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クライング・フリーマン [Crying Freeman] #5
Crying Freeman, Vol. 5
Once a humble ceramics artist, the infamous assassin known as Crying Freeman has risen in power to become the head of the 108 Dragons, the most powerful criminal organization on earth. But power has its price, and there is no end to the number of rival groups gunning for 108 Dragons turf - and for Freeman's head. Faced with an army of kidnappers and a host of assassins, each more deadly than the last, how long can Freeman's luck hold out? Will the Dragons be torn apart by warring rivals or poisoned by betrayal from within? Will Freeman's sensitive, compassionate heart be the Dragons' redemption or its downfall? Can Freeman and his loved ones survive the painful realities that come with living in a world of vicious gangland warfare? All questions will be answered in this, the final volume of Crying Freeman!
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Ryōichi Ikegami
284 books30 followersRyōichi Ikegami (池上遼一) is a manga artist. He was assistant to manga artist Shigeru Mizuki in 1966. In 2001, he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga as the artist of Heat. He became a professor at Osaka University of Arts in 2005.
Ikegami has worked on several popular series, such as Mai, the Psychic Girl with writer Kazuya Kudo, Crying Freeman, with writer Kazuo Koike, as well as Sanctuary and Heat with writer Sho Fumimura. He also wrote and drew Spider-Man: The Manga, a manga version of Spider-Man and collaborated with Garon Tsuchiya for the manga BOX (BOX 暗い箱). His most recent work is Lord currently serialized in Big Comic Superior.
Ikegami has worked on several popular series, such as Mai, the Psychic Girl with writer Kazuya Kudo, Crying Freeman, with writer Kazuo Koike, as well as Sanctuary and Heat with writer Sho Fumimura. He also wrote and drew Spider-Man: The Manga, a manga version of Spider-Man and collaborated with Garon Tsuchiya for the manga BOX (BOX 暗い箱). His most recent work is Lord currently serialized in Big Comic Superior.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 1, 2016
This isn't what I have expected.
Crying Freeman, with all the ridiculous, over-the-top sex and action ended as bland as possible, with Freeman taking on uninspired enemies and almost mundane missions for his level.
The main cast of the 108 Dragons has been severely underutilized and put in the shadow. Who emerges in the final volume is a series of boring enemies and shallow mafia guys and skillful henchmen with shallow personalities.
I felt that this whole volume is either a compendium of filler arcs so that the next big one can start in the next volume (which clearly didn't happen) or Kazuo Koike didn't bother at all. There are many things that I didn't see in volume five that I have constantly seen in the other four volumes.
For one, gone are the ridiculousness of each scene and the story. The story is not anymore confident and bold. Everything becomes to generic and flat. Interesting characters like Bugnug and Bai Ya Shan almost didn't do anything at all, even Freeman's wife for that matter.
Well at least Ryoicih Ikegami's art didn't go bad as the story. It is the same beautiful and exact rendering that you can see with the other volumes.
I have conssistently given five stars to all Crying Freeman volumes, except for this, the very last one. It still should be read of course, heck, you have already read 80% of the story so why skip this one. But the final arcs and the conclusion is a big letdown for me.
Crying Freeman, with all the ridiculous, over-the-top sex and action ended as bland as possible, with Freeman taking on uninspired enemies and almost mundane missions for his level.
The main cast of the 108 Dragons has been severely underutilized and put in the shadow. Who emerges in the final volume is a series of boring enemies and shallow mafia guys and skillful henchmen with shallow personalities.
I felt that this whole volume is either a compendium of filler arcs so that the next big one can start in the next volume (which clearly didn't happen) or Kazuo Koike didn't bother at all. There are many things that I didn't see in volume five that I have constantly seen in the other four volumes.
For one, gone are the ridiculousness of each scene and the story. The story is not anymore confident and bold. Everything becomes to generic and flat. Interesting characters like Bugnug and Bai Ya Shan almost didn't do anything at all, even Freeman's wife for that matter.
Well at least Ryoicih Ikegami's art didn't go bad as the story. It is the same beautiful and exact rendering that you can see with the other volumes.
I have conssistently given five stars to all Crying Freeman volumes, except for this, the very last one. It still should be read of course, heck, you have already read 80% of the story so why skip this one. But the final arcs and the conclusion is a big letdown for me.
