アクメツ

AKUMETSU

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
18
RELEASE
April 6, 2006
CHAPTERS
162

DESCRIPTION

Nagasawa Shiina is just an average 3rd year high school student until her parents' company goes bankrupt. In order to pay the bills, she sells herself into prostitution. At her first job, a mysterious masked man crashes the party... and it's someone she knows.

Akumetsu is the story of Shou, a vigilante that's out trying to straighten the corrupt Japanese Government through terrorism with his "One man, One kill" code of action.

CAST

Shou Hazama
Keiichi Katsuragi
Shina Nagasawa
Mary Kirishima
Yamada Mamoru
Shintarou Murase
Kuraishi Masashi
Kuronuma
Hiroki Nakanoshima
Hideki Horikiri
Iwasaki Shouzou
Masami Iwata
Osamu Yaguchi
Eiji Shiratori

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

biogundam
65/100
one wild ride, that i quite enjoy
Warning this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions, the concept for a series about a terrorist doing shit for reasons seemed interesting enough and I wanted to see what they do with it.

Story, 6/10

In Japan where the economy is at an all time low and political corruption has reached it's peek.
"One" man will risk life and limb in order to save Japan and destroy the root of this evil by any means necessary.
His name is akumetsu and this is his epic story.

So the story of Akumetsu is pretty much about a terrorist organization made of clones of some crime lord,
who decide to try and save Japan from it's own destruction.
Which is being caused by the corrupt and incompetent politicians which are in power.

So basically the plot plays out like this there an evil politician of the week that he wants to kill for reasons.
Like For example taking tax payers money for yourself or basically just fucking over the general population.
As Akumetsu goes though this over these over the top but epic plans in order to kill seid politicians and expose seid politician for what he/she truly is.
Which is done in a very poetic justice kind of way,
Like for example this one guy who introduced some sort of pharmaceutical product that he said was for the most part very safe. But in reality it actually has a high chance of getting you very sick and can kill you.
So basically want happens to him is that he fucked up in a car accident and he gets kidnapped and gets pumped full of this drug along with the other people trying to push this shit.
And it makes his condition worse and he eventually dies from it.

So it kinda gives you the feeling that your watching a 80s heist movie.
Like there's a big sence of tension and a lot of oh what's going to happen next,
Is he going to complete what he set out to do or will the opposition come out on top for this one.
Other Than that you really isn't much to it in the main story wise.
I could argue that it kind of a political commentary in a sense of how corruption can really fuck up any system and it sometimes take despite action in order for actual change to take place and people who want actual positive change have to go though all these God dam loops in order to get the smallest things done because of how knee deep the corruption really is.

I also like how they went into the reason of why and how akumetsu was made so kind of the back ground plot.
Even though I think it kind of bull shit.
Like what happens is that this one dude has died which the main character knows,
He finds out that he a clone out of meany clones that where made from the DNA of a crime lord who wanted to basically be immortal.
So thought debate and discussion all the main character clones decide to continue with this cloning project with the sole intention of using it to save Japan.
Which dose help explain why they are able to pull off some of the crazy shit they do,
But for all intents and purposes I feel it to bloody convenient for me to actually care about it.
Because let's say for example I have 200 clones of me living in nz,
Which I remind you is a very small country it's quite similar to Japan in size.
The chances of me ever meating one of these clones has pretty low odds of ever happening.
So the fact that he met one of these clones and later on all of them is kind of bull shit to me.
Yes I understand that this is kind of nit picking but I just wanted to get that out of,the way.

But now it time to move on to the actual criticism.
It's so batshit insane that you really can't take it seriously,
Because in all honesty this is shlock if I have ever seen it.
But you know what it high grade shlock and it honest which is better I guess.

Characters, 6/10

The main character I like it kind of relaxed personality and he kind of a badass in a sense,
Because he so unassuming as a person and then he turns around and dose all this crazy shit.
Which is great because it nice to see that contrasts to his normal life and to the terrorist persona that he maintains.
Because like one minute he all chill and then the next minute he cracking skulls and kicking ass.
One problem I did have with him is that he is a pretty much a group at clones at this point so he very doesn't have a sense of identity.
Because he quote on quote dies so much that you really can't care about what happens to him because he still alive as long as there are still clones around.
Also talking about the cloning thing that rises big question as what happens when the clones die, do they get transferred to a new body right as rain or do they actually die and only there memories are just transferred.
So basically the main character is a hive mind at this point.
Which leaves me with more questions than answers.
Because I don't think they addressed the fact that he has no sense of self anymore because he a human hive mind and all that shit.

