Ranked #96

Akame ga Kill! (Manga)

First of all, when I picked this manga I though it'll be a typical adventure fantasy, but should still be a good way to kill time. However I'm glad I was wrong...

This piece doesn't look like it at all on the first glance, but be warned it contains a lot of bloody scenes. Men and women sliced to pieces, tortured to death or some other way falling victims to human cruelty in high detail, just like in medieval real life. It does display the world in more mature way, but it's not dark and depressing. Funny scenes and dialogues, interesting characters does lighten the mood nicely.

Speaking about characters they are very well-made. Every one of them has an interesting background that is revealed eventually. Protagonist is also nicely designed, he's not some sort of naive idealist who only gets beaten up and defeats enemies by some dumb luck or "nakama powerup". He's still a bit naive and young, but fully understands that he has to stain in blood his hands to reach his goal, he's torn by that but is convicted to do so and does whatever it takes to defeat his enemies even uses dirty tricks. Plus he's capable in combact, not overpowered, but doesn't suck as well to only be toyed by enemies most of the time, like usual protagonists in these mangas.

That being said, battles here are also entertaining, action and top notch artwork ensure plenty of entertainment. And it's especially awesome that scenes are not dragged on like mainstream crap. When the battle starts in a chapter then most of the time it reaches conclusion in that same chapter, same with the flashbacks etc. Author does a great job not making it boring for the reader so far, I really love that.

There are some plotholes which made me to refrain from giving full 10 out of 10. The main one is that the main villain is made perfectly clear, the corrupted prime minister makes the life absolutely miserable for everyone in entire country, so the protagonist joins a group of assassins to take out him and all other trash officials. Thats all cool and OK, but i fail to find the clear reason what's stopping those assassins to simply moving in and taking out that minister-scource-of-all-evil and be done with all that, they seem capable for that, so why have to drag it out moving around randomly killing it's lackeys and simply waiting until all forces will be thrown again'st them only making it harder. I'm sure some reason could be found by speculating, yet such important detail should be made clear in the beginning not left for reader to guess. At least that's what i think.

Overall it's very enjoyable manga with entrancing storyline, and hopefully becomes even better in further chapters. read more

When I first read the summary of the plot, I thought it would be another fantasy and party in an adventure type of work. I was wrong. Many manga summary has the word "assassin", with most of them being either the historical type or shonen type where the protagonist is unwilling to kill. However, this is different. When they say "assassin", they meant it literally.

If I have to give a metaphor, it would be like a Robin Hood based story, but instead of stealing from the rich, he kill the rich and save the poor, as in this story, most of the wealthy one are corrupted individual.

This work has gore, although it is not Elfen Lied level. It show scene like torture and one example is the tearing off a face. Thus, if you can't handle those kind of thing, this manga is not for you. However, if you can handle gore, I will say you will definitely enjoy it. The fight scene of this manga is pretty decent and I have no complaint about the art.

In this story, there is several character with their personal armament which if I have to compare, would be something like an average Noble Phantasm from the Fate series. They come in all kind of size and shape with some taking the form of traditional Katana, gun and western sword to absurd weapon like scissors and doll. There is even an armor which might remind fans of Kamen Rider.

The main protagonist is actually likeable. Unlike character like Ouma Shu from the much-hated Guilty Crown, he is decisive. Although the main character group kill evil people, they know they themselves are murderer and are equally sinful, with none of them having a personality like Light Yagami. The antagonist of this series, the majority of them have warped mind and it is from them you get the gore, albeit, an enemy who have similar personality to the protagonist have appeared recently.

When I read to about 10 chapters or so, I thought: "Wow, is this another Gen Urobuchi work or something?". The reason being, the author doesn't hesitate to kill off his character so you can expect death here and there due to the heavy amount of death flag triggered. The story is pretty basic so I won't comment on it. There is also comedy in it like most shonen manga and a hilarious love comedy from the recent chapter.

In the end, if you are looking for a manga to enjoy or kill time, Akame ga Kiru won't be a disappointment. But if you are looking for series like Highschool DxD or Rosario+Vampire (Ecchi), I am afraid this is not what you want. There is fanservice but in moderation and close to none. read more