Innocent

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"Grandiose et romanesque, ampoulée et pittoresque"

Shinichi Sakamoto is one author of a kind . Pretty discreet, he have been "revealed" with his previous manga "Kokou no hito", that made a lot of fans.
Me too, when I heard about his new project, "Innocent", I was very exited and eager to read it, and that is because Shinichi Sakamoto have a style and way of doing things of his own.

I entered this manga expecting impressive art, lyrism and some exuberant metaphorical and symbolistic drawings along with a story shouldered by a lot of studies from the author for the domain and historical period he was immersing ... himself into.
The result ? I got exactly what I expected.

Maybe not exactly thought, since unlike the synopsis might make it seems, the present manga doesn't cover the event of the french revolution but "before" it happen. For that, we will surely have to wait for the sequel ("Innocent Rouge"), that, as I am writing this, is still publishing.
One other related point: the manga as it is now doesn't offer any satisfying ending on it's own, and that is because it appear clear that the sequel I talked about (and haven't started reading yet) is connected to it directly and will take its follow were this manga ended. So if you enter reading "Innocent" now, you might as well consider that it is still "ongoing" or is just the first part of the "Innocent saga", to not have a bitter taste at the end of volume 9.

Those important things cast aside, now is time to look into the various aspect of this manga for themselves.
The manga being quite interesting and peculiar, there would be a LOT to say, so I hope you won't mind that I will have my own approach to it and won't talk about everything I could have.


The story of Innocent is set in France, before the turning point that will be the French Revolution.
To take a look at this event that is as passionating as it is difficult to handle, our author have chose to show us a very special family, the Sanson family, cursed generation after generation by the title of royal executioners. Which is to say, the duty of ending the lives of criminals in the front of a crowd avid of blood and gruesome "spectacle", in the name of justice.
Inside this lovely family, our "main" protagonist : Charles-Henri Sanson, and taking more importance late, Marie-Joseph Sanson.
It is important to note that all important characters of this manga have really existed, and will be provided a little notice when they first appeart, showing their names, function and destiny.

Which get me to the personal "theory" that I will use to talk and construct my view of the manga for this review : Innocent follow the structure of a theater piece and can be view as one. Innocent is an "opera manga", a theater piece in a manga dress.
Let's take a look at two exemples:
- Charles-Henri is alone in the landscape. Out of nowhere, a beautiful young man he never knew before apear by his side and it's love at first sight. *Poof*, just like that.
- Charles-Henri is alone in his house, lamenting on his knees, in a secret room. A beautiful lady pop up just in front of him, naked. He think it's a divine apparition, but it's not. Two page later, *Poof*, they have sex.
You think it's ridiculous and pretty absurd ? It is.
But Shinichi Sakamoto don't care about that, and it make sense in it's own way: all the characters in this manga are comedian entering the scene when they are sumoned by the author. Each chapters are acts and scenes with specific characters comming from the backstage to recite their line.
At some peculiar points in this manga, Charles-Henri will even, in the middle of a talk, start to... sing.
That's right, out of all realism, this manga can turn into a musical.
It's strange, and you'll be quite surprise and might chuckle, but again: it's an opera you are reading.

As a theater piece, Innocent have a huge list of second characters, all more colorful than the others. This might be one of the point of the manga where I am the most circumspect: some famous characters apearence (like Casanova or Mozart to only name two) seems to have little to no relevence to the plot, and most likely they are just here for the pleasure of the author to draw those mytical human figures. Characters pop up from nowhere and can disapear as fast, but that is because they gravitate around our two executioner Charles-Henri and Marie-Joseph, and also Marie Antoinette, that are like magnets passing through historical events. Attracting and then repulsing second characters in front of the reader's eyes.

I said Marie Antoinette, yes.
She start to take importance in the last half of the manga, and can be view as the third character of the story.
Have you seen "Marie Antoinette", the movie by Sofia Coppola ? If you're like me and you had seen it before reading this manga, you'll find pretty amusing some of the event depicted in later parts of this manga, since it's strictly the same as what you'll see in the movie, but with a completely different mood and view of the characters. If you haven't, I recommend watching it after reading this manga, it should put some other lights on the events and had a very amusing touch to your experience of the two works. Seeing two different artistic view of the same things but with a totaly opposed style is quite an interesting thing.

