I had no idea what I was going into watching Akudama Drive since there was barely any manga chapters out, but I was pleasantly surprised and I'm surprised that I haven't seen more people talking about it. Yes it has some flaws but overall its a fairly unique sci-fi show that I really enjoyed and kept me intrigued.

The concept of having a group of majorly wanted criminals, or akudama, working together is an interesting concept on its own, especially when they all have very different personalities and goals. I enjoyed seeing how all the characters interacted with each other and their different fighting styles. The mystery of Kanto was present throughout the series which left you wondering what the other region was like to be so great and mysterious, and this stayed right up to the end with an admittedly weird but still interesting reveal.

The fight scenes were very well done, with just the right amount of blood and gore for the situations. I'm glad they actually made the criminals act like criminals with bad morals and killing people, rather than having the lame 'misunderstood' or 'falsely accused' trope. These people are bad people, and the show didn't try to make you feel bad for them, and some of the time I wasn't even routing for them to win, it was just interesting to see how the plot would play out.

The visuals are undoubtedly stunning with super bright colours that made the intense plot seem lighter somehow. I also really liked the 3D aspects they included like when a new setting was introduced. One thing I noticed about the animation however is how they make characters conveniently disappear when they aren't needed. Like when Cutthroat is trying to kill Swindler in episode 9, Courier and the sister seem to vanish and show back up again even though they were in the same room.

The music didn't really stand out very much to me, the opening was okay but nothing amazing and the I couldn't even tell you how the ending went.

As for the characters, I enjoyed most of them. None of them were anything new or unique and they did annoy me at times. But what I enjoyed about them was seeing their motivations and how their clashing personalities worked together. I found Swindler more likable the more the show went on, but I do still find her to be your average kind, pretty boring female MC with forced character development in the second half, As for the other akudama, I found Hoodlum surprising likable, especially near their end with how his actions were guided by his respect for Brawler.

--SPOILERS BELOW--

I really enjoyed seeing how the executioners went from being seemingly all powerful and being able to do whatever they wanted to becoming essentially akudama themselves.!~ I always enjoy seeing politics in anime, especially when its clear that it would happen if it was in a real-world situation.For example, if the police started randomly killing civilians after falsely reporting them to be criminals, an uprising would definitely happen, which it did in Akudama Drive. I'm also glad they decided to kill most of the characters off, because it made it more realistic, especially after seeing how some of them seemed unkillable, it was nice to be proven wrong. I was honestly waiting for Swindler to magically come back to life in the last episode, because you can't kill of the MC! So it was nice to see them actually go through with her death

I did however find the first half of the show more interesting than the second, as once they saved the children and arrived at their goal it all seemed slightly disjointed, almost like they didn't know where to go with the plot once their initial goal was met. However, I don't think it completely lost its way after that, it introduced a new darkness to the show such as Swindler's character development and the civilian uprising, however, making this dark turn made the show lose the comedy aspect it had in the first half, which made it a more depressing viewing experience

The main criticism I have with the show is the lack of world building and over complication. I'm not saying there was no world building, because there was, I just wish they went into more about the war and its impacts. I know it was meant to be left a mystery until the end, but the whole destroying of the moon was just brushed over and I still have no idea how Kanto being a quantum computer or whatever actually works. But naturally it is only 12 episodes so its difficult to get any more detail in there at risk of losing actual plot. The way hacker rescues them in the last episode isn't explained whatsoever and neither is the 'power' of the Shinkansen. It just felt at times like they were trying to make the show seem smarter than it actually was, again its a lot of things to cram into 12 episodes !~!~

Overall, its an enjoyable sci-fi show that keeps you hooked with gorgeous visuals and fun characters. I would recommend it to someone who wants a quick show with lots of blood and gore and plot twists. 8/10