Akumetsu

I started off really liking this manga and as it progressed, it became a little stagnant. It can become a little boring towards the middle as some of the mini-stories can be repetitive. But, I always feel the ending can either make or break something and in this case, it DEFINITELY made the manga.. Those who have not stuck to the end don't deserve to rate the manga. The final chapters leading up to the end were so dramatic and tense. Although the end was rather abrupt, I felt it was satisfactory as a conclusion that left little loose strings and was impactful. That beingsaid, the story is far from perfect and there are some characters that were introduced then shoved aside without much development (eg. the girl that shou may have liked in the beginning chapters). Now for he actual breakdown of each of the categories: art: 9/10 The art style is stylized and expressive. It conveys the emotions of the characters quite well and is rather good at causing moments of extreme epicness. The artist did a good job in expressing the ugliness of the "evil" through his drawings. I felt a true sense of disgust every time I looked at them. While the literal interpretation that evil is ugly might be over powering in other manga, it works well in this story where evil is shown to be so oppressive and overwhelming. Though, the art isn't especially impressive and detailed, it is well drawn and creative in how showing how the story is told. story: 8/10 The story was rather simple and straightforward but had depth at the same time. It did not try to convince the reader that what the "hero" was doing was undeniably right. The actions of Akumetsu are questionable at best and downright immoral at worst. Though there was a "good" side and "bad" side, the story gave the reader room to ponder the actions of the akumetsu. It allowed us to understand nothing is inherently evil, but will undoubtedly become corrupted with time. There some flaws and issues that I could pick out throughout manga but non that are big enough that would ruin the manga. As I mentioned before, the ending though abrupt was good enough to give a feeling of completion. The story understands that there is no end all solution for "evil" and I'm glad that they didn't pull out some bullshit method to end all evil (I'm looking at you Code Geass R2). character(s): 7/10 I felt this was the weakest part of the manga. Aside from the main character, the side characters get little if any development. They felt quite two-dimensional and they all lacked personality. An exception might be Katsuragi. Although he character wasn't even alive during the timeline of the manga, the chapters dedicated to him really fleshed out his character as well as the reason for Akumetsu's actions. I actually felt sorry that he had to die. Putting secondary characters aside, the main character was quite delightful and unique to learn about in the story. The reason I'm still giving this section a good rating is because the manga is supposed to be focused on the point of view of Akumetsu as a man that tries to take on evil by himself. The problem is when he begins relying on the power of the side characters in the end. Without much development of the secondary characters, their collaboration felt somewhat hollow. That being said, the finale was still nothing short of gratifying.

