A lot of people like to tell others that the Akame ga Kill manga is amazing compared to the travesty that was its anime adaptation. Although, upon reading the manga, that comparison isn't saying much. It's about as good as comparing eating roadkill with a little salt on it next to just roadkill on the street, respectively. This isn't quite the worst manga I've ever had the displeasure of reading, but people do seem to give it a tad too much credit.
Story: 3/10
The plot is fair enough initially. Tatsumi is your typical shonen protagonist with big dreams, only to have them crushed when he finds out the empire he wants to fight for is not what it seems. The first chapter actually has quite a strong start since it does a good job establishing how dark this world is quite quickly to give the reader the impression that this isn't your typical shonen. The main character's best friends die, the government of the setting is corrupt, and a terrorist organization is actually the closest thing to what you can call "good guys" in this world. But the events that immediately transpire after only reveal that this was merely a facade and Akame ga Kill is pretty much your typical shonen, just with a little more blood and guts thrown in plus a more pretentious atmosphere. For starters, this series has some serious tonal issues. One minute, a character dies and the tone set for the next few panels is somber to give the reader some time to reminisce about their impact on the characters and plot. But then just a few panels after that, the characters then make a joke in an attempt to lighten the mood. There's nothing wrong with trying to alleviate the mood with some comic relief, but the abruptness of it right after when Takahiro is trying to establish a dark mood pretty much kills the drama he was trying to go for. And the gags that take place aren't even funny. They mostly consist of immature jokes that the characters inexplicably bust their guts at (at one point, Tatsumi's zipper is revealed to be unzipped in the middle of a dramatic speech and his colleagues spend an uncomfortably long time thinking it's the funniest thing ever) and pretty much your typical manga overreaction takes with no unique spin whatsoever. This normally wouldn't be so bad, but Takahiro has the gall to keep up the charade that this world has depth and the characters have complex motivations. For one thing, Takahiro does not do a good job at world-building. The empire, for instance, is not even named, nor are we given any insight as to how big it is, what exactly its culture is like, or how this one man (Prime Minister Honest) managed to corrupt its millennial legacy in such a short amount of time upon becoming de facto ruler. Also, random areas and tidbits are just thrown in. The main characters just go to random areas for their missions without letting the audience where exactly they are. If Takahiro actually put more thought into the world he was trying to establish, he could actually take advantage of opportunities to build up this big empire we're supposed to care about by writing more about WHERE in the five W's of storytelling. But nope, the characters just go where the plot needs them to be. Danger Beasts are also another interesting thing Takahiro fails to put depth into. The Danger Beasts are random monsters that inhabit the areas of the Empire, but the reader is never given information as to what exactly they are, where they come from, why they're called Danger Beasts compared to the normal animals seen from time to time, or how the Imperial Arms were formed from them. Speaking of which, there are occasional infodumps on the Imperial Arms (the series' main weapons) being created from certain Danger Beasts. But most of these Danger Beasts aren't named and only have a mere sentence as their backstory so the audience can't really care less about these infodumps since Takahiro barely explained what a Danger Beast was. Speaking of Imperial Arms, these weapons bring up a lot of promise due to their unique abilities and the rule that two Imperial Arms users must fight to the death. However, the existence of "trump cards" kill any suspense in these Imperial Arms fights since they can easily just shift the tide of the battle in a mere second. Also, the rule is broken much later in the manga when Akame fights Wave, where the latter escapes. Now off the topic of world-building, there are plot threads that Takahiro could've actually done a lot with had he put more thought into what he was writing, but they all just get left behind in the dust moments after being established. For example, the character Seryuu is introduced as a deconstruction of characters obsessed with justice and fanatical devotion to their country. When the depraved organization Wild Hunt is brought into the plot to serve the Empire, this could've been a ripe time to have Seryuu start having doubts about what she's fighting for, but nope. Seryuu bit the dust just before Wild Hunt's introduction before an anticlimactic battle with one of the protagonists. Budo is another wasted character, introduced as a high-ranking official who is disgusted with the Prime Minister's influence. He could've been a valuable ally to our protagonists due them sharing similar world-views, but nope. Budo is only brought into the plot to serve as another bad guy for our heroes to defeat easily. And lastly, Dr. Stylish is stated to have created an all-new breed of Danger Beasts supposedly made from humans, which could've helped introduce more information as to what exactly Danger Beasts are, but nope. Dr. Stylish bites the dust early as well and the Danger Beasts are taken care of over the course of a few chapters without any background or payoff whatsoever.
