Akame Ga Kill – akadjblaze

Ok, this has been a longtime coming, I started writing it ages ago, but side tracked by all the big Marvel and DC news of recent, so here it is for this Fall Season…

So with the current climate of shows coming out I have to admit I haven’t been watching as much anime lately, which is kind of sad because there is some good shows this season… but on the flip side there is also some rubbish shows too! Keep in mind I am watching Gotham, AOS, Flash, Arrow and Constantine as well as anime shows. At any rate I have been sticking mostly to my favorite shows so the list is pretty small and now that Halo MCC is finally here, I won’t be picking up too many new shows in the near future unless something is totally outstandingly good! There is a couple I want to watch, fate night stay night is one that looks really good but I want to watch the first series before getting into it. I started watching Terraformars, but I have stopped because I am waiting for the uncensored versions (there is nothing I hate more than censorship) So with that in mind, here is what I am currently watching

One Piece

Yes it goes without saying, the best and longest running anime? And we are finally seeing a lot more action, it took a while to build to this point but now that we are there, it is exciting to see the fights as the Straw Hats are beginning to engage head on with Doflamingo and his forces… oh and SABO is back!!! (even thou they still haven’t actually mentioned him by name yet)

Naruto

With the news that the manga is finally coming to an end, the anime is also coming to the end (maybe) of the Ninja war against Madara, I am glad that there is an end point, after this war there isn’t much more they can do except of course for Naruto and Sasuke to sort out who will be Hokage but there is always only so much you can cram into a long story and Naruto’s story is definitely coming to an end. However the war has been pretty good mostly, seeing characters die and the nice reunion of Naruto and Minato has been pleasing.

SAO Season 2

So this has been a good run, slightly slower paced that the first season, but also have to bear in mind there isnt a huge amount of material for them to draw from, but what they have done with it has been enjoyable and it felt much better paced this time round

Log Horizon Season 2

So after the messy first episode, it has settled down now and things are getting a little more interesting, it is good to see some of the raid battles as well as Akutski getting more screen time and looks like she might finally get trained to be more badass. Also story wise there is a lot going on with more and more creeping in so it looks like it will be another great season hopefully

Bahamut Genesis

So I play the ROB card game, so have been expecting the release of this for some time, and wasn’t disappointed, it is a really good anime, plenty of cross over from the card game for those who play it but done so that if doesn’t matter if you play the game or not, you will still know what is going on. Follows the story of a couple of bounty hunters and a demon who steals one of the stones that is keeping Bahamut prisoned. It is a little jumpy as the world is introduced but the lead characters are very interesting and the opening theme is dope!

Cross Ange

Ok, this is a weird one, it is most definitely geared towards nerd fan boys who get their rocks off on anime girls, and the whole time it is boarder line, very borderline, but the premise of it isn’t that bad, I mean, gundams, dragons, magic, blood people dying, and then there is the skimpy outfits, girl on girl action and just a whole assortment of wtf moments. This really does take a lot of what people perceive as Japanese anime and just cram it all into a single show

Akame Ga Kill

Still loving this anime, it’s nice to know that not all the characters are safe at any point in time, while sure it has a lot of problems, overall I am still enjoying it and really like some of the characters and really want to see how it ends

Star Wars Rebels

I was a little annoyed they cut clone wars off when they did, it was at a rather interesting point, but the show was beginning to suffer thou it did have a solid few seasons and glad that they portrayed Anakin rather well, unlike in the dam movies where they made him a sniveling, whinny little bitch boy (but that’s another story) Anyways the first few episodes are really good, it seems to be set maybe a little bit before New Hope, and has a rather interesting story that I really want to see play out to its end, but I think it’s only a short series so that sucks. The cartoon renditions and even the video games of the Star Wars universe have been on point and the books following the movie series are just awesome! (still disapointed they didnt base the new movies on the Thrawn trilogy)

Avengers Assemble Season 2

So season one ended with the Cabal being disbanded and Red Skull going cosmic, season 2 has introduced Thanos as the main villain which is interesting since he was missed out of the first series they did (which was pretty good) The first season was not a reboot as such but a different continuation and feels more similar in anime fashion to the Hulk and the agents of SMASH series. Anyways the first season was good so have high hopes for the second season

