Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 2: The Gateless Barrier

子連れ狼 [Kozure Ookami] #2

by Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima (Illustrator)

The epic continues! Among the five stories in this Cub has been captured while Lone Wolf lies unconscious! All of Cub's captors are cruel, all but the osue (the lowest maid). But her help may be her undoing. The household waits for the feared Lone Wolf to come looking for his son...and when he does...pick up Volume Two to find out what happens — plus four other great stories, as this classic epic continues!This volume includes the following Red CatThe Coming of the ColdTragic O-SueThe Gateless BarrierWinter Flower

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Japan, Historical

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Kazuo Koike (小池一夫, Koike Kazuo) was a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist and entrepreneur.

Early in Koike's career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series.

Koike, along with artist Goseki Kojima, made the manga Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub), and Koike also contributed to the scripts for the 1970s film adaptations of the series, which starred famous Japanese actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Koike and Kojima became known as the "Golden Duo" because of the success of Lone Wolf and Cub.

Another series written by Koike, Crying Freeman, which was illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, was adapted into a 1995 live-action film by French director Christophe Gans.

Kazuo Koike started the Gekika Sonjuku, a college course meant to teach people how to be mangaka.

In addition to his more violent, action-oriented manga, Koike, an avid golfer, has also written golf manga.

Reviews

[Algernon (Darth Anyan) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book one of “Lone Wolf and Cub” was very good. Book two is even better – more ambitious storytelling with longer chapters and interesting jumps backward and forward in the storyline; superlative artwork both in the landscape panels and in the action scenes. Very cinematic in the choice of angles and evocative / moody in the numerous winter scenes. The best aspect of the journey for me so far is the transition from apparent disparate murderous acts in volume one to more careful and elaborate character portraits coupled with a panoramic view of the Shogunate society.



The Gateless Barrier can be summed up as a song of ice and fire with wolves instead of dragons. Most of the action takes place in the snow, the beginning and the end being marked by two buildings going up in flames. I suspect a lot of Oriental symbolism (“now is the winter of our discontent” and stuff like that), some of which is explicit in the last two stories included here.

Red Cat

The title is a tad baffling at first, especially in a series drawn in black & white ink and so far devoid of cats. My interpretation is that the red is the colour of the fires set by the arsonist Lone Wolf is hired to assassinate. One small problem though: the Red Cat is in jail and, in order to reach him, Ogami Itto must allow himself to be caught commiting another crime by the police and locked in. Inside, Ogami needs first survive the confrontation with the leader of the convicts and his thugs then, later, to find out who used the Red Cat as a pawn and who benefited from the fires he set.
As with the other episodes included here, I believe the story would make a great action movie. (probably was filmed already)



The Coming of the Cold

Jumping from fire into avalanche country, Ogami Itto accepts another near impossible assignment : to infiltrate an impreganble mountain fastness and ‘terminate’ a minor daimyo with huge ambitions, ambitions that are ruining his vassals. At least three major themes emerge in this story, themes that will probably weave themselves into the fabric of the whole series:
- seppuku as means of restoring honor or sacrifice of one’s life in the service of a higher goal
- the conflict between duty and love / family, made urgent when Daigoro, who was waiting on the sidelines for his father to finish his killing spree, is put in mortal danger by natural forces outside his father’s control
- Lone Wolf seen not as a killing machine for sale but as a vigilante that might kill for money, but always follows his own inflexible code of honor, defending the underdogs and punishing the ones who abuse their power – the ‘bushido’.

The moral of the story underlines the last theme, as Ogami subscribes to the rule that strength comes from the hearts of men, and not from the stone walls of castles, victory comes from attack and not from defense.



Tragic O-Sue



A special moment here : the little cub makes a friend and proves that he has sharp teeth of his own. Daigoro was remarkable before this story by being a child of very few words, all huge eyes and occasionally a flash of humourous behaviour. While his father is laid down with a crippling fever, Daigoro goes to raise kites with the other kids, but when he smiles at a pretty girl he is picked on by the group’s bully, the teenage son of the local samurai. The cub is still to young to control his temper and strikes back at the older boy with the sword he snatches from the bully’s obi. For this deed Daigoro is taken to the lord’s house and punished severely. His only help comes from the same girl he met earlier, a servant in the noble mansion:

O-Sue. Literally, “the last”. Such was the title given the lowest of the low among maids in the samurai households of Edo period Japan.