Now might be the time to talk about the art.
More than anything else in this manga, and most important of all, is the art in this manga. if you had to chose only one aspect about this manga, it would clearly be this.
In one word: Amazing.
Not a single superlative is enought to describe the art that Shinichi Sakamoto is able to pull out of his sleeves.
I didn't said it before, but when it comes to this manga, every quality can be view as downside and every ridiculousness view as genius. Most of the time it's even both.
The biggest point of the author style consist about using very often what I would call graphical metaphore. Explaining it would be difficult for me, but if I had to say something, it is that the author is never afraid of doing too much and being the most lyrical he can.
Over the top, absurd and psychedelic, it's all that.
Other than those absolutely beautiful panels, the drawing of the characters is a feast to the eyes. Curled hairs, piercing eyes, the characters are erected as deity of beauty and refinement.
Marie-Joseph, as a bloody and terrifying beautiful angel of death, is the most impressive of them all.
The author abandon the anatomy of muscular bodies like he drew in "Kokou no Hito" to work this time on the most feminin slenderness he can draw.
By the way, if the idea of two man kissing, two woman kissing ,a man and a young girl in bed, or any depiction of sexual intercourse bother you, you might encounter problems reading this manga.
If you like yuri manga though, it should be all right: just think that the characters are all beautiful girls with long hair. It should be easy.
Also, Marie Antoinette's eyebrows in this manga are out of this world (I should definitly be sorry for those two jokes...)
This is a "libertin" manga.

If Shinichi Sakamoto had been born in France in the past, he would have been a paintor. His skill would have been praised and honored at first.. and then probably cast away because his over the top symbolistic and metaphorical paintings with unbound freedom of visions would have worried the "beaux art" academician and critics.
See the marvelous hommage he do in volume 8 about the wonderful painting of Gustav Klimt named "The Kiss".
The author we have here take his influence and inspirations out of everything and use it to draw is own sensibility and convey what he want to make the reader feel.
Again, one author of a kind.

Let's make a digression to talk about something very significant that surely might stay as completely unnoticed otherwise. Even if you're reading this review after having already read this manga, I'm pretty sure there is a good chance you'll be very surprise by what I'm going to say here:
There is no onomatopoeia in this manga.
That's right. You would have guess that a manga with plenty of sliced neck and choped off heads would have a good amount of *slash* , *splotch* or other things like that. Well, you'll find none.
And there is a good reason to it, it's because Shinichi Sakamoto don't believe in those, he even explained himself about it in a preface of one of his volumes of Kokou no Hito (talking about those introductions, this is another speciality and distinctive aspect of the author. Those little sentence are always strange and filled with his own very serious thoughts and utmost believings. It's something that would be a shame to miss when reading this manga, since it have those too).
His stance might be summed up as this: manga don't need graphical depiction of the sounds, wich at best is only something redundant, and at worst a superfluous element that distract the reader from the narration and what is happening in front of his eyes.
Shinichi Sakamoto believe that if he work hard enought with his drawing, he can reach directly the readers soul and subconscious and make the sound "directly appear in his head", without graphicaly depicting it.
One author of a kind, as I said.

Comming back to the characters. As you may have understanded, the author don't aim to make you feel for them or root for them. Their actions and way of acting are those of a comedian that have a role to fit.
Shinichi Sakamoto is not interested in crafting a continuous story, he willingly make some jump in time of several years, or go back in time to introduce a character the reader had no idea he existed in the life of the protagonist before.
He his interested in the "moments", nothing other than depicting precisely and with the most lyrical and "romanesque" charge what he want to show to the readers eyes.
While reading, you have to accept being throw here and there by the author and just look and read, like an eye looking at events from the side, detached but curious. This is a peculiar way of doing things, and it might have it's problem.
Don't try to hold to much importance in the character evolution and personality of Charle-Henri Sanson for exemple. It's not really what interest the author (or then, his way of doing things is so fragmented that it is difficult to see it that way).

Violence and love, terrors and cries, torture and lust, meanness and vanity, everything is done in an emphatic and exagerated way.
The story of Innocent make some detour, it wander and try to depict the rotten and absurd monarchy France was at the time, and how women were treated as nothing but men's disposable proprieties.
This will lead me to the last point I'd like to talk about in this lenghty review: Marie-Joseph Sanson.
Androgynous, deadly gream reaper and spirit of total freedom, she is the very essence of this fastuous and magnificent opera of a manga.
While all the other characters are handled in the limit of their true existing historical figures, Marie-Joseph Sanson dynamite all likeness and realistic take of the time period to be an utmost modern figure, with no care about gender role or watsohever. It is by her that the author have found the element of trouble to shake all the French society that is show in his story. A rebelious girl, as an avatar of angry uprising that will surely be the embodiment of revolution in the futur, in this theater of mankind that is Innocent. A revolution that will be tainted in rouge.

Thank you for reading this review to the end.

