Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road

Great slice of Manga.

It's quite dark in tone but the violence, like the lone wolf himself, is quite restrained which helps build the tension towards the swordplay. The first volume opens with a series of self contained episodes but with a hint of a story arc at the end. A superb start to the Lone Wolf and Cub. Although the series is based on Ogami Itto being an assassin there is enough variety on this to keep it fresh, with Japanish cultural references such as Sun Tzu to aid his work. We'll need to see how Kazuo Koike can keep this format from going stale or how he develops it but this is one assassin's road I fancy travelling down.

Great writing and some fine black and white artwork. ( )

The first volume of the famous "Lone Wolf and Cub" series. Due to it's popularity, the series would soon spread to other forms of media, such as live action TV shows and movies, to become equal to Zatoichi in it's popularity of the lone samurai assassin theme. It was with this expectation that I started reading this volume. The book is broken into multiple chapters, each being an individual short story describing the adventures of father and son. However, no matter how much I tried, I could not find myself being engaged to the stories.

A primary issue was due to confusing translation. The dialogue is liberally sprinkled with so much Japanese words with little to no translation, that, it might as well have been written in Japanese in the first place. When trying to get into the flow of the story, it doesn't help to have in the middle of a dialogue to check the meager glossary in the back, just to understand what's being said.

Another issue has to do with the lack of a general background of the story. Granted, most lone gunmen stories really don't need characters with background histories, when the deed of act is all that matters. But when you just have chapter after chapter of the Lone Wolf comes, kills, leaves, the lack of any overall plot tends to making for some dreary reading.

Finally the art is much to be desired. Maybe it's just my taste, but the art seems to have much difficulty in differentiating characters, to the point that I would have to go back and sometimes start again when I realize the character was not who I thought it was.

Still, there is much potential in this series. Especially with the final chapter where they (finally) give a backstory to why Lone Wolf and Cub came into being. ( )

The first volume didn't seem to feature much character development, just one chapter after another of slaughter. This is all fine and good since that's the kind of comic it is, but at some point, if I'm going to continue reading the series, I'm going to have to see some kind of complexity in the assassin. As it is, he's this perfect killer who is never wrong and never defeated. That's dull and robotic over the long-term. ( )

Most excellent. Lone Wolf is the definition of "bad-ass". I've heard great things about this series, but for once my expectations were exceeded.

I have a bunch of those comics. They are copy in the japanese style, only difference is the translation of the dialogues to english and the way you read the book (from left to right).
The story is somewhat based in real context and some cultural points are visible, what's very interesting and pleasing for a fan of the japanese culture.
As for the plot, it doesn't vary much. The basic story (even if a compeling one) of father and son in a quest for vegeance and survival.
I think what is more disapointing is the fact that the fighthings don't vary much, he kills them all (in the style of a japanese samurai movie). In fact the story telling is very cinematic what in a way makes some of the interest of the comic.
With a more deep plot I belive it could be better, but in general and since you can't find much of this kind in translation I think it's a good try.
To know the all story you need to have all the books anyway. ( )