Title: Akame ga Kill Vol. 11
Author: Takahiro (Story), Tetsuya Tashiro (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: July 18, 2017
The Story
After Akame ga Kill’s incredible volume ten, I was eager to see what volume eleven brought to the table and bring it they did! Lubbock and Tatsumi go undercover in the capitol in order to uncover information about Wild Hunt and the amassing forces in lieu of an impending assault by the rebel army. Syura tracks Tatsumi and that ends up getting both him and Lubbock captured. Lubbock is then tortured while Esdeath returns to the capitol and is given Tatsumi all to herself.
Lubbock goes through some very cringe-worthy torture, including having a testicle crushed, but comes up with a plan despite the pain. He feigns weakness and this attracts Syura to finish the job. After being scolded by his father and told that Wild Hunt is disbanded, Syura goes mental and wants to get the information about Night Raid out of Lubbock by any means necessary. This is where Lubbock launches his plan of revealing that he hid some of the wire from his teigu in his mouth and uses it to kill Syura!! While it wasn’t the death I was hoping for, the fact that he’s dead is fine by me. Lubbock steals Syura’s teigu and tries to escape, but it puts him back into the palace. It is here that he gets confronted by Izou. Lubbock tries to use Syura’s teigu as a shield, thinking Izou wouldn’t strike it, but Izou shows zero hesitation and not only slices through the teigu, but he cuts Lubbock in half!
This was a very sad moment for me because I loved Lubbock as a character. He was my favorite member from Night Raid in the anime and the same held true in the manga as well. I was hoping that since we were at the point where the differences between the anime and manga were becoming apparent that Lubbock would have survived. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Night Raid members are down to five.
On the other side of things, Tatsumi refused to be with Esdeath and even told her he had a girlfriend. After failing to convince him all night long, Esdeath states that she will kill Tatsumi so that no other can have him. Tatsumi is set up for public execution and both Esdeath and Budo are there to oversee it. Mine shows up and takes on Budo and Esdeath by herself… even going as far as to get a hit in on Budo! Akame and Leone soon join the battle, but Budo recovers from the hit he took. Esdeath is about to test out a brand new move after Tatsumi is broken free and gains new power from Incursio. In the heat of the battle, we are left on a cliffhanger!
Characters
While the emotions ran high this volume, character development was almost non-existent. Then again, there are only fifteen volumes in this series and here we are, four away from the end. Realistically, all character development, with the exception to their endings, should have been wrapped up by now.
We mainly got some reaffirmation to Mine and Tatsumi’s relationship, but there was nothing really new there. Najenda overheard Lubbock talk about how he loved her and Najenda made mention to Akame and Leone that she has no room to love anyone right now, but said that she may entertain the thought once the revolution was over.
Syrua going off the deep end is nothing new, but seeing the minister actually punish and restrain his son showed a “father figure” side to him. As vile and disgusting as he is and even though his “tough love” was all for the wrong reasons, it was a bit weird seeing him act like a responsible father…. Then all of that gets thrown out the window when he receives word of Syura’s death and just shrugs it off. I think he just replaced Shou Tucker as father of the year with Gendo Ikari coming in a close third.
Final Thoughts
While I knew it would be hard to top the nearly flawless volume ten, volume eleven of Akame ga Kill still delivered big time. Now that Night Raid is engaged with Esdeath and Budo, you get the feeling that the emotional roller coaster isn’t anywhere nearing its point. This is the biggest battle in the series to date and it almost feels like the final battle.
I can’t really see any other battle being bigger than this one. We still have members of Wild Hunt and The Jaegers left unchecked… we still have the minister and the emperor to deal with. Four volumes seem like a good amount to wrap all of this up. I expect next volume to be a continuation of this incredible battle and perhaps even extend into volume thirteen. Time will tell, but this has been a hell of a ride so far and one so good, I don’t want to get off!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
