English Dub Review: Akudama Drive: “Se7en”

Overview:

Things take a turn for the worst when an innocent, young girl trying to save a cat gets wrapped up in an orchestrated plan by a group of criminals, known as Akudama, to free a serial killer before he is beheaded. 

Our Take: Style. Beauty. Spectacle. This episode has all of these in spades.  From the orange smoky skies to the neon drenched cityscape dripping out around every street corner, my eyes were eating it up like radioactive fruity pebbles. Studio Perrot’s original debut anime proudly wears it’s influences on its sleeves as Blade Runner was no doubt on the hearts and minds of the staff. It’s also refreshing that it infuses it’s own original concepts and ideas along with it. Unique touches help distinguish it and keep it from being a “replicant” of something else like holograms taking the place of busts in a police station or robotic employees who have natural voice inflections similar to that of how humans speak. There are other design flourishes present as well that help diversify the visual aesthetic, such as the bright, vibrant comic book style transitions serving as the rundown for each criminal. The show also marvelously presents such great atmospheric settings too. There is a fire fight between rival gangs that results with laser flickers of orange and blue bouncing back and forth. And later, dark violet with a subtle pink gently illuminates a dire tank battle. There is no shortage of artistic prowess throughout this chapter. 

The beauty part doesn’t just apply to the art direction and overall visuals but the animation as well. Bare knuckle brawls against drones have great momentum and flow seamlessly. A motorcycle blazes with immense speed as missiles whizz by and trail behind. Along with gorgeous hand drawn animation, CG also plays a prominent role serving as the basis for character models at times and robots. For the most part, these two elements are married perfectly as the computer generated interact well with 2D environments and characters with lively movements. 

All of these great elements are propelled by a fast pacing that effectively establishes each criminal, their personality and their role in the cyberpunk society. The show wastes no time in this as it builds towards the larger plot that needs to be established. Each quirky individual differs so greatly from one another and it’s incredibly entertaining to see how they play off each other, especially in the police station scene. From Jonah Scott’s cold stoic lines as the Courier to Brittany Lauda’s zeal for cutting as the Doctor or Macy Anne Johnson’s kind demeanor as Swindler, the entire ensemble cast is excellent.