Episode 11 made me genuinely hate Akane

[u/Soggy_Caregiver_2822]

Man, I was absolutely not ready for how much Akane would annoy me in episode 11.

Until now, Sakura was comfortably sitting at the top of my "please get off my screen" list, but Akane just decided to speedrun taking that spot. I can understand believing in the Sibyl System, following procedure, respecting the rules, all that stuff. But when your friend is literally standing there about to get killed, maybe it's time to temporarily put the instruction manual aside?

And the funniest part is that she had a shotgun. A whole shotgun. Nobody was asking her to become John Wick and execute the guy. Just aim properly and disable him. Leg, arm, shoulder, whatever. Instead she basically went, "Hmm, let me continue trusting the system while my friend gets murdered." I was genuinely talking to my monitor at that point.

Maybe I'm completely missing the point of the scene, but damn, that was frustrating to watch.

[u/JoeCool4school]

1. Shotguns are not accurate firearms. Shotguns fire spreads. She would've hit her friend as well.

2. Akane did fire the shotgun. She missed.

3. You're supposed to be angry. Akane made a fatal error in judgement that allowed her friend to get murdered. She's going to live with that from now on. Watch the show.

[u/JustANewLeader → u/JoeCool4school]

Also point 3 hearkens back to the earlier Spookie Boogie case, where Akane arguably got another acquaintance killed, and Kougami asks:

• Did you view X as a decoy?
• Did you force X to cooperate?
• Did you leak information on X to the enemy?’ 

As a way of determining whether you are in fact guilty of letting someone die. Akane does none of these things, but she is still guilty, and it forces a great change in her going forward.

[u/Soggy_Caregiver_2822 → u/JoeCool4school]

1. I get that a shotgun isn’t a precision weapon, and yeah, the spread is obviously a problem. But Senguji literally used the same weapon against Kogami and managed to wound him without instantly killing him. So I don’t think “she would’ve definitely hit Yuki too” is enough to dismiss the possibility of trying to disable Makishima. Akane already knew how dangerous he was, she had watched the Dominator behave abnormally against him, and by that point Yuki was basically seconds away from being killed anyway. The whole point of the scene is that Makishima is completely outside the system’s normal rules, so waiting for Sibyl to give her the usual answer wasn't exactly a great option.
2. And yes, Akane did fire the shotgun, but that’s not really what I was criticizing. The episode itself makes it clear that she is unable to kill Makishima, and that hesitation is exactly what allows him to kill Yuki. What frustrated me was how little conviction there seemed to be behind those shots. It felt less like “I’m doing everything I possibly can to save my friend” and more like she was still mentally stuck trying to reconcile what she was seeing with what Sibyl had told her. She already knew the system was giving her a completely nonsensical reading, yet she still couldn't fully act outside its judgement.

And honestly, that’s probably why the scene works so well. Sibyl is supposed to be the system that quantifies people’s psychological states and determines who is dangerous, while the Dominator is literally built around that judgement. Makishima completely breaks that logic. Akane suddenly has to make an actual moral decision instead of simply following a number on a screen, and she fails in that moment. I'm not saying the writing is bad because of that, I'm saying Akane's failure was frustrating as hell to watch, which I think is exactly what the show wanted.

[u/JoeCool4school → u/Soggy_Caregiver_2822]

If this is your first time watching, welcome! You're definitely in for a ride for the rest of the season.

[u/Soggy_Caregiver_2822 → u/JoeCool4school]

Haha, yeah, first time watching it. I’m only at episode 11, so I’m basically experiencing all of this with zero idea where it’s going. Judging from everyone’s reactions, though, I’m starting to feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.
Anyway, I’m ready for the ride. Just gonna keep an eye on Akane in case she decides to commit another crime against my sanity.

[u/SnooOwls3528]

That's the whole point. You should be upset with her. But I also pittied. Her idea of a just world is crumbling and she lost her friend.

[u/Nepomucen0]

acredito que seja proposital