innocent omnibus vol 1 by shin'ichi sakamoto

Charles-Henri Sanson is destined to become the fourth in a line of prestigious executioners, the Monsieur de Paris, but his commitment to justice and kind soul is constantly at odds with his family's cruel line of work. As he enters into his fourteenth year, Henri begins apprenticing with his father, Charles-Jean-Baptiste, and becomes responsible for his first execution. Jean-Baptiste instructs his son on the proper use of his sword to cleanly sever the head in one swing so as to not cause undue suffering to the condemned. Henri nearly gives himself up to become a monk until a fateful night when he instead decides to bear his father's mantel and let the Sanson name die with him.

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The Sanson family is almost too unbelievable to be true, and is a dynastic family that you think you would only find in a fantasy setting. Their family history is fascinating, so it's no wonder that it ended up in a manga. These type of stories is what makes history so fascinating, and it's a shame that something so beautiful and compelling can't be used with younger readers. This story is one of the most beautifully illustrated manga I've read in a long time. It's clear that Sakamoto has put a lot of care into each panel, especially in designing character's faces. Eyes have a lot of significance in this story, so each character has a unique set of eyes that are recognizable apart from the rest of the face. There was also a lot of research put into period-appropriate clothing, medical knowledge, afflictions, and historical settings of Paris. This is a series to be savored page-by-age, even the gritty ones.

Dark Horse Manga rates this for adult. This manga is excruciatingly graphic, and goes into immense detail about torture, executions that were carried out at the time, and has many sexual situations.

Sara's Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Adult

Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Publication Date: Nov 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781506738246 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 10/10, Suitability: Adult, Manga, Historical Fiction, Family, Dark Horse