Courier (Akudama Drive)
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Tomohisa Taguchi
Jonah Scott, Courtney Meeker (young) (English)
| Courier | |
|---|---|
| Akudama Drive character | |
 Promotional illustration for the character Courier by Cindy Yamauchi. | |
| First appearance | "Se7en" (2020) |
| Created by | Kazutaka Kodaka Tomohisa Taguchi |
| Voiced by | Yūichirō Umehara, Natsumi Fujiwara (young) (Japanese) Jonah Scott, Courtney Meeker (young) (English) |
| In-universe information | |
| Occupation | Courier |
The Courier (Japanese: 運び屋, Hepburn: Hakobi-ya) is a protagonist in the anime series Akudama Drive by Studio Pierrot and Too Kyo Games. He is a terse man who is skilled at delivering any package to any recipient as long as he is paid. Courier can also fight with his customized motorbike, which contains a small railgun built into the front. Courier is introduced in the first episodes, where he accidentally drags the Ordinary Citizen, who becomes the Akudama Swindler, into teaming up with other criminals and go on missions to protect people wanted by the law. He is voiced by Yūichirō Umehara.
The character of Courier was created by Kazutaka Kodaka and inspired by the cast of the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs. His design was changed throughout the creation of the series, as its concept wavered between steampunk and cyberpunk, which also involved changes to the bike the character drives. Rui Komatsuzaki designed the character while Cindy Yamauchi adapted the visuals for the animation. Both of Courier's designers were pleased with the visual appearance of the original design.
Critical response to Courier was often mixed, with positive comments focused on his action scenes and role in the series, and negative comments focused on the simplistic and silent personality. Nevertheless, multiple writers noted that Courier often showed a more charming self when interacting with Swindler as he aids her in her journey without caring about the money he needs for her jobs. His character has also been popular in polls.
Casting
Writer Kazutaka Kodaka created Courier as he oversaw the writing of Akudama Drive. The character was first revealed in March 2020, but made his debut in a manga adaptation made to promote the delayed anime.[1][2] Originally, Kodaka did not give the characters names while writing the script of Akudama Drive. As the work progressed, Kodaka decided to give Courier and the rest of the members such aliases instead of names, inspired by the film Reservoir Dogs. In the series' beginning, Courier drops 500 yen in the street accidentally but decides not to pick it up, considering it bad luck. This scene was specifically written by Kodaka due to his views on collecting money, which he finds a "chore".[3] Kodaka created Courier as a protagonist in a certain sense who takes the most prominent action in the series but would remain silent in the subsequent scenes. Director Tomohisa Taguchi agreed, claiming that Courier has a strong presence in the narrative even though there is no intonation, something he found important to properly portray him.[4]
Kodaka has claimed that both Courier and Cutthroat are his two favorite characters from the anime, having enjoyed the original concept art by Rui Komatsuzaki.[5] The design was adapted by Cindy Yamauchi who found it challenging despite its apparent simplicity. In regards to his bike, Yamauchi claims that it did not receive a title.[6] Yamauchi felt pressure when Akudama Drive appeared in the Otomedia magazine based on Courier's clothing that she felt made him look attractive.[7] Yamauchi also drew a young Courier into the making of the series as she aimed to such work into the anime.[8] Initially, the carrier's bike was also sent to steampunk, but with the addition of the setting made by Kanto, it returned to cyberpunk. The director found appealing the usage of security robots and combat helicopters which Courier often battles.[9] In the first episode, Courier does a tribute to the 1988 film Akira through the way he moves his bike like Shotaro Kaneda.[10] Manga artist Rokurou Ogaki found the character appealing especially in the finale despite his poor manners, and looked forward to generate the same appeal in the manga version of the series.[11][12]
The producer was concerned about the series promoting "evil" and came up with the idea of every character dying in a "cool" way similar to Reservoir Dogs.[13] For the finale, Pierrot added a new scene where Courier interacts more with Brother and Sister during the mayhem Kansai suffers as a form of director's cut which the television series lacked.[14] The finale was inspired by the 1994 film Léon: The Professional and the survival of Natalie Portman's character. Rather than having the dilemma of surviving, Kodaka agreed with the team that each character would die without regrets. The surviving characters, Brother and Sister, were sent to the Shikoku region after Courier and Swindler die protecting them, like Jean Reno's title character Leon.[3]
Yūichirō Umehara was found the fitting voice actor for Courier with the staff finding that if he talked too much, he would be out of character.[4] When he looked at the materials, he said that every Akudama was interesting and wondered how to bring out the character of the Courier even though he is the least active Akudama. Since the cast did not know the future episodes when recording, Umehara looked forward to seeing Courier's role in the story.[15]
Umehara explained he found it a fitting yet challenging job due to Courier's silent personality and lack of interactions. Umehara in particular enjoyed the work of Tomoyo Kurosawa (Swindler) and Takahiro Sakurai (Cutthroat) based on the appeal they give to their characters, with the former for portraying a different type of Akudama based on her innocence and the latter for portraying his character's dementia in his speech. He felt it was entertaining to interact with famous voice actors like Akio Ōtsuka (Master) and Shunsuke Takeuchi (Brawler).[16] Umehara looked forward to the series' finale and make viewers explore the themes of the series involving justice and evil.[17]
Jonah Scott voices Courier in the English dub of the series, while Courtney Meeker provides the voice of his younger self.[18] Scott noted that the character was "cool" based on his design and weaponry. Scott also joked about Courier's personality for his tendency of calling Swindler "shithead" and recommended Akudama Drive to people who have enjoyed the Danganronpa franchise due to sharing the same writer.[19]