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 the biggest 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 action 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.