Title: Akame ga Kill Vol. 12
Author: Takahiro (Story), Tetsuya Tashiro (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: October 31, 2017
The Story
Volume twelve of Akame ga Kill brought with it two major battles! In the last volume, we were left with Night Raid taking on Esdeath and General Budo, the two strongest members of the empire’s army. Akame squared off with Esdeath while Tatsumi and Mine fought Budo. Half way through the battle, they switched opponents and Tatsumi ended up fighting Esdeath. Esdeath was strong, but she took it easy on Tatsumi which proved to be a mistake as Tatsumi actually landed a punch on her that sent her flying. Meanwhile, Akame drove Budo back enough and allowed Najenda to show up and rescue them. Despite their escape, Budo tried to put a stop to it, but Mine used all of her mental energy to blast Budo with her Pumpkin Teigu. The blast ended up killing Budo and allowed them to escape.
The battle came with some heavy prices, though. Mine slipped into a coma due to using all of her mental energy. She was taken away by the rebel army, who will nurse her back to health. Coupled with the loss of Lubbock, this brings Night Raid down to just four remaining members. What’s worse is that in order to defeat Esdeath, Tatsumi tapped a bit too far into Incursio’s power and, as a result, he is becoming one with Incursio. While this sounds like a great powerup, it’s not. Either one of two things will happen to Tatusmi: either he will lose all of his humanity and become an uncontrollable version of Incursio, or he will die. Either way, he has three or four more uses before one of those two fates occurs.
As soon as that battle was over, Wild Hunt returns to pick off rebel army soldiers. The point of going after them not only serves to thin their ranks, but to feed Cosmina… a biological teigu that gets stronger the more it feeds. Night Raid predicted their next attack and surprised them. Akame took on Izou from Wild Hunt while Tatsumi used one of his four remaining transformations to take on Cosmina itself. This left Leone with Wild Hunt’s alchemist, Dorothea. While the battle was touch, Night Raid succeeded in killing the three of them, thus ending that faction for good!
There was no cliffhanger at the end of volume twelve. The announcement of Wild Hunt’s ultimate defeat served as the end of the volume which put a nice big exclamation point at the end of this story. While there was plenty of action, the character developments that were had filled in the gaps between the battles!
Characters
Tatsumi underwent a bit of a character change and it was even noticed in the volume in a conversation between Akame and Leone. Akame noted that Tatsumi hasn’t smiled since he returned from the capital and that he is unlikely to smile again for a while. Leone mentions that he’ll probably smile once Mine recovers. Tatsumi does undergo a personality change where he is more mentally steadfast than before. He is willing to give up everything if it means Night Raid’s success. One must wonder if that mindset is his own of it it’s a side effect of becoming one with Incursio? It’s an interesting twist that I would like to see fleshed out. This is new territory for me because at this point in the anime, Tatsumi was already dead… as was Mine. It’s really interesting to see the difference between the anime and the manga in this case!
On a side note with Tatsumi… despite his mental state, he officially proposed to Mine in this volume, stating that once she recovers, the two of them would get married. It was a pretty nice moment, albeit sad because Tatsumi knows of his fate and Mine couldn’t exactly hear what he said.
Speaking of love, there was a major tease of a relationship between Kurome and Wave in this volume. Kurome was reading a book simply because Wave was reading one as well. When Kurome decided to take a nap, she hopped on Wave’s bed and hugged his rucksack. She mentioned that it smelled like the ocean, but she would endure it with a blush on her face. It’s quite obvious that Kurome has grown to like Wave, but I don’t think he realizes it just yet. Also, at this point in the anime, Kurome was also dead so it’ll be interesting to see if these two end up together!
Finally, we get a look at Najenda’s reaction to Lubbock’s death. She first heard about it after she arrived during the battle with Esdeath and Budo. Tatsumi mentioned that he would get revenge for him and Najenda was in earshot of that declaration. Later on, we see her sulking by herself, noting that she was prepared for it, but didn’t think it would affect her as much as it had. It was obvious that Najenda really did have feelings for Lubbock. That made for a pretty somber moment.
Final Thoughts
This was another amazing volume of Akame ga Kill! The battle in the capital was great, but the battle with the remaining members of Wild Hunt felt a bit rushed. It was almost if they had that battle just to get those characters written out of the story. The battle between Izou and Akame was over just as quickly as it began and we didn’t really get to see much of Tatsumi vs Cosmina. Leone vs Dorothea was also pretty boring as it was just a hand-to-hand battle with a few alchemy tricks. The whole encounter just felt a bit on the weak side.
Thankfully, the battles with Budo and Esdeath made up for it. The loss of Budo caused the rebel armies to make a push for the capital and with the Jaeger’s numbers also thinned, the upcoming final battle is going to be on a smaller scale. I don’t mind that because it allows for more action within a concentrated area! We will most likely see Akame vs Kurome, Tatsumi vs Esdeath, which leaves Leone and Najenda to deal with Wave. At least, that’s what I’m thinking. Who knows, this is all new territory for me since the anime is over at this point in the manga and with a lot of things being a bit different in the manga, I don’t know what to expect. The only thing I know from the past twelve volumes is that what lies ahead is going to be fantastic!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
