Akudama Drive – 03 [Mission: Impossible]

This episode was a far cry from the spectacle of the first two. There were no dust-ups with the Execution Department, no direct assaults on massive buildings or organizations, and no interpersonal conflicts within the main cast. It consisted mostly of planning a heist, then quietly executing the first half of it (as quietly as a show like Akudama Drive can manage, anyway). Perhaps some viewers needed a breather after two straight weeks of madness, but personally, I was hoping for twelve. Still, a relatively subdued affair like this one gave the production team a chance to relax their weary pencil/mouse hands, and let the characters themselves carry the burden of bringing the show to life. Were they up to the task? Eh, sort of.

When a third of your episode is dedicated to an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist synopsis, you need some strong personalities to keep things lively during all that dialogue. Akudama Drive has the “strong personalities” part down pat, but I don’t know if “liveliness” was achieved. I might go with “loudness,” instead, since that’s what the majority of the characters are. The show did engineer a moment of reflection after the talking cat had finished detailing its master plan, with Swindler sitting outside the abandoned warehouse and considering how nuts her life had become. It’s good that her humanity hasn’t been thrown away in the name of plot convenience, but the way she viewed her slide into the criminal world didn’t sit right with me. She ought to be looking for a means of escape instead of bemoaning how far she’s fallen. And even if you accept that freedom is currently impossible, why not collect your wits and figure out which of your new allies would be most likely to defect with you in the future?

Swindler’s still going with the flow (and not doing a particularly convincing job of it), so her role in the first part of the Akudama’s mission played flatly. Why would I buy her tricking Joe Schmo the security guard if she can hardly keep her composure in a room full of people too insane to notice? But enough beating up on the Normal Girl – her deception at the start was just phase one of the Shinkansen raid. Phase two was the spot where the show approximated its craziest moments, giving Brawler the opportunity to toss marble columns through the air while Cutthroat played 5D darts with his throwing knives. The visuals couldn’t match either of these concepts, especially in Brawler’s case, where neon-striped patterns bounced behind still images of his character in an effort to spice up the scene. Breather episode or not, this technique stood out like a sore thumb, but it was thankfully limited in its application.

Phase three was packed with jargon about hacking and plasma shields and weight requirements, all in the name of thrusting Swindler into a leading role once again. She does a thing and turns a lever, good job, to be continued. More interesting than any of that was another mid-episode educational video, this time about Kansai’s Execution Department. Our friendly bunny and shark mascots planted a major narrative flag by claiming that members of the department “specialize in infiltration.” This feels like an obvious setup for a future ‘Who’s the Traitor?’ plot, which is a familiar yet undeniably fun twist to introduce, especially with a cast full of nutters at your disposal. How will Akudama Drive make it work, though? Will it introduce two new characters, and cast suspicion on both of them before revealing which is the double agent? Or has one of the existing Akudama been undercover from the start, and now they’re waiting until a critical moment to take down this fledgling criminal ring? Neither option would be a major innovation within the larger trope, but hey – novelty isn’t everything.