Title: Akame ga Kill Vol. 9
Author: Takahiro (Story), Tetsuya Tashiro (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: January 24, 2017
The Story
Volume nine of Akame ga Kill showed no signs of slowing down on the battle front. This was Night Raid vs The Jaegers Part II and it was even more intense than last time! Night Raid split into two forces, each encountered different opponents. Mine, Akame and Lubbock took to the skies riding an air manta danger beast and encountered Run. They managed to cause Run to flee, but when they landed, Wave was waiting for him. After activating his Grand Chariot, Wave showed just how far he had come in his fighting abilities. He was able to handle three members of Night Raid on his own, but in the end, he was defeated by Lubbock’s strings. Lubbock had no power to finish him off though so he played dead and Wave escaped thinking he was victorious.
On the other front, it was Tatsumi, Leone, Susano’o and Najenda taking on Esdeath herself. Tatsumi hid in invisibility mode, hoping for the moment to strike at Bolic to take him out. Kurome guarded Bolic and watched on as Esdeath absolutely annihilated all four of them single-handedly. She entombed Susano’o in ice, dismembered Leone, knocked out Tatsumi and caused Najenda to use her trump card and exhaust herself. Najenda turned the tide of the battle by activating her trump card for the third and final time. Never has anyone been able to activate it twice in a row but with an opponent like Esdeath in front of her, she had no choice.
Susano’o bought enough time and went for Bolic, but it caused Esdeath to unveil her trump card.. the ability to freeze time and space on one individual. She did it to stop Susano’o from reaching Bolic and she destroyed him. Akame and Mine joined the battle and in all of the confusion, Akame got the killing blow on Bolic, completing the mission. Kurome clashed swords with her sister and Susano’o used his regeneration technique to revive. Susano’o opened a path for them all to escape and stayed behind, sacrificing himself. Night Raid is now down to six.
The volume ends with Syura (Apparently, that’s his English name versus his Japanese name of Shura) making his move. It looks like volume ten will be a battle against a new enemy!
Overall, it was another great battle volume. Three volumes in a row with high profile battles just show how intense this series is getting and the fact that there is still more on the way has me intrigued. The beginning of this volume offered up a one month time skip over the events of the previous volume so if volume ten follows suit, we could get straight into the next battle without any hesitation. Also, it’s curious that Esdeath now suspects that Tatsumi is under the mask of Incursio just by hearing his voice. Speaking of which, I also laughed when Esdeath stated that she developed her trump card so that Tatsumi can’t escape her for a third time! It just shows how deep her obsession is with him!
Characters
I think this is the first time we received a character’s backstory and they didn’t die! How Esdeath injured Najenda’s body was explained and with that, her backstory was complete, which typically means her death flag should be raised. After activating Magatama for the third time, it was said she would die, but even after activating it, she was still alive, albeit, extremely weakened. Susano’o’s even stated that he only used enough energy so that Najenda would still live so there’s a pretty high chance that she will survive this encounter! Poor Susano’o though. He was a good servant and a pretty good person for not actually being one!
The Tatsumi x Mine tease continued, but nothing was really concrete. Instead we had two death flags raised by way of something other than a backstory! In my previous review, I stated that I wished that they would go about notifying the reader about impending deaths in a manner other than a backstory and they actually went ahead and did that. The head priest looked at them and prayed that his foresight about Mine and Tatsumi was wrong. This could only mean that something tragic is about to happen to the two of them. We will have to wait and see.
Also, Suzuka lives!? Didn’t really see that one coming!
Final Thoughts
Another great installment of Akame ga Kill. The fights are getting more and more intense and this volume actually broke one the rules they established. A battle between Teigu users ends up in death for at least one user. Well, Wave vs Akame, Mine and Lubbock ended without any casualties… unless you want to count Lubbock playing dead once again. Seeing how the manga can break its own rule, it’ll be interesting to see how future battles play out. Then again, this is Akame ga Kill we’re talking about it. It is the Game of Thrones of the manga world so I’m sure that little exception to the rule was a one time occurrence.
Nevertheless, I’m amped up for volume ten and I’m glad that the series is shifting focus to a new threat. While Night Raid vs The Jaegers is always a great read, it’s time we got something a bit fresher!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
