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

(Lone Wolf and Cub #1)

Kazuo Koike,

Goseki Kojima (Illustrator)

4.23 · Rating details · 6,641 ratings · 347 reviews

Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto is framed as a traitor by the agents from a rival clan. With his wife murdered and with an infant son to protect, Ogami chooses the path of the ronin, the masterless samurai. The Lone Wolf and Cub wander feudal Japan, Ogami's sword for hire, but all roads will lead them to a single destination: vengeance. ...more

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Paperback, 298 pages

Published September 26th 2000 by Dark Horse Manga (first published August 2000)

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Start your review of Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road (Lone Wolf and Cub, #1)

Sep 28, 2011 J.G. Keely rated it really liked it

Shelves: japan, adventure, short-story, manga, reviewed, historical-fiction, comics

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' rat ...more

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Mar 12, 2017 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, comics

"Seminal" is not a word to throw around lightly, but there seems to be a consensus surrounding the influence of this manga series both at home in Japan and across the Pacific, where the likes of Frank Miller and Max Allan Collins cite it as a major influence on their artistic development. Having read the first album from Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, I can atest now to the merit of their glowing praises. The story surpassed my expectations both in the epic scale of the narrative, in the gritty realism (also known as extremely violent and explicit adult material) of the battle scenes, in the wealth of historical detail about the Edo period Japan (the same covered by James Clavell in Shogun and in the majority of samurai movies), and in the spectacular artwork inspired by classical woodwork prints in the ukiyo-e style made famous by the likes of Hokusai. I am not surprised to learn that the adventures of ronin assassin Ogami Itto and of his son Daigoro have translated well to film, since the black and white panels drawn by Goseki Kojima excell in dynamism and unusual angles of view.

capture 02

The Assassin's Road is the opening gambit in a game of go that seems to cover Japan from coast to coast, witnessing the travels of Ogami Itto, pushing the wooden cart carrying his three-year-old son Daigoro on the Tokaido road and beyond, advertising on a vertical flag "Sword for Hire, Son for Hire" . The two are available for assassination contracts and they are so succesful that they become known on the road as "Lone Wolf and Cub" . The 300 hundred pages of the first album include several episodes highlighting the unmatched skill of Ogami Itto with his heavy 'dotanuki' war-sword and various other killing implements. The usual outcome is a pile of corpses left behind, as the duo walks off into the sunset. Daigoro is often playing an active part in the various ploys to get his father in the right position for a strike at his enemies or designated targets.

sunset

It's hard to pick a favorite among the episodes included here. They might look similar to each other at first glance : Lone Wolf goes somewhere and kills some guys!, but each of them adds a little more detail to the code of honour that underlines every action taken by Ogami Itto, about his careful interrogation about the reasons he is asked to perform murder and, slowly, about the background story that have driven the former personal assassin of the shogun on the road to hell (view spoiler) . I believe my favorite for now is called "Wings to the Bird, Fangs to the Beast", about how the Lone Wolf comes to rescue some poor villagers in a hot springs resort from a wild bunch of masterless samurai turned bandits. It is the longest story-arc in the first volume and has a larger cast than usual. I could easily see it turned into a movie of the sort that made Kurosawa famous.

capture 04

One more thing that I found remarkable in this first album is the way the writer captures the social structure and the power plays in medieval Japan: at the top of the pyramid is the Shogun with his close allies and advisers, the place Ogami Itto belonged to before his fall from grace. Next are the local landlords known as daimyo, who enforce the law in their lands with the help of their faithful acolytes from the warrior class - the samurai. Warriors without allegiance are known as ronin and are either looking for employment or turn to banditry. Operating in the shadows are ninjas - the spy class and assassins currently controlled by the enemies of Ogami Itto, the Yagyu clan. Half legal, half secret are the Yakuza clans, controlling gambling, protection taxes and geisha houses. The short end of the stick goes to the peasants, who are mostly victims of corrupt officials and greedy lords. Itto and his son Daigoro are outsiders, following their own path, but mostly they act in defense of the underdog, making the usual plot of the series a sort of medieval Japanese version of a typical western story.

**** stars for now, since I loved the story and the artwork, but I believe there is still some room for improvement and I am still uncomfortable giving the highest marks to a story that glorifies killing in such gory details. I might revise higher once I go through the following albums, with number 2 coming hopefully later this week. ...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, comics, arts, manga, sequential, japan, culture, historical, 20th-century

Lone Wolf and Cub, Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road (Lone Wolf and Cub #1), Kazuo Koike
Lone Wolf and Cub (Japanese: 子連れ狼 Hepburn: Kozure Ōkami, lit. "Wolf taking along his child") is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.
This volume includes the following stories: ...more

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Aug 23, 2016 Sam Quixote rated it it was ok

Lone Wolf and Cub are a disgraced samurai and his infant son travelling through Edo-period Japan (sometime between 1603 and 1868) working as a sword-for-hire. He kills lots of people, some of them try to kill him and his boy and fail (that’s not a spoiler, there are several more books after this so of course he’s in no real danger), and that’s about it!