Terra Formars

Just finished with the 3rd episode of this and is starting to look good. The animation style is that raw desperation feel which by the looks of things is going to suit the show perfectly, thou how roaches can grow from like 5-10cm to being over 10ft tall in a span of 40 years and also genetically change to be smart is a bit of a stretch… but hey, its fiction 🙂 This feels like its going to be another brutal anime on the same level as the likes of Shingeki or Knights of Sidonia. Update: Waiting for uncensored versions to come out so it is on hold for now

World Trigger

The first episode was ok, you get a little bit of the history behind the story and a glimpse of whats going on, but at the moment its hard to get a feel of where it is going to go next, I have a feeling its going to be more story driven than action but that could change hopefully. Update: Dropped this like a bad habbit

Gundam Reconguista in G

At the moment the first episode barely kept me interested, the animation style is reminiscent of the older style of drawing which while is ok, just doesnt feel right to me when doing a gundam anime esp in this day and age. Luckily the second episode gets better so I will stay with this one for a little longer. Gundam wing for me was by far the best, thou I havent seen them all but most of them. People were excited for this because the hope was it would go back to being more serious (unlike build fighters, a straight child adaptations) and the first episode looks meh but it seems like it gets better – Update: It has hit the back burner but will try and watch it at some stage

And that is it, on the back burner I still want to watch Pyscho-pass season 2, Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte and Gundam Recognista in G, which I will try to watch at some point but yeah, time time time…

So autumn (Fall) is almost upon us in the northen hemisphere and I have resorted to releasing my anime blog every 2 weeks for now, seems like a logical step since I have been busy with my DJ endeavours and the long holiday weekend is almost on us. That and I have fallen behind in a few animes except for my out right favourites so far

But the big news recently is that a lot of anime sites (esp download and torrent sites) are down due to DDos attacks, which rumor says seem to have originated from the Japanese government itself in their attempt to crack down on anime/manga piracy… still nothing confirmed thou but will be interesting to see what happens, however the episodes are still poping up on sites like KAT, Tokyo Toshokan and PB but for now it seems that a lot of these sites have indeed fallen from grace…

Akame Ga kill

Wow, at first I know people were a little off put by how the tone jumped around so rapidly, but by now I am sure people are use to it, it is still brutal and we have even seen that not every character is safe with 2 casualties already amongst the nightraid members (and not the ones I expected, thou I guess Baluat was a little obvious, cool that Tatsumi gets his Imperial arms thou) The last episode thou was a little weird at the end, why would he enter the tournament in the first place if he is meant to be an assassin, creating the obvious love interest for Lady Esdeath on the side too

Mahouka

Still not eough on the action side of things but I am still looking forward to it every weekend, but the whole brother/sister thing that is going on is really, really weird and seems to make no sense without knowing any of their past which is annoying, but apart from that I am still enjoing the show and getting to see some ass kicking outside of the school tournament

SAO2 – GGO

Well as expected this is still delivering at a slightly better pace than the first season and is making more sense at times than the first season which I am enjoying. There is less skipping forward and its interesting how it has all been tied in with Laughing Coffin too. Interested to see what happens next after the cliff hanger we were left with last episode, also, is death gun actually a part of the game or is he like a random ‘program’ that can come and go as he pleases?

Naruto

Well, loving the reunion of team 7 and the 3 way deadlock, that was pretty mean, cool that the previous Hokage are out in force too, weird that Oroichmaru is actually helping them (not to mention Sasuke’s change of heart) But least the war is coming to its climax by the looks of it and there should at least be a mean showdown between Madara and Hashirama… hopefully

One Piece

I have to admit, while watching all these other anime bolt forward at a million miles an hour, OP is basically the opposite, but given its popularity and huge world, I am glad they have the luxury to take it slow and fill in the entire story without having to skip forward missing important things that other anime often have to do. The Riku kingdom and history of them and Doflamingo is pretty cool and learning how he manipulated them all. But its getting to the point where the inevitable showdown between everyone is coming very close and almost losing patience for it to hurry up and come! But at the same time I am glad it isnt rushing ahead

