The story begins with our dear friend Assassin-kun, you know, killing people like he always does and the thing is, he is a brooder.

So what is our brooding hero brooding over?

Whether he's doing the 'right' thing [by killing people mercilessly] and if he is in a 'good' field of work (didn't he know that the assassin-field is highly regarded by the nation's children?). So anyway, between the entirely cliché and sappy inner workings of the protagonist, you see some blood-spatter, knifings and guts being punctured.

END OF SUMMARY

The story wasn't all that bad.

The plot is reader-friendly and a wider audience (of less bloodthirsty people) might like it but, it is rather too straightforward for my liking. I mean bloodthirsty fans of the action/adventure genre (aka. my amigos) might find this cliché enough that it isn't worth reading the entire series for the short slice-and-dice scenes.

But you'd think that was bad enough, right? Being boring is a severe crime in Mangaland but NO, the Author includes a stereotypical, evil-looking clown-villain.


It may have been an attempt to insinuate that said villain's environment and his father's role in society had a big part in his (lack of) sanity but seriously, don't make him look like the Joker (I'm not kidding, he looks EXACTLY like the Joker).

The art was detailed but unrealistic and at times down-right scary (nearly all the characters had slits for eyes).

And while this was at worst eye-twitching, the worse crime that was committed was that the characters’ faces never seemed to change. They literally had the same facial expression expressing nearly all their emotions (give or take a couple of wrinkles). It really takes away from the plot, you know?

Audience: But what does all this mean? Are you dissing the story, or not? Spit it out already!

I'd say it’s an okay read; I’d say if you’re bored, feeling a little bloodthirsty and you have nothing left to read: go for it, even if it means you have to suffer the main character's perpetual whininess.