In a crowded season of anime, the original anime series Akudama Drive is slowly becoming the dark horse of the season, gaining more audience attention and active discussion every week. Akudama Drive first attracted an audience with its highly stylized cyberpunk visuals, but the twisty plot and insane characters kept people coming back for more. Let’s explore how these elements make the series the surprise hit of the season.
A Unique and Stylish World
Akudama Drive takes place in a futuristic Japan where eastern Kantou and western Kansai became divided after Kantou dropped a bomb on Kansai. A group of criminals from Kansai called “akudama” are tasked by a robot black cat to go on a major heist that leads them into very dangerous confrontations with the Execution Division of the police department.
The design of the Akudama Drive’s Kansai is distinctively cyberpunk, with an eternally dark and smoggy environment ignited by excessive neon lights of commercials, surrounded by postmodern architectures. The citizens of Kansai watch live executions of akudamas for entertainment, while more akudamas operate within sleazy alleyways and shady backrooms of the underworld. All elements combine to make the world feel surreal but strangely lived in.
As the story progresses, the contrast between the decadence of Kansai, the sterile and inhuman design of the high-speed train that goes to Kantou and the nuclear wasteland between the two regions add even more mystery to the supposedly utopian world of Kantou. The twisted symbiotic relationship between Kantou and Kansai is highlighted through these careful designs, which makes the world a unique character all on its own.
According to the series creators Tomohisa Taguchi and Kazutaka Kodaka, they are inspired by Hollywood films of the 80s and 90s to create this world and its characters, such as Blade Runner and Quentin Tarantino films. This influence is very apparent; each episode title is even based on a famous movie, from Se7en to The City of Lost Children.
A Crazy Group of Characters
One of the biggest film inspirations of Akudama Drive is Reservoir Dogs. Both are heist stories where the characters go by nicknames. In Reservoir Dogs, the nicknames are color-based, while Akudama Drive's cast is referred to by their job: swindler, courier, brawler, hacker, doctor, hoodlum and cutthroat.
The characters in Akudama Drive do not have rich backstories or psychological complexities. Rather, they are all simply defined by their flamboyant personalities and superhuman abilities. Their personalities perfectly fit with their professions: the brawler is a brash brute always looking for a fight, the doctor is calm and can fix any wound, the hacker is a geek with lots of gadgets, the courier is stoic and only cares about his mission and cutthroat is a psychopath who loves to kill. The two relatively normal characters, the ordinary person pretending to be a swindler and the hoodlum, have to keep up pretenses in order to survive among true akudamas.
The most interesting aspect of all the characters is their simplicity. Because it is made clear from the beginning that almost everyone is a maniac who can snap at any moment, the tension between them is always present. Most characters are so extreme and so capable of killing that they are still very unpredictable despite being stereotypical. Which makes them a great deal of fun to watch.
A Story Full of Twists and Turns
If the characters are stereotypical, Akudama Drive’s story is anything but. While it starts out as a heist, it quickly turns into an action thriller, then a sci-fi mystery within a matter of episodes. The co-creator of the series Kazutaka Kodaka’s claim to fame is the murder mystery franchise Danganronpa, so audiences familiar with the Danganronpa series should expect the same kind of dark and twisted story from Akudama Drive. Kodaka is good at planting massive narrative turns within a simple premise, so a murder mystery or a heist can turn into a world-ending event very quickly.
Amazingly, the fast pace of Akudama Drive does not feel rushed, mainly because of the aforementioned simplistic characterizations. Since most characters are straightforward and not keen on having intricate plans, they usually achieve their goals in the most direct way possible, often leaving a great deal of destruction behind. The fast-paced storytelling complements characters’ personalities very well.
Akudama Drive is a series that carefully plans small details that clues the audience into future developments. Take, for example, how the opening of Episode 7 is changed to match a recent story development, and it is finally clear that the opening has been foreshadowing the potential ending of the akudamas from the beginning. Some characters are clearly shown dead, while others have more ambiguous outcomes, such as the hacker who went off to Kantou alone in Episode 5.
While Akudama Drive’s stylish visuals and crazy characters add a great deal of enjoyment for those tuning in weekly, its careful pre-planning and unpredictable narrative developments are what ultimately make Akudama Drive a series worthy of increasing audience discussions and engagements, cementing its growing popularity within the Fall 2020 anime season.