The story is also remarkable for a couple of pages illustrating a nightmarish vision of ‘meifumado’ – the Buddhist Hell, as Ogami Itto is battling his fever, and for another blood drenched finale in the middle of a snowstorm. Let’s hope Daigoro has learned a useful lesson about picking the time and place when to fight and about controlling his anger.

The Gateless Barrier

The title story of the second volume is showcasing the mental training that must accompany the martial practice of the samurai. It is also another clever play on flashbacks and flash-forwards, mixing the past with the present and with the future tranformation of the Lone Wolf into the peerless warrior he needs to be in order to defeat his archenemies.



The moment of crisis comes when his trusty ‘dotanuki’ sword refuses to come down on the neck of his target – a monk revered by both the nobles and the peasants. To overcame this mental block, Ogami (‘The Wolf’) Itto retreats to meditate in the middle of the wilderness on Ogami (‘Wolf’) Mountain, aptly named for the packs of wolves that roam its frozen forests.

Meet the Buddha! Kill the Buddha! - the barrier will come down when the Lone Wolf renounces everything he holds dear, everything he is , the world and all its connections to him, retreating inside his inner core until only emptiness remains. ( I am making a hash of this whole ‘zen’ thing, but trust me, the book tells it better)



The morale of the story : even when the warrior allies with the priest to rob the peasant, some hope remains that a champion of justice will come to restore the balance between good and evil

Winter Flower

The final story included here has both the ice and the fire, the bleakness of a world of rampant evil meets the beauty of principles and self-sacrifice. A flower will bloom in the most adverse environment. In this case the flower is a woman born into the samurai class who is misteriously found dead by her own hand in the house of pleasure where she sold her body to strangers.



A local police investigator tries to discover what could have driven the proud young woman to such a drastic step and what happened to the hundreds of gold markers she earned from customers. The case is soon complicated by another unsolved double murder, when a local tax collector is found dead in the arms of his concubine, both stabbed by a single stroke from a ‘naginata’ ( something between a sword and a poleaxe).

When is murder justified? What is the difference between justice and assassination? Who is the victim and who is the injured party? Lone Wolf and his cub follow their own path through this tangle of passions and corruption, and I for one can’t wait to pick up the next book in the series and find out where the warrior’s path will lead me.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Dark Horse’s reprinting of the saga of Lone Wolf and Cub provides plenty more action along with some deeper examinations of the politics, philosophies, and spirituality of 17th century Japan as we follow Ogami Ittō and his son Daigorō on their path along the assassin’s road. The assassin and his son gain some more depth as their story continues and we see some elements of the foundation of their odd (though obviously close) relationship, but for me it remains the secondary characters that really shine and bring life and breath to Koike and Kojima’s epic. Politics and personal scores prove to be the dominating motives for those who hire Lone Wolf and Cub and, as always, Ogami continues relentlessly on his path, fulfilling his missions to the letter regardless of the fallout he leaves behind. It’s interesting to see that at the same time that this series seems to glorify the samurai way and certainly indulges almost joyfully in the gory bloodshed of combat, there are many tacit and outright critiques of the samurai lifestyle which is founded on the Bushido warrior philosophy. The stories in this volume are:

“Red Cat”: Ogami infiltrates a prison in order to find an arsonist who burned down another prison in which he had previously been incarcerated and subsequently escaped, the result of which was the seppuku of its former warden. But is there some deeper mystery to the events behind the warden’s death?

“The Coming of the Cold”: If we weren’t quite sure of it already we get to see just how far Ogami is prepared to go along the path of meifumado even if it means endangering, or even sacrificing, Daigorō. Lone Wolf and Cub are hired to go into the snowy reaches of the mountains to assassinate a Daimyo who is willing to put his own desires ahead of the safety of his clan. As with many of the stories both already seen and yet to come in these volumes the intertwined elements of the Bushido way and the internecine politics of the Shogunate are deeply woven into the background of this story.

