Akame (Akame ga Kill!)

"One slice, certain death."

- Akame

Akame, also known as Akame of the Demon Sword Murasame, is the titular deuteragonist and lead (anti-) heroine of the manga series Akame ga Kill!, as well as the protagonist of the last episode in the anime and the main protagonist of the prequel manga ''Akame Ga Kill! Zero''. Originally sold to the Empire to be trained as an assassin, Akame eventually defected to the Rebels when she was sent to assassinate General Najenda, the leader of Night Raid and joined them to overthrow the Empire. She is usually in charge of cooking the base's meals.

She is voiced by Sora Amamiya in the Japanese version of the anime and Molly Searcy in the English version, the former of whom also voices Elizabeth Liones and Touka Kirishima.

Appearance
Akame is a young girl with long black hair that reaches down to her knees and red eyes. She wears a dark sleeveless mini dress with a white collar and a red tie; she wears a red belt that has a red side skirt cover. She wears it with long black socks and black shoes. She also wears red gauntlets and black gloves. She sometimes wears a long dark coat in battle. She is often seen carrying her Teigu, Murasame.

Personality
Akame appears to be a very serious and coldhearted person which stems from her hellish training that the Empire forced her and her sister through but, it is eventually revealed that she is just socially awkward. She cares about her comrades very much and she is always worried that one of them may not make it out alive. When Tatsumi fought Ogre, she stripped him of his clothes to check his body for wounds.

She also tends to hide her emotions when it is revealed that a comrade dies, such as seen with Sheele, making Tatsumi mistakenly and incorrectly assume that she deals with it easily, because she is used to it. However, this prompts her to break into tears saying that she can never be fine when she loses a friend, for it is the most horrible thing of which anyone can experience. She is then comforted by a sorry Tatsumi who resolves to not die and never let her experience such pain again, making her smile.

Upon facing her enemies, however, she shows absolutely no mercy towards them, shouting words such as "eliminate" and "consign" to show the lack of mercy she has and also to strengthen her resolve to kill them.

Akame loves to eat and is surprisingly known to be a big eater (usually meat from danger-beasts and fish), much like her sister Kurome. Food is her passion to the point that Sheele noted how the "usually cool" Akame turned mad when she had burned some meat.

Events of Akame Ga Kill!:Zero
When Akame was a child, her parents sold both her and her sister Kurome to the Empire, and they were forced to participate in a cruel exam, being put inside of a forest inhabited by many Danger Beasts, the only goal being to survive and escape the forest. Of 100 children participating in the exam, Akame and her sister are among the few who manage to survive, but are parted when Gozuki refuses to allow the siblings to join the same group, noting that it would be bad for them to depend on each other. As the stronger of the two sisters, Akame is accepted into Gozuki's new Assassin squad, and is trained in the arts of espionage and combat, becoming a highly effective killer.

The seven were given Shingu, weapons in which the Emperor 400 years ago created in order to surpass the Teigu but failed to surpass them. Akame was given Kiku-Ichimonji, a Shingu where wounds inflicted by the katana cannot be healed. After a long unspecified period of time training, the seven were given their first mission. Akame was sent to kill Martha, a person in the nearby village who was a Revolutionary Army spy and also a close friend to Akame. This was done to test her resolve as Gozuki feared that she was far too kind for their purposes.

As the others finished their missions successfully, Akame led Martha to a graveyard with the intention of proving that Martha was innocent. Martha denies the claim and Akame tries to leave, proving to herself that the information that she was given was incorrect. However, Martha uses the moment when Akame turned her back to her to strike at her. Realizing the truth of the information she was given, Akame cuts her down and Martha dies by Akame's blade and this brings tears to Akame's eye.

