The Red Eyes

赤目

6.77(0K votes)

Ranked #13643Popularity #16698

chapters

volumes

Status

Finished

Published

Jun 1961 to Dec 1961

Authors:Shirato, Sanpei

Suspense

1,112 Members

Worth Reading? — Global Verdict

7.3/10

Average Review Score

100%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

Dokubachi

Recommended

Faced with continuous atrocities performed by their feudal lord it is only a matter of time before someone decides to take justice into their own hands. Such a task befalls a peasant with no aptitude for martial arts, who instead carries out a meticulous plan for ruination of his oppressor. This descent into merciless times of feudal Japan has an almost opera-like feel to it. With characters that lack any memorable individuality but instead represent the collective oppression. There is some parallelism between this fictional world and that of today's, albeit not to such an extreme extent, but in the author's time it was mostlikely a provocative jab to the system. The style is a heavy reminiscence of Tezuka's idiosyncrasies. Yet Sanpei's characters have more of a realistic feel to them accompanied by unique facial expressions. Peculiarly, it feels as if it was a horror work at certain parts due to splendidly depicted dread accomplished by deliberate inkiness. There seems to be a prevalent motif of wind in this work, perhaps to be interpreted as an unstoppable force of nature determined to follow its path or an obstacle that peasants ultimately have to overcome. This is one of many works which cemented Sanpei's status as a revolutionary, albeit it is questionable how well can it cope with the tastes of today based on its historical relevance only. Not to say that it doesn't have certain innovativeness in the way how it handles its pursuit of justice, but all in all it will sit better with a more explorative audience.

10 found helpfulFeb 4, 2022

Community Discussion

This is a short manga by Sanpei Shirato, and a story of brutality, feudal oppression, rebellion, and above all, revenge. The first thing the reader will notice is how utterly brutal this manga is. It's a far-cry from most manga of the time, in both how mature and violent it is. But that's because its author was part of the "Gekiga" movement, which distanced itself from the "whimsical pictures" of manga. Osamu Tezuka once gave Sanpei credit for introducing strong violence into Manga. Even today, the brutality of Akame still stands out. At its heart, Akame is a manga about the oppression of the peasantclasses during feudal Japan. The local feudal lord and his lackeys have no sympathetic qualities, and are consistently tyrannical and cruel to the peasants, who have committed no crime. It is only avarice and greed which drive the feudal masters. This leads to many atrocities, depicted in vivid and lurid detail here. But Akame is also a story of revenge, and of transforming yourself into a monster in order to accomplish that revenge. And the type of revenge in Akame is that of the "best served cold" variety, with our protagonist taking years to accomplish his goal.

martiantarhead

Recommended

First chapter feels like a classic. A brutal archetype of the revenge build up cycle we often see in modern manga/anime, it frontloads us full of violent injustice to give us a motive and it even includes a ninja training montage. Second chapter kinda ruins it. Ousted by the ninja, our 'hero' becomes a cult leader. This would be totally fine and fun, but the mangaka overshows his hand in my view, devolving into a very preachy feeling screed against organized religion. He takes up half a page to explain in an aside how he is in fact an atheist. He tells us that the strawmanof a cult he built "may seem absurd", but like many religions "even today", spiritualists will always be there to take advantage of those going throw hardships. Yawn. It really makes you lose faith in him to tell a true feeling tale, given his explicit personal views. Regardless of its pulpy and sensational nature, I value the feeling of raw reality a story like this can provide. The method of revenge, this religious exploitation, leads into a 'scientific' multi-decade Rube Goldberg like conclusion clearly informed by a 1 day study sesh at the city library, and it fails to connect IMO. Feels patronizing and immature. Really, can't sing enough praises for the overall tone and art style on display here though. Simple, but merciless in its action and emotive in the harrowing aftermaths. Dude was clearly a master even relatively early in his career. I will be reading more of him, and I'm curious to see if his plotting matures when it has more time to breathe in his longer tale 'The Legend of Kamui'.

0 found helpfulJan 25, 2026