Art: 5/10
The art is average at most. The action sequences are choreographed well enough to allow the audience to know what is going on, and the character designs are standard shonen fare. Although if I want to nitpick, some of the character themes going on clash with the fantasy aesthetic Takahiro wants to be going for. For example, you've got the titular Akame and her sister Kurome wearing what appear to be schoolgirl uniforms and Chelsea, who appears to be wearing headphones. Normally, I don't mind anachronism stew if it's done well, but these character design tropes are just so blaring that they clash with the immersion of this world Takahiro's trying to build. Not that Takahiro does good-enough world-building to begin with, but still.
Characters: 3/10
Most of the characters are just character archetypes we've seen before lacking depth when it comes to their motivations or actions, which is especially problematic when Takahiro is trying to have the reader believe the world he's trying to write is deep and troubled. Tatsumi, our hero, is pretty much a cookiecutter shonen protagonist complete with naivete, recklessness, and convenient power upgrades at a price. Tatsumi doesn't even have an interesting backstory. He just happened to learn his trade when an unnamed soldier visited his village and that's it. Tatsumi is meant to be the surrogate of the audience, having a clean worldview for the reader to view through, although his vanilla personality doesn't make him good as a character. For a character that receives a lot of focus, it's hard to care much for someone we don't get to know too well other than being a stereotypical hero. Akame, the titular character, seems much more deserving of the main character role since she actually has an established backstory, and seems to be hiding things under a stoic mask, providing a rare example of a character with layers in this manga. But only recently is she getting more focus, and even then, Tatsumi still gets more panel-time than her. The other members of the main group Night Raid are typical cutout manga characters: Mine is a Tsundere, Bulat is the badass big-brother, Leone is the brash big-sister, Lubbock is the pervert/jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold, and Najenda is the mysterious boss. Night Raid in general are treated as morally-ambiguous heroes, although when compared to the villains, they're as white as snow when it comes to morality. The villains of this manga are the most over-the-top, stereotypically evil villains in the medium; often raping, killing, and exploiting the innocent for no other reason than to be evil. Esdeath, the most popular character of this manga in particular, is just an overpowered social darwinist who will never change her ways and has a creepy obsession with the main character that is never really built upon, just hammered into the audience's head when it becomes relevant in the plot. Their Imperial counterparts, the Jaegers, are brought into the story to try and establish a grey spot in the normally black-and-white morality of the story. However, with characters like Seryuu, Esdeath, and Dr. Stylish, it's hard to remember that the bad guys aren't that bad. Wave is supposed to be Tatsumi's counterpart who's inexplicably loyal to an empire that is blatantly corrupt. He's supposed to introduce a different perspective in the story, but he's never really given enough focus for the audience to care about his endeavors since his superiors are so evil it's a wonder why anyone should care that he continues to serve them.
Enjoyment: 4/10
If you're an overly-critical person like me sometimes, then this manga might possibly give you brain aneurysms with its stupidity at times. However, I will give Akame ga Kill credit in that the fight scenes are good enough for a shonen. This manga would be enjoyable if it didn't take itself so seriously because a lot of things in this manga are silly, from the Imperial Arms to character designs to some of the stupid decisions the characters make from time to time. The fact the manga tries its best to remind that this world is grimdark and there's grey-and-grey morality is thrown out the window due to the poorly-written villains (who make the morality out to be voidblack-and-greyishwhite) and atmosphere. The only true way to enjoy this and still feel like an intelligent reader is to just not take it so seriously when the manga does and just turn your brain off to enjoy the loads of violence on the pages.
Overall: 4/10
Akame ga Kill is an okay read if you want to kill time and want something filled with audacity and gore, like a bag of potato chips when you're midly hungry. But if you're actually expecting anything profound like the manga tries to have you believe, then you should prepare to be disappointed. All in all, from the idiot plot to idiot characters to idiot atmosphere, you'll feel like an idiot due to Takahiro's writing. It's certainly not the worst manga or a steaming hunk of garbage, but it's pretty much on the same level as the anime, which was a sinking ship from the beginning.
