With an extraordinary start, Akudama Drive is an original anime series that should have been a game instead. The creator, Kazukata Kodaka is so intent on getting a perfect shot on a drop of rain land on The Ordinary Person or those foreshadowing of classic Cyberbank elements that correspond to the corruptive society, however neglected the depictions on characters. Those ingredients make the first half of the anime pretty and incredible, but the audience does not only want to see how lovingly a died protagonist lying against a cross can be.
My first impression of The Ordinary Person is she must be a great swindler who eventually deceit herself, but the truth is: the protagonist is actually an ordinary citizen who accidentally join those Swindler because butterfly effect of five hundred yen. Ironically, the police can take her immediately as she cannot afford five-hundred-yen for buying a Takoyaki but arrived so slowly during the Shinkansen heist. Moreover, a normal citizen can disguise herself as a Billiken Transport employee that no one would notice; she also can avoid the attack from the police. These makes characteristic of the protagonist unexplainable.
However, character depiction is a big issue. The Ordinary Person must have some relationship that can be anything that relates to the siblings, otherwise, she doesn’t have the motivation for saving those siblings. But the truth subverted my view again, our protagonist is a person who very compassionate and protective of others. Kazukata intends to portray she as a desperately compassionate figure that eventually sacrificed under the Cross – a biblical reference to Jesus. But, such a holy figure does not care about the result of saving the siblings, where half of the city destroyed and so many people died. Therefore, my impression of The Ordinary Person in episode 11 is a selfish person who has a desperate obsession with the sibling and the cat.
Similar issue to the Execution Division Apprentice, we hopefully expect this girl would change after her master’s death, but she didn’t. I first thought she might stand out or protects the junior ones as she lost one of her important ones. Just like what Part 4 JOJO did, where Josuke lost his grandfather which allows him to make the decision of protecting his hometown. However, this might because the anime only has 12 episodes that the creator does not have much time on other plotline. After the death of the Execution Division Master, the whole Execution Division then become so rubbish which died so many people. Sometimes we expected to see some change within each character but they stay the same from start to end.
Overall, Akudama Drive gives the audience an amazing visual effect in the first two episodes that anime successfully combines Japanese culture with Cyperbunk elements. One of the LED boards in Kansai is the woodblock print of ‘The Great Wave of Kanagawa,’ by Japanese artist Hokusai, which is also on the coin. This is symbolic of the idea of overcoming adversity and bravery. Even the last scene when the Brother and Sister walking in the tunnel is reminiscent of the last scene of the horror film “Train to Busan”; that represents the unknown future and hope. Here, the first 2 episode is so amazing with amazing plotline and symbols, but lack of logic and some explanation which did not reached expectation.