Customer Reviews

Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 1: Assassin's Road

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The concept of Lone Wolf and Cub is, in a word, fascinating. A stoic Ronin wanders the countryside of ancient Japan, carting his small child in a vessel that more than meets the eye, with a banner to advertise: `son for hire, sword for hire.' Over mountains and through cities he travels, offering his unique services to those needy - and to those who can pay. The legend of Ogami Itto and his precocious son Daigoro spreads far and wide; he gives hope to the desperate, vengeance for the bereft, a chance of rogue justice in an unbalanced society. And more: LW&C walk the path of meifumado, the Buddhist hell of demons and damnation, to achieve a private vendetta: to lay rest to the tragedy that has set father and son upon the assassin's road - a dastardly deed only hinted at in this first volume.

Until Dark Horse decided to publish the entire series in 2000, Lone Wolf and Cub had existed beforehand as a manga-mythos of the Far-East - extremely popular in its Nippon homeland, where it begun serialization in 1970 and continued for many years, spawning six films and critical acclaim in its wake; but published sporadically and incomplete on western shores. Dark Horse's commitment to the series was an audacious one - the story spanned some 28 volumes, an expensive investment for publisher and readership alike - but the end result was, to me and other scholars of Eastern culture, invaluable. For LW&C not only entertains with its blend of samurai-noir and vicious sword-play, it educates on the finer points of Japanese culture, as it existed in the Tokugawa era, and displays vividly the struggle of existence, from lowly peasants to the most upright nobility. LW&C is an Epic, and one of the finest I've chanced to read.

`The Assassin's Road' sets the tone of the series: small self-contained vignettes concerning the adventures of Ogami Itto and Daigoro, usually-but not always-concerning the grisly reality of their occupation. Intertwined are digressions into matters of Bushido, Buddhism and other aspects of Japanese society; and, sprinkled throughout, the larger and eventually more encompassing storyarc of LW&C's feud with the shadow-family of the Yagyu, `official' assassins of the Shogun. I have to admit that, structurally, the Ogami vs. Yagtu storyline is the most compelling aspect to the series, at least initially: and it comes in such rare intervals early on in the series that one continually hungers for more information, more contact with the central conflict...and yet, the minor storytelling is just as potent, if not more so - for here we are given insight into Ogami Itto's character, and that of his son; here we are exposed to the personalities, petty conflicts and personal struggle of Japanese history - and Japanese character.

This volume contains nine stories, nine steps for Ogami Itto and his son on their thousand-mile journey to meifumado...and beyond.

1) Son for Hire, Sword for Hire - the opening tale for the entire epic. Ogami Itto enters the *shima* (death-zone) to take down a scheming politician. A fitting, if mysterious, introduction to the characters and overall style of the manga.

2) A Father knows his Child's Heart, as only a Child can know his Father's: The relationship between father and son is explored in this short tale of deception and retribution; the concept of meifumado is given, and a deeper framework to LW&C's actions hinted at. Contains sexual content - gratuitous to western eyes; but not, I think, to those of the east, considering how *some* manga are...different cultures, different standards.

3) From North to South, from West to East - LW&C are hired to assassinate a vassal before he is taken to Edo for torture and confession. A decent story made valuable for its explanation of Shogun politics.

4) Baby Cart on the River Styx - the corruption of small town officials, and what lengths they will go to protect their malifecience, is at the heart of this tale. One begins to perceive Ogami Itto as not just a scruffy assassin, but a man concerned with honor and justice.

5) Suio School Zanbato - Daigoro `accidentally' urinates upon the head of a passing nobleman, who subsequently challenges the Lone Wolf to single combat. Like most of vol. 1, this story serves the purpose of exploring who and what LW&C are: Ogami's sword-style - and the lengths in which he will use his son as accomplice.

6) Waiting for the Rains - Daigoro meets a sick woman at a shrine; it is revealed that she was used by a shinobi (ninja) to help discredit her family house. Ogami Itto waits in the shadows, confident that the guilty ninja will return for his abandoned lover...

7) Eight Gates of Deceit - LW&C travel to a remote mountain village, only to find the inhabitants slaughtered, his contract void, and eight female warriors hunting for wolf's blood. A rousing action tale with a philosophic conclusion.

8) Wings to the Bird, Fangs to the Beast - my second favorite in this compilation. LW&C travel to a hot springs for rest and relaxation. A gang of bandits has occupied the town, however, and they take Ogami Itto prisoner. At the end of this story, we are given a vital clue into the history of LW&C, which leads directly into...