Side characters,

Are ok,
They all do there parts well.
But at the end of the day there just the usual characters you see in any setting with a high school included.

But a special mention to the politicians,
They are probably one of the most one dimensional villeins I have ever seen in my life
Like God dam there no reason to relate or no reason given why they went down this path.
There just there to be hated which is great for me,
because when they all get killed I am just laughing my ass off and it
Gave me great glee when they thought they where going to stop akumetsu or had thought they where going to live.
But then fail so hard and all that hope just goes away and is replaced with pure fear.
So great.

Art, 6/10

The artwork is kind of patchy and all over the place,
They use a lot of dark lines.
The death scenes are actually quite well done and detailed enough to get the picture.

It was this very gritty style to it and it goes very well with the over the top tone. That the series has a whole.

The character designs are ok,
Nothing really special here.
Except I really like the main character terrorist persona look,
It reminds me of zero from code geass except if it was a bit more edger.

Enjoyment, 7/10

I really found this really entertaining,
Because it's over the top, it bloody as all hell.
And It has this atmosphere which I really like.
I also liked the over the top death scene,
There just chaos and destruction every where.
Like rooms full of dead people all over the place,
Places on fire.

Overall, 6/10
If you're looking for something over the top and gory then check out akumetsu then.
If you want something more serious and down to earth then probably look else where.
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Turcobandido
70/100
Práxis plasmada en manga.
Akumetsu es un manga que comienza con una premisa interesante: Esto es Death Note pero en vez de Kira matando a criminales indiscriminadamente mediante ataques al corazón sin sangre tenemos a un tío con humor que ataca a políticos corruptos a través de ataques y maniobras exageradas y explosivas en pos de conseguir crear un mejor estado de bienestar.

Sí, es un manga sobre práxis. Supongo.

Akumetsu es una historia de venganza contra la sociedad en sí y los problemas que esta encarna. Es una rebelión contra figuras reales dentro de la sociedad japonesa y un grito de rabia contra la corrupción de aquellos que están en posiciones de poder. Es punk pero al contrario de, por ejemplo, The Boys, sus masacres se sienten... sinceras. Ridiculiza a sus enemigos, no hay duda de ello y los muestra siendo absolutos monstruos a muchos niveles distintos...

...Pero, paradójicamente, al hablar de figuras reales que han causado problemas absolutamente horribles y demenciales, esta violencia me parece un intento artístico de lucha contra la injusticia. Es un vehículo para el autor para golpear duro a la sociedad. Definitivamente es un protagonista mucho más interesante y que creo que es más razonable que Kira, el niño mimado e hipócrita que sólo quería ser un Dios. Akumetsu rechaza ser un Dios, no quiere controlar, quiere liberar. Esta es su principal baza y el por qué me resulta algo fascinante.

El manga suplementa esta premisa y sus asesinatos llenos de acción y humor con una trama de misterio al respecto de la naturaleza de Akumetsu y con sesiones informativas al respecto de las muchas formas de corrupción en la sociedad japonesa, desde chanchullos de construcción a la deuda general del país (hoy más que nunca relevante con la bajada del yen). Me gustan ambas y creo que Akumetsu consigue trazar una buena trama general y consigue que sus asesinatos y arcos sean entretenidos al fin y al cabo.

Aun así, la estructura es generalmente repetitiva y eso es un punto a señalar y marcar negativamente. Aparece un político corrupto, aparece Akumetsu, hay alguna especie de juego/chanchullo que señala la corrupción y la injusticia del político, Akumetsu mata al político. Se repite varias veces. A veces hay algún cambio interesante entre medias, pero esta estructura puede hacerse algo cansina a pesar de ser un manga relativamente corto.

Es un manga interesante y creo que tiene puntos fuertes y su premisa es muy buena, pero la ejecución tiene problemas y definitivamente tiene una textura muy peculiar. No lo recomiendo a todo el mundo pero creo que es más que la suma de su conjunto.
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