Akumetsu (アクメツ), 2002-2006, Tabata, Yoshiaki (Story), Yugo, Yuuki (Art), Shounen Champion (Weekly)

STORY: 6

Meet Shou Hazama, a goofy student who, suddenly, is seen murdering a corrupt politician while preaching about justice before blowing himself up! Or did he? And who is Akumetsu? A hero or a terrorist? Come and dive into the darkness of the political world who is both running and ruining the great country of Japan!
Here’s a shonen that looks promising with a story that is not black and white: good guys use questionable means and bad guys may not be so bad.
Alas, some of the bad guys are still just evil, whereas the story could have done a better job by showing and exploring the systemic nature of corruption. There’s different arcs and some could have been dealt with quicker, that’s a lot of volumes (18) for a manga that could have been short and to the point.

ART: 6

Nervous, busy, gets the job done.

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 6

Finally a title that goes head deep into the political! It’s great that a manga author tries to tackle politics and economy! But, his point of view stays contained within the paradigm of ‘economic growth = good’ so the analysis and opinions coming out from this manga are embarrassingly outdated. Things like social sciences, which today do a good job at understanding what the problems are with society and how to improve, or alternative political organization (Akumetsu fights for a ‘honest’ capitalism, ugh), or the environment are out of the picture so these themes of taxes, and debt, and highways feel just kitsch.

Most of the intrigue revolves on the trope of ‘Japan is on the decline because of incompetent politicians’ and it’s annoying, because this trope ignores that Japan is still one of the richest countries on earth, does not understand that the ecological footprint of the country is already unsustainable (and any improvement in the economy would make things worse) and eludes the fact that the crisis is more existential : without economic growth what is the goal of the country? What keeps society together?

There is also a welcome discussion on violence and its use through the pages, but it’s not going very far neither. I was hoping better for such a long series.

FEMINISM: 4

Love interest, damsel in distress, rape attempt, the usual package except for one strong female character.

CONCLUSION: 5

Akumetsu is not bad, and it’s a nice read if you are into vigilante justice. Otherwise, it still has qualities if you don’t mind the length, violence, and heavy political naivety.