Akudama Drive

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 and you 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.