Right off the bat I will say this manga is extremely similar to two others of note, number 1 Death Note and number 2 Sanctuary. Akumetsu is at its core, a vigilante story starring the protagonist Shou, and his somewhat superhuman exploits. Shou wants to change Japan for the better, and does this with a series of assassinations against politicians and the like who he deems within reasonable thought that they are corrupt, but outside the normal law. Sounds in theory similar to Death Note in the assassination aspect, and Sanctuary in the reform part, but in my opinion Akumetsu is better than both. Tostart off I like the main character Shou, who is a shit eater to his very core, always smiling in seemingly ever horrible situation only for the audience to find everything going to plan (most of the time.) Maybe I am just naturally inclined to like the trouble maker protagonists, although Shou is not an immature character, in fact he takes his job very seriously. So serious and entrenched in his personal justice that he will literally DIE for it..... somewhat literally. Beyond Shou there are some other characters, most notably the fictional Prime Minister of Japan. Besides that there arent alot of recurring characters, but there are a few. Akumetsu always has an audience though so it is not quite like he stares his enemy down and tries to morally break them in a 1v1 converation, there are always other characters around. Recurring characters are found in flashbacks as well. However, Shou is absolutely the star of the show, and he is just a really fun character, everything he does is interesting. If you are a thinker reader, you might find yourself questioning the validity of Shou's justice and logic, rest assured the author was prepared for this, or rather Shou himself was prepared for this. While Shou may seem like your typical Machivillineastic excuse me spelling, character a la Light Yagami, this isn't quite true. I wouldn't be fooled by the smirk, to put it simply. Shou drives the entire story of course, this is not a saga following a plethora of perspectives, its definitely Shou's story and he is at the center of everything one way or another. The story is, basically, his long attempt to reform Japan in a bloody way. The chapters are heavily driven by dialogue, in fact Akumetsu has more words per page on the high actions pages than I have ever seen on a manga, sometimes something like 70 words on a page, you can see the translators need to use a narrow bold font to make up for this. There is some sarcastic banter on Shou's side, but during his engagements it usually involves him revealing the very, very extensive crimes of his targets. He doesn't mince words, but he also makes sure his speech is never under 1000 words, HOWEVER, its not a bore by any means. In fact, since the political crimes of his targets are usually very realistic in nature, it is interesting just by it's factual accordance, or rather its attempt at looking like a factual accordance. It's always interesting to hear what Shou, or Akumetsu, has to say, and what bizarre and corrupt crimes his target really did. He doesn't choose his target without a reason for sure. Moving on from his explanations, the presentation of his explanations are always absolutely absurd and entertaining, I thought every single one was awesome. There is always some ridiculous infestation of the host building he is doing this in, whether in the form of him hiding himself in a funeral casket, or bombs wired to windows for dramatic effect. There's a reason he is capable of all of this though. There is also alot of action in Akumetsu though, particularly toward the end where things get a little closer to warfare. In the beginning Shou is unstoppable and it is hard not to have fun on the ride. To pull it off to such a degree without going into the territory of thoughtless entertainment, which Akumetsu obviously is not, is a feat of sort. Good fun. Art is nice in Akumetsu. Nothing out of the world but you even the most fervent manga art critics can't find a substantial issue here. The scenes are creative in what I would call, "scene choreography" and you will find your epic and overwhelmingly cool spreads here as well, which most manga of note have at least a few as well. One last thing I want to mention is that this manga is pretty funny at times too, the nature of Akumetsu's exploits in detaining and executing his targets are intentionally absurd and over the top. And although there is no breaking of the laws of physics etc, this manga is fiction, albeit realistic fiction. There are also a frequent amount of references to Tezuka era anime/manga. All in all, one of my absolute favorites, I am really glad I read it. If it means anything its a top 5 for me. Definitely give it a try if you are interested in it.

STORY: 6 Great a story that is not black and white: good guys use questionable means and bad guys may not be so bad. Alas, some of the bad guys are still just evil whereas the story could have done a better job by showing and exploring the systemic nature of corruption. There's different arcs and some could have been dealt with quicker, that's a lot of volumes for a manga that could have been short and to the point. ART: 6 Gets the job done. POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 6Finally a title that goes head deep into politics! It's great that a manga author tries to tackle politics and economy but his point of view stays contained within the paradigm of 'economic growth = good' so the analysis and opinions coming out from this manga are embarrassingly outdated. Things like social sciences, alternative political organization or environment are out of the picture. Most things revolve on the trope of 'Japan is on the decline because of incompetent politicians' and it's annoying because the trope ignores that Japan is one of the richest countries on earth, does not understand that the ecological footprint of the country is already unsustainable (and any improvement in the economy would make things worse) and eludes the fact that the crisis is more existential : without economic growth what is the goal of the country? What keeps society together? There is also a welcome discussion on violence and its use but it's not going very far neither. FEMINISM: 4 Love interest, damsel in distress, rape attempt, the usual package except for one strong female character. CONCLUSION: 5 Akumetsu is not bad and it's a nice read if you are into vigilante justice. Otherwise it still has qualities if you don't mind the length, violence, and political naivety.

This is a very heart warming series. I started reading it and I never stopped until I finished the story in two days even if it cost me my mental ability of concentration. As I finished it I have not shed a single tear but my heart cries out loud for Akumetsu! This series is not recommended for people that are unaware of the world and who do not understand deep meanings behind stories. This story is the best sci-fi story I've read so far... Now this series talk about a fictional character that broke the human routine and went after the corrupted power holdersof the society. Akumetsu sacrifices himself every time to eradicate corruptness and evil. He continues sacrificing "himselves" until the last soul to achieve his goal and save normal people's life. This is a story that makes you smile and shed tears at the same time. Akumetsu of this series is not necessarily a human for it is the human justice that is waiting to be born into this world. I wish Akumetsu gets born really quickly... ALL HAIL AKUMETSU ( TT O TT )/