It’s All About The Killing

There are few larger names in the world of manga than Kazuo Koike. One of the most respected manga writers of all time, he is as it happens one of the craziest bringing you such classics as Samurai Executioner, Offered and The Wounded Man. However this time I’m going to be reviewing one of Koike’s most famous and sanest works (which unfortunately doesn’t feature a girl pissing on a guy to wash some blood out of his eyes), “Lone Wolf and Cub”.
If you want to learn more about the force of nature that is Koike listen to Episode 7 of the Anime World Order podcast which you can find on iTunes or here.

Lone Wolf and Cub tells the story of Ogami Itto, disgraced samurai and former Kaishakunin (when a samurai performed seppuku, i.e. the right to kill oneself with honour in order to atone, where possible the Kaishakunin would sever the samurai’s head for a quick and less painful death), and his son Diagoro. After false allegations of insulting the Shogun, Ogami was sentenced to death by seppuku and was stripped of his position. However when the executioners came to his house to ensure that he committed seppuku he decided to go against the Shogun and joined the path of the assassin along with his son, becoming a Ronin (a masterless samurai) killing for money. I am basing this review on the initial volumes of the manga but am informed that it leaves it’s very episodic plot of Ogami’s assassinations around volume 8 for the overarching plot of his quest for revenge against the Yagyu clan who as it turns out framed him and killed his wife and family except for Diagoro.

Lone Wolf and Cub’s genre is that of Gekiga, which translates as “dramatic pictures” opposed to manga “irresponsible pictures”. Gekiga is a genre that is pretty much dead in modern Japanese sequential art, that was created in response to the kids’ manga created by Osamu Tezuka who was in turn inspired by the gekiga artists, which can be seen the most in MW. Gekiga was created by the children who had grown up with manga and now wanted something more adult that they wanted to read, as a result, a typical gekiga storyline was very violent and was intended to shock. However with the commercialisation of manga, even in the underground scene, gekiga was in decline. The main reason for this is that a lot of Gekiga can no longer be fully comprehended by the modern manga reader, as Gekiga was the result of the feelings and fears of the men of that era. Lone Wolf and Cub, however doesn’t suffer from this and manages to stand the test of time.

Lone Wolf and Cub, in my opinion, is a masterpiece. Koike researches all his projects in depth and this really does shine through, with both the behaviour of the characters and the art style of Goseki Kojima, the second man behind Lone Wolf and Cub, recreating vividly the atmosphere of the period. For all you violence fans, though it isn’t to the level of other Koike pieces, it is excellent with superb well fight scenes. Koike created brilliant characters Diagoro is a fun break from the danger of the world that he and his father live in and Ogami is just ultra cool, he always seems to know what’s going on and is willing to risk it all in order to complete his mission. This manga really does show how Koike became so highly regarded and how he became an influence for the likes of Frank Miller, the creator of Sin City, who in fact did the cover illustrations for the Dark Horse release that I’m reviewing. The release itself is interesting it seems that the entire 28 volumes are flipped (reversed so that they are read from left to right which would make it more accessible to the western reader), this is most likely due to the fact that it was released before Tokyopop revolutionised the Manga industry by releasing unflipped. This doesn’t really bother me however and doesn’t impact at all on how much of an enjoyable and thrilling read Lone Wolf and Cub is.

So I have to compell you to go out now and buy this, then buy some of the crazy stuff to learn the truth about the man they call Koike.