Firstly, this manga's biggest strength is the art. Its simply gorgeous, everything from the depiction of France, the character design, the flow, the individual panels in themselves are all extremely beautiful. But that's where the good things come to an end.

The story is a mess, rather the mangaka did not know where to proceed. It started off as a character drama based on MC and the trials and retributions he had to face to be the man the future would remember him as. The presentations regarding MC's qualms about killing criminals was quite philosophical akin to Vagabond. This had me instantly excited as Vagabond ... was one my favourite manga. The sadistic father and the scheming grandmother were all excellent additions and were like spices to a delicious story which was cooking. But one by one the side characters were stripped of the roles to bring focus to the growth of the main characters. These characters who acted as hurdles were removed not because of growth of MC but rather mere circumstances. When the grandma was removed from the plot the story shifted its focus to the only other member of the family the MC Kun's sister. The story now was not a character drama related to MC kun's internal struggles but a wannabe feministic story regarding women's role in old France. The focus was now on how a girl grew up to become an executioner despite all odds. During this time the MC kun had sex and became a totally changed man. A scared and unsure MC kun became Hugh Hefner after having sex once. The girl he fucked later became Royal Mistress.
At this point, the story introduced other characters like King Louis XI, his wife Marie Antoinette and other royal families who later on became central figures of the French Revolution. By this time MC kun merely existed to do random stuff. The story for a brief time (less than 5 chapters) tried to be a story about the struggle for the title of the King of France. A move which excited me a lot since I thought it would now be filled with smart schemes and treacheries. Yet, the only thing this arc provided was a jealous cousin spreading rumours that the king did not fuck the queen. Then this manga proceeded to highlight the events which led to the French Revolution. Alas, it provided mere snapshots. It did not dwell into details like the economic policies or the class inequality but just showed some random events and then set it aside for an arc about how the new Queen was jealous of Royal Mistress and how the MC kun dressed as a girl solved this. ( He actually didn't do anything and merely crossdressed for his amusement). It ended with the appearance of a random foreigner and his death. This character who was introduced for the first time, even mentioned for the first time suddenly became the most important man in MC kun sister's life and I reckon the revenge for the foreigner's death would be the story of the next path.
Like I said the story wavers from one point to another without concluding the previous one. The conlcusions provided to previous conflicts are neither satisfying nor smart. The character aspirations are just changed according to whims of mangaka and to progress the story random time skips are used. These time skips conveniently change the relationship between characters and highlight progress or deviations in their thought process and character without dwelling deep into the reason for such a drastic change. This was extremely frustrating as the mangaka merely stated time as the sole factor for the character growth.

Overall, Innocence is merely a bad gift which was wrapped with shiny wrapping paper.

English part.
History (4/10):
On the edge of the French Revolution from the point of view of the family of executioners in the service of Paris.
The premise is quite good, not any historical manga comes to touch this issue and more from the original point of view that is from the Sanson family, known very well in French history as the death angels that brought bad luck to those who They were surrounded, Innocent begins telling the story long before the French Revolution exploded based mainly on who will be the protagonist of the story "Charles-Henri Sanson" from the beginning hating the family office to become the ... head of the family, although the manga is not 100% true to the story and has original content from the author but still maintains the main events and strongly realistic setting of what is the dark era of France that consists of everything dark, depraved, bloodthirsty, sexual and cruel that was the time .. Although, history follows the main events and is preparing things for the French revolution is when the problems begin more of the same manga, first presents characters that seem "important" to never show them again in the remainder of the manga (there are many examples but I will cite one specifically that would be "the son of Damiens"), the manga also love to present historical figures of that time every time but also return to the same to present them for a single moment in specific and never show them again in the remainder of this manga, do not close any plot-point in the whole manga just to leave it in the sequel, the last time skip in which the manga participates before finishing is the accumulation of all the problems that before indicated and more by the fact that the participation of Charles is relieved by giving camera to Maria Anttoinette that in itself not It's bad that but she's pretty boring when she has focus protagonist.
For the cake cherry the last 10 chapters are those that transform the manga a "Clusterfuck" presenting a character that in the 99 chapters we had never seen and tell us that it is the love of all life of Marie, shortly after appears to the next chapter everything that had been achieved is destroyed and end up killing to leave it in cliffhanger in the last chapter .. Pretty fucking shit

