Samurai Executioner, Volume 1

November 1, 2004
The 28-volume Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the least conventional-looking " manga "series to Westerners. Instead of the big-eyed people, sketchy backdrops, and sticky-cute aura of youth " manga," it features realistically rendered Japanese, settings that Americans will recognize from historical samurai movies, and the atmosphere of such films. This book inaugurates an English-translation series of the Lone Wolf and Cub spin-off Samurai Executioner, which is a stunner in every way. Like youth " manga," it has plenty of violence--but graphic, realistic violence. Unlike youth " manga, "it has plenty of sex--brutal and perfunctory, though hardly pornographic (no visible genitals). Dialogue is sparse; period terms are merely transliterated (a brief glossary is appended). Best of all, imagery, angles of vision, composition, and visual-narrative procedure bespeak Kojima's deep knowledge of classic Japanese cinema (the late artist's last works were graphic novelizations of Kurosawa films). The five stories here are crime shockers with medieval-Japanese-style police-procedural elements; the first also introduces the executioner, thereafter a secondary character, though always around at each tale's climax.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)