August 15, 2016
Bylo to super jako vždy. Jenom mi tenhle díl přišel poměrně zmatený. Ani jsem už nevěděla, kdo je kdo. Proč chce Freemana zabít Jednoho nepřítele zabil, aby začala nová pasáž, kde někdo jiný plánuje, že ho zabije. Už tam nebylo žádné pořádné vysvětlení, proč ho chtějí zabít.
February 23, 2026
And so it ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
March 16, 2025
3.1/5
Crying Freeman peters out with an increasingly pedestrian plotline that strings together a series of arcs that don't do a whole lot. The sex and nudity is basically pornographic at this point; the violence is gratuitous as all hell, and Freeman and his wife can do no wrong. I find it amusing that Freeman started as just an innocent potter thrust into the world of assassins against his will, yet has no problem becoming the leader of the 108 Dragons. He doesn't seem to want his freedom. He doesn't even seem all that bothered by the fact that his entire life was stolen from him, essentially. Something more interesting could have been done there, but Koike had other, dumber ideas in store for this series. I enjoyed those dumb and over-the-top ridiculous ideas for most of the series, but when it stopped being fun and started losing steam, that's when my interest began to wane.
In spite of the series' flaws and its rather anticlimactic and super-abrupt ending, I did enjoy this series for what it was. I'll probably reread the earlier volumes from time to time, but the later, more repetitive arcs really did wear me down.
Ryuichi Ikegami's artwork is consistently spectacular all the way through, though, and I commend him for rendering even the most ridiculous scenes Koike could think up (the rather hilariously fucked-up sequence where the naked, masturbating woman orgasms just as grenades blast her head off spring to mind). Were it in service of a better story, I'd probably rate this higher. His art is the only thing keeping this particular volume from a 2-star rating.
Crying Freeman peters out with an increasingly pedestrian plotline that strings together a series of arcs that don't do a whole lot. The sex and nudity is basically pornographic at this point; the violence is gratuitous as all hell, and Freeman and his wife can do no wrong. I find it amusing that Freeman started as just an innocent potter thrust into the world of assassins against his will, yet has no problem becoming the leader of the 108 Dragons. He doesn't seem to want his freedom. He doesn't even seem all that bothered by the fact that his entire life was stolen from him, essentially. Something more interesting could have been done there, but Koike had other, dumber ideas in store for this series. I enjoyed those dumb and over-the-top ridiculous ideas for most of the series, but when it stopped being fun and started losing steam, that's when my interest began to wane.
In spite of the series' flaws and its rather anticlimactic and super-abrupt ending, I did enjoy this series for what it was. I'll probably reread the earlier volumes from time to time, but the later, more repetitive arcs really did wear me down.
Ryuichi Ikegami's artwork is consistently spectacular all the way through, though, and I commend him for rendering even the most ridiculous scenes Koike could think up (the rather hilariously fucked-up sequence where the naked, masturbating woman orgasms just as grenades blast her head off spring to mind). Were it in service of a better story, I'd probably rate this higher. His art is the only thing keeping this particular volume from a 2-star rating.
October 14, 2008
5th volume is over and it was a hell of ride of almost 2000 pages. Although the last 2 volumes were not as good as the first three, this is still manga that does not show almost any marks of aging, both story and artwork are as amazing as 20 years before. And such a thing happens only to truly timeless works. Although I see some wasted potential, particularly with the wife of Freeman (my favourite person from this manga), I think this series ended in the right time. That's also one of the reasons for its timelessness.
February 2, 2026
Whole series review 4/5 (at least closer to 4 than 3)
Leave it to Kazuo Koike to write an exaggerated B sleazy action movie plot that feels like actual effort is put into it. If you are familiar with his work (at least what has made it over in English) then you can expect the similar nigh invincible protagonist who is the killingest machine; every man wants to kill him and every woman wants to bang him. Of course there is also some loose social satire thrown in when convenient. The plot doesn't really hold much together, but given the material, it doesn't really have a strong need to. It's also worth noting that the books do become just straight up pornographic at times (there is some censorship, but it really doesn't leave anything to the imagination). And I'm not even talking about how every main character just takes off all their clothes to fight for no particular reason.