9) The Assassin's Road - a flashback sequence shows us (some) of the events that led LW&C onto the assassin's road. The evolution of Daigoro throughout the series is its emotional keystone, at once riveting and heartbreaking.

LW&C vol. 1 - `The Assassin's Road' does an admirable job of setting forward the characters and conflicts that shall dominate the Epic as a whole, but on its own, it is perhaps the least of the twenty-eight volumes. The art, storytelling, and language translation all improve with successive volumes. The last two stories alone make this compilation worth the price, however, and I whole-heartedly recommend Lone Wolf and Cub to both manga-enthusiasts and those curious about Japanese history.

(Note: For reader convenience, Western nomenclature is used - given name first, family name last.)

The Western world's exposure to the Samurai culture has been rather limited - the most popular venues to the mass public have been the movies *Shogun Assassin* and *The Seven Samurai*. Both are fine examples of the film genre, but because the nature of film, neither really delves into the bushido mindset as deeply as I would like.

It is in the arena of the comic book that the best explorations of the samurai legend have been achieved. Two titles come to mind - Stan Sakai's *Usagi Yojimbo* and Kazuo Koike's *Lone Wolf and Cub* (*Shogun Assassin* was based on the latter's film adaptation).

The title reflects the content manner - Itto Ogami, the protagonist, is a highly-skilled ronin who travels with his toddler son, taking assassin's work whenever it comes but always assuring (sometimes indirectly) that the job upholds his strict sense of bushido.

Some might say that the idea of an assassin with bushido is self-contradictory. However, under the skillful pen of Koike, Ogami's methods allow him to follow his chosen path and hold on to his honor simultaneously. His requirements regarding his assignments are simple - cash money and complete disclosure about the nature of the assignment, including the often compromising details.

In this first volume (~300 pages of more than 8000), we are treated to tales of Ogami's skill and prowess as a swordsman and strategist. His is an unorthodox approach to the samurai arts, and he is absolutely merciless to his victims. His son often collaborates in the assignments, usually as a set-up ploy. While ruthless to his opponents, he is also capable of great compassion and does have a very human side; one chapter, in particular, explores the reasons he left the prestigious post of the Shogun's personal executioner (the one chosen to assist in ritual suicide by decapitation) in order to journey down `the path to Hell.'

Those familiar with manga will no doubt find the ink stylings of Goseki Kojima familiar; it is similar to that of Sanpei Shirato's *The Legend of Kamui,* but Kojima's work is more articulate. Eschewing typical manga character design and expanding on traditional concepts of sequential movement, Kojima draws sensitive and articulate portraits while simultaneously transporting us directly into the middle of dramatic battle. Horror; amusement, contempt, compassion; anger; longing - none are beyond the reach of his pen.

I recommend *Lone Wolf and Cub* to any who wish a good read. With much to offer a diverse audience - drama, mystery, action, plot, and character development - it is a series that reads and presents itself well. You need not be a comics enthusiast or a Japanophile to enjoy this work - its execution is that well wrought. Drawing on historical fact, East Asian military classics, an eye for detail, and an innate sense of drama, Koike and Kojima give us something that will surely become a great classic.

After purchasing this volume out of curiosity, I have decided that the Lone Wolf and Cub stories by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima are among the very best comic books ever created. Their mix of action, drama and history make each episode unforgettable. Each page has iconic imagery, heroism, cinematic silences, and breathtaking layouts that immediately bring Akira Kurosawa to mind. While every volume in this collection is a must own, I would suggest reading this volume first. This way, you will understand who the lead characters are-- the world weary samaurai and his son in the wooden stroller loaded with the samaurai's secret weapons. You'll also witness unforgettable moments in their lives (such as when the father realizes he must run from his fellow warriors and wordlessly demands that his son choose between a ball or a gleaming sword). The stories in this volume are well-drawn, dramatic, and timeless. This is why the they have served as the basis for a popular television series during the late 1970s, the Hollywood classic Shogun Assassin, and Frank Miller's groundbreaking graphic novel, Ronin. Once you read this first volume, you'll want to own them all.

