Akame ga Kill – Episode 2 Review

Akame ga Kill had an…. interesting premier episode. Ultra violent justice porn is probably a fairly accurate way of describing the show. The issue I kind of took with it was just how much joy it took with it’s gratuitous violence. Aside from that, it seemed like it could be a lot of fun. Albeit the kind of fun you walk away from feeling a bit dirty.

This week we essentially got more of a background on our organisation of justice. Similar t other shows like this, they’re all eccentric, probably have dark pasts and are very good at violence. It did seem rather shallow how little focus we got on anyone other than Akame, but still, it served to show that each person has a role in the organisation.

I did enjoy that the Boss of Night Raid didn’t try to morally justify the murder’s that they commit. There may be a motive, but they all commit murder nonetheless. It’s a smidgen of a more mature show which feels a bit lost to be honest. Tatsumi’s seemingly blind following of Night Raid in order to propagate a noble future brought us straight back to naivety. I don’t imagine we’ll ever start to see Night Raid as something evil, that’s not what we’re aiming for, but it was still interesting to see the show acknowledge the grey area in which it sits.

 

 

I think this framing might have been intentional

Tatsumi’s first mission was actually something of an anti climax, and I think that can be extended to most of the action in this episode. Gamel was murdered with no trouble at all, and Tatsumi, despite going up against a sword master, literally left unscathed. I mean, not to poke logic at the show, but if you’re going to go as far as wearing shoulder armour everywhere, wouldn’t some gauntlets be a good idea?

Gauntlets are good at preventing the loss of arms

Having a brief backstory on our female lead felt somewhat rushed, as did her acceptance of Tatsumi into the group. A lot of stuff is simply being written of as “training” at the moment, and we’ve yet to see them actually treat Tatsumi as part of the team. Still, I imagine that’s what’s coming in the next few weeks.

And yeah, that was a pretty good episode. It’s good to see a show that knows it’s morally fudged, but continues anyway. Going forward, I’d like to learn more about Akame’s actual justification for fighting, as well as more about her past. The show is deliberately drip feeding us, so hopefully it adds up to something good