Unfortunately, I don't think the series quite meets its potential. The sensitivity of the crying aspect of Crying Freeman really never goes much beneath the surface, and many characters either just disappear from the background or all die suddenly with no particular impact to move whichever plot forward. Any moments of “emotional impact” feel like they are merely there to try to show some emotional impact rather than having any on the reader. Also, it really ends flatly - the last arcs especially feel unimpactful and then it’s just over. For something as wild as this, it deserved a lot more for an ending.
Ryoichi Ikegami definitely worked well with this type of material, stylishly exaggerating the violence and pornographic elements in ways that never felt stale and clearly understood the tongue-in-cheek nature of this sort of work.
Maybe not a must read, but if you want a comic of a cool but very sleazy action movie, look no further.
Leave it to Kazuo Koike to write an exaggerated B sleazy action movie plot that feels like actual effort is put into it. If you are familiar with his work (at least what has made it over in English) then you can expect the similar nigh invincible protagonist who is the killingest machine; every man wants to kill him and every woman wants to bang him. Of course there is also some loose social satire thrown in when convenient. The plot doesn't really hold much together, but given the material, it doesn't really have a strong need to. It's also worth noting that the books do become just straight up pornographic at times (there is some censorship, but it really doesn't leave anything to the imagination). And I'm not even talking about how every main character just takes off all their clothes to fight for no particular reason.
Unfortunately, I don't think the series quite meets its potential. The sensitivity of the crying aspect of Crying Freeman really never goes much beneath the surface, and many characters either just disappear from the background or all die suddenly with no particular impact to move whichever plot forward. Any moments of “emotional impact” feel like they are merely there to try to show some emotional impact rather than having any on the reader. Also, it really ends flatly - the last arcs especially feel unimpactful and then it’s just over. For something as wild as this, it deserved a lot more for an ending.
Ryoichi Ikegami definitely worked well with this type of material, stylishly exaggerating the violence and pornographic elements in ways that never felt stale and clearly understood the tongue-in-cheek nature of this sort of work.
Maybe not a must read, but if you want a comic of a cool but very sleazy action movie, look no further.
May 17, 2019
Niektoré bojové scény sa mi páčili v predchádzajúcich dieloch, ale teraz som si všimla skôr obrazy miest (najmä za dažďa je to super). A čo sa týka príbehu, je to zase Plačúci Drak proti všetkých zabijakom sveta, tentoraz sa vynájde z najrôznejších situácií, ktoré vyzerjú na prvý pohľad beznádejne. A tuším jediná vtipná scéna bola tá, kde chlapíkovi neprišla múza a jeho poézia sa rozplynula do stratena... (alebo to bolo v 4. časti? trochu mi to splýva, keď to čítam naraz :)). Inak, tu sa uzavrela iná línia (vdova so synom po zabijakovi, čo ho Freeman premohol v trojke, tuším), takže ok, to sa mi páči, keď to má aj zmysel. Nakoniec to celé skončilo romanticky (svadobnou cestou). Asi je to happyend, že? Či sú aj pokračovania?
February 14, 2024
Si conclude la storia dell’assassino che piange con una serie di capitoli non legati tra loro che mostrano ora una certa ripetizione, che si concretizza nel non-finale delle ultime pagine. Poco da dire, la magia del primo libro non è stata più ripetuta , e solo il lato estetico ha portato avanti una narrazione sempre più grottesca ed ossessionata dal sesso fino alla sua conclusione. Faccio un po’ fatica a credere che questo sia lo stesso autore dell’austero Lone Wolf And Cub, il vero capolavoro del mangaka.
May 16, 2021
A Good Satisfying Close...
Story-wise that is. In every episode, gangsters try doing stupid double-crosses, knowing full well what will happen when they fail to kill Freeman. Even the KO organization and others were toppled in their attempts to absorb the 108 Dragons. The graphics are fantastic. Sure, most of the episodes are ridiculous, but still fun to read. Still recommended.
Story-wise that is. In every episode, gangsters try doing stupid double-crosses, knowing full well what will happen when they fail to kill Freeman. Even the KO organization and others were toppled in their attempts to absorb the 108 Dragons. The graphics are fantastic. Sure, most of the episodes are ridiculous, but still fun to read. Still recommended.
August 30, 2018
Série kratších povídek, kde se snaží Freeman odolávat útokům na svou osobu.
April 30, 2022
Suma sumárum za sérii – spousta prvků, ze kterých jsem byla nadšená, které následně nebyly dotaženy. Takový byl i samotný závěr. Mělo to končit o kapitolu dřív, nebo tomu pět kapitol chybělo.