The story skips ahead at this point, next showing Akame and Tsukushi disguising themselves among a traveling entertainer group. Soon the group are attacked by bandits and the pair help fight off their attackers, defeating all of them. Impressed by Akame and Tsukushi's skill in battle, the Entertainer's group attempt to recruit them both, revealing themselves as Rebels plotting against the Empire. Akame and Tsukushi signaled their comrades from the Imperial Assassin Squad to attack the group after this revelation, having confirmed that their targets are indeed rebels. Akame and her comrades eliminate the members of the entertainer's group, their mission deemed a success and they are both praised by their mentor and leader, Gozuki.

Before the events of Akame Ga Kill!
At some point, after many of her comrades' deaths, she became dissatisfied and resentful towards the government. It was not until she was sent to kill former General Najenda that Akame finally defected to the Rebels, after being swayed by her words. Her defection from the Empire sparked an intense rivalry between fellow assassin and sister Kurome, along with a mutual desire to be the one to end the other.

The events of Akame ga Kill!
Akame first appears with the rest of Night Raid to assassinate Aria and her family. She briefly battles Tatsumi who was under the impression that the family was innocent. The fight stops when Leone interferes. After he sees the truth, Aria is cut down and the mission is complete.

Akame is next seen eating parts of a evil bird species and offers some to Tatsumi. She retracts her offer when she is told Tatsumi is not yet part of Night Raid. Later, when Tatsumi states that Night Raid are assassins of justice, everyone bursts out laughing. She, however, remains silent. After Tatsumi accepts joining Night Raid, they are attacked by several members of the Empire employed tracking clan and Night Raid is sent to dispatch them. Akame is attacked by three men, whom she dispatches with great ease. She later helps deal the killing blow to an enemy that Tatsumi was fighting, telling him to promptly land the killing blow to his enemies.

Najenda tells Tatsumi to train under Akame, which at first seems to be a variety of chores including cooking and fishing. Eager to make Akame accept him, Tatsumi deals with Ogre of the imperial guard whilst Akame and Leone deal with the other target; Gamal. Upon his return, Akame strips Tatsumi of his clothes to check for wounds and expresses concern for Tatsumi's well being, revealing that she is not as coldhearted as she was thought to be. Her training is revealed to have helped Tatsumi in his mission.

When Zank the Beheader runs loose in the capital, Akame and Tatsumi are sent to kill him. Akame tells Tatsumi about Teigu and how everybody apart from Najenda has one. Tatsumi encounters Zank and their fight is interrupted by Akame who joins in the fight, making the battle between two teigu users.

Zank uses his spectator teigu to accurately predict Akame's moves despite the speed and intensity of her strikes. She attempts to clear her mind in order not to be read but it is useless as spectator picks up the small changes and predicts her moves. Zank uses spectator's third ability to show illusions of the target's loved ones to Akame. Zank claims that no one will be able to cut down their most beloved person however Akame sees Kurome and does not hesitate to cut her down. She remarks that the person she loves the most is the person whom she wishes to kill the most. After a brief fight with Zank again, she manages to destroy his weapon and cuts him down.

Akame does not play a major part of the story until after Sheele's death where she is shown to try to help Mine with eating her food. Later on, Tatsumi sees her get dumplings to use as an offering to the dead as it was Sheele's favorite food. Tatsumi remarks how she must be "used to it" however, Akame grabs him and shouts at him telling him that she will never be able to get use to the kind of pain of losing her friends. Akame agrees to Tatsumi's declaration to change the country without making her experience the pain of losing her friends once more.

When Tatsumi is taken by Esdeath,  Akame is on the verge of ordering a rescue for him. The other members of Night Raid stop her but she declares that they will do anything they can for him. Soon after, Tatsumi escapes from Esdeath and the Jaegers and Akame finds him and stop a danger beast from killing Tatsumi in the nick of time.

They return to the Night Raid base where Tatsumi informs Night Raid of the strength and members of the Jaegers which include Kurome; Akame's sister. Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Stylish had followed Akame and Tatsumi and found himself at the Night Raid base preparing an attack with his artificially enhanced troops.

