Innocent (Sakamoto Shinichi) Ch. 09-53
I mentioned this series briefly at an earlier time but might as well reiterate some of the details now that a lot more chapters got translated.
This is quite the intense series. A historical narrative of
Charles-Henri Sanson's early life as he faces his role as the Royal Executioner of France during the 1700's. The first part of the story focuses on Charles coming to terms with his lineage and being born to a family of executioners. Eventually he would become infamous and go on to execute nearly 3,000 people. Like a lot of historical fiction I'm sure a lot of liberties are taken with the story and obviously the character designs which are
very heavily gravitated towards
the bishounen side of the spectrum.
And it actually works very well because the artwork is absolutely striking and beautiful. Each chapter is packed full of stunningly detailed layouts and many scenes feature some very interesting visual motifs that drive home a certain idea. Some of it comes off as a little heavy handed but it's very nice to look at all the same. Sakamoto Shinichi is a very talented artist.
The story itself is very dramatic, even a little angsty at times. It pulls no punches with displaying how fucked up France was in the 1700s and how fucked up the Sanson family was. Despite being loosely based off the memoirs of Henry Sanson, there's definitely a lot of interesting information to take from the historical recount of this story. With executions playing a large role in the story, a lot of them are displayed in overt detail so some scenes can be pretty hard to stomach if you're sensitive towards that type of stuff. It can be quite brutal and unrelenting at times.
I'm not sure how most people will take to the drama filled story and characters but if nothing else, the manga is absolutely remarkable for its artwork alone.