June 19, 2022
A comparatively low key end to the saga. Some nice call backs at the end, though.
January 12, 2025
Die Story kann leider über die gesamte Dauer (in allen Bänden) nicht mit den Zeichnungen mithalten. Auch wenn für reichlich Action gesorgt ist, passiert doch in jedem Band das gleiche.
August 31, 2022
This is a review for the entire series. (I mean, more opinion than review but whatever you get what I mean.)
Crying Freeman is violent, erotic, pulpy and good fun.
Don't expect much from the plot, but expect a plot, art-style and characters that are heavily influenced by 70's-80's exploitation/sexploitation/blaxploitation films.
You know the kind, badass dude beats everyone up and then has shitloads of sex. Throw in some eastern philosophy and wah lah, you have Crying Freeman.
If you don't like sexual scenes, violence and nudity (sometimes all at the same time), avoid the shit out of this one, it borders on excessive, but I found it quite funny, like why the hell do they strip every 2 seconds *Finally meets mortal enemy.... rips off clothes, yells out a buddhist meditation, starts fighting* It is actually brilliant.
Go in to this expecting something adult and fun and you will enjoy yourself, but if you go in to this expecting any real deep seeded meaning or literary value you will have a bad time.
Crying Freeman is violent, erotic, pulpy and good fun.
Don't expect much from the plot, but expect a plot, art-style and characters that are heavily influenced by 70's-80's exploitation/sexploitation/blaxploitation films.
You know the kind, badass dude beats everyone up and then has shitloads of sex. Throw in some eastern philosophy and wah lah, you have Crying Freeman.
If you don't like sexual scenes, violence and nudity (sometimes all at the same time), avoid the shit out of this one, it borders on excessive, but I found it quite funny, like why the hell do they strip every 2 seconds *Finally meets mortal enemy.... rips off clothes, yells out a buddhist meditation, starts fighting* It is actually brilliant.
Go in to this expecting something adult and fun and you will enjoy yourself, but if you go in to this expecting any real deep seeded meaning or literary value you will have a bad time.
July 10, 2016
For a series that started off incredibly well and then gradually started to fall apart, I can't say I'm disappointed with the ending, as it ended far better than I could have hoped. It didn't, however, end as magnificently as it began.
Koike is a master of emotions, but in this saga he let too much nonsense get in the way. (Big Sister, for example.) When the this volume reaches its conclusion, it feels incredibly anti-climatic, but leaves the door open for more. I'm not sure I would return, though.
Still, this is worth reading.
Koike is a master of emotions, but in this saga he let too much nonsense get in the way. (Big Sister, for example.) When the this volume reaches its conclusion, it feels incredibly anti-climatic, but leaves the door open for more. I'm not sure I would return, though.
Still, this is worth reading.
December 31, 2009
And so I got to the end of the series. Though I think this last volume was not as strong in terms of story as the others, I still liked it enough to give it the five stars. Overall, this is an excellent series. In this volume, Freeman confronts new rivals, and he reaffirms his love of his wife. And just when you think Freeman may be down, he surprises his rivals by staying a step ahead. But I won't spoil things. Go on and read it.
March 16, 2026
A rather disapointing end to a fun series. Vol 5 was still beautifully illustrated, but the storyline was rather dull compared to the first four books. This is a reread. I read them first when they were inititally translated by Viz in the late 80's early 90's. I had totally forgotten the storyline from this volume, and I can see why. Worth a look for the art and for completionist that want/need to read the full story.
January 14, 2018
More gangland enemies come out of the woodwork. Returning to Japan was not a great idea, but Freeman prevails....in his tightie whities of course.
A fantastic series. One I can pick up and happily re-read over and over. Although maybe not on public transport. Lots of bewbs and all.
A fantastic series. One I can pick up and happily re-read over and over. Although maybe not on public transport. Lots of bewbs and all.
February 26, 2008
One star short, my favorite side-kick has bit the dust. :(
August 19, 2012
Jak je možné TAKHLE podělat ten úžasný začátek?
February 22, 2013
Excellent art, but the writing is far from good (complete series).
April 23, 2013
Loved this series...great manga.
December 10, 2024
Effective and acceleratingly entertaining as this kind of mangas tend to be, but, for me, far low in all aspects from the superb Jidaimono mangas from Koike
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews