3ET: Akuma no Riddle

Tokaku training to be an assassin. Or something.

Studio: Diomedea

Director: Kusakawa Keizou (Ro-Kyu-Bu, Sekirei)

Writer: Yoshimura Kiyoko (Kurogane no Linebarrels, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu)

Main Cast:

Suwa Ayaka as Azuma Tokaku

Kanemoto Hisako as Ichinose Haru

Character Design: Ide Naomi (Gingitsune, Mondaijitachi)

Music: FujiwaraYoshiaki (Uchouten Kazoku, Love Live!)

Akuma no Riddle is an example of expostition going on for too long. In this case, it takes two episodes to present a rather straightforward plot when one episode would have sufficed. Said plot is about Azuma Tokaku, a assassin-in-training who is sent to the "Black Class" of a private school by the people who trained her. That class exists as a sort of competition where if an assassin manages to kill a certain student, they get any wish granted. There are some catches, like having to declare their intent to assassinate ahead of time. But, Tokaku instead has budding feelings for the girl she is supposed to kill, Ichinose Haru, and becomes her protector instead. Even introducing the other eleven female assassins shouldn't have taken two episodes, as they all seem to be little more than the basic female archetypes.

The reason this poor time management is so concerning is that by taking two episodes to get to the real meat of the story, Tokaku actually defending Haru from the assassins, it leaves only one episode to convince me to pick it up. And if that third episode had been interesting, I might have picked this show up. Yes, the premise is completely absurd, but it is trying to make me care a little bit. Tokaku and Haru have their sad backstories. Haru for some reason has seen her entire family die to protect her and has scars all over her body. And Tokaku is unable to actually kill anyone because of some incident when she was a child. This, despite her training as an assassin. Yeah, that's a thing. I didn't say it succeeds at making me really care, I said that it tries.

Is this supposed to be a moment? I think it's supposed to be a moment.

However, that third episode is terrible. The first assassin to try and take out Haru is the garden variety psychotic girl. She starts the episode appearing to be nice to Haru, an obvious attempt to get her target's guard down. And when she goes in for the kill, she strips Haru nearly naked to do the deed, because that is apparently how this show rolls. As for her wish, she just wants to kill people without consequence. On top of the assassin's flat story, Haru acts like an impossibly naive idiot in this episode. She knows her entire class is out to kill her, she receives the notice of an assassination attempt, and then doesn't tell Tokaku about it because she thinks this other girl could also care for her and want to protect her. My mouth was agape at the stupidity. And at that point I was rooting for Haru to die. Her stupid decisions should have sealed her fate. Of course, Tokaku is able to save Haru, much to my disappointment.

And when I'm rooting for a main character to die, that's a sign a show has failed. On the surface, the idea of an assassin developing feelings for her target and deciding to use her skills to protect them could work. I also think that if the potential assassins were developed correctly, that could create some dramatic tension as to who I would root for in a climactic battle where Haru's life is in the balance. Unfortunately, neither thing is done well with Akuma no Riddle. The relationship between Tokaku and Haru is flimsy, as the girls never really have a moment to get to know each other, even with the glacial pace of the first two episodes. As for the assassins, I'm sure they'll get their own episode and they'll try to pull at the heartstrings at times. But, it won't work.