STORY
Country bumpkin Tatsumi is going to the capitol to join the army and raise money for his poor village. With his impressive sword skills, there's no way he won't be accepted! But alas, things in the capitol aren't as chummy as Tatsumi thinks. Essentially every young person in the capitol and surrounding villages wants a spot in the army. Alas, Tatsumi doesn't get in. He's turned away only to be taken in by a sweet girl named Aria who can't help but feel bad for him and his situation. She warns Tatsumi to be wary of the assassin group Night Raid.
But not everything is as it seems.
The well-off in the capitol are all terrible people with penchants for torture, rape, and every other vile act on the planet. They wallow in greed while the poor get poorer, and Tatsumi is one of those poor people. Thankfully, Tatsumi won't stand for it, and he winds up joining Night Raid after discovering that Night Raid is made up of people who are out to take down the capitol.
It isn't exactly a new premise. Evil government oppression is nothing new in terms of story. What Akame does well is take this well-worn premise and make it new and fresh and exciting.
It's not problem-free, though. It suffers from jarring tonal shifts between drama and comedy (example: Tatsumi mourns over the graves of his friends, when suddenly a ample-chested lady flops herself on him and drags him away). Also, the series has many dark themes that it isn't afraid to display: dismemberment, crucifixion, you name it, it's probably in this first volume somewhere.
ART & PRESENTATION
The art in this series is pretty good, all the characters look good, the backgrounds are filled out, and everyone has a vast range of expressions that are always clear. The only problem comes from the action scenes. They're fast paced, cool, and sometimes leave the reader thinking "what the heck is happening?" Also, characters' softer edges sometimes appear blocky. Regardless, there are still some cool bits I'll put below.
Yen press puts together a great book. Clocking in at a whopping 240 pages (as opposed to the standard 192), it's tightly bound with color pages at the beginning and a decent translation. I wish, and I might get criticized for this, that the translation were a little more edgy, honestly. A series that has dark themes deserves equally dark language to go along with it. I know, it's silly to want more curse words, but it would work better, in this case.
CHARACTERS
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of characterization in this volume, actually. I figured it would be pretty typical shounen-y one-note characters, but it's not. That's pretty nice!
First is obviously Tatsumi. Tatsumi's a good hero. He's got morals, he's not a snob, but not a loser, and he isn't afraid to take out the darkness. There's a bit when he cuts someone right in half after just meeting them because they've been torturing innocent people in secret. It was nice to see ma main character with no qualms about doing what needs to be done.
Next is the title character, Akame. We learn that she was raised as a human weapon for the army, which left her cold and ruthless. She joined Night Raid after realizing that the capitol was up to no good. Even though she's standoffish, she's still caring for her team members.
Last, for now, is Mine. Yep, that's her real name. Regardless, she's tsundere to a T. She's somewhat rude and makes herself out to be more important than she actually is. However, that's due to being neglected and ridiculed as a child. She hides her true feelings behind a mask of haughtiness, which can be a liiiittle grating, but not too much.
FINAL VERDICT
Akame ga Kill! is pretty darn good. It won't win any awards, for sure, but it still does what it does quite well. Plus/minus below!
+ Fresh take on an old premise
+ Chock-full of fast paced action
+ Dark, gritty, and morbid...
- ... So certainly not for everyone
- Translation skimps on harsh language
- Action scenes are occasionally confusing
B+ - BUY IT
Akame ga Kill! is sure to quench the thirst for a dark action series for fans of such things, but isn't for everyone due to some disturbing content. I'd buy it, and I did, but you may not want to.
(I don't own Akame ga Kill!. All rights go to the creators, Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro, and the licensing company, Yen Press).
No comments:
Post a Comment