Akame

Also known as: 赤目, The Red Eyes

by Sanpei Shirato

In medieval Japan, the feudal lord Nobuhira reigns as an authentic tyrant over his domain, carrying out all kinds of abuses on the peasants. He kills some for fun, to test the effectiveness of his sword blade and to generate a climate of terror that drives other farmers into blind obedience. These, increasingly reduced to starvation, are forced to pay higher and higher taxes in rice, extorted from them through coercive methods, the kidnapping of women or the taking of hostages but all their attempts to revolt are suffocated in blood in the bud. One day, however, a crippled monk makes his appearance in those lands, who attributes those nefarious events to the curse of the venerable akame, who are actually very normal rabbits, the main food of the local population. The rabbits thus become the object of the veneration of the peasants, who invoke their protection, which however is not frowned upon by the feudal lord. (Source: Hazard Edizioni, translated)