Akudama Drive is set in a futuristic city, in which there are criminals called akudama and the people who catch them are called executioners. It begins with our main character , Swindler, accidentally being thrown in with real akudama and having to work with them in order to fulfill the tasks given by a robotic cat. The story seemed straightforward, but somewhere in the middle it became a mediocre drama that occasionally had some good moments but the buildup was weak, and the backstory of the characters that were the "plot twist" was nothing impressive. The script had many cringe lines that could have been taken out of a telenovela.

All the characters in the anime have no names, meaning they will probably be expendable, and for the most part that is the case. There is no need to be worried or care about most of the main cast since they will begin dropping like flies as the episodes go on. I have no issue with characters dying, but usually, especially if they are in the main cast, I expect good enough reasons as to why they passed away, or I expect their death to have an impact on someone else. We did get two deaths that filled this, but the two we got at the end felt like two much and it is beyond me why you would choose to kill off the other two decent characters you had, and then not show us if what they gave their life up for actually happened.

The problems in their world are not touched upon as much as they should and come out of nowhere, and the conflicts and ideals of the characters are not pushed as far as they could have. It is crazy that the characters have the most characterization in the visuals that we get for the ending theme than in the whole anime. Their backstories are never revealed, including the main character, and whatever little character development we get is not great.
Swindler started as a goody-two-shoes main character, and in the end, she is still a goody-two-shoes, but now she has murdered people (although she murdered guys who were human trafficking so they deserved it.), and she is so badass she can have her leg broken and not be in intense pain. Her development felt rushed but it made sense given what she went through so I can let it slide. She is still one of the good female characters we got in this season. The worst was probably the dialogue she had in episode 11 when she was trying to save the kids from having Kanto absorbed in them. It was just corny. That episode was bad in many ways too, since not only did another character just die for plot convenience, but the animation was lazy and the episode as a whole lacked emotional impact.

The rest of the main cast is pretty normal and there aren't any qualities that you will remember them for in the long run. The senior executioner that died along with Brawler had the potential to be a great character but the show killed him off and made it seem like he was a character similar to Brawler. Maybe I misread or didn't pay enough attention, but when did the show ever bother to show us that the executioner was a person who loved battle so much that he would love to die fighting? we knew Brawler was all about fighting since episode 1 so that one I can understand, but all we ever saw the executioner do was try to do his job so killing him off in this way made no sense. The episode where both of them died had emotion and some beautiful images as well as colors but still.

The reveal that the Doctor was this big bad who wanted to control death felt forced, Hoodlum sleeping with her did nothing for the plot, and well that's about it. All I'm going to mention about Cutthroat is that I am glad they left him as a cold-blooded murderer because he would have been ruined if they had tried to make him change. Courier is the typical bad boy who deep down cares but he is still just okay. Near the end, we got to see a bit of his backstory but the show didn't tell us who the person he was with was, so it added nothing to his character and it could have been removed to add something better. The character designs of everyone are modern and fit the vibe of the city. It is such a shame that we get good designs and no personality.

I am surprised that this is a show by Studio Pierrot. It was consistent for the most part and even had some good animation cuts here and there. The colors are very vivid and the backgrounds look stunning. The music choice for the opening is hideous in my opinion, but the visuals used for it fit the song and were interesting to look at. The ending theme is beautiful in both song choice and visuals. The art style is also nice to look at. The use of CGI is not overdone and blends decently with the rest of the show. The fighting choreography is fine, but some of the movements, particularly in episode 2, look robotic and not like how a human would move.

The ending is probably the worst about this show. The last two characters remaining of the main cast were Courier and Swindler, and ok their death makes sense when you know they wanted to get the kids to "safety". Their deaths had an impact, hell I even cried, but we are not shown if the kids made it to a safe place, because the show ends with them going off into the light. We just saw two characters give their life for these kids to escape, and you don't even show us if they were able to do so? will they even be fine at all? it is anticlimactic and just left a bad taste in my mouth.

For people who are into action and don't care much about character development, and an enthralling plot, this is a show you will probably enjoy. The characters look cool, the action scenes look decent, and it is a good enough show to watch when you have nothing else to do.