I haven’t properly caught up on Agrevollen, Aldnoah Zero, Tokyo Esp and Tokyo Ghoul but will endeavour to do so in the following weeks

Recomended Anime

Air Gear

So, I found this anime randomly after searching for some fan made anime music videos to use with my dj sets and I came across someone who had used Air Gear in a pretty decent video, so I decided to check out the anime itself, glad I did! The story follows a boy named Iki and is set in a world where technology has advanced enough to allow people to basically have high powered electric rollker skates/blades with enough torque and power to allow people to ride them at great speeds, up walls and jump great distances. Thus taking extreme sports to a whole other level and giving people ‘wings’ (a common theme during the story) The story revolves around Iki learning to ride these Air Treks (in what is like a futuristic version of aggressive skating, with crews/gangs, underground races etc etc) and as he forms his own team to ride and compete against other ‘Storm Riders’ and learns that he is the ‘chosen’ one. His sisters are also part of one of the legendary A-T gangs and as the story begins, he is quickly thrown into the world revolving around Air Treks. I liked this anime because its a little different to others having an extreme sport component to it, thou as it progresses it still follows your usual anime formula of the hero on his quest thrown in the deep end only to rise from adversity, meeting his fellows compatriots etc etc, coupled with your usual weird goings on and typical shower and bathroom scenes and awkward moments thrown in for good measure (because seriously, whats an anime with out the big brestead girl getting commented on in the shower scene) But apart from the usual quirks and weirdness that is Japanese anime, this is an enjoyable watch with some interesting characters and some even weirder abilities (Akito and Agito are hillarious at times, thou also extremely disturbing as well) Add all this together and you have an anime worth watching. Oh, and the English dub version is actually pretty good! One of the rare times they get it right (swearing and all too!) The only let down was that it finished just as it was getting good, however an OVA was released that was pretty good and follows on the story further in the future but again it was only short so it is left very open ended

Animation 6/10 Its not that impressive but the characters are well drawn and have enough differences to make it ok

Characters 7/10 There are some interesting characters and some really well done interactions between some of them

Plot 5/10 Unfortunately the plot is nothing special, not to say it isnt good, its just not going to leave you going ‘god dam’

Overall 6/10 This is one of those watch if you have the time animes, it isnt mind blowing amazing but it is enjoyable enough to check it out and has a different concept than most animes but at the end of the day it does fundamentally follow the usual formula. Not on the A list of must watch, but on the B list of worth a watch

Throwback Character

Conan The Adventurer

Grey Wolf

Male

Wizard of Xanthus

Mostly magical based attacks but also physically strong and proficent in hand to hand combat

Use his staff as his outlet for his magical power, gets signifacntly upgraded with a star metal ‘Claw of Heaven’, also has his brother and sister were turned into wolves who also aid him

The serious type, wise but also similar to the others and can be quick tempered

Grey Wolf was my favourite character from this series, mainly because at the time I had a wizard obsession and he was a more bad ass wizard who not only could do magic but also hold his own in a fight.

The series itself, while old, was enjoyable, coming off the back of the successful movies, the cartoon show seemed to enjoy some success (basically any show that makes it to NZ had to have been somewhat successful at the time) The story flows different to the movies but still has a lot of the combat, thou obviously toned down for children. They made a nice little get around introducing the snake men and star metal that baneshes them from our dimension, basically allowing for combat but remvoing blood. Using the story line of the serpant set which was a main plot line in one of the movies and expanding on it more was a good move and made the cartoon feel really well thought out for what it was. The plot basically follows Conan as he is on a quest to reverse the spell placed on his family that turned them to stone, which ends up becoming a quest to put a stop to the Stigen forces and Set’s plans to invade their dimension. Along his quest he meets up with fellow heroes who aid him along the way. The good thing is that the other heroes come in and out of the series so its not always the same combination for each episode, allowing for some good cahracter interatctions. The other good thing was that the series had a definitive finale for the major plot line (which often wasnt the case for cartoons of the time) even thou some minor plots were left open ended, it was nice to be able to watch this from start to finish

Tag: Akame Ga Kill

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