action scenes meaningful sacrifces and an end shot that made me cry a bit

Yee sorry I know this is a mess but I just needed to thanks

There may be minor spoilers. warning well akudama drive takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and the main character is being carried away against her will to a complicated mission, In the story, she is taken for a scammer and tries to survive while she is accompanied by dangerous people. Well to begin with the story; I think it's pretty average, not so good not so bad, there isn't anything extraordinary in this story but i think the plot itself can enable a good show and it's more than a "correct base". Then for the Art and the animation, i must admit that i found the colorspretty interesting with the atmosphere and ambiance, especially during fights, some are set up in some settings with beautiful lights and neon and i pretty liked this part of the art, then for the animation i found it way less impressive than some others show but it does the job, but i would have liked may be more work to make fights more realistic.

Then the one worst point in the show, in my opinion, is "characters" at the beginning they sound interesting but fastly you'll find them boring because first of all they aren't original at all, you pretty see all of their personality in other anime, then secondly their personalities, in the show i find them pretty empty and the character development is just predictable and simple. The characters who are wanted to be funny aren't and it creates breaks in the rhythm. In my opinion here we have the weakest point on the show.

i did take enjoyment at first but it was only in the first episode; because of these badly written characters I did stop being interested in the story anymore and the fact that the story isn't breaking any new walls doesn't grow my enjoyment.

Well to finish, according to me this show had potential but wasted it mainly because of these characters, I still recommend to watch it, because you have to make your own opinion and if you can appreciate the characters then you will for sure take enjoyment

It's weird, I was planning to drop the series around the middle. Not because it's bad I just wasn't impressed with the writing at the time I recommend not being influenced by the bad reviews too much, this is one of the shows that can really linger and settle deep within you, it could also not but the chance that it does is worth the take. I'm glad I gave it a chance to watch til the end, no matter what flaws I may find it was 100%+ worth it that I went through this journey. With being a story with only one season, itwas fairly well-paced. A satisfying ending. A story can be mediocre but if the ending is brilliant you betcha I'll rate it high. Endings are one of the most important factors in stories for me, you have better make me feel like I watched something that was worth it.

But the story wasn't actually mediocre for me, at least not for the second half. I *really* loved the second half. This was a really beautiful anime. All of my top anime can be described as "beautiful" and this amazingly manages to fit that bill.

I can see some technical flaws if I thought hard enough. But that does not matter right now for my opinion of the series. In stories, I look to feel an "experience". I want stories that manage to hit certain emotions just right, and this anime is one of them.

NOW ONTO THE PART WHERE I WILL WRITE SPOILERS BUT HOPEFULLY IN A WAY TO CONVINCE YOU TO WATCH THIS SHOW.

Also I'm writing this at like 4:30am after binging episodes 6-12. I'm both tired and traced with emotional anguish.

The first half seemed fun, charming, but a little lackluster in the writing. I planned to drop it so I didn't continue. Got interested since I still viewed the threads of episodes to see opinions of people. Basically if you're familiar with the danganronpa writer you know he likes killing off characters. And in this story, he does it right. So right. I admire whoever can make death seem bitterly beautiful yet heavily tragic at the same time.

The second half of this series is what I can really praise. Everything from the sound, the tone, the animation, scene direction, writing, voice acting, really came together in a lot of moments and it really captivated me.

I thought the characters were rather one-dimensional at first, but they turned out to have more depth than I thought. One writing technique I've learned of is when the author doesn't fully explain a character's backstory/story in detail but just enough where the viewer can just fill in the blanks with their imagination as they imagine what that person went through. An effective tactic and it works for short stories.

The author managed to convey the emotions to me, managed to convey the tone and the story so well to me. The protagonist seems like the usual sympathetic wants-to-be-a-hero-always heroine, hopelessly stubborn. This is nothing new with most protagonists, but you know, due to the author being able to convey her tragic situation I admire her more than think she's annoying. She was a great protagonist from beginning to end, and I liked the development. She managed to keep her ideals, and she did it with pride. It was all tragic and beautiful, bitter hopefulness. I like animes that can conflict my emotions like this.

