Akuma no Riddle Review — D

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Lesbians murder each other.

While normally I would be all for lesbians murdering each other, Akuma no Riddle manages to make lesbians murdering each other boring. It’s a character of the week format, where each episode focuses on a different girl trying to murder one of the main characters. Each week, we delve into somebody’s past. They send an assassination notice. A murder attempt is made. Our heroines run away while holding hands. The victim girl cries that the other one got hurt and says she doesn’t want to hurt her friends who are trying to murder each other. She says she believes in her friends. The main assassin dodges some bullets and wins. They cry and hug each other.

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It is possible for the enemy of the week format to succeed. See Gigantic Formula, for example. But there what makes the show succeed is the characters and their heart-breaking stories. Akuma no Riddle’s characters, sadly, are not able to carry the show. They’re all cookie cutter deranged lesbian assassins with some faux tragic backstory. Nothing to see here, move along. But the worst part is the main characters. I wouldn’t particularly care if they died. The main assassin never does anything except look cool, while the main victim spends all her time whining about how she wants to be friends with all the people trying to murder her. The rest of the time is spent discussing the crappy friendship between the two main characters who met each other the same day they dedicated their lives to each other, and of course showing off lesbians in the bath.

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In addition, lots of things don’t make much sense. For example, the victim is an ordinary girl, but she manages to fight toe to toe with master assassins. And at one point the main assassin is about to die when she randomly transforms her shoe into a taser. Stuff like this isn’t cool, it’s just silly.

The twist at the end is plain dumb. “You can’t prove that you didn’t manipulate me into being your friend!” Oh anime drama…

  • Storytelling – D – Same thing every episode, needs more variety.
  • Voice – D – Putting lots of deranged faces on your characters does not make a compelling style.
  • Characters – F – How do you make lesbian assassins so boring….
  • Attention Grab – D – Felt no desire to watch the next episode.
  • Production – D – Doesn’t look too great.
  • Overall – D

RecommendationsCrime Edge, Mirai NikkiDanganronpa

2 thoughts on “Akuma no Riddle Review — D

  1. I agree, this was a really dumb series. Especially the last episode… The writers of this series didn’t even TRY to come up with an ending, it’s just sort-of dropped on the audience.

    And for a series about lesbian murderers, there isn’t much murdering going on in this series.

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