Innocent: Rouge Omnibus vol. 1

Anyone who listened to my podcast regarding “Innocent” last year will know that I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the third omnibus volume.  Rather than being a conclusion to the story of pre-revolutionary-era France executioner Charles-Henri Sanson, it was actually a transitional volume for mangaka Shin’ichi Sakamoto to refocus the story on the character he was really interested in:  Charles’ rebellious younger sister Marie.  That was all well and good, save for the fact that it didn’t offer any actual closure to the story being told and there was no indication that Dark Horse was going to publish the follow-up series.

Cut to the present day and the publisher has actually delivered the first omnibus of the follow-up series “Innocent:  Rouge” with the second set for May of 2026.  This is definitely a good thing as it shows that Dark Horse is committed to publishing the entirety of the series in a way that it hasn’t been for other series in the past.  As for whether or not that’s a good thing for readers, I’d say it is even as this first omnibus represents an experience that is at times thrilling, perplexing, and trying for those determined to follow the ongoing saga of the Sanson family.

The thrilling stuff comes first as Sakamoto wastes little time in following up on where he left Marie at the end of the third omnibus.  After her friend Alain was brutally cut down for the crime of teaching poor kids to read by one Count De Lux, she’s ready to get her revenge after the perpetrator was pardoned by the king.  Marie’s efforts lead to a hallucinogenic and brutal enactment of justice that align perfectly with the revolutionary fervor sweeping through Paris at the time while also putting her front and center to deliver on that.

What of her brother, former protagonist Charles?  He’s stopped explicitly pursuing the idea of executing criminals in the most humane way possible and is now leaning into the idea of being the final arbiter of justice in accordance with the will of the king.  It’s made him a lot more ruthless and more interesting to observe as he has to deal with situations like having to perform a risky medical procedure on a pregnant girl who faces a dire fate.  We also see him fall into the same patterns as his father in Charles’ own interactions with his son, and while the story stops short of turning him into an outright villain he’s clearly positioned as an opposing force to Marie in the story now.

Then things become perplexing and trying as we move into the volume’s second part and Sakamoto decides that now would be a good time to give us the history of Marie and Charles great-grandfather Charles Sanson de Longval and how he got into the execution business.  It’s a twisty tale filled with tragedy, sexual duplicity, betrayal, blood, and plenty of death.  Even though this is all solidly told on its own merits, it can’t help but feel like a digression from the main story that was just set up.  Sakamoto does bring in Marie and Charles’ present-day opinions on this tale to give it some relevance while also setting up a major change to their relationship.  Still, I was left feeling that development could’ve been handled in a more efficient manner that didn’t sap the story’s momentum.

Things pick up as the story moves back to its present day and the royal family once again becomes central to the plot.  Louis XV ascends to the throne with his wife Marie Antoinette and for a moment, things are as happy for them as they are extravagant.  While Marie (Sanson) sees this as the right time to puncture the self-serious pretensions of the nobility, Charles continues acting as the righteous enactor of justice for the crown.  Only to pay the price for it later when his efforts to bring a madam to justice wind up coming in conflict with that justice.  While it’s a lot of fun to see Marie enjoy herself at the expense of the other nobles, that business with Charles feels like it’ll be the more dramatically significant going forward.  Then there’s Marie Antoinette herself who’s blithely enjoying the perks of nobility even as the seeds of her downfall become apparent.

Even if this first omnibus of “Innocent:  Rouge” isn’t entirely narratively satisfying, it’s still a grand showcase for Sakamoto’s talents as an artist.  As before, the glorious sights of Parisian high life of the era are vividly realized in all their enchanting vistas, while the grubby streets and back alleys of the city’s underbelly will make you feel dirty just by looking at them.  There’s also the mangaka’s enduring love of a visual metaphor which keeps things entertaining to look at beyond the raw detail which he lavishes on the page.  It’s stunning work from beginning to end in this volume, and the best part is that you won’t feel like you might wind up on an FBI watchlist just for reading it (or am I the only one who feels that way at times while reading “#DRCL?”).

Even if not everything in this first volume of “Innocent:  Rouge” works, I still feel that the story is in a better place following the end of the previous omnibus.  It was clear that Sakamoto realized that Marie was now the real star of this story and re-centering things on her does make things more interesting.  Better still is that with Charles no longer the protagonist, the mangaka no longer feels the need to make him so saintly and his newfound ruthlessness suits him a lot better.  I can only hope that the next omnibus continues to move the story forward without any unnecessary digressions, and that’s something I’ll be eagerly awaiting when it arrives next May.