Akame Ga Kill – “Kill Your Cares” Review

Tatsumi has completed his first assignment with Night Raid, but he still has a long way to go before he can save the empire. Spoilers Ahead!

Tatsumi receives his next assignment for Night Raid, unfortunately it teams him up with Mine. As the day progresses Tatsumi learns just how terrible the capital he used to admire is, as well as how much resolve his comrades in Night Raid have.

The episode opens with that missing ambush I mentioned last week. While missing the character development moment for Tatsumi, it does once again reinforce how ruthless and efficient Night Raid is; but more importantly it introduces another staple of the series: the Imperial Arms. Not much info is given on them at this point but they do have that familiar “ancient weapon” smell that many other super mega ultra weapons do.

We get a closer look at Mine this time around. Her back story as you expect is pretty depressing. Being a “half-foreigner” from the north, she was despised and ridiculed until she joined Night Raid. She wants to help the Revolutionary army in order to eliminate the prejudice faced by her people (and live in the lap of luxury). Her drive is further accented by the fact that she and Tatsumi save a young refugee girl from some harassers, only to see other refugees crucified in the city square some time later.

Despite being the typical tsundere, Mine has excellent skills as a sniper, which is helped by her Imperial Arm “Pumpkin”. Pumpkin has the ability of allowing Mine to make near impossible and powerful shots the more of a “pinch” she’s in. This is demonstrated at the top of the episode when one of the bandits thought he had a drop on her before Shelle interfered, this ‘pinch” allowed Mine to completely disintegrate another bandit with one of her shots. Even without a near death experience Mine is still an excellent shot, taking out their newest target Iokal (a relative of the Prime Minister wo uses his connections to kidnap and beat women to death ) from a great distance.

Speaking of the Prime Minister, we finally get a good look at the so called “cancer” that is manipulating the young emperor and infecting the capital. He’s fat, greedy, and more than a little detestable (he says he will keep the wife of a man he is putting to death company, in more ways than one). It seems he has burrowed pretty deep into the emperor seeing as how the emperor ignores and shurgs off all attempts of soldiers exposing the Prime Minister. It’s nice to have a villain that the audience can genuinely despise every once in a while.

The Prime Minster

“Kill Your Cares” gives a glimpse into the mind of Mine, as well as how far the corruption in the capital goes. The action scenes are still nice and bloody and Tatsumi seems to be gelling well as a member of Night Raid. However his tenure may be cut short next week when a new enemy emerges.