Akame ga Kill! (Episode 13) - Kill the Hindrance

A new breed of Danger Beast is roaming the lands around the Capital. With the death toll rising, the Jaegers are dispatched to take care of them, but Night Raid can’t sit back and watch innocents getting killed either.

What did you watch?

I feel like I may have said this before, but episode 13 of Akame ga Kill is where things really start to get interesting… or more interesting as the case may be. A new character briefly appeared at the end of the last episode and looks to be causing chaos with a new breed of Danger Beast. The Jaegers have been asked by Minister Honest to capture some and irradicate the rest. Of course, Night Raid, who are supposed to be the champions of the people can’t sit back and watch. So, we now have two opposing sides with the same goal, but is there really room for both of them? Shall we find out? Also, there will be spoilers beyond this point.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Esdeath goes Hunting

What happened?

Minister Honest alerts Esdeath of the appearance of humanoid Danger Beasts that have been attacking populated areas around the Capital. Of course, she is already aware and looking into the matter. Honest asks her to capture some of them for him to experiment on, but she can kill the rest. The Jaegers encounter a group of them attacking some merchants are easily defeat them, although the merchants seem more scared of Bols than anything else. Esdeath freezes three of them and hands them over to Honest. Information comes back confirming that the Danger Beasts used to be human, leading Esdeath to conclude that Stylish had something to do with them.

Night Raid had been training hard in the Danger Beast infested region, but their new base is ready and it’s time to get back to work. Their first mission is to take care of the new breed of Danger Beasts. They take on the mission, realising that they will be helping the Capital, but the lives of the people are more important. While on patrol, Lubbock tells Tatsumi about how he came to be a member of Night Raid and it was a real tearjerker… or not… With no Danger Beasts in sight, Tatsumi heads up the mountain to see what he can see. Meanwhile, Esdeath, on a night patrol, spots something on a mountain top and investigates. She is both surprised and delighted to discover that it’s Tatsumi.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Bols Attacks Danger Beasts

What did you think?

I really enjoyed this episode. Any time that Tatsumi and Esdeath get together is a good time in my books. I love their dynamic and the way they interact with one another. Esdeath comes across as the crazed stalker, but she’s actually nice to Tatsumi and directs her crazy at others. Tatsumi can’t help but be nice to everyone and that extends to Esdeath. Some of it might be the fear of her finding out about him, but I still think there’s more to it. It’s also nice to see the parallels between Night Raid and the Jaegers.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Esdeath Freezes Danger Beasts

What was your favourite moment?

I thought that Wave’s reaction to the way Bols was treated by others was really interesting. Bols will openly admit that he’s not a nice person and has done terrible things, including torching entire villages to stop the spread of disease. Wave tries to defend him and gets frustrated by people being mean to Bols. Then we meet Bols’ wife and daughter and the bizarre and hilarious dynamic of this masked murderer with his normal-looking family. It’s just another aspect of this series that I find fascinating and it stems from seeing both sides of the conflict and not making one side obviously evil.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Bols having Saved the Merchants

What was your least favourite moment?

It was unfair to see the Merchants so openly terrified of Bols after he’d just saved them. I agree with Wave on that respect and I feel like this series is always trying to challenge the way we judge people from their appearances. This is a great lesson and it works both ways as we’ve already learnt. Just think back to the happy family in the first episode and the way they were torturing and experimenting on random people. Even Tatsumi’s first impressions of the Night Raid team showed us that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Wave doesn't like the way the Merchants reacted to Bols

Who was your favourite character?

In this episode, we got more Esdeath and that’s great. I love how calm and confident she is with everything she does. Even bumping into Tatsumi on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere doesn’t faze her. It was funny to see her response when Run made a comment that he didn’t think she would be a person that would stop to enjoy flowers, but of course, the flowers can be used in torture, so it all makes sense. Esdeath is quite clearly a monster, but there is still something incredibly appealing about her and she’s definitely not a one-note pantomime villain.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Esdeath Finds Tatsumi Again

Who was your least favourite character?

Lubbock is probably my least favourite member of Night Raid, but he is still an interesting character and the fact that he has the whole requited love situation going on with Najenda is fairly amusing. His backstory was hilarious and I loved Tatsumi’s reaction to it because that was the reaction it deserved. To think that Lubbock was born into a rich family and was naturally gifted at everything he did. He could have been the protagonist of an overpowered Isekai story, but I’m glad that it didn’t go that way.

Akame ga Kill Episode 13 Tatsumi and Lubbock

What have you learnt?

I’m going to talk about one of my favourite things in this series and that is the willingness to give both sides some spotlight and not paint either as the clear cut good guys or bad guys. To some extent, it’s fairly clear with regards to the overall groups, but not so to the individual characters. Take Wave for example. He is obviously a nice guy and believes that he is fighting on the side of justice and I think the same can be said for most of the Jaegers individually. Compare them to Night Raid who are a group of assassins. Bulat brought this up near the beginning of the series where he said that you can spin it any way you want, but they are still murderers. I love that we get to know both sides and the potential motivations and conflicts that can arise.