So I finished Akame Ga Kill earlier today and I was left a bit well i wouldnt say satisfied but im not that sad either. Its a mixed bag cant really stick with one side. I also saw that the manga didnt have any reviews so I thought Id write one. Whether or not itll be good well Ill let anyone who comes across this be judge of that. This is going to be bad. Also this might have spoilers no it prolly will as I might ramble on and spill something accidentally.
So I started Akame as an anime then switched to the manga after I found out that anime went off on its own after some point and didnt quite do it justice. I dont know why but Ive had it in such high regards. I think it was because of Esdeath and Akame or like most waifus in the story but I digress. I think I watched like 56 eps of the anime and then switched to the manga. I read a couple of chapters initially and I seemed to like it the art and setting and all but due to some reason i didnt continue and it was lost to time for me then I picked it up recently and decided to finish it.
So when I picked it up again i didnt remember anything that happened when i last read it so i just grazed through 23 chapters since it was just the beginning and then continued on. Ill say this I might sound a bit biased towards Esdeath and Akame so you will have to forgive me for that.
The series had a good plot the usual setting of a shounen just reversed with out supposed mc being in the rebel side and antagonists being the empire itself among other things. They did a lot of good build up with the characters introducing them and even giving hints on how strong they might be General Budo and introduced a cool af group of antagonists initially the three beasts then the Jaegers who would be followed by a lot more such groups.
A part of the problem I saw was that there were too many characters with powers that were introduced and not a lot of them got enough time to be fleshed out. They were either rushed or underutilized. I get it some of them are disposable which is fine but at some point yeah a lot of people were there. I found it a bit hard to maintain the power scaling in my head of course I know like Esdeath is like too op to be killed tier but the rest were a bit jumbled. One could say that the characters held off on revealing their full power or extent of their capabilities but I kinda found it hard this is probably a me issue not something a lot of people found fault with which is fine.
The reason for me to say this is because there were a lot of points were the story would have straight up ended. Like so many different scenarios were Night Raid wouldve been wiped out easily but in the very end they somehow pulled through. Lubbock was usually their plot armor there clutching in the most direst of situations. No hate for the man I really like him and its kinda sad he never got to express his feelings straight to Najenda... Rest in Peace ma man. Another one example being Susanoo but I think he was introduced solely for that so I guess he did what he was intended to do and left admirably.
I like that the author had a lot of cool ideas. He wanted to show us a lot of themes touch up on a variety of societal issues and moral dilemmas people face. But the thing is it became a mess. While he managed to retain the shock value for several scenes a lot of the other scenes lost its value atleast for me cause of the frequency in which it happened.
And there were several potential plotlines which couldve been explored but didnt happen. Im not saying that every single idea should be thrown in and expanded because that would create a huge ass tangent and it might end up with the story losing sight of its original goal. But there were stuff that happened so fast. Even as I type this out I have an inner feeling that this manga definitely wasnt fast xD but in a strange way it was at the same time I dont know how to explain it but make of it what you will.
The fights were mostly spectacular. Especially the ones involving Esdeath Akame and Tatsumi. I do wish Bulat remained a bit longer but I feel like his departure was necessary for Tatsumis growth. Again there were a lot of fights which were between characters that were introduced without much individual hype but in the banner of the group that well were really good and wouldve benefitted from a bit of expansion. Maybe Im picking on straws here I dont know. A few other characters that I think that deserve a mention would be Mine and Lubbock. I do wish Budo was a bit more involved but its fine I guess.
I liked how a lot of characters grew throughout the story Tatsumi Wave Mine Kurome to name a few. And at the same time I felt like Akame is like one of the few characters that hadnt changed from start to finish. Her personality was defined but I didnt feel like there was any noticeable growth. Maybe Im talking shit here and Im dumb enough to not notice her growth but thats how I felt.
As for the final fight it was a bit underwhelming for me with the Supreme Teigu being an Angel from Eva and the minister well I kinda expected him to be strong despite the fact that usually diplomatic villains like him are weak af and are usually hiding behind something or someone.
Well to be fair I felt like the manga got a satisfying ending well not exactly but still it was pretty good for the most part at least. There were consequences to each and every characters actions whether it be positive or negative. Which is why I feel like Esdeath got the shorter stick when it came to that. Esdeaths initial impression was that of a cold hearted bloodthirsty sadistic battle freak but it evolved from that to a lot more. With so many facets of her personality and mind being shown in various instances taking care and being considerate to Seryu Kurome Bols etc and maintaining a very good relationship with Ran and Wave. It is mentioned that she cares deeply about her subordinates but some of her actions showed the true extent of it. Which is why I feel like she didnt get the ending she deserved or at least one that fulfilled her in some way.
All in all this was a good read and I could see a lot of shounen taking inspiration from this. It was just overwhelmed by the sheer number of ideas and interesting characters it had and then it kind of went dry but still holds its value as a worthwhile read. Im pretty sure they have taken some points and expanded on it very well. This manga couldve raised quite a few heads if it were released today at least that is what i think.
As Im finishing this I feel like this ended up as something which I wanted to talk to to someone rather than a review but oh well I gave it a 8/10 but maybe its a 7.5. Well thats all from me for now.
80
/100