“Tragic O-Sue”: An interesting ‘solo-adventure’ for Daigorō in which the loveable scamp (he really does come across as an adorable little guy notwithstanding his utter strangeness) confronts a bully and proves that he is truly his father’s son. The effects of Ogami’s words and actions, all of which Daigorō has witnessed, have proven to have had a lasting effect on the child. Perhaps his father is right and even a three-year-old boy can walk the path of meifumado. Luckily for us Daigorō still exhibits some more human traits as we see his reaction to both the pity and the plight of the lowest of the low in a samurai household.

“The Gateless Barrier”: When politics and faith collide in an impoverished Han, where only the word of a holy man keeps the peasants from revolt and his demands on the nobles would mean their financial ruin and loss of face, the leaders see only one option, but can even an assassin as renowned as Lone Wolf and Cub kill a Buddha? In order to succeed Ogami must find the gateless barrier, the path that leads to his own perfection and thus reach a state along the assassin’s road analogous to the spiritual purity of a monk who may have attained Buddha-hood. This was an intriguing story delving into the concepts of mu (nothingness, negativity, nonbeing), the perfection of one’s path, and the oneness (or is it nothingness?) of all things.

“Winter Flower”: A police investigation into two mysterious deaths: one the peculiar suicide of a prostitute who seems to have been more than she appeared, the other an assassination of a couple making love at which a winter flower was left as a token ultimately leads the investigator to Lone Wolf and Cub. What connects these two deaths to each other and what, if anything, can save a police investigator and his men from the unerring sword of Lone Wolf and Cub?

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted

[Sinem A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

bu kadar heyecan verici, zekice kurgulanmış az manga vardır sanırım. bildiğim kadarıyla serinin tamamı 28 kitaptan oluşuyor ve türkçede henüz 16. yayınlanacak. dünyada çok ilgi görmüş bir filme de uyarlanmış bu mangayı kesinlikle tavsiye ederim. olmadı filmi izleyin zaten okumak isteyeceksiniz.

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demons. Volume 2: The Gateless Barrier elevates Ogami Itto not only in his physical prowess as ronin, but also his spiritual dedication as an assassin. He's not human anymore. He is more than a wolf, more viscious than the devil. He is the god of death.

Each chapter in this volume gives Ogami a piece of personality that makes him the god of death. For one, Ogami Itto didn't even hesitate to abandon his assassin duty to save his son Daigoro. He killed a living buddha. A monk called him a god of death. He attained mu. Demonic badassery living in an equally badass samurai.

Daigoro has his own share of difficulties, and this wolf's cub is as dedicated and as strong as his father. Daigoro is not anymore an accessory and kid sidekick to his daddy assassin, but someone who can even survive under the harshest and cruelest conditions.

Volume 2 establishes the Lone Wolf and his Cub as a tandem from hell. Who knows where their meifumado would take them.

[Krysia o książkach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samotny wilk spoko ale to szczenię to jest jakieś szalone.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still just singular chapters with very little of a plot to bind them together, but they're growing deeper and more inventive and more spiritual than in the previous volume. You've got some crazy stuff here, a conspiracy or two, infiltrations and double-crosses, and even glimpses of the supernatural. It's pretty great.

[Jefi Sevilay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Önemli kitapları hayatınızın farklı zamanlarında okumak kesinlikle farklı hisler uyandırıyor. Bunu daha önce bir WW2 kitabında hissetmiştim. Şimdi Daigoro kadar bir oğlum olduğu için Daigoro'yu da ayrıca bağrıma basasım geliyor. (Not: Çığ sahnesi)

Yüz ifadeleri ve mevsimler çok güzel resmedilmişti. Yağmur ve kar bile o kadar netti ki. İlk başta siyah beyaz olması gözümü yormuştu ama sanırım bu ciltten alıştım. Hikaye deseniz çok çok güzel. Her bir hikaye birbirinden anlamlı ve aslında benzer gibi gözükse de dönem coğrafyasına ait izler barındırıyor. Sanırım Yalnız Kurt ve Yavrusu en güzel tarih kitabı olabilir. Daigoro bu ciltte ilk kez "baba" dedi :)

