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Yo yo yo you your you're yow yowza Yagyu!
Hey. Greenoracle here again. a recent birthday present and a tip to Barnes and Noble have gotten back on track with two of my favorite manga series! Both of these have finished years before I started reading them, but they're still great!
They both concern samurai and historical Japan. The older of the Two is "Lone Wolf and Cub," art by Kazuo Koike (writing) and Goseki Kojima (art). It follows master samurai and ex-executioner to the shogun Ogami Itto and his three-year-old son Ogami Daigoro. Itto is, as far as I can tell, one of the most badass samurai I've ever run across. As royal executioner, he is trained in deadly sword arts, and is quite handy with naginata and throwing knives. His weapon of choice is a shorter length blade called a "dotanuki" literally "sword that cuts through torsos." His is a master assassin with a vendetta against the power-hungry yagyu clan, and collects five hundred ryo (gold pieces, highly valued. One ryo was a small fortune to anyone above middling economic status.)
On to the manga itself. The first few volumes establish how much of a badass Itto is, largely by showing oneshot assassination missions, somewhat like a feudal-era Japan Golgo 13. The later on in the series we go, however, the more the story focuses on his battle with the yagyu. This series is recommended for mature readers, however. It has been painstakingly researched for historical accuracy, which includes criminals, gore, violently, disturbingly authentic weapons, brothels, pain, and so on. Gory and quite racy in many volumes. The art is very realistic as well. No giant eyes in sight, everyone is accurately proportioned. The panel layout is very easy to understand, and a beautiful, simple flow is achieved simply by using square and rectangular panels, no big explosiony, jagged panels here. There are 28 volumes, all of which have been released in English. Each of these is about twice as thick as, say, a volume of Naruto, but they are about an inch and a half shorter and about half an inch less wide. Nice and compact, but actually contains more story than most other books in manga series'.
Those people who have seen the anime "Samurai Champloo" may have seen Itto and Daigoro and not realized it. In episode 22 of the series, Cosmic Collisions, Lone Wolf and Cub have a cameo appearance at the end. They are standing on a ridge, and are watching the cloud left by a meteor strike. Itto also makes an appearance in the Cartoon Network series "Samurai Jack." A young Jack sees Itto fight a group of basket-hatted assassins on a bridge, inspiring Jack to explore the way of the sword.
The other series that I've gotten back into lately is much more well known: Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin, also known as Samurai X. Due to my long winded-ness when talking about Lone Wolf, I'll be more brief here. Suffice to say, I finished the Kyoto (Shishio Makoto) arc, and have now moved on to the Enishi's Revenge arc, (Vol 18 onward.) in which we finally explore where Battosai got his X-shaped scar. I am, however, a little miffed about one of Watsuki's design choices for the assassin character Mumyoi. He looks EXACTLY like Venom from Spider Man.
On that note, I'll end here.
 greenoracle · Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 01:40pm · 1 Comments |
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