I'm a big fan of the Lone Wolf and Cub fan movies. They are some of the bloodiest movies I've ever seen, but they're fascinating at the same time with their interesting display of the Japanese people during the Edo period. However, I was dubious when I heard about the manga series. I assumed that the manga was based on the movie series (an incorrect guess), thought it was too small (I've had bad experience with small manga books, read my review of Gundam Wing #1 to see what I mean), and while flipping through it, wasn't immediately attracted to the artwork like I was with the Blade of the Immortal series. However, when I gave it a closer inspection, I found the artwork to actually be pretty detailed and well done if you just gave it a chance. ... So I bought it. And I most certainly don't regret it. The stories are great, the art is great, the characters are cool, the dialogue is interesting, the different challenges Ogami faces are all unique and interesting...everything about it is great. Since continuity isn't a huge issue with the series the way it is with other mangas, I don't have to sweat it if I don't buy the books in proper order. Another great thing to not just this volume but to the entire series is the Buddhist mythology, beliefs, and tradtions inserted into the story. If you want to learn about Buddhism, don't pick up a "For Dummies" book. Instead read this manga and see the role Buddhism played in people's lives, as well as learning plenty about meifumado, the six paths and four ways, and other parts of everday Buddhism.

Last to mention, one of my favorite things about this series, that has brought it near and dear to my heart, is that it's portable...it's the perfect size that I can still read it, but it fits in my pocket and I can carry it with me anywhere. This is a great manga, and you won't regret buying it (as long as tasteful nudity, rare and minimalistic sex scenes, and incredibly gory and violent action).

Lone Wolf and Cub has few equals, if any.

The most frequent comparison I've seen is to Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal series, but the only real link between them is that each features kendo, Japanese fencing. Blade of the Immortal tells an engaging story, but it has a cyberpunk sensibility and is little concerned with historical or cultural context; Lone Wolf and Cub, on the other hand, is a sprawling epic which deals with weighty emotional and moral issues and frequently delves into the minutiae of Japanese political and cultural life under the Tokugawa shogunate. Though largely humorless, Ogami Itto's constant grimness is always contrasted by the human warmth of his child, Daigoro.

On the surface, Goseki Kojima's ink artwork is serviceable -- adequate but far from extraordinary. Looking more closely, however, his skill becomes apparent: point of view is constantly shifting, sweeping between cinematic wide angles and tight close-ups on dew-laced leaves. And the reader is frequently treated to beautiful frames shaded more subtly than plain black-and-white line drawings, painted in the calligraphic style of traditional Japanese landscapes.

Start with this volume, but be aware that you won't find the best this series has to offer until the next and following books. The overall story arc is epic and intricate, told in bits and pieces over many thousands of pages. (It could also be described as "historical fiction," one possible explanation of the historical disappearance of both the Ogami and Yagyu clans.) Most of the early stories, however, are self-contained, and they vary widely. All are interesting, but the narrative point of view and even the apparent genre changes with each story; the broad range of Kazuo Koike's storytelling, and his skill with manipulating narrative time, is only hinted at in this first volume.

The translation is good, much more sensitive than the partial version published by First in the '80s.

As a final point, I didn't find the small format to be a problem. I read many of these stories in First's run, printed in full-size format, but I quickly adapted to the smaller print and graphics in this Dark Horse printing. Dark Horse made the courageous decision to re-translate and publish the series of over 8000 pages -- a vastly greater scale than First attempted; printing each of 28 (?) volumes in full-size format would be prohibitively expensive for Dark Horse and for us. You'll adapt quickly to the smaller format -- and you'll be grateful to Dark Horse for bringing us this incomparable epic in its entirety.

There's no doubt that this is a great series with excellent stories and artwork. My only complaint is about the 6" by 4" size. One of the consequences is that the text is very small and bound to induce eye strain in readers (especially those who are over the age of forty).

I've been into manga/anime, off and on, for seven years now. During the course of being a fan, it has always been my intention to read the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series or at least to purchase and view the feature film adaptations of the 70's. The premise of the series: A widowed Ronin with a toddler son travels through feudal Japan working as an assassin for hire, appealed to me from the moment I first heard it. Though I had never been exposed to "Lone Wolf" prior, there was something immediately ominous as well tender and heartwrenching about the relationship between Itto (the Lone Wolf) and Daigoro (his Cub) that I felt was conveyed by the title and cover art alone. The manga, of which this is the first collected volume released in the U.S., makes good on this promise. In fact, this first volume serves to illustrate the incredibly close, deeply textured relationship between Itto and Daigoro and their forced symbiosis during their journey through hell.

This first volume was excellent. The writing was impeccable, the translations seemed first rate, and the artwork effectively rendered what it must have been like to live in that era in that place in the world. The manga contains engaging characters on top of a vivid story told in brief, action-packed episodes involving the title protagonists. If there was one fault I could find with "Lone Wolf" it was that reading it gets quite confusing at times. While following characters, customs, and events that take place in an antiquated, foreign culture this can only be expected.

Itto Ogami is as tough a protagonist as one could ask for and yet, as one reviewer has already stated similarly, the reader finds themselves constantly looking for Daigoro in the page pannels. It is Daigoro for which Itto lives and fights for and it is Daigoro that keeps the reader turning the pages. His character is almost always seen smiling and his innocent cuteness serves to augment his father's ferocity and violence.