Bunu söylemek için çok geç ama bir tek sözlüğün sonda olması gereksiz bir son sayfalara giderek hikayenin kesilmesine sebep oluyor. Bazı "bold" yazılı kelimeler sözlükte var, bazıları yok. Keşke bir * koyulup altına açıklanmış olsa. Bu arada * demişken O*ospu kelimesine yıldız koyunca elimize ne geçiyor hiç anlamıyorum. Hele aynı kelime üç beş sayfa ötede yıldızsız olarak yazıyorken :)

Herkese keyifli okumalar!

[Sv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yine çok iyi bir ciltti. Sevdiğim manga türünü buldum sonunda sanırım. Bana ciddi mangalar lazımmış meğer, laubali işlerde göz deviriyorum.

[Václav · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is remarkable comics (or manga, to be precise). There is a reason why it's a close or broader inspiration to many other (comics) works. It's a shining example if you want to a good, or even great story, no matter how small or big, you need to have perfect characters for it. Characters are your foundation. If you have shitty characters, just like the building, the story eventually crumbles. The faster the ambitious you are with it. An in boundaries of the comics medium, you have all the tools you need to create great characters. Because with great characters, the readers care. Care if they'll win, get punished, get straight, save their ass or burn in hell. If I write about how I do not chare about characters and their destinies in some comics? The reason is not that I'm unempathetic, cold-hearted or something. The reason is their just crappy ones. Those foundations are as good as sticky mud. Only dragging everything build on them to doom.
But that's not the case of Lone Wolf and the Cub. No. There is so much going on, I love that "zen" calmness and aesthetic following frenetic and chaotic action. The "Lone Wolf", Ogami Ittō, is a great character. Dedicated, deadly, cunning and stone cold. He takes a great risk but he does not rush to them. He has refined his skills and he's very powerful. But still, he's not superhuman. He's just embodiment of Bushidó. refined, polished but still with human imperfection. And Daigorō is a perfect companion for him. As stories come and go, they hone their relationship as their solemn path is death and they're following it both together and as one. I love "Cub's" development. From pure soul taciturn child who just absorbs the darkness of their path to something more profound.
I'm through 600 pages of this and it's fantastic. I love "samurai stuff" but I feared the manga originally from 1970. But now I'm absolutely hooked up.

[Todd Voter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cub joins in the action to great effect

[J.G. Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

The role of comic books in America is in transition, and so comics hold a tenuous and unusual position in the American psyche. To some degree, they are still considered dirty and cheap, still artistically bankrupt, and there are good reasons for this. For a long time, the industry had its hands tied by the 'Comics Code', a punitive ratings system. One can realize the effects the code had by imagining what movies would be like if the government stated that all films released must attain a 'G' rating.

Imagine a G-rated Star Wars, a G-rated Godfather, a G-rated Blazing Saddles, and you may begin to understand the impossibility of trying to write quality comics under the code, which held sway over comics for thirty years. To give you an example of just how punitive the code was, at one point author Marv Wolfman was not allowed to be credited with his real last name because under the code, it was too scary.

It wasn't until the early eighties that publishers began to break away from the code, first under the daring pen of Steve Gerber, who lost his career in comics over it, and then under Alan Moore, who was made a household name for helping break the grip of the code. But comics are still fighting a bad reputation, as evidenced by the fact that the term 'graphic novel' has been coined solely so people who consider themselves sophisticated don't have to condescend to read 'comics'.

But this struggle for recognition as an art form has played out very differently around the world. In Europe, the revolution took place in the mid sixties, so that today, an individual can get a government grant to work in the field of comics, so that, instead of trying to please the narrow requirements of a multimedia conglomerate bent on cannibalizing old stories (like Marvel and DC), they can freely bring to life their meticulous, experimental visions, pointing towards a future for comics, instead of a well-thumbed past.

And it's this level of experimental artistry that I have come to expect from comics, since my experience with them has been primarily from foreign authors. Even the early books I read from the big publishers were mostly the result of their hiring British and Irish authors. After this experience, I explored the Franco-Belgian and Italian traditions, much to my edification.

