Akame ga Kill! Zero

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I was really excited to sit down and read this after finishing Akame Ga Kill a couple weeks ago, now that I've completed it I don't really know what to say about it.

For starters, let's start with the most important bit: Did I enjoy this manga? Yes, I thought it was a fun ride and I enjoyed the extra bits of lore we got on the characters as well as the world of AGK. Plus seeing what lead up to Akame's betrayal of the empire was cool. The fights in this manga are REALLY fun as well, like I don't think there was any fight ... that I didn't like in this series.

However I can't help but look at this series as just a lesser Akame Ga Kill. Aside from Akame and later on Kurome, I don't care about any of the characters in the group we follow. Their dynamic is nowhere near as fun as the dynamic there was with Night Raid in the original series.

I think this maybe due to me reading the original series first, but I hardly feel any sympathy for the characters in the group and how they've been manipulated by the empire. Which sucks because the original series actually did a pretty good job at doing that.




---Minor Spoiler for AGK Zero---
For example, Kurome being loyal to the empire for so long makes sense considering they drugged her up and brainwashed her. But Tsukushi due to her rank, doesn't suffer from any of that, and yet she still just blindly follows whatever the empire does with no hesitation. She doesn't try to think for herself at all, which could lead to a really interesting story with Akame's betrayal. Of course she wouldn't take the word of a random freedom fighter about how much wrong the empire is doing, but Akame? Someone who she trusts with her life? That's would be a different story. At least that's what I had hoped for but ultimately, not so much.



---Minor Spoiler Done lol---
Each time I see these characters go into battle I most of the time want them to fail, a few exceptions of course.

Lastly, this manga is a lot more horny than the original. Like A LOT MORE Now I don't really have a problem with some anime tiddy (Leone's look in this manga is GLORIOUS) I just figured I'd bring it up. There were times where it was reaching Fairy Tail levels of fan service, both good and bad.

Most of the people in the new squad we follow are girls, and the majority of their character is "I have big tiddies" or I have thicc ass". Probably another reason why this group just wasn't as interesting lol.

To wrap this up, once again I'd like to emphasize that I did enjoy this manga even with all of the negatives I gave it. It was still a fun ride and it never overstayed it's welcome. The story, the lore, and the fights were all pretty good, and if it did those right then I'd say this series was a success in my book.

Akame Ga Kill Zero is an action manga and prequel to Akame Ga Kill, written by Takehiro and illustrated by Toru, Kei.

Zero is set months before the main series, following Akame’s journey as an assassin working for the Empire. The story is a collection of mini assassination arcs and lots of fighting, it does not have an interesting story, and the execution is hit or miss. You honestly do not even need to read Zero at all to understand Akame Ga Kill's story. The biggest benefit of Zero is that it strengthens Akame's character, giving her more characterization and depth as you start the main ... manga.

Much of Zero feels somewhat like a time waster, Takehiro seems to have gotten horny while writing it so he decided to add lots of fanservice and tetherball sized breasts on the abundance of female characters, as they get brutally slaughtered.

While the art is solid and the fight choreography flows well, the fights have no lasting impact mainly because the characters are worthless. A lot of them have a glaring flaw of seemingly only having a single personality trait. It may seem like an exaggeration, but it's honestly the case. Takehiro wishes to keep up the theme of having characters with no plot armor, lots of characters continue to die, but they do not receive much characterization or screen time before they die. Akame and her sister Kurome are the only character that have any important relevance to the story.

The characters are very cartoon like, they do not fit in the type of story that the Akame Ga Kill is going for. Guy is borderline molester wearing power range like suit to dig underground, Green is that glasses wearing virgin with an armpit fetish while the Oarburgh clan are the worst offenders. They are the main antagonists and, are quite literally a group of powerful, men hating, horny, lesbians, and a majority use maid outfits as their battle attire. This kinda of absurd idea would work in a series like Black Lagoon, but within Akame Ga Kill's world and tone it feels somewhat out of place.

The art style changes as time goes on, with characters at the begging having reasonable sized breasts and by the end Leone has breasts bigger than her entire head. I do not mind fan service, authors should be allowed to draw whatever females however they wish. But it's important for an author to know when to hold back, when you have giant swinging breasts while a character gets sliced in half and it's supposed to be an emotional scene? When the author doesn't show any self respect to such absurdity, why should the reader?

So is Akame Ga Kill Zero worth reading? If you're an immense fan of the series and wish to see some solid fights it is worth it. However this manga is ultimately a time waster and in the end feels pretty forgettable. I am giving it the final score of 5/10.

The whole manga tells the story of Akame and her little sister. Nothing that we already did not know with the anime. We do not get to know about the other characters and there is no character development for them. They are just random people raised to be assassins of the empire with no background.

The fights are terrible and it is difficult to understand what is happening. At some chapters the drawings look like sketches.

The only decent part of the story is when she starts questioning what she is doing and decides to desert, but can not do it immediately because of ... her sister.

I enjoyed the anime but could not enjoy this manga, I do not recommend it to anyone. Nothing good to see, besides some pair of boobs.