"A father knows his child's heart, as only a child can know his father's."

Yet, as we are often reminded in the text, a cub is still the child of a wolf. Fear them both. Pick up this first volume.

Currently at 10 volumes, LW&C is probably the best thing you can buy on the shelves of your local comic book store. Unfortunately, volume 1 is a bit of a let down. Only the last story is truly a Lone Wolf and Cub installment, while the remaining material seems to have been done before a clear idea of the story had been established. Itto Ogami even smiles!

There have already been some excellent descriptions of this series by other reviewers, so I won't go into a lot of detail. Note that if you just want to read a big hack and slash comic, LW&C really won't fill that need, though at times it is insanely violent. There does seem to be a general pattern--some aspect of Japanese history is explained to us that somehow leads to Ogami killing a bunch of people--but as simple as that sounds, the stories are elegant and often display a rugged sophistication that is unheard of in modern comics. LW&C also manages to keep a continous thread going through several individual stories. By the time we get to volume 10, it sometimes seems as though it is just one big story--but when the pace slows, I'm sure it will return to a more episodic narrative. This is nice touch as you can generally just loan a volume to a friend without needing to start from the very beginning (volume 2 for instance makes a far better introduction than volume 1!)

It was with child-like glee and excitement that I found Dark Horse was re-issuing the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Having first become aware of this historic series in 1981 w/ F. Schodt's seminal work, 'Manga Manga' I had to wait another ten years for the translation to be started by First Comics. At the time I collected those, I had no idea of the scope of the original series. 8000 pages in the original 1970's run?! Before First discontinued the series, stiffing us subscribers, they had only scratched the surface. To compound things, they did not follow the original order of the periodical. That, apparently, is now being rectified as Dark Horse has committed to 28 volumes at ~300 pages each. A few days ago I went out and bought the current 8 volumes in one fell swoop. The format has changed, the books are considerably smaller to mirror their last print run in Japan. The books are compact 6" tall, and must be held quite close to read. That does not detract at all. The story of the disgraced 17th century Shogun's executioner wandering the country as an assassin to endeavor to clear his family's name is a classic. His son Daigoro travels with him after the death of the mother, and provides an innocent life-fulfilling counterbalance to the bloody death dealt by the father. I cannot speak highly enough of this series, the artwork is monumental in its ability to capture mood, motion, and naturalistic quietude with nary a word spoken. The pacing of the fight scenes is remarkable. There is an austere beauty in the black and white treatment, coupled with an amazingly epic storyline, it adds up to a pinnacle of the genre. Highly recommended.

Like many, I picked up on this manga because I have seen some of the films. These are the archetype of a whole genre of violent historical samurai films set during Japan's Edo period, when the Shogun rules the country. What makes the Lone Wolf tales unique is that his 3-year-old son accompanies the wandering Samurai. Daigoro is no ordinary child, but an active accomplice in his father's work as an assassin. Whether riding in his armed baby carriage, or holding onto his father's back in the middle of a battle, the boy is as capable of surprise moves as is his deadly father.

In reading you will find that the episodes are loosely strung, almost in no particular order. Ogami Itto and Daigoro wander the Japanese countryside under a sign that reads 'Son for hire, sword for hire.' Not exactly heroes, they have a knack for turning the tasks they undertake for the good. The plots of the individual stories are surprisingly intricate and expose much about the character of life under the Shogun. While it often seems that father and son are acting independently to correct some perceived imbalance, it gradually becomes clear that Itto served as one of the Shogun's secret assassins for some 27 years before breaking with the Shogun, and is Japan's deadliest swordsman.

Those of us who have seen the films will be a bit disoriented by the manga. The illustrated series is the original from which the films drew ideas, and the two do not always respect each other's time relationships. Unlike 'Blade of the Immortal,' another strong manga series set in the same time period, writer Kazuo Koike experiments more and feels no need to set everything in a strict order. And he is satisfied to leave questions dangling in the reader's mind. The artist for the series, Goseki Kojima works with a heavy pen in comparison to the work done 20 years later by Hiroaki Samura in Blade. Partly, this is the result of the small format chosen by the manga. Even so, his ability to capture the action of a sword fight and stretch out the tense moments in between is remarkable.

In the final analysis 'Lone Wolf and Cub' and 'Blade of the Immortal' defy comparison. Each represents a high point in the development of the manga as a literary and artistic form. Nor should this be an either or decision. Readers will find much to praise in both.