But oddly enough, I had never read any Japanese manga. Here I was, searching the back shelves fruitlessly for English translations of rare European comics when every bookstore has a thickly-stocked manga section. It's partially a sense of stubborn iconoclasm I can't seem to shake, but there are other reasons I have remained wary.

Like anyone my age, I'm familiar with 'anime'--animated cartoons from Japan. In fact, I got into them fairly early, around '94, before we had the word 'anime' to describe them. So it's odd that I never became a committed japanophile like so many of my peers.

Most of the anime I've seen is just repetitive escapism, but there have been a few works, here and there, that impressed me. But then, that's true for any medium: most books are sub par, as are most movies and comics, and we hold out for the rare good one.

But there are some larger complications to get around. Firstly, America has an Animation Age Ghetto to match its Comics Age Ghetto, meaning that when companies bring in animation from Japan (or Europe), they are looking for something to sell to kids, and aren't very picky about the quality of the writing or acting.

But, even when this isn't the case, and we've got entities like Cartoon Network who are deliberately trying to bring in adult animation fare, we aren't getting the most conceptual and experimental stuff from Japan, because translating such a work is no enviable task. The wordplay, allusions, cultural content, and literary traditions are just not in the reference pool for Americans. Hence, the average American can only appreciate a story which is simple enough to translate clearly.

Even with European comics it's less challenging, because we are culturally and linguistically closer to France than we are to Japan. Unless you're willing to go in there and learn the language, culture, and history, the most complex and involved works will remain remote. Eventually, when you get a large academic community committed to the works of the culture, you can start producing expert, informed translations, but it's only recently that we've begun to look seriously at our own comics, much less those of Japan.

But there are still those stories that translate well, even across such boundaries, such as the film work of Akira Kurosawa, which I loved as a child, long before my occasional studies of Japan. But then, Kurosawa is, in many ways, reflecting our own culture back at us: he takes American film and story techniques--most notably Westerns and Shakespeare--and adapts them to his culture.

Even though the content and language are different, the film techniques and literary tropes are recognizable. But then, that should also be true for comics and animation, both of which were explored and refined in America three-quarters of a century ago. In both Disney's Fantasia and McCay's Little Nemo, we have visions of great experimental artistry in both animation and comics.

Unfortunately, the great conservative backlash of the nationalistic fifties put an end to that. The intense controls put onto films and books hurt these fledgling forms, who had few defenders in the arts and academia to keep fighting for authorial rights.

So, our comics and animation were sent out, all over the world, inspiring both Europe and Asia, where Carl Barks is still a household name. Without the same cultural controls and juvenile expectations, they thrived. And they have provided great inspiration for American authors and artist throughout the years, from the Spaghetti Westerns to Valerian and the abortive European 'Dune', which birthed Alien, Blade Runner, and Star Wars, the cultural exchange of ideas continued, though other media.

So it is far past time for me to crack open some of the great Asian works, daunting as their unfettered length might be (no thirty page issue limits, here), and see for myself how the visions of Osamu Tezuka--the innovative father of both manga and anime--have played out. After all, Tezuka based his stories off the works of Disney and Carl Barks, so in many ways, manga and anime are prodigal children, finally returning.

We should thank the Japanese and the Europeans for keeping the artistic vision alive and thriving for those long decades when we, blinded by fear and nationalism, had forgotten them. And now, they deliver them back to us, fully-formed, and I can only hope that some American artists will be able to help us get back on track, moving forward to a bright, innovative future for comics and animation.

Though perhaps I should have started with Tezuka, the appeal of the traveling ronin story was a great draw for me. As epitomized in the Kurosawa/Mifune films (Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and Seven Samurai), and also in the Zatoichi films, such stories, while straightforward in concept, allow for many variations of theme and many explorations of characters and cultural elements.

Lone Wolf & Cub takes the form of a series of vignettes: small, self-contained stories. Each one has its own theme and tone, each shows the complete arc of an idea; but, like a poetic cycle, these stories are greater as a whole than they are alone. We return again and again to concepts, and each time, a new layer is added, a new side of the story is explored.

