Akame ga Kill! Zero

Based on volume 1-4 (until chapter 25)
SPOLIER FREE

Akame ga kill zero is the prequel of Akame ga kill and it's main idea is to show the complete story of Akame and her little sister - Kurome. However, there is much more than that showed in the series, there are various groups of new and old characters to be observed, a more detailed look into the mindset and ideals of the rotten Empire and in general a better and more detailed exploration of the dark fantasy world of Akame ga kill.

STORY
The story, as mentioned, is focused on Akame and Kurome - the series start since the very first day the Empire got their hands on them and follows how they struggle and change their mindsets towards the whole Empire situation. It gives a different perspective than the one showed in the original series since the focus is not on the Revolutionary Army, but on the Empire and their different assasination units. To be honest I expected the manga to be shorter and just expand on the past of Akame, but it turned out it is way better and rich in terms of information revealed and past of certain characters. It is the perfect addition to the world developed in the original series.
There are several different arks focusing on different aspects of the series and slowly progressing towards the culmination point of Akame's self-consciousness. Well developed and fitting perfectly to the original concept of Akame ga Kill.

CHARACTERS
The main characters are naturally Akame and Kurome. We are not showed much from the main characters of the original series, but several of them do make an appearance and seems like more of them are yet to appear as well. Esdeath and Chealsea seem to be playing a major role in the storyline and several of the Teigus the characters from the original series used are in the possestion of different people. This gives me the idea that there will be huge fights to retain those Teigus.
The new characters are also really interesting to observe and have unique personalities. The Empire is also showed as the rotten, twisted mess in a great way and there is huge focus on characters supporting the Empire, their mindset and goals.

ART
As expected, the art is on top level. I dare to say better than the original series, good attnetion to detail and fair amount of horror scenes (as well as a fair amount of ecchi and fanservice to balance it).

ENJOYMENT
For me personally, the series are quite enjoyable. I love the fact that the world of Akame ga Kill is expended and developed even more, there are new great characters and old ones are not neglected as well. The storyline is engaging and even tho we have an idea what is going to happen there are enough twists and surprsied to keep us engaged.

8/10 (So far)

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.

Akame Ga Kill Zero is a prequel to the akame Ga Kill Series,mainly following Akame and her Sister.It can also be read even without the knowledge of the original

STORY:
The story is relatively the same as it's the parent series,with it's themes of corruption,though as opposed to the parent series,the characters are assasins working for the government as opposed to working against it.

The story maintains the tone of the original manga,though luckily it has less of the forced comedy,though there is some comedy during the downtime it does'nt feel forced or cringeworthy.the pointless fanservice still remains though

CHARACTERS:
the story follows 2 groups of assasins that are being controlled and manipulated by the empire.

-the first group are the elite 7.consisting mainly of Akame (main heroine of the original series),tsukushi and 5 others.these are characters that were mainly raised as assasins and are being manipulated under the pretext of "protecting the empire",and therefore do'nt really posess much common sense,considering pretty much everything was set up for them to become assasins.this group of characters as a whole are a likable and enjoyable bunch

-the second group is the less skilled,consisting of kurome and a few others who are directly below the first group,thus kurome's (no.8) motivation to catch up and be together with her sister (no.7).the rest of the group are pretty much annoying or unlikable.

-you also have cameos from some characters from the original series,and the character chelsea seems will be playing a role in the series

-and of course if you know anything about akame ga kill,it's to not get too attached to the characters

ART:
the art of the series is pretty well drawn and detailed with tons of blood and gore,the character designs on the other hand are'nt anything special.

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL:

overall it's pretty much as action packed as the original,and slightly more enjoyable due to the lack of most of the big lipped alligator moments.

So I don't see many reviews, and none of the last year where the manga has gone through its best arcs so here is my review.

Story 9
The story is about akame when she worked in the capital, it goes through her missions with her old squad along with how she got her teigu, how the imperial was before she joined night raid and adding an immense amount to the lore. This answers questions about the lore and akame ga kill's story, by adding to characters that were introduced in the original akame ga kill like esdeath and chelsea along with other characters.
Story is rich and every arc up until chapter 42 was new and refreshing along with having the same akame ga kill feel but even more refined. I would say the Oarburgh clan arc is one of the best arcs even comparing it to the original akame ga kill in my opinion, its my second or third favorite arc in the entire franchise and this manga is worth it just for that sole arc, not that the others disappoint.
Art 7.5
The art is really great, but there is one chapter(13) where the author just puts rough sketches for half a chapter. The manga took a small break after that but I remember reading it and thinking "how did they put this in?" but besides that, the art does its job and is average to great depending on the chapter.
The character designs are great, better then the original akame ga kill even, and I really enjoyed them.
Characters 9
There were big shoes to fill in for the new characters, and they did it pretty well. It takes some time to get attached but the character development is spot on in this series, especially with akame. I can't explain without spoiling but its great to see her slowly mold into the person she was in the beginning of akame ga kill. We also learn more about characters portrayed in the original akame ga kill, and see their development as well. The new characters especially villains are done well and are made more interesting then just I am evil or deranged, which akame ga kill had some villains like that.
Enjoyment 10
Honestly, this is just biased since I am an akame ga kill fanboy, but to those who already read akame ga kill, this won't disappoint you. Anyone who likes a serious shonen or the original akame ga kill will love this manga.
Overall 9
This review was made at chapter 47, and so far the series has drastically improved every arc and couple of chapters so I have high hopes. I may alter the score and update this review as the series goes on.
EDIT After finishing this series I still think its close to a 9, probably an 8.5. The end feels a bit rushed but I really do think this holds up to the original akame ga kill for sure.