As the attack began, Night Raid was caught with their guard down. Akame saves Lubbock from several enhanced troops only to find herself challenged by the "knight" of Team Stylish; Toby. Akame, after fighting him discovers that he is a cyborg and therefore Muramasa's poison cannot work on him. She decides that she must slowly hack him to pieces.

After she kills Toby, she regroups with the rest of Night Raid. Unfortunately, Dr. Stylish uses his secret poison to paralyze the members of Night Raid. Only Tatsumi manages to move due to Incursio. As they are about to be attacked by the enhanced troops, they are saved by a timely attack by the newest member of Night Raid, Susanoo who came along with Najenda and another new member Chelsea.

Seeing that his enhanced troops will fail to defeat Night Raid with the backup of the Human Teigu, Susanoo, Dr. Stylish undergoes a danger beast transformation. This turns him into a colossal danger beast, with the only hint of his previous self near the danger beast's chest.

The Night Raid members deem this point to be the weak point of the danger beast. Akame requests Tatsumi to carry her to the chest of the Dr. Stylish danger beast. They successfully evade all of his attacks with the help of Susanoo and the others, so that Akame can cut him down. Dr. Stylish is killed by the poison from Akame's Teigu.

Akame and the others are forced to flee from their base for fear of being found out. They temporarily take residence in a unexplored region of the Empire where they train by subjugating danger beasts. They relocate to a new base which is similar to the old one.

They receive word that a new type of danger beast has been terrorizing the citizens of the Empire. Night Raid accepts this request and set off to destroy them.

Najenda informs the group of the revolutionary army's plan to use multiple uprisings to send the Empire into chaos. One of these uprisings is to come from the followers of the path of peace. However it is under threat from a Empire spy named Bolick. It is Night Raid's task to assassinate Bolick and ensure that the plans of the revolutionary army are kept intact.

Night Raid sends false messages that Akame and Mine have left for one Kyoroch and the conflicting reports that Najenda is headed south. Night Raid successfully manages to split the Jaegers into two groups.

She is later seen in her bikini with the other members of Night Raid to provide bait for their trap. Mine assures her that if they do end up fighting Kurome that she will watch Akame's back.

Abilities
Akame is often considered to be one of the strongest members of Night Raid, slaying even the strongest of enemies with minimal effort. Her hellish assassination training allows her combat ability to be on par with those as powerful as the General rank within the military levels of the Empire.

She carries the Teigu, One Cut Killer: Murasame, a katana known for being coated in an immensely deadly poison that can kill those cut by it within seconds, as the poison itself has no antidote. She was once equipped with the Shingu, Kiku-Ichimonji. She is shown to be very proficient with her weapon, have excellent swordsmanship skills, and would have killed Tatsumi, if not for the statue his fellow villagers gave him before embarking on his journey. The teigu has a trump card but Lubbock mentions that Akame cannot use her trump card supposedly, so it has never been revealed.

It is shown that she doesn't rely on her teigu alone. She is a capable and powerful fighter with remarkable speed and reflexes, being able to dodge and counter-attack with deadly results, and is also skilled in hand to hand combat. She also gives off no killing intent at all when she fights, making it difficult for the enemy to sense her presence. In some point in the manga, she can easily handle 4 Danger-Beast mutants with her own hands in a bare-knuckle style brawl.

Trivia

 * Akame is one of the 5 Night Raid members on the Empire's most-wanted list.
 * Akame is a word play on Aka me, which means "Red Eye" in Japanese. So the title of the manga means The Red Eyed Killer. Akame has red eyes while her sister, Kurome, which means "Black Eye", has black eyes.
 * Her measurements are 81-56-83.
 * The opening theme is performed by Sora Amamiya, who voices Akame.
 * The only character in the series that managed to land a direct hit on Akame was Wave (though Akame states that she wasn't paying attention to him during that mission).
 * Akame is one of the few characters of Akame ga Kill! to survive at the end of both the anime and the manga.
 * Akame bears a pretty strong resemblance to Saeko Busujima, both physically and with her fighting style.