Samurai Executioner, Vol. 8 (v. 8) [Paperback]

Kazuo Koike (Author), Goseki Kojima (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2006

Spring is a season of rebirth, or new life springing forth, a time of cherished blooming and delightful scents. But for Kubikira Asa, there is no spring delight. The Edo-era samurai crime drama by Lone Wolf and Cub creators Koike and Kojima continues down its path of heinous crime and diligent, bloody justice. Spring may come to the innocent, but to those condemned to lose their heads to Asa's sword, it will be their last.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Acclaimed manga master Koike's historical series look enough alike to suggest that his relationship to his artist collaborators is like that of a film director to a cinematographer. He probably constructs scenarios detailed right down to angles of vision and charges the artists to realize them with differing degrees of realism.

Samurai Executioner is drawn in a poetic realist style. Gushing blood, grimacing faces, rain, wind, and fire appear next-to--photographic at first; a beat later, the lines and shadings that conjure mood register. One could rush through a story barely noticing Kojima's craftsmanship, especially in The Death Sign of Spring's two hyperviolent volume openers about men of very different stations who in essence go berserk. Asaemon the executioner's exceptional compassion is the point of the next three shorter, quieter stories, one of which lacks violence, though--this is another story about the eponymous heroine of Shinko the Kappa (2005)--not sex. There is less swirling black ink in those three, which makes sense. The concluding two stories about offenders roused to fury by perceived injustice return to the noirish lighting effects of the first two. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima: Winner 2002 Harvey Award Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work for Lone Wolf & Cub

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (January 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593072775
• ISBN-13: 978-1593072773
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It simply gets better and better...., February 12, 2006

By 

Stefan Bauer "Steff" (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samurai Executioner, Vol. 8 (v. 8) (Paperback)

First, I thought SAMURAI EXECUTIONER would just be a beginners work, the first time Koike and Gojima worked together...but very early i saw that this was simply not the case. Samurai Executioner is at least as fleshed out as LONE WOLF AND CUB...and with volume eight (i read it immediately after volume seven) i almost think it's better than LONE WOLF AND CUB. For instance you have a really strong supporting cast, something Lone Wolf and Cub lacked (to balance this out LONE WOLF had a very good roster of antagonists and villians, notably Retsudo Yagyu and the Shogun himself)

The supporting consists of Kasajiro and Shinko the Kappa who are demanding more and more space for themselves and Koike isn't refusing them. It almost has a touch of a good TV Series, like ROME or DEADWOOD, NIP TUCK or PRACTICE.

It simply is completely different from LONE WOLF AND CUB but it's equal in the quality to this epic series...and then some...