Akudama Drive – 04 [Speed]

Here’s a curious case of an episode that’s just as action-packed as the first two, yet fails to bring the thrills of those earlier installments. The whole time I was watching the ‘Courier vs Kouhai’ and ‘Brawler vs Executioner’ fights, I was wondering when the show would do something new. It might have revealed some characters’ hidden abilities, or used its unique setting (aboard the Shinkansen) to give one combatant a surprise advantage over another. That didn’t happen, though, at least not to my satisfaction. I’ve got a couple theories about how that dissatisfied stew came to occupy my brain, but that’ll probably be it for this week. Speculating about the history of the Kanto vs. Kansai conflict would be fruitless, given our limited knowledge on the matter, and the main cast themselves are so static they might as well be Virgil Hawkins. So, let’s talk about what makes some anime fights better than others.

My primary issue with this week’s episode stems not from the concept of a fight aboard a train, but the visual follow-through. Brawler and Executioner’s bloody encounter may not have pushed the ‘Akudama vs Executioners’ plot in a new direction, but this is anime – you can always make your show interesting to look at, even if the story is business as usual. Instead, this week’s biggest fight happened in a dull cargo hold, stacked two stories high with simple containers in identical compartments. I’d put money down that they were digitally copied and pasted, since the variation between the similar-looking ones was nonexistent. The cargo car was long and narrow, creating a nice opportunity for one character to slowly steal ground from their opponent, or for the tides to suddenly turn if a cornered fighter were to slip past their pursuer and gain the upper hand. Some of the parcels could have been dislodged from their compartments and fallen to the ground, complicating the arena and adding visual interesting to the scene.

None of this happened. The cramped layout of the cargo car was wasted on a scene where Brawler sat on his foe’s stomach and rained blows on his head in typical anime fashion. Even the moments where both fighters were on their feet failed to make use of their location – and sometimes ignored it altogether. If you’ve got the episode handy, check out the moment when Kouhai first lunges at Brawler with her beam sword at 3:42. He dodges to one side (putting his back to the wall), but when he falls to the ground in the next cut, he lands on the central walkway (putting his back to the door). This wasn’t the only instance of contradictory choreography this week, either. Compare this lack of environmental awareness with the clash in the hotel room in episode 2, where the constant back-and-forth action was a direct consequence of limited space. The hotel battle also used furniture to provide characters with cover, and adjusted the lighting midway through the brawl to keep things interesting. Those are all ways of getting your audience involved in a conflict between scarcely-believable superhumans.

What’s the reason for the show’s sudden disinterest in credible fight direction? I’m not a sakuga nerd or staff junkie, so I can’t point to anyone or anything about the show’s production that would explain it. All I can do is default to discussing the story, which can be boiled down to one sentence: “Open the vault before everyone dies.” For the entire episode, the Shinkansen is hurtling toward a barrier that eliminates organic life, so the Akudamas’ only hope is to plunder that all-important vault (they do) and pray that it contains their salvation (it does). What else can be said about such a do-or-die mission? I guess the cat turning to ash and transferring its spirit into Vault Boy was a notable occurrence, but at this rate the show will be one big matryoshka doll, with a dozen quests and goals nested within each other – and at the end, a pea of a reward. As you can tell, I’m losing faith that the ride will have been worth it.

P.S. There was actually a brief moment of inspiration this week, once Cutthroat took Brawler’s place in the central battle. He moved around the train car a bit more dynamically, even jumping to the upper level to perch in a cargo compartment for a bit. Whoever handled his scenes did well to establish his agility via multiple methods – acrobatics, time dilation, his fearless attitude, etc. That was the lone bright spot in the episode (hence my largely negative take), but I figured it deserved a mention before I signed off.