Number of Episodes: 24
What Wikipedia says: The story focuses on Tatsumi, a young villager who travels to the Capital to raise money for his home only to discover a strong corruption in the area. The assassin group Night Raid recruits the young man to help them in their fight against the Empire to end its corruption.
KoanMan says: Looking for action? Looking for some violence? Look no further. This fast-paced, action-packed series is just the medicine. It should be noted that while many will see pointless blood, KoanMan found that all the violence was well within the plot and kept to the story-line. There was nothing especially gratuitous at all. That said, this is not a series for the kiddies.
The characters are reasonably developed, though there remains plenty unknown about them, however, with this much action and plot to push through, there seems little time for further development. The unusual twists in character presence early on do go some way to preparing the viewer for events as they unfold later in the series. A parallel may be drawn to the popular TV series involving thrones and a game.... You will understand this when you watch. The story-line proceeds with some gusto, and there is certainly a lot of story to get through - all thoroughly enjoyable. Pacing, while fast, is steady throughout - very nice. Only one major flaw presented itself, with a missing fight that should have occurred between Ep19 and Ep 20 - perhaps an addition will produced/released? Ep19.5 maybe?
As an aside, Prime Minister Onest and Esdeath get special mentions as two of the most principles driven characters, in their own way, right up there with Doctor Toshio Ozaki (Shiki) and Satsuma Kiryuin (Kill la Kill). To be fair, the principles that drive Prime Minister Onest are very different to those that drive the others listed here.
How About the Music? The music is OK, though during the adrenaline-filled action fight scenes, can be a little cheesy - tTPO did not even notice the music during the fight scenes, probably due the high level of adrenaline coursing through him at these moments. It was probably Ep11 before KoanMan even noticed! Such good action....
So How Does it End? (Spoiler free): (tTPO here) It ends and ends definitively. Though having said that the ending is anime original, and it seems rather likely at this stage the manga ending will be a) different and b) better. As KoanMan implied above, events seem to get a little more incoherent towards the end and the series suffers a little because of this. But such good action...
Overall Grade: The result? KoanMan rates this page-turner an A. Viva la Revolución!
ADDENDUM (by tTPO): Despite the flaws of this show it remains compelling for the action fan for most of its run, aided at least in part by the somewhat more complex moral nature of most (though by no means all) of the 'villains'. The series seems to have divided the blogosphere but I think the trick is just not to overthink it - just sit back and enjoy the ride. This would have been an A if I didn't know about the manga, but instead just a little less: A-.
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