#friedramble

AND THAT DOESN'T EVEN START ME ON MY SHIPPING RANT BECAUSE THESE TWO LITERALLY FIT ONE OF MY FAVORITE TROPES OF ALL TIME: FRIENDS TO ENEMIES TO LOVERS

TL;DR: I needed to scream into the void because I like Breakdown and his relationship with Bumblebee so much. Episode 14 as a whole scratches my brain so much like yes please I hate when drama happens please give me more it tastes great especially with how pretty a whole ton of scenes are in this episode specifically!

YAHOOO I LOVE GETTING ASKS!! Okay- about Akudama Drive! I'll be doing this in two parts, one for behind the scenes because I love that stuff and a second paragraph for a spoiler free summary!

Akudama Drive a single season anime that has a complete story and two adaptations (a manga with two extra chapters after the anime's ending and a stage play that's very well done imo). It won Anime Trending's 7th yearly Anime Awards, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sci-Fi l, and Best Mystery/Psychological Anime in 2021 but somehow it's so so unknown despite that. It's made by some of the crew who worked on Danganronpa (games and animes) so there's lots of similar ideas, themes, designs, etc but I 100% feel like Akudama Drive executes many of these concepts better than DR did.

Plot-wise, Akudama Drive is about an Ordinary Person who accidentally gets wrapped up in a heist featuring some of the biggest criminals, also known as Akudama, in Kansai. The anime takes place in a cyberpunk dystopian future where criminals run so rampant that the government has a dedicated Execution Division for dealing with Akudama. This clearly isn't very fun for the Ordinary Person but she rolls with it because she's dead if she does and dead if she doesn't. Just like Danganronpa, Akudama Drive is gorey but in a less-cartoony way. There's two versions and the one that was aired puts in censor smears to cover up the blood & guts. If you're pirating then this'll be the one you'll probably find but if not then I think you might be good since you're a Transformers fan. The gore is a little lesser than what MTMTE had going on but instead of robots Akudama Drive has humans- telling you this since AD loves getting really violent. Also the uncensored version has extended scenes which I'm excited to start watching soon.

Anyways there's my ramble heehoo- I've been insane for this anime since last year and the brainrot strikes back 🛐 If you pick it up I hope you like Akudama Drive!

YOU

His eyes are so big- even for the Rui Komatsuzaki artstyle that man's eyes are WIDE

She is so cute

3D MODEL COURIER

Gotta love Ordinary Person being so nice and throwing out Courier's garbage because she's so cool like that fr

Also there's like a convenience store opposite the Takoyaki stand- It would've been so simple for Ordinary Person to waddle in and find an ATM or a cashier willing to give her change but noooo get arrested girlie

:( She's just sitting in the car that's so sad

Man- I love the background characters in this scene. There's really nice continuity between different scenes showing the same crowd-fillers but also they're all just sitting around abnormally

Girlie :( also SNIPER SPOTTED YIPPEEE

CGI Courier spotted again

OMG THIS IS ACTUALLY THE UNCENSORED VERSION YIPPEEEEE

That guy's head wasn't as gorey as I thought it'd be- Made in Abyss did worse but I understand the precaution AD has. Maybe I'm used to it but at least I don't have the black blurs hehe

Courier's phone looks like an IPod

I love how Black Cat's messages for everyone seem specifically written for them. That's really cute in a horrific way 🥺

Doctor just sitting in the air bus like a normal person is funny to me. She seemed very nice and polite and somehow no one went "huhhhh didn't I see her on a wanted poster today?"

Man- Kansai really did just make every single screen ever tell people about Cutthroat's execution. Imagine watching Elmo then the screen turns black and red and it's telling you someone is going to die. F

Everyone standing against a dark sky with the red tower in the background looks so nice woaaa

"I'm not a Swindler!" Now you are bestie

Brawler literally moves so fast he's like a fly or something 🛐

All the people in the police station were just staring out the window to watch wwwwwwww

BLACK CAT!!!

Hacker's little drones open their mouths like :D as they turn into hover platforms 🥺

How did Doctor get in unnoticed? She's bright pink whuh??

Akira reference heehoo

Somehow I never noticed this ref before

Not Brawler hearing Courier whisper from 50 yards away 😭

Hacker :)

I'm really amazed that Courier somehow manages to drive his thick motorcycle through the police building easily. It's his thing but the doors- dude how are you getting through the doors

Courier with pink eyes

Genuinely so hard to watch this and NOT hear Leona Kingscholar's voice whenever Courier speaks- this is so sad 😔

Somehow Doctor works as a projectile to destroy a whole floor and doesn't break her back oml

Hacker is actually just a rat that they discovered hiding in the walls during demolition

"You're not dead?!" I FORGOT THAT SHE COULD DO THAT- still no idea how she could even reach her back but she's silly like that. Horrible painful foreshadowing mayhaps. Gotta love how she's just like "I wanna join hehe" while everyone is pointing weapons at each other

Everyone is out for MURDER until Swindler comes in with Black Cat wwwwwww