I might be making this anime seem more like a masterpiece than it is, but to me at least, it is one.

For lack of a better simile, Akudama drive is like eating rock candy- at first seeming incredibly interesting, an interesting appearance with an enticing texture, it tastes sweet but isn't much more. Like liquid sugar, Akudama Drive doesn't really make for much more than a temporary sugar rush. Like flashes of lightning, the series always presents something that is enticing, ideas that come off as interesting, characters that you *could* grow attached to- but they exist within their boxes of tropes and don't become more than characters on the screen. For their initial presentations, most of the characters exist as incredibly edgy and egotistical charactersthat I could easily become interested in as the story unfolds (barring Doctor, as I dislike near everything about her character, except her VAs performance)- but they don't exist as anything more. They have predictable fates, stories that unfold in a blase manner. It's really a shame.

For the first five episodes it feels exceedingly generic, the "plot twists" and advancement of the story don't feel like anything special, and after getting past the fifth episode; I felt as if it had wasted my time telling a story that could easily be condensed. Even after the halfway marker and the show becomes "interesting", it's only due to clever moments of design where before you flashes entertainment. But its embedded in a genre (and medium) that does it but better in every way. The characters are by far the worst offenders of this, I don't think there was a single one I came away from thinking they told an exciting story worth remembering. The tropes are solid, the animation is good, and the plot is exceedingly average. It's going to be forgotten to time, created to sell and nothing more.

I won't waste my breath doing an in depth analysis of the themes, ideas, or story on the whole of the series. What you see the the first episode is what you get the entire run time, sometimes a little bit more- but by and large its exactly what it is. Defying its own sense of logic and reason, stretching suspension of disbelief so far that it frays and snaps under its own existence.

I usually don't continue to watch series I actively dislike, but even more than that I hate dropping something unless it's so painfully egregious that I feel like my life force is being siphoned away as I watch. At times, Akudama Drive felt like an art vampire- but what's even worse is that I definitely enjoyed it. After all, I wouldn't have picked it up and watched all the way through if I wasn't at least having fun. Its not so terrible that you'll feel your eyes roll into the back of your skull during viewing, but it gets close. Just when your souls close to its desperate escape from your flesh it'll do something clever- a nice use of doubles, an enticing action sequence, or a genuinely heartfelt moment that convinces me to watch another episode.

I wouldn't recommend Akudama Drive for any reason other than understanding what makes Anime tick, in good ways and bad; to experience how good tropes can go to die when the characters they inhabit become nothing more than the tropes themselves, and when the story gives up on being worth your time. There are plenty of anime that are genuinely worth your time, exploring ideas in genuinely meaningful and artistic ways. I'm absolutely against saying "go watch this show instead of x", but with very little effort you'll be able to find works in this genre that do everything Akudama Drive wants to do with some fraction of grace and fidelity.

But if you REALLY want to watch this mess, nothing in this world should stop you. It's not a good time, but at the very least its a fun ride.

This is not your typical anime, it is something different. It may had a slow start, honestly I didn't expect much from it, but it turn into a really interesting anime at the end. I liked the idea of the akudama system and the license to kill that the executioners had and the way they exploit it in the end I commend them for that, and the fact that we don't know the names of the characters without loosing any content is somewhat funny. The poor swindler got here life f***ed up to the point of no return knew thatshe can't go back and chose the best choice at the end, the way every akudama's character was written and the choices that they made because of there personality was very cool this was a really interesting anime overall.

This line will CONTAIN SPOIILERS ( I have some mixed feelings about the akame ga kill move, it didn't feel bad since I didn't like any character to the point I wanted them to live, but its not cool to do that jeez) SPOILERS END HERE.

