Fans have been joking for awhile that the manga series Akame ga Kill!, written by Takahiro with artwork by Tetsuya Tashiro, had too macabre a plot and characters and a setting too insane not to adapt. Well, their wishes have finally been granted. Square Enix’s magazine Gangan Joker, where the manga is serialized, announced in its February issue that Akame ga Kill! would be getting an anime adaptation, among other announcements, including a game based on the series being developed by MinatoSoft.
Fans who have been following the series closely are not too surprised, given that Chapter 44’s last page had not only the usual next chapter’s publication date, but also some text that translated to “Next issue, there will be an important announcement!” Going by its increase in popularity since last year, it only made sense. Then not too long before the official announcement, the Internet domain name akame.tv was registered by TOHO Ad Co. It all just added up.
The series began back in 2010. The plot follows the protagonist, Tatsumi, who, along with his two other childhood friends, sets off to the Capital. Instead of a warm welcome, what Tatsumi finds paints quite a different picture. After some bad luck involving theft, tragic events that change the course of his life, and the realization of how corrupt the Empire was, he joins the assassin group Night Raid. Their main goal is to eliminate any and all corruption in the Empire from the inside.
It also has a prequel manga, Akame ga Kill! Zero, which started back in October 2013. Zero follows the titular character, Akame, back in her Empire days before she eventually betrayed them to join Night Raid.
As of yet, no studio has been named to produce the adaptation. Fans are hoping it won’t be censored, given its depictions of violence and quite graphic and heavy subject matter.
Update: Series artist Tetsuya Tashiro announced on his Twitter that White Fox will be the animation studio behind the anime adaptation.