Characters (5/10)
I mention it right here, the only character that is genuinely good is Charles, has a very good development since its inception with ideals of his youth hating the work of his family to the point of becoming like his father, all the moments in which he stars the scenes are the best thing that has to offer "Innocent" from then on is also Marie who is justified that is a shitty personality and her actions that take course in the story have meaning around breaking the stigma of her family, here the problem with Marie is that her character in the last time skip her personality reaches a maximum point of being annoying, when she was still a girl you can enjoy her participation in the protagonist focus but when she reaches adulthood she becomes the worst character in the manga, not I mention all the other characters because they have no relevance except Maria Antoniette but her appearance is until the last part of the manga, hence nobody else matters

Art (10/10).
I will not extend, I'll say it simple and concise, art is the best aspect of the manga and the author has an excellent use of panneling as well as his visual metaphors

Enjoyment (7/10).
Enjoyable and interesting experience, it is an entertaining manga although I would not recommend it and more because you have to swallow all the open plot points and the horrible ending to read the sequel that closes all

Overall (4/10).
It is a manga that leaves everything for the next part without concluding anything and that the only good thing is its protagonist and the realistic setting

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Parte en Español
Historia (4/10):
Al filo de la Revolucion francesa desde el punto de vista de la familia de Verdugos al servicio de Paris.
La premisa es bastante buena, no cualquier manga histórico llega a tocar este tema y mas desde el punto de vista tan original que es desde la familia Sanson, conocida muy bien en la historia francesa como los angeles de la muerte que traían mala suerte a quienes les rodeaban, Innocent empieza contando la historia mucho antes de que la revolución francesa explotara basándose principalmente en el que será el protagonista de la historia “Charles-Henri Sanson” desde sus inicios odiando el oficio familiar hasta volverse la cabeza de la familia, aunque el manga no es 100% fiel a la historia y tiene contenido original de parte del autor pero sigue manteniendo los eventos principales y la ambientación fuertemente realista de lo que es la era oscura de Francia que eso consiste a todo lo oscuro, depravado, sanguinario, sexual y cruel que era la epoca.. Si bien, la historia sigue los eventos principales y va preparando las cosas para la revolución francesa es cuando empiezan los problemas del mismo manga, en primera presenta personajes que en si parecen “importantes” para nunca volverlos a mostrar en lo que resta del manga (Hay muchos ejemplos pero citare uno en especifico que seria “el hijo de Damiens”), el mangaka tambien le encanta presentar a cada rato figuras históricas de esa época pero tambien volvemos a lo mismo de presentarlos para un solo momento en especifico y jamas volverlos a mostrar en lo que resta de este manga, no cierra ningún plot-point en toda el manga solo para dejarlo en la secuela, el ultimo time skip en el que participa el manga antes de acabar es el cumulo de todos los errores que antes señale y mas por el hecho de que la participación de Charles se releva por darle cámara a Maria Anttoinette que en si no es malo eso pero ella es bastante aburrida cuando tiene foco protagonico.
Para la cereza del pastel los últimos 10 capitulos son los que vuelven al manga un “Clusterfuck” presentando a un personaje que en los 99 capitulos JAMAS lo habíamos visto y nos dicen que es el amor de toda la vida de Marie, poco después de que aparece al siguiente capitulo todo lo que había logrado se destruye y lo terminan matando para dejarlo en cliffhanger en el ultimo capitulo.. Tremenda mierda

Personajes (5/10)
Lo menciono aquí mismo, el único personaje que es genuinamente bueno es Charles, tiene un desarrollo muy bueno desde sus inicios con ideales de su juventud odiando el trabajo de su familia hasta el punto de volverse como su padre, todos los momentos en el que protagoniza las escenas son lo mejor que tiene para ofrecer “Innocent” de ahí en mas esta tambien Marie que tiene justificada que sea una mierda de persona y sus acciones que toma rumbo en la historia tienen sentido en torno de romper el estigma de su familia, aquí el problema con Marie es que su personaje en los últimos time skip su personalidad alcanza un punto máximo de ser molesto, cuando aun era niña se disfrutaba su participación en el foco protagonico pero al llegar su adultez se vuelve el peor personaje del manga, no menciono a todos los demás personajes por que no tienen relevancia excepto Maria Antoniette pero su aparición es hasta la ultima parte del manga de ahí en mas nadie importa

Arte (10/10).
No me voy a extender, lo dire simple y conciso, el arte es el mejor aspecto del manga y el autor tiene un uso del panneling excelente al igual que sus metáforas visuales

Disfrute (7/10).
Experiencia disfrutable e interesante, es un manga entretenido aunque la verdad no lo recomendaría y mas por de que tienes que tragarte todos los plot points abiertos y el horrible final para poder leer la secuela que cierra todo

Conclusión (4/10).
Es un manga que deja todo para la siguiente parte sin concluir nada y que lo único bueno es su protagonista y la ambientacion