I’ve heard nothing but good things about this title and I enjoy samurai comics too so I was disappointed to discover it’s actually a pretty bori Lone Wolf and Cub are a disgraced samurai and his infant son travelling through Edo-period Japan (sometime between 1603 and 1868) working as a sword-for-hire. He kills lots of people, some of them try to kill him and his boy and fail (that’s not a spoiler, there are several more books after this so of course he’s in no real danger), and that’s about it!

I’ve heard nothing but good things about this title and I enjoy samurai comics too so I was disappointed to discover it’s actually a pretty boring read. The stories are drearily episodic and repetitive: Lone Wolf and Cub rock up somewhere, someone hires him to kill someone, they’re put in faux peril, and he kills the target successfully. There’s no sense of an overarching story like why these two are wandering about or what Lone Wolf does with the money he earns from his hit jobs or whether he’s working towards something or this is just it.

The action is always the same: Lone Wolf and his opponent stand opposite each other about to draw swords, they run at each other, then stand a few feet apart, backs to each other, swords out, and the opponent falls. So clichéd and boring with zero tension because you always know the outcome.

It doesn’t help that all of the characters are ciphers. Lone Wolf is the archetypical silent unstoppable tough guy and Cub is just a kid, his visible Achilles’ heel. Everyone else is disposable - the bad guys are there to be slaughtered by Lone Wolf, the innocents are there to be rescued by Lone Wolf; they’re not characters so much as plot points.

To be fair, there’s one scene - one! - towards the end when Lone Wolf gives his son a choice to his life’s path: stay on the assassin’s road with him or choose peace. The decision was inevitable given the title but it showed how on the edge Lone Wolf lives and how far he’s willing to go. It only lasted a few pages though and then we went back to the predictable action.

Writer Kazuo Koike faithfully uses Edo-period language in his script but quite often there’s no English translation to the words used and no footnotes to help explain the dialogue. Lines like “Does he think he can defeat the Mugyo-Ryu Suemonogiri technique of Bessho-Sama, the fencing master of Mito Han?!” left me puzzled as to their meaning and, long before the halfway point after being bombarded with similarly baffling lines, eventually ambivalent about what I was reading. There’s a glossary of some terms included at the back of the book but who wants to keep flipping back and forth when you’re reading?

Goseki Kojima’s black and white art is quite nice when it comes to scenic backdrops and the Japanese countryside but I don’t think he handled the action well - it’s hard to tell in quite a few scenes exactly what’s happening. Also, the character designs are extremely limited with nearly all of the male and female models looking identical - in some of the stories a number of characters look like Lone Wolf so it’s difficult to follow.

Maybe back in the ‘70s when this comic first came out, the samurai action wasn’t clichéd and these genre stories still felt relatively fresh, but, 40+ years later, Lone Wolf and Cub fails to impress. I’ve read much better samurai comics like Vagabond and Usagi Yojimbo, all of which came out after Lone Wolf and Cub so perhaps owes a debt of influence to Koike and Kojima, but I’d still check those out instead of this stale, dull “classic” instead. ...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Terry rated it really liked it

Shelves: comics, historical-fiction

A ground-breaking manga first published in Japan in 1970, Koike & Kojima’s “Lone Wolf & Cub” series follows the exploits of a laconic master assassin whose most defining characteristic, aside from his near unstoppable lethality and ingenious tactics, is probably the fact that he wanders Tokugawa- era Japan pushing a baby cart containing his three-year-old son Daigorō. As a result they are known throughout the country as Lone Wolf and Cub, a mysterious assassin ‘team’ who, for 500 ryu (gold piece ...more

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Mar 31, 2018 Jon Nakapalau rated it it was amazing

Shelves: manga, politics, favorites, martial-arts, pop-culture, cultural-studies, philosophy

The Assassin's Road is long - father and son must travel down it as Lone Wolf and Cub - epic manga that has influenced dozens of other works. ...more

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Jan 01, 2019 Ill D rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Gentlemen and Scholars

Shelves: comic-reviews, reviewed, comics

Oh boy!

I finally got to read the ever famous Lone Wolf and Cub.

Produced in the relatively ancient era of the (19)70's this seminal work has had far reaching influence that well exceeds the boundaries of the comic book realm. As (relatively) faithfully reduplicated by Max Allen Collins in his (some-what)overrated Road to Perdition and more recently, the Dumb Hanks cinematographic rendition of such, