Akame: The Red Eyes

by Sanpei Shirato

Nel Giappone medievale, il signore feudale Nobuhira regna da autentico tiranno sul suo dominio compiendo ogni genere di sopruso sui contadini. Ne uccide alcuni per mero divertimento, per testare l'efficacia della lama della sua spada e per generare un clima di terrore che spinga gli altri agricoltori alla cieca obbedienza. Questi, sempre più ridotti alla fame, si vedono costretti a versare tributi in riso sempre più alti, a loro estorti attraverso metodi coercitivi, il rapimento delle donne o la cattura di ostaggi ma tutti i loro tentativi di rivolta vengono soffocati nel sangue sul nascere.
Un giorno, però, fa la sua comparsa in quelle terre un monaco menomato, che attribuisce quei nefasti eventi alla maledizione dei venerabili akame, che in realtà sono normalissimi conigli, alimento principale della popolazione del luogo.
I conigli diventano così oggetto della venerazione dei contadini, che ne invocano la protezione, cosa che però non è vista di buon occhio dal feudatario…

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Sanpei Shirato (白土三平) was born Noboru Okamoto in 1932, a son of well-known leftist painter and activist, Tōki Okamoto, who was active in organizing a proletarian art movement during the 1920s and 1930s. In wartime Japan, to avoid persecution from the authorities, the Okamoto family frequently moved around the country to different places including Kobe, Osaka, and some rural areas where young Shirato experienced poverty and came in contact with ethnic minorities and other discriminated groups (i.e., burakumin) as a child.

Shirato debuted in 1957 with his manga, Kogarashi kenshi. Although his earlier manga were aimed at children, some of them already exhibited social concerns, including social marginalization of ethnic minorities, the struggles of people in the lower class, the socially oppressive power structure–all of which became prevalent motifs in his works. Stylistically, his earlier manga in the late 1950s inherited the postwar mainstream manga style—which consists of Tezuka-inspired, simplistic cartoony depiction of characters with large eyes. His style gradually changed throughout the 1960s, as observed in the shift of visual style in Kamui-den.

Reviews

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno stile di disegno molto classico per quella che è una classica storia di soprusi, sopraffazioni e vendetta nel Giappone feudale. Il metodo che il protagonista usa per vendicarsi, basato sugli equilibri ecologici e sulla creazione di una nuova religione, l'akameismo, ossia l'adorazione delle lepri e conigli selvatici, gli akame appunto, considerati degli spiriti sacri, è decisamente "forte" e denota un pensiero profondo non solo sulle dinamiche umane ma anche su quelle di natura.
Questa è un opera brutale e cruda, violenta e decisa.
Merita soprattutto per questo di essere letta.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in English scanlation not Italian)

My introduction to Shirato Sanpei was his extremely weird and primal caveman v kaiju manga Savannah. Akame (The Red Eyes) dates from his early career and is apparently more typical of his concerns - it’s a 1961 historical manga about a group of peasant farmers oppressed by a sadistic feudal lord and his samurai. When one farmer’s wife is killed by the murderous lord he vows revenge and seeks to learn the arts of the ninja - unfortunately he’s terrible at them and the ninja abandon him on a mountainside to die. Savaged by wild animals and barely alive his dream of vengeance seems dead - but is it?

The summary should tip you off that this is a brutal comic - grim, unwaveringly so for 90% of its length, to the point where I really couldn’t see where any reversal might be coming from. That didn’t affect my enjoyment - for readers who can weather the unrelenting sadism and brutality* Akame is a visual treat, with gorgeously fluid storytelling and action scenes and Shirato Sanpei’s thrilling art style, full of bold expressive lines which look like they’ve been drawn in a violent frenzy themselves.

This feels like it must be really bold stuff for 1961 - I think the only other manga I’ve read that’s this old is Astro Boy and this… isn’t Astro Boy. Racking my brains for comparisons all I can really hit on is the Harvey Kurtzman Two-Fisted Tales, partly cos the art on Akame reminds me of Kurtzman’s heavy inking. But it’s obviously much longer than any story that comic ran. Recommended as an excellent if bloody story in its own right, and might rewire your chronology of what global comics could get away with when.

*after one particularly horrifying incident Sanpei breaks the narration to point out that the Japanese army did these things too in WW2, something it’s still very rare to see even modern manga acknowledge, let alone one from 60+ years ago.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a crime we don’t have more Shirato Sanpei available in English.

[Taiyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Akame: The Red Eyes by Sanpei Shirato is old, and you clearly feel that when reading. This is not necessarily a criticism of the work itself, but I found it hard to both relate and get invested. Most art in this is great however, so don't let my non-enjoyment keep you from giving this a chance!

[Jin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice Villian interaction. Very brutal story.

[Jose Vega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Things will only get worse until they get worse.

[Ricardo Nuno Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brutal account of feudal times in Japan.
A tale of loss, sorrow and revenge.
If this is (even partially) based in factual historical events, the Japanese peasants and farmers endured horrible abuses and abject violence through some eras of their collective History.
Although being well written and drawn, this is a dark and hard to read graphic novel.