Akame ga Kill! is a 24 episode anime based upon the manga series. It follows Tatsumi who traveled from the country to the Capital in the hopes of securing employment and sending back enough money to restore his village. After being separated from his two friends, he arrives in the Capital and experiences firsthand how cruel and twisted people are compared to what he is used to. The country, while looking strong and healthy on the outside, is revealed to be corrupted upon a closer look. There is a massive gap between the wealthy and the poor. There is a child puppet king, controlled by the (obviously evil) Prime Minister, and Tatsumi sees some of the conditions the poorer people have to live through. The country is in recession and people are being exploited.
Through a few chance encounters, Tatsumi ends up meeting the assassin group Night Raid, of which the titular character Akame is a member of. They offer him an invitation and he joins them. Tatsumi himself was already a decent fighter, able to hold off and best many of the guards and soldiers within the Capital. However, compared to the members of Night Raid, he experiences the vast divide between their skills.
The first few episodes introduces Tatsumi and by extension, the viewers, to the members of Night Raid. Each episode roughly focuses on a particular member and we learn their backstories. An interesting element in this anime is the existence of the Imperial Arms. These are a set of 48 weapons that was created hundreds of years ago and are extremely powerful. As expected with these legendary weapons, they choose their wielder who must be compatible with them.
Naturally, the members of the Night Raid each have an Imperial Arm. The assassin group is part of the revolution trying to overthrow the current corrupted system. They have standards in that they only assassinate people who are truly evil, whether they were exploiting people as slaves or the supply of drugs. The anime isn't shy of showing blood. People are killed in ways such as being sliced in half and the blood spraying out. It's stylized so it isn't as gory as one would expect. It doesn't forget its target audience though and there are plenty of predictable anime cliches such as the girls hitting on Tatsumi and him acting all awkward. It mostly works and quite funny when it happens.
As you are getting used to the structure of the early episodes and feel quite content, it throws in a pretty massive event. It is something that you do not expect and it affects the members of Night Raid significantly. It is an interesting turn of events and keeps the momentum going. Despite that, it still takes half the season in order to finally go through everyone's backstories. As their targets get stronger and stronger, with them highly likely being an Imperial Arms user, Tatsumi is clearly outclassed. There are plenty of scenario where Tatsumi ends up being a hindrance and it really showcases how outclassed he is, which is a shame since he is the protagonist. Since the amount of Imperial Arms users are rapidly increasing to the point that each new character shown possesses one, they lose their uniqueness, especially considering that there is supposedly only 48 of them.
The fan service and love interests are predictable though. We all know that the ladies will have at least the tiniest bit of affection for Tatsumi, if not outright falling in love with him. It gets more obvious later on when a particular character wants to fall in love and has a checklist of desirable traits. As she is reading them out loud, you just go check check check in regards to it perfectly matching Tatsumi. It doesn't make it less funny though.
Soon enough, the plot will focus on the clash between Night Raid and the Capital's strongest team, lead by the feared and extremely powerful Esdeath. Esdeath's team is filled with sociopaths and is truly demented and twisted. As all of the characters are about on par with each other in terms of strength, their battles are flashy and action-packed. Unfortunately, the motivations behind some of Esdeath's teams aren't that special, which is probably on purpose to avoid the viewer from siding with them instead of Night Raid (this is defied by one or two members). Up until the last few episodes, we keep getting backstories of the characters.
Towards the second half of the series, as the plot once again starts to become predictable, it throws in a similar significant event to shake things up, as if to tell the viewer not to get complacent. Yet the battles involving Tatsumi are strangely disappointing, since he is just not up to scratch in terms of power against his opponents. The battles of other Night Raid members are more exciting and the unfortunate fact is, no one is safe, leading to more than a few sad moments. Actually, it can get somewhat annoying considering that it doesn't relent in its pacing of events. Before you can process what happened in the previous episode, something else significant happens in the next and just serves to portray Tatsumi as still remaining weak.
As the anime gives an ending to the events but was adapted before the manga was finished, it diverges with the fates of several chapters. The anime is crueler in its ending. The finale is bleak and a few of the subplots, such as Tatsumi's relationships, which seemed important when they were introduced and focused upon, ultimately did not matter at all. Thus it seemed rush and was more concerned with the shock factor rather than giving a satisfying ending. Overall, Akame ga Kill! starts off with promise but slowly desensitizes the viewer with its treatment of its characters. By the time the end arrives, you'd be surprised at the fates of most of the characters and probably still haven't gotten over it. It does end up simplifying its plot right down to the clash between Night Raid and those of the Empire, which surprisingly, can still feel messy at times.
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