About Akame ga Kill!
Akame ga Kill! began as a manga written by Takahiro and drawn by Tetsuya Tashiro. It ran in Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker from March 2010 to December 2016 and was collected in 15 volumes, published in English by Yen Press. White Fox's TV anime, directed by Tomoki Kobayashi and written by Makoto Uezu, with Takahiro supervising the scripts and music by Taku Iwasaki, aired on Tokyo MX, MBS and BS11 from July to December 2014: one season of 24 episodes. Sentai Filmworks licensed it in North America, and Adult Swim's Toonami block showed the English dub from August 2015 to February 2016. By September 2020 the Akame ga Kill! manga series as a whole had more than 4.1 million copies in circulation.
Tatsumi, a young swordsman from a poor village, sets out for the Capital with his childhood friends Sayo and Ieyasu to earn money for home. Separated from them on the road and robbed soon after he arrives, he is taken in by a wealthy family whose kindness hides something terrible, and on the night the assassins of Night Raid come for that family he learns how rotten the Capital is. Night Raid works for the Revolutionary Army, which wants to bring down Prime Minister Honest, the glutton who rules the Empire through its boy Emperor. Its members, the swordswoman Akame, the beast-like brawler Leone, the sniper Mine, the scissor-wielding Sheele, the string fighter Lubbock, the armoured Bulat and their leader Najenda, a former imperial general, each carry a Teigu, called Imperial Arms in the English anime. These are legendary weapons forged long ago from rare materials and the remains of creatures called Danger Beasts, and they are so powerful that when two users fight, one of them is sure to die.
The story does not protect its heroes, and Night Raid loses members along the way. Its enemies grow stronger as it goes on, from Esdeath's Three Beasts to General Esdeath herself, who controls ice and leads the Jaegers, a team of Imperial Arms users that includes Akame's younger sister Kurome. Some of Night Raid's targets are plain monsters, but several of the Jaegers are decent people who believe they are protecting the Empire, which makes every clash costly. The anime follows the manga for its first 19 episodes, roughly the first eight volumes, and then tells an original story in its last five, with an ending that differs from the manga's. Reviews were mixed: The Fandom Post praised the first episode's sharp commentary on corruption and White Fox's production values, while Anime News Network's Matt Packard found its villains one-note.
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What the Akame ga Kill! Quiz Tests
Our Akame ga Kill! quiz covers the 24 episodes of the 2014 TV anime. Where the anime's last five episodes part ways with the manga, the quiz follows the anime, and it does not ask about the manga's later chapters or its ending, the prequel Akame ga Kill! Zero or the spin-off Hinowa ga Crush!. Easy levels cover the basics: who made the series, why Tatsumi goes to the Capital, Night Raid and the Revolutionary Army, Honest and the boy Emperor, the Jaegers, and the Imperial Arms each main character carries. The middle levels follow the story in order, from Aria's manor and Tatsumi's first test through the Three Beasts, Esdeath's tournament, Chelsea and Susanoo, Syura's island and the Path of Peace, along with what drives Mine, Lubbock, Seryu, Bols and Run. The hard levels are for people who watched closely: the final episode's title, the rule Esdeath lives by, the Danger Beast inside Incursio, what 'Jaeger' means, Esdeath's trump card, the first opening theme, Takahiro's other 2014 anime, and the battle for the Capital.
Key Characters
Tatsumi is a kind, quick-learning country boy whose first days in the Capital show him how corrupt it is. He joins Night Raid to fight the system that is starving his village, and inherits Bulat's armour, Incursio. Akame, the title character, is Night Raid's quietest member: sold to the Empire as a child with her younger sister Kurome and raised as an assassin, she defected to the rebels and carries the poisoned sword Murasame, yet she cooks for the whole base, never turns down a meal and takes every lost friend hard. Leone, a relaxed, big-sisterly brawler from the slums, Mine, a proud, short-tempered sniper whose half-foreign background drives her wish for a fairer country, and Lubbock, a joker with a reel of strings and a hopeless crush on their leader, the former general Najenda, make up the rest of the core. Facing them is General Esdeath, who controls ice, loves battle, despises weakness and falls for Tatsumi at a tournament, and the Jaegers she leads: Kurome, who wants to be the one to defeat her sister; Wave, a decent young sailor who becomes Tatsumi's rival and friend; the gentle, masked Bols; Run, who wants to reform the Empire from inside; and Seryu, whose idea of justice is frightening. Behind them all sits Prime Minister Honest, who rules through the boy Emperor.
