Akame ga Kill! (Volume 9)
The time has come to kill Bolic and start the revolution. All of the preparations have been made and Night Raid is closing in on their target. Of course, Esdeath and the Jaegers are determined to stop them. Who will prevail?
What did you read?
What’s that back to back manga reviews in the Akame ga Kill series? That’s right. I mentioned in the last post that things were starting to deviate as the last book was the final one released before the anime aired. Well, this one is the first to be published after the anime and it’s unbelievable. Ironically, the events of this book are covered in the last thirty seconds of episode 19. This is going to be good!
What happened?
Night Raid prepared for the impending assassination by relaxing and eating. Najenda spoke to Mine in the bath and told her not to put off things with Tatsumi. She had no plans on losing another team member, but they were going to be up against Esdeath. Mine asked Tatsumi if they could talk once the fighting was over and left it at that. Najenda then told Tatsumi about the time she faced Esdeath and how she lost her eye and arm.
With it was finally being time to attack, Najenda, Leone, Susanoo, and Tatsumi attacked from the ground, hoping to draw Esdeath out of the cathedral, but she didn’t fall for their trap. Meanwhile, Akame, Lubbock, and Mine flew in to attack from the sky on the back of a giant Danger Beast. Esdeath had prepared for this too and had Run intercept them, bringing the Danger Beast crashing to the ground. This was where Wave was waiting for them.
Najenda, Leone, Susanoo, and Tatsumi entered the cathedral and faced Esdeath head on. It was brutal. Esdeath froze Susanoo into a block of ice, hacked Leone into pieces and knocked Tatsumi out. With all appearing lost, Najenda activated Susanoo’s trump card. He broke free from the ice and attacked, forcing Esdeath to use her trump card, freezing time and space. She stabbed Susanoo and broke his core into pieces.
With defeat almost iminent, Najenda activated Susanoo’s trump card for the third and final time, using up most of her own life force. Akame and Mine burst through the window and joined the fight. Together they managed to occupy Esdeath and create an opening for Akame to kill Bolic. Esdeath was furious to have failed and planned on taking it out on Night Raid. Susanoo tossed the others through and opening in the ceiling and sacrificed himself to buy them time to escape.
How was it different from the anime?
So, I said that it was covered in about thirty seconds of the anime. As you can imagine it was fairly different. That said, some of what happened here was moved to a later episode in the anime, when Tatsumi is rescued from his execution. That said, this volume was epic. We saw what would happen if the team went up against Esdeath and it wasn’t pretty. I also loved that we got to see more of Najenda’s past as that wasn’t covered in the anime at all.
What was your favourite element?
The fight with Esdeath, obviously! However, there was one moment in the fight that stood out to me. When Esdeath activated her trump card by freezing time and space so that she could save Bolic and defeat Susanoo, she mentioned that she had developed it as a measure to ensure that Tatsumi could not get away from her again. Is it possible that Tatsumi constantly running away from Esdeath made her stronger? It certainly seems that way. That’s a great consequence from the actions earlier in the story.
What was your least favourite element?
No one wants to see two of their favourite characters fight, especially when one of them is so much more powerful. Sure, Leone has her healing ability, but seeing Esdeath cut her into pieces was brutal. I just hope Tatsumi was able to gather up all the pieces so that they could put her back together again!
What have you learnt?
Sometimes they say less is more… Well, not in this instance. This volume alone would have made for an outstanding episode, maybe even two, so it’s a huge shame that they were so keen to get the anime done that they weren’t ready to wait for the manga to be finished. I know that this is fairly common, but I feel like they could have easily done a first season and then let Takahiro get more volumes out before they started work on season two.
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…
