Akame ga Kill! (Volume 10)
Syura has unveiled his new team of Teigu users and plans on taking over from the Jaegers, especially after they weren’t able to protect Bolic or capture Night Raid. Unfortunately, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree!
What did you read?
It’s taken me a little longer to find the time to read volume 10 of Akame ga Kill and in fairness, there’s going to be a lot to talk about. The manga and the anime started to split off in their own directions back in episode 19 of the anime. If you’ll remember volume 9 of the manga covered the last 30 seconds of that episode and was obviously significantly different. In truth, I probably should have covered this one prior to episode 20, but then the timelines are all over the place. If you’ve not read the manga, you might want to prepare yourself. Here we go!
What happened?
Syura revealed his team of Teigu users to his father, Minister Honest and had them fight a group of death row inmates to show how good they were. Needless to say, it was a massacre, but they did enough for Honest to let Wild Hunt begin to police the Capital. Within no time at all, Wild Hunt was causing a stir. Their heavy-handed approach was brutal and unforgiving. You could almost be fooled into thinking they were a bunch of psychopaths… which they were.
Wave and Run had several encounters with Wild Hunt, each time arriving at the scene after they’d tortured and murdered everyone involved, regardless of whether they were guilty or not. This was starting to piss Wave off and then when they came to the scene of another murder and the victims turned out to be Bol’s family, he’d had enough. The final straw was when Wave caught Syura trying to take Kurome as a plaything.
Without thinking, Wave rushed in and punched Syura across the corridor, but when they were to use their Teigus, Great General Budo appeared and warned them they would face the death penalty. Syura, however, decided to propose a fair fight away from the palace which Budo would oversee. They all agreed and the fight began. It went back and forth until Wave had figured out Syura’s moves and knocked him out. He wasn’t satisfied and went in for more, but Budo had already called the fight and wasn’t about to let them defy him.
Run caught up with Kurome and Wave and revealed that the reason he joined the Jaegers was so that he could enact change from within. He had been a teacher in a peaceful region, but his class had been murdered and the murderer pardoned so as not to damage the reputation of the region. Kurome followed Run out that night and told him that she had worked out that the murderer was one of Wild Hunt and she was going to help him kill him.
Run lured Shamps away from the others and attacked, but two more of Wild Hunt had followed and it turned into an all-out brawl. It wasn’t looking too good for Run and Kurome until Night Raid arrived with orders to hunt and kill Wild Hunt. That turned the fight in Run and Kurome’s favour and they managed to escape from Night Raid too. Run, however, had been badly injured and was about to die. Kurome decided that it would be best to stab him with Yatsufusa and make Run into one of her puppets.
How was it different from the anime?
So, Syura and Wild Hunt were in it, but otherwise, this was completely different from the anime. I thought Great General Budo threatening to clean up the palace after he’d defeated the rebels was an interesting idea and added an extra level of complexity to things for Minister Honest. Seeing more of Wave and his actions showed us even more how much he and Tatsumi are alike. Finally, Wave’s speech about cleaning the empire from within is in the anime, but in this volume of the manga, it made far more sense. It was a real shame that none of this really made it to the anime, because adding Wild Hunt was a great idea to the story.
What was your favourite element?
I loved that we got to see more of the Jaegers. Giving Wave, Run, and Kurome more time was a nice move and having Wild Hunt be the bad guys for them further added to the already interesting dynamic and questions of just who is good guys. Obviously, it’s all perspective and as the readers, we get to see more, but for the characters, they all have their own motivations and opinions. It was also pretty insane when Kurome decided to make Run into one of her puppets and his reaction was excellent.
What was your least favourite element?
So, this volume isn’t for the faint-hearted or anyone that doesn’t like darker elements in your stories. Some of it was fairly cliche and on the nose, but they really went out of their way to show us just was a bunch of degenerates Wild Hunt were. Particularly Shamps who was obviously a murderous clown paedophile… Thankfully, he finally got his comeuppance, but it’s definitely a troubling concept to throw into the story, even with all the murder, torture, and death.
What have you learnt?
I love the idea of adding extra layers of conflict by bringing in competing groups and having everyone trying to achieve their own thing. Budo’s words of warning for Minister Honest were a great touch and while he never gets to act on it, it would have been enough to make Honest think about how to solve yet another problem. Also, in the manga, we got to see someone use those flowers that had captivated Esdeath. Of course, she told Run that they were great for use in torture, which is why he then used them to hurt Shamps. It’s always nice to see little details like that come back at a later date.
Other posts in the series
Anime
- Season One
- Episode 1 – Kill the Darkness
- Episode 2 – Kill the Authority
- Episode 3 – Kill Your Cares
- Episode 4 – Kill the Imperial Arms User
- Episode 5 – Kill the Empty Dream
- Episode 6 – Kill the Absolute Justice
- Episode 7 – Kill the Three Beasts – Part One
- Episode 8 – Kill the Three Beasts – Part Two
- Episode 9 – Kill the Lust for Combat
- Episode 10 – Kill the Seduction
- Episode 11 – Kill the Mad Scientist
- Episode 12 – Kill the New Recruits
- Episode 13 – Kill the Hindrance
- Episode 14 – Kill the Giant Dangerous Beast
- Episode 15 – Kill the Religion
- Episode 16 – Kill the Dolls
- Episode 17 – Kill the Curse
- Episode 18 – Kill the Demons
- Episode 19 – Kill the Fate
- Episode 20 – Kill the Pandemonium
- Episode 21 – Kill the Despair
- Episode 22 – Kill the Little Sister
- Episode 23 – Kill the Emperor
- Episode 24 – Akame ga Kill!
Manga
- Volume 1
- Volume 2
- Volume 3
- Volume 4
- Volume 5
- Volume 6
- Volume 7
- Volume 8
- Volume 9
- Volume 10
- Volume 11
- Volume 12
- Volume 13
- Volume 14
- Volume 15
You might also like…
