
a review by Sebsus
1 year ago·Jun 18, 2024

a review by Sebsus
1 year ago·Jun 18, 2024
Ignore the headlines, until you've read the Spoiler
It was written in the early days of manga, 1960s, at the start of a time heavily based on medieval Japan. Akame's approach is rather unique. Firstly, starting with an overview of disastrous raids happening in a village, jumping from violence to violence until finally settling on our protagonist Matsuzou. Who sets on his journey for revenge on a pregnant woman, his wife. Thus starting a second arc with more thematical storytelling. It starts with his decision to become a ninja, and after training for a few years, he finally tries himself on the first test but fails. His talent just wasn't enough. A profound lesson for us readers;
Each man is endowed with different gifts. Without them, no degree of effort will suffice to make him what he is not. - A wise man.
Not an uncommon message in fiction, but the poetic dialogue gives it the necessary touch to utilize its importance in the tale and sophisticate fine writing. He nearly dies, after getting punished by his master. This near-death experience is the trigger for an ambitious plan. The thematic arc continues with the surviving character patiently plotting his revenge in the background of the events.
As the storyline continues the effect of Akameism on the people grows, but due to their efforts, the rabbit population grows until this tendency gets noticed by carnivores. Their amount grew as well and steadily overpopulation developed. The Akame began to die out because of diseases that spread out after the rabbits ate anything because nothing was left. Soon the carnivores, especially lynxes, had nothing to eat either. The plan reached its final stage. Everything thus far is intentional. The lynxes starved, and the same fate occurred - they began to eat anything. Because they can only eat meat, Matsuzou feeds them a human corpse. Their fondness for mankind's flesh grew until they began to attack the raider's people, who were still horrifying the villager's life. One day the princess of the Feudal Lord, their leader, was nearly killed by the lynxes. The Feudal Lord swore revenge but was unable to kill the beasts.
The villagers seek help from the Feudal Lord and receive a compromise that gives them weapons, but they have to kill the lynxes. They take the opportunity; after acquiring the guns, they execute a small fraction of the raider's army. Following that, their morale gets boosted into the eternal, and after a few provoking words from Matsuzou, their revenge raid starts. They kill everyone and raid everything until, finally, only the Feudal Lord, Nobuhira, his wife's killer, is the only one remaining. Matsuzou ends Nobuhira's barbarous life with a passion and grudge only a monster possesses. After 30 years his revenge was finally successful. The shock is big, his only purpose in life faded away. He is possessed by his great plotting, and can't think rationally anymore. On the last panel, he goes into the eternal, laughing like a psychopath. This is what obsession is capable of doing. This concludes the story, but not my review. The last point I'll make is about the last theme found. And it's the essence of patience. The development of Matsuzou's plot took a long time and he delayed the actions until the best moment. Without that, he wouldn't be able to shift the situation in the right direction. Perfection was also a factor at the time.
(In my rating system it is a 3/5, but it can't be compared to the 100 metric system, so I'll just give it a 100, indicating general positivity)
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