Akame ga Kill! (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Akame ga Kill! (アカメが斬る!) is a 2014 television anime series based on Takahiro’s manga series of the same name with illustrator Tetsuya Tashiro. The series was adapted by studio White Fox, and the staff credits include director Tomoki Kobayashi, series composition writer Makoto Uezu, character designer Kazuhisa Nakamura and music composer Taku Iwasaki. The series first aired in Japan on July 2014.

Background:

“When Tatsumi set off for the Capital, it was with fantasies of earning riches for his poverty-stricken hometown. Instead, his friends were murdered and Tatsumi finds himself at the centre of a bloody revolution. With an evil Prime Minister, the Secret Police, and the armies of an Empire on one side, and the elite assassins known as Night Raid and a handful of rebels on the other, it might sound like an impossible battle for Tatsumi’s new allies to win. However the playing field is levelled with the addition of a legendary set of unstoppable weapons, the Imperial Arms. Unfortunately, to use an Imperial Arm is practically a death sentence in itself, for while the Arms are indestructible, few wielders can survive using them for long in AKAME GA KILL!”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2023.

When I got into anime during the early 2010s I was going to University and one of the first things I did was join an anime society and also pick up a subscription to Crunchyroll which was heavily supported by Sentai Filmworks and their catalogue. This was also during the time where simulcasts started to grow and I had more options to watch. 2014 is a pretty interesting era for Sentai as they had the licenses for a lot of intriguing titles.

Akame ga Kill! was one of those and from right out of the bat this was a very popular show. Not only did its concept make people interested with its unpredictable outcomes, but it was also animated by White Fox who just came off the success of Steins;Gate and The Devil is a Part-Timer! so their reputation was pretty solid at this point. Now for the most part Akame ga Kill! is still a solid series worth watching, but one thing that did occur roughly around the 2/3rd point is that the anime adaptation had decided to deviate from the manga’s source material for an original conclusion, which felt out of place for White Fox to do.

The anime original route is not a popular concept and I would say is not used as much nowadays, but back then this pretty much meant that there wouldn’t be any more seasons because you can’t adapt any without going back and reverting the changes. Akame ga Kill!‘s reputation did take a hit with this approach but the manga did well and eventually it had concluded. Despite this I never disliked the ending from what I remember and so I was more than happy to own it for home video.

As mentioned Sentai Filmworks picked up the streaming and home video release for Akame ga Kill! for the United States & Canada as well as owning the UK & Ireland rights. For the UK, it was sub-licensed to Animatsu Entertainment, a distributor founded by members of Manga Entertainment UK who didn’t want to be restricted by Starz Entertainment who owned the UK branch at the time. This allowed them to branch out and pick up more titles than before so they got a batch of licenses from Sentai for home video.

Akame ga Kill! was released across two-parts with the Sentai limited editions also brought over but they didn’t perform very well. Eventually Animatsu merged back with Manga Entertainment UK once Starz made the distributor independent and the series eventually went out of print. Which brings us to modern times where Anime Limited out of the blue during their MCM London October 2023 panel where they announced they had rescued the UK & Ireland home video rights for Akame ga Kill! with a new collector’s release.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Sentai and Animatsu both released a limited edition box set years back for their two-part release of Akame ga Kill!, so Anime Limited were likely locked out on a lot of the assets available as a result. This collector’s edition release may as well be treated in the same vein as a limited edition due to the limited features for the physical items and artwork.

This release is presented with a rigid box containing an Amaray case to house the Blu-ray discs, and alongside the case is a 20-page booklet as well as 4 Art Cards. The booklet contains character artwork from the anime series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The limited edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £79.99, and is expected to receive a standard edition Blu-ray release later down the line.

The series was included as part of their 12 Days of Christmas 2023 Early Bird line-up so I ordered it alongside five others. The set was on offer for £44.99 with the Anime Unlimited membership lowering the cost down to £40.49.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 20-page Booklet
• 4 Art Cards

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 18th December 2023 (AllTheAnime), 22nd January 2024 (General retailers)

The collector’s edition release for Akame ga Kill! contains all 24 episodes across three Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Sentai Filmworks via their complete series steelbook release from 2020. The audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Sentai Studios English dub, with English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired also available.

The yellow subtitles are locked during playback, and the regions are accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English, English HOH
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	3 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 3:

• AkaKill! Theater (all 24 episodes, also available in English audio)
• Japanese Promos
• Clean Opening Animations “Skyreach” & “Liar Mask”
• Clean Closing Animations “Konna Sekai, Shiritakunakatta. (I Didn’t Want to Know About This Kind of World.)” & “Tsuki Akari (Moonlight)”

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Akame ga Kill! is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through different retailers including Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store, and Anime-on-Line.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)