Title: Akame ga Kill Vol. 3
Author: Takahiro (Story), Tetsuya Tashiro (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: July 21, 2015
The Story
General Esdeath has made her return to the capitol and has been given new orders. She instructs her top three adjutant generals, known as The Three Beasts, to carry out the new orders of murdering high ranking former officials of the capitol, including its former minister. Once murdered, they would leave fliers pinning the murders on Night Raid. After Night Raid gets word of their framing, she forms two groups and sends them to protect two of the highest possible targets for Esdeath’s beasts. The one we follow is Tatsumi and Bulat as they board a luxury cruise ship. This is where General Esdeath’s beasts are and an all-out battle ensues.
That is pretty much it for the overarching story. This volume didn’t have as much story progression as the previous two volumes, but it did contain a longer, drawn-out battle that was an absolutely joy to read. Not only did this battle bring the kind of action this series needed, but it also helped further some character development on Tatsumi and Bulat’s fronts. I’ll touch upon that in the character development section.
The ending of the volume introduced us to Akame’s sister Kurome. She was depicted standing atop of a pile of corpses as an unnamed servant comes up and tells her she has been summoned back to the capitol for an unknown reason other than she was chosen as one of “The Six.” Earlier in the volume, Esdeath talked with the minister and requested that six powerful Teigu users be summoned as she was ordered to take out Night Raid. It appears that Kurome is going to be one of these six, but the other five are still an unknown mystery as of now. I will say that the anime and the manga have been in line with each other so far so I’m assuming the six will be the same in the manga. I hope so because of my favorite characters in the anime was in The Six!
Characters
Speaking of characters, we get even more development, which is a good thing!
First up is General Esdeath. She is as ruthless and cold as they described her as, but they actually gave her a pretty interesting human side. When the emperor states that gold may not be enough to reward her for her impeccable service, he asks her what she desires most. Her answer was Love. Even under her cold, unwavering exterior, there beats the heart of a human with normal human desires. The fact that she wants to find love was a pretty shocking turn of events as you wouldn’t expect someone like her to have that nuance about her. It adds a pretty interesting dynamic to her personality and it’s pretty surprising that someone as ruthless as her desires something that is the complete opposite.
Out of her three beasts, General Liver got the character backstory treatment because it also tied in with Bulat’s history as well. Daidara and Nyau were around for about the length of a cup of coffee and aside from their personalities and abilities, there wasn’t anything worth noting about them. Liver, on the other hand, played a key role in Bulat’s backstory and his character design is also a bit misleading because of it.
Typically, when you see a character like Liver, you think of an honest, upstanding man full of chivalry… and that’s exactly what you received in Bulat’s flashback. Before this, we knew that Bulat was once in the imperial army and left, but we didn’t know why or how until now. General Liver was heading back to the capitol to have a face to face with the new minister. Bulat served under him and Liver had the utmost respect for Bulat and his abilities. However, their latest mission branded them as criminals and while Liver wanted to plead his cast, Bulat stole his Teigu and fled before he could be arrested. Liver was then met by Esdeath who promised to erase his criminal record if he served her. He took the deal and now worships Esdeath for everything he has done for her.
This made for a pretty intense battle between Liver and Bulat. Bulat and Liver defeated each other and neither were in any shape to fight. This is when Bulat loaned Tatsumi his Teigu, Incursio.
Here is Tatsumi’s power up! After three volumes of wielding a sword and getting rejected by an eyeball, Tatsumi finally gets the strength he needed. Tatsumi makes Incursio his own and uses it to defeat Nyau pretty easily. Incursio is now in new hands and I’ll be interesting to see how Tatsumi handles it from now on, but also how he handles the situation with Bulat.
Final Thoughts
This was a more action-oriented volume of Akame ga Kill, but despite that, we still were able to advance the plot forward and build upon our characters even more. It was surprising how fast the three beasts were killed, though as I would have thought that they would have stuck around for a bit longer. It seems like this series is making a habit out of hyping up these villains to be incredibly powerful, only to have them struck down after a single battle. It almost reminds me a little of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers where each volume has a flavor of the week villain that’s defeated after a single solitary battle.
Because of this, I fear that the gathering of The Six was done a bit intentionally. Perhaps Esdeath knew that her Three Beasts would fall at the hands of Night Raid and the Six were being summoned as their replacements? It could be, but it also makes me wonder if The Six are going to fare any better? Are their battles going to be one and done as well? With Kurome being introduced as the first of them, I would hope not, but you know a Kurome vs Akame fight is coming and when it happens, one of them will not walk out alive. It seems like a lot of one and done battles are coming on the horizon… if they are, I hope they are drawn out a bit longer to give us some enjoyment!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