Available Quizzes
Akame ga Kill! Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which Akame ga Kill! Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover which Akame ga Kill! character matches your personality!
Random Mix
Questions from all 59 anime including Akame ga Kill!. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
Tatsumi
Akame
Leone
Mine
Najenda
Akame ga Kill! Fun Facts
- Takahiro came up with the idea in 2007: an all-female band of assassins who capture a boy and make him work for them. He held off on starting it until his visual novel studio, Minato Soft, had found its feet, and in August 2009 he chose Tetsuya Tashiro as the artist because Tashiro could draw both fast action scenes and cute girls.
- The title is a bilingual pun. The Japanese verb kiru means to cut someone down with a blade, and the English word 'kill' is written the same way in katakana, so the title can be read as 'Akame Kills (by Slashing)!'. Akame's own name can be read as 'red eye', and her sister Kurome's as 'black eye'.
- Sora Amamiya, who voices Akame, made her official debut as a singer with the first opening theme, 'Skyreach', which reached number 13 on the Oricon weekly chart. She also sings the second ending theme, 'Tsukiakari'.
- The English dub's premiere on Adult Swim's Toonami block in August 2015 drew more than 1.8 million viewers, one of the most-watched broadcasts in the block's history.
- Esdeath's named ice attacks are in German, such as Weissschnabel ('White Beak'), and the English dub renames the Emperor's giant Imperial Arms, Shikoutazer, as Primus Imperator, Latin for 'First Emperor'.
- Makoto Uezu, the anime's series writer, also wrote the screenplay of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, another anime created by Takahiro, which began on MBS in October 2014 while Akame ga Kill! was still on the air.
Akame ga Kill! Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Akame ga Kill! are there?
Twenty-four, in a single season. It aired in Japan from 7 July to 15 December 2014; Tokyo MX listed the first episode at 24:00 on 6 July, which is why some sources start the run a day earlier. The one-minute AkaKill! Theater comedy shorts released online alongside the series are not part of the count.
Is Akame ga Kill! finished?
Yes. The anime tells a complete story in its 24 episodes. Its last five episodes are an original arc written for the anime, so its ending is different from the manga's. The manga itself finished in December 2016 after 15 volumes, the prequel manga Akame ga Kill! Zero ended in January 2019, and the spin-off Hinowa ga Crush! ended in June 2022.
What order should I watch Akame ga Kill! in?
Watch the 24 episodes in order; that is the whole anime, and the AkaKill! Theater shorts are optional comedy extras. The rest of the franchise is manga. Akame ga Kill! Zero, drawn by Kei Toru, is a prequel about Akame's years as an assassin for the Empire and can be read before or after the anime. Hinowa ga Crush!, drawn by Strelka, is a separate story with new characters in which Akame appears as a side character. If you want the manga's version of the second half, the anime covers roughly its first eight volumes before going its own way.
Where can I watch Akame ga Kill!?
Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime in North America and Crunchyroll streamed it, and Adult Swim's Toonami block aired the English dub in the United States from August 2015 to February 2016. Hanabee holds the series in Australia and Anime Limited in the United Kingdom, and Medialink streams it in parts of Asia on its Ani-One Asia YouTube channel. Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services.
What is Akame ga Kill! about?
Tatsumi, a country boy who comes to the Capital to earn money for his starving village, discovers that the Empire is rotten from top to bottom and joins Night Raid, a band of assassins working for the Revolutionary Army against Prime Minister Honest, who rules through a boy Emperor. Each member fights with an Imperial Arms, a legendary weapon of great power, and as the revolution draws closer they face the Empire's strongest general, Esdeath, and her Jaegers. It is a dark, violent action story about the price of changing a corrupt country.