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.

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 a prequel to Akame ga kill manga. The series focuses mostly on Akame and her sister, their past together when they were working for the assassin unit for the empire, and how with the reason why Akame left the empire and her sister to make the people 'happy' and join Night Raid. This series could've been read without the knowledge of the original sequel series, however i do recommend to read the sequel because it did come out first. Although it's just a personal opinion.

The story is pretty similar to the original Akame ga Kill series. Except rather than working against the empire as an assassin unit, she works for the empire. We get to see her early missions with her old squad members, and the cruelty of them. As the story goes on we can see how she is slowly changing from being brainwashed into thinking the empire is great into realizing how corrupt it is as she is being persuaded to learn the truth through the teachings of her enemies. Just like the parent story, it has themes of corruption, cruelty, and the sad truth of reality. Although there are many great points about the show there are some downsides like forced and unnecessary comedy and the pointless fanservice in half the chapters. If you can look past that then it can be an enjoyable read (Unless you enjoy ecchi, which then it's another reason to read the manga). If you didn't enjoy the parent story then i don't recommend reading this series as it is pretty similar.

There were many new characters in this series including Akame's team: The Elite Seven, and the second assassin unit consisting of Kurome and a few others who are less skilled but just below the Elite Seven. There were many new characters in this series but they did add some of the old members from the sequel, such as Chelsea, Esdeath, and most of the members from Night Raid near the end of this series. Both of the assassin groups working for the empire were manipulated and brainwashed into thinking the empire is great and needed to be "protected" by the evil rebels wanting to start a war and disturb peace and happiness of the people. You will understand as you read the story why Akame could escape their brainwashing while Kurome couldn't. They did well in character development, although it was mostly on Akame and her sister. The new characters were 'Okay', they weren't great but some were quite likable while others were 'meh'. If you read the parent series then you would know not to get too attached to the new characters though.

The art was quite good. It was done with a lot of blood and gore, with dark themes which did pretty good with the environment of the series. Sometimes in was lazy but others it was a notch above average. You knew exactly what the author was trying to tell and didn't have to look back. The character designs were pretty average. Nothing special nor worth mentioning. But they were still well-drawn. Not bad but wasn't the best part of the series.

Overall, I give it a 7. I really enjoyed it. There are plenty of flaws but the good did outweigh the bad. It had just as much action as the original and if you wanted great fight scenes then this is a manga for you. I personally loved it quite a bit because i am a shounen fan. There are a lot of ecchi and unnecessary fanservice which sometimes ruin the mood of the sometime seriousness of the manga, but overall it was really an enjoyable read and i do recommend you give it a try.

Akame Ga Kill! Zero - 7/10

Ok so I've decided to write this review for one reason and one reason only. The nudity.

I don't know why the writers decided to do this, but there is just a completely unnecessary amount of nudity after the tomb raiding arc.
Some parts of it I understand, such as the (without spoiling too much) almost rape scene, a character gets kidnapped and her napper gets some ideas (as vague as I could be).
However after that the manga essentially becomes a hentai doujin with an admittedly much better story. It's just completely unnecessary and the only reason I'm giving the manga a 7 and not an 8.

Story - 8
The story itself is actually pretty solid, not as good as the original series but still very fun and engaging to read. There are a few times when I felt the writing was lacking, but it's nothing too serious.

Art - 9
Excellent as always just what I would expect from this franchise, only reason for 9 and not 10 is the fight scenes. They are very chaotic and difficult to fully visualise exactly what is happening in each panel, but this is a common problem when it comes to manga and not something to get too upset about.

Characters - 8
Most of the new characters are solid, bar a couple of them. Mostly just personal preference but not too much to complain about.

Overall - 7
Again only reason for 7 and not 8/10 is purely because of the unnecessary amount of nudity, I like titty as much as the next guy but I don't wanna feel self conscious about reading an action manga in public you know.