After all this is a nice change of pace, it is not like any normal anime but I feel like it was missing something that could bring it to a higher level, still this is a great anime to watch

Akudama Drive is something that, up until the midpoint, is nothing more than mindless action and a pretty looking steampunk setting. As someone who is sick and tired of highschools and pretentious themes about supposed deep characters, I was fully into it. There is no depth to the cast to the point they don’t even have actual names, and the plot is a very straightforward heist mission. It was of the same vein as Black Lagoon and Hellsing Ultimate. You just shut off your brain and you enjoy the mix of rule of cool and comedy based on misunderstandings. Then the second half began and said,yeah, enough with that, time to add nonstop twists, revelations, and drama. Usually that spells doom for a show, since the transition from what it began as to something different can be alienating. In this case it worked in its favor because the bar was low to begin with and by adding extra stuff without losing the previous ones it became something more instead of something entirely different. Meaning, it didn’t lose the rule of cool and comedy bits, it added more stuff atop of that without bloating the whole… because there wasn’t much to bloat; it was a simple mindless action show.

So yeah, the premise is about a bunch of mass-murdering psychopaths forming a team against their will (although it doesn’t matter since they would do it anyways, just for the fun or the money). They are then tasked to steal the cargo of a super secure train with one of them being a typical girl who through a series of very convenient and unlucky circumstances ends up having to constantly lie as means to not be killed, like pretty much any other civilian who is standing in their way. Did I mention they are mass-murdering psychopaths? Life has no value to them. So, the seven of them use their hax abilities and one-note character traits for steamrolling or bullshiting everything in their way until they get to the cargo, midpoint through the series. And then the real fun begins, as they lose their plot armor and reveal different aspects of themselves, which were unseen up until then. In storytelling we call that fleshing out. We definitely do not call it character development, because adding more stuff is not development. From that point onward the setting and the character relations become far more multilayered and fun to follow, while still being the dumb action flick it began as.

And no, I am not saying that made the show amazing, since it is still quite silly to the most part. There are still lots of elements that can make the show unlikable.

-The fight scenes never follow the laws for physics. You will see a spiderman motorcycle that flies around however it suits the plot, and since it’s supposed to be technology instead of magic, it can be quite jarring.

-The characters never get any actual names. They are just a character class. It was stupid in Goblin Slayer, it’s stupid here as well.

-As much as I liked the world building and the twists, the pacing is too fast to let you delve into them for long. Everything comes and goes too fast for having any impact other than the viewer learning about more stuff.

-The logic that the population of the city is following is all over the place. First they revolt but stop once most of the protesters are killed. And then they revolt even more when a single civilian gets killed.

-And we never learn why those puppet thingies were occasionally trying to reveal the truth although they were supporting the establishment.

So yeah, the best for enjoying the show is to never take it seriously. It is a dumb rule of cool anime that gets more mysterious and dramatic as it goes on. It’s not A tier material, but it certainly achieves more than most hyped up mediocrities and for that reason it ended up being my personal most enjoyable anime of 2020.

Not going to say as much, but this anime is like the suicide squad movie but with more improvement. story-8/10 Basically, it's about criminals trying to save some guy named cutthroat, and then they have more jobs to do, and they are being ordered by a fucking CAT that the main character was trying to save in the 1st episode Art-8/10 the art style, movement, and quality are very good. Sound-9/10 the soundtrack is very great and the ending as well.Enjoyment-8/10

I really do enjoy this anime and I would recommend it to people and it's extremely underrated it's as good as jujutsu kaisen.

Overall-8/10

This anime is some absolute craziness and i love it. Akudama drive is about a girl who accidentally got in with these high class criminals called akudama. Akudama has several characters who are given a mission by this robot and are paid for it. It has a certain level of gore but the storyline of the show is amazing and very intriguing. I wish it was a bit longer though. Story: 9 The story and concept for this anime is absolutely amazing and it makes you wish that the episodes are longer. This show will never get you bored. Art:10 The art style is perfect and the fight scenesare spot on.

Sound:8

Good intro and soundtrack.

i loved every bit of this show.

The first 6 episodes are a solid 10/10 for me, it kinda falls off to an 8 in the middle but has an amazing final episode

9/10