Gradually, these small stories build up into a much larger arc. They are not related by a continuous plot, but by continuous thematic explorations. I often find such collections of short stories are much more effective in creating intriguing settings and characters than a protracted plot full of exposition. The author is free to move through time and place, exploring character and world elements as they come up, and is not forced to create tenuous, convenient connections to string the plot together. The characters and themes anchor the story more deeply than a simple sequence of events.

The art takes its cue from traditional sumi-e ink and wash painting, with the swift, decisive strokes which were so equated with sword strokes that it was said you could read a man’s fencing style in his art and calligraphy. The marriage of this style with Western sequential art is seamless, and it’s hardly surprising that the stylized forms displayed here have proven so inspirational in the visual arts.

Some of the story comes off as cliché, but it’s always difficult to say with an original work how much of that is because other artists have copied the style in the meantime. We have the amusingly esoteric discussions of styles, attacks, and schools which grew up as Japanese society formalized and striated, turning death-dealing into an academic exercise for the literate. But that’s part of the charm for adherents of samurai and wuxia.

We also have the inevitable ‘passing stroke’ which dramatically ends every battle, which might seem repetitive to a Western eye, until we recognize that every Western fight ends with a haymaker. The scenarios which play out prior to this final blow are widely varied, action-packed, and fully realized in the onrush of dark, ever-moving lines.

Many of the plots are likewise variations on a theme, presenting us briefly with a complicated bit of feudal shogunate politics which necessitate our protagonist’s intervention. Though he is an impossibly strong, invincible warrior, sometimes to the detriment of tension, his methods of solving these problems are often surprisingly insightful and subtle, showing a deep and shrewd intelligence behind his mighty sword arm.

The stories are unapologetically violent, which includes graphic sexual violence. However, the sexual violence is not pornographic: it does not linger upon carefully detailed forms, but is used to tell a realistic, if sometimes unsettling story. Nor does the book get drawn down into taking itself too seriously, as so many of its imitators have. Violence is only one part of the human story, portrayed in equal footing with love, honor, sorrow, hope, and humor. It is the nature of the story that physical conflict often takes the forefront, but never to the exclusion of other human desires.

My Suggested Reading In Comics

[Esma T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriyi çok sevdim ve şimdiden bu seri bitince ne yapacağım kaygısı duymaya başladım, bu yüzden biraz daha yavaş ilerlemeye karar verdim. Tek oturuşta bitirmemek zor olsa da uğraşmaya kararlıyım.
Japon kültürüne özel bir ilgim yoktu ama sanırım bir kaç sayı sonra kendimi bu konularda araştırma yaparken bulacağım. :) Manga serisi olarak çok güzel, Japon kültürüne de ilginiz varsa kaçırmayın derim.

[Burhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kesinlikle ama kesinlikle ölmeden önce okunması gereken mangalardan biri.

[Jesus Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lobo Solitario 2

Aquí digamos que presentan por que lo del mote “Lobo solitario”, y una como pista al background de donde proviene el asesino.
Tiene varios encargos, riesgo para el chiquillo.
Hay uno donde mata a su objetivo, pero frente a todo un pueblo como testigo, y luego mata a medio pueblo, así como de, mmmmh, en fin.
Hay otro caso donde el niño de 3 años es el protagonista, este si de plano, te rompe la historia, en serio, un chiquillo soportando golpes de adultos, y luego venciéndolos en pelea de espada.
3star

[Marquise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst I still think the series is excellent, well drawn and well told, I notice that I'm losing my taste for this type of heroic wandering samurai story, and the very episodic nature of the narration isn't helping me stay in the lane, so I don't think I'll be continuing this to complete reading all volumes. A matter of taste, not of quality, and I'd still recommend this to those looking for this specific type of adventure manga set in old Japan.

[Rab Araujo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vaya que mejoró...oficialmente estoy enganchado. El arte es sublime y la historia genial.

[Recep · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.”

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't come to this thinking you'll get more of what we saw in Volume 1. Because there's a main difference.

The first volume was based on learning who Lone Wolf was from his story. All of the shorts in that book were centered around his point of view.

The second volume is based on learning about Lone Wolf's myth from everyone else. All five of these stories are told from the point of view of everyone around him. What an interesting difference POV makes.

Well worth the read.

[José Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seguimos descubriendo más del pasado de los protagonistas, mismo trazo, mismas aventuras, más historia, es un pasapáginas, seguiré leyendo los megavolúmenes poco a poco.

Recomendadísimo para una tarde de sábado lluviosa.

[TJ Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

So different from anything I read and wholly fascinating.

[Stephen Richter · Rating 4 out of 5]

another fine collection of adventures with Lone Wolf and Cub. Also a nice story where the Cub is the main focus. Fabulous black and white drawings adds to the tales.

[Kasper Kade · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is awesome! I'm so glad I discovered it. The basic premise is: A samurai turned assassin travels with his young son across feudal Japan. They encounter all manner of people, some kind-hearted with love for their families, others conflicted and caught in morally-gray areas, and some who are downright evil. The basic structure of these stories are actually colored by a complexity and poignancy that really resonated with me. There is adventure, a sense of place, meditations on honor, good and evil, and it is also a story about a father raising his young son in the way of the samurai. For me one of the great joys of art is having one great piece lead to another. My journey to this manga started when a friend of mine played "Liquid Swords" by GZA, which has a dialogue from a movie in the song intro. "When I was little, my father was famous. He was the greatest samurai in the empire ..." I asked my friend where the clip came from, and he said the movie was called, "Shogun Assassin." The title alone was enough for me to want to watch it. And boy, did it deliver some grindhouse samurai goodness. I learned that that film was an amalgamation of the first two films in the "Lone Wolf and Cub" movie series, which was, in turn, based on this manga. This series runs for 28 volumes, and I plan to read them all. Recommended for anbody who likes manga, samurai stories, and has an interest in Japanese history.

[Ricardo Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

O volume 2 é superior ao primeiro. A arte mostra imagens ainda mais belas do Japão feudal. Mas é o roteiro que faz toda a diferença. Aqui temos episódios das aventuras do ex-samurai e assassino de aluguel Itto Ogami, sempre acompanhado do seu filho, o pequeno Daigoro. O menino é um recurso narrativo soberbo. Ao mesmo tempo, dá força ao pai e é seu ponto vulnerável. Há mais espaço para o desenvolvimento do personagem de Daigoro. Apesar de certas soluções de roteiro parecerem inverossímeis, num contexto de ficção histórica, a carga dramática deixa o leitor sem fôlego. Também vemos um Itto Ogami mais reflexivo e hesitante, o que torna o personagem mais complexo. Outro destaque é que cada episódio, cada missão de Ogami e Daigoro, é contada de uma maneira diferente. É uma delas, os protagonistas só aparecem no final. Esta é a maneira mais excitante de aprender sobre a história do Japão, o Período Edo, auge do xogunato, no século XVII, uma espécie de Velho Oeste dos japoneses, onde era comum decidir questões de vida ou morte pela lâmina de uma espada.

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη · Rating 4 out of 5]

Παρά το επαναλαμβανόμενο μοτίβο, απολαμβάνω τις ιστορίες, έστω και μόνο για την πιο διεισδυτική ματιά στην ιαπωνική ψυχοσύνθεση. Η μόνη ιστορία που δεν με έπεισε/δεν την κατάλαβα/δεν την απόλαυσα, ήταν εκείνη με τον μποντισάτβα.

[Liam Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

kazuo koike: and with 57 measly payments of $6.99, you too can become a samurai!!!

me: ok but i'd get arrested

kazuo koike: did i tell you that you can also learn how to kill buddha

me: can my katana have cool lanyards and ribbons on it tho

[R.J. Huneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly one of the greatest works of fiction and of historical ronin tales ever written. I can’t wait for the remaining 34 books or so in the series. But this one struck at the heart as it sliced off many a body part.

[Darren-lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!

[Lightwhisper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not a big fan of the stories, I have to admit the drawings are one of the best I’ve seen and still the stories are very well written.

[Nick Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars