Akudama Drive

is a 2020 Japanese cyberpunk anime television series conceptualized by Kazutaka Kodaka and produced by Pierrot and Too Kyo Games. It was written by Norimitsu Kaihō and directed by Tomohisa Taguchi. Set in a dystopian future in Kansai, the story follows a young woman who accidentally becomes a criminal known as Akudama, who are pursued by the government, though she decides to take a fake identity, Swindler, in order to survive after meeting Courier. The series aired from October to December 2020. A total of six DVD and Blu-ray box sets collected the twelve-episode series in Japan. Taguchi was inspired after seeing Kodaka's work in the Danganronpa series and both agreed to work together. Inspired by Quentin Tarantino's 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, Kodaka wrote the original draft of similar villains who acts as the protagonists. After showing his ideas to Too Kyo Games, the project was greenlighted and Pierrot was brought in to create appealing action scenes. A manga adaptation has also been serialized, while a character CD soundtrack was released in Japan. Critical response to the series was positive based on the cyberpunk setting as well as the handling of the main cast, most notably the lead Swindler. It is widely considered to be one of the best anime of 2020. Reviewers noted that the series primarily centered around the ideals of justice. Premise In a dystopian future where Kansai became a vassal state of Kantō, multiple highly skilled criminals, called Akudama, are sent a message from an anonymous client to free a death row prisoner named Cutthroat before they are executed. Four Akudama respond to the challenge and descend into Kansai Police Headquarters to earn a big payday. However, once inside, they discover the job was part of a larger scheme by their client to make them work together on a bigger job: to infiltrate the Shinkansen and steal precious cargo from a vault at the front of the train. Roped into the job are an ordinary girl arrested on a minor charge but forced to keep up the appearance of a Swindler, and a low-level Hoodlum who was accidentally broken out of jail during the initial heist. The team must work together to finish the job and earn their large payday, all while keeping ahead of the Executioners from the Kansai Police on their tail.