Akudama Drive: Where does our happiness lie?

I place this work in Mary’s hands that she make it acceptable to Jesus Christ.

“Call no one happy before his death; a man will be known through his children.” Sirach 11:28

First, disclaimers:

Akudama Drive was first brought to my attention because of its animation quality and fight scenes. While I agree these are fun to watch, I don’t think you should just jump into the show based on that alone. Akudama Drive is violent and gruesome. Some of this is completely unnecessary while other actions, like characters’ deaths or wounds, are part of the plot. This is my personal opinion but I wouldn’t recommend it to those under 16. As is usual with a write up like this: there will be spoilers – you’ve been warned.

Second, basic info:

Akudama Drive is an anime original story written by Norimistu Kaiho. It’s about a group of highly skilled and dangerous criminals, called Akudama, that are each hired by the same employer to take on the same grand heist. Sounds like a story we’ve all heard at least once, right? But a nice catch is that each character is only referred to by their job. It’s a helpful way for Kaiho to draw our attention to what he wants to get across in the show: why each of the Akudama has come to be called what they are.

Brawler is a brawler because he lives to fight strong people and win. Hacker is a hacker because he lives for a new challenge and a harder problem to solve. Doctor is a doctor because she wants to control life and death. Make sense so far? It’s a way to show us what these characters live for, i.e. what their purpose in life is.

Of course, this is where the character Swindler comes in. She isn’t someone who has devoted her whole life to one thing like the others, she’s not even a convicted criminal to begin with – she’s a civil servant who gets swept up in all the drama of the story and serves as someone we can relate to. In other words, everyone’s purpose is clear to us except hers.

Clockwise from top: Doctor, Courier, Brawler, Cutthroat, Hacker, and Hoodlum

And now for spoilers!

Now people may disagree about this but I think one of the best things about Akudama Drive and what keeps us hooked as viewers is that all the main characters die. Remember what I mentioned earlier: each character lives for a very specific goal and regardless of how it’s done, they only act for themselves. Brawler wants to fight strong people not for any noble cause, it’s just what he likes to do. For example, the only reason all these criminals work together in the first place is because they have death collars put on them by the man who wants to hire them so they’re forced to cooperate.

They’re all selfish, and thus when they die, we may be sad they’re not in the story any more but we can also see that they got what was coming to them. Another way of putting this is: a character’s intention can impact our response to their death. E.g. If Brawler’s goal was to stop the executioner from reaching the rest of the team and kidnapping Brother and Sister, then we would see his death as a valiant sacrifice. In contrast though, he simply fights because he wants to. The mission of Brother and Sister doesn’t gain or lose any momentum from his death because he didn’t die for them. He dies and we soon forget him as the story continues.

How do we treat death in pop culture?

I said before that I like that all the characters die. I suggest two reasons for this:

1.) Not many franchises do this today. They want to keep people alive and want to keep the option of making more movies, and selling more merchandise open for the future.

2.) Having characters die is completely realistic and reminds us that we too will die and we should live with that fact in mind.

Now back to Swindler

I want to argue that what makes Swindler such a great character and makes us cheer her on throughout the show is her selflessness. While everyone else is concerned for themselves, she is concerned for others. In other words: she is the only one who loves. As St. Thomas Aquinas would say she desires the good of the other.

Everyone else is helping Brother and Sister because they see some gain for themselves. Swindler helps them because of their dignity as human beings. Now if you’ve seen the show you may bring up the character Courier who dies helping the siblings escape. But here I would point out that Courier can’t bring himself to help anyone out of love, Swindler has to pay him and make it a duty or contract in order for him to help.

SAC-RI-FICE!

Now this isn’t just me drawing out some Christian themes. Akudama Drive knows exactly what it’s doing. Notice when Swindler is killed towards the end, her death is broadcast across the city and portrayed as an innocent woman getting cut down by cruel authorities. If that wasn’t enough, she dies with a stone cross behind her which gets splattered by her blood. It screams Christian in our face because the cross is the ultimate image of love.It is a love that is willing to lay down its life for the other person. Some people may say Swindler’s death serves to undo the corrupt executioner system. Are they right? Sure. But that isn’t her main goal. Rather her primary goal is to let Brother and Sister get away safely so they can live in freedom (shout out to Galatians 5:1).

Swindler’s death in front of a giant cross. (cliché of way too much blood is obviously at work)

So what’s the point?

Why do some characters rile us up with enthusiasm while others don’t? It’s because we see something good in them and want to support it and even imitate it. We were made for love and so seeing someone love so much appeals to us on a fundamental level. No one cheers on Brawler or Doctor when they die and celebrates saying “hey! they went out with a bang!” Instead, we all root for Courier and Swindler when they choose to persevere until the end. Love stirs us to action.It’s the same reason Mother Teresa of Kolkata strikes us as a bit of a crazy woman, but all of us admire her straightforward and simple goal of caring for the poorest of the poor, for loving them. She’s not doing it for herself, she’s doing it for Jesus Christ.

As St. John writes: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 Jn 4:10-11)

God has loved us so much! What is our response? “No thanks I’m good”? Or maybe “I really appreciate it, now can I get back to work”? No, rather Jesus Himself has told us what to do: “love one another, just as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). And how has Jesus loved us? He laid down His life for us. So why do I think Swindler is such a good example of this? Because we have been told: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13).

*Jesus is Taken down from the Cross* (part of ‘Stations of the Cross’) by Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921)

Concluding remarks

If there is one thing that can motivate us to do anything or get us through anything, it is love. This love is not just a feeling, but a greater desire for things to be set right, for good to triumph. Therefore, let us love our good God and thank Him for all He has done for us, and let us imitate the love Jesus shows toward us. We are all capable of it, and only this type of love will fulfill us. If we live only for ourselves – if we do not love – then when we die, we’ll be incapable of receiving any love. Recall that Dante’s ninth circle of hell is a frozen wasteland where those incapable of love are locked in ice and almost nonexistent. So let us love in a radical way even if it kills us because only love of God will ever truly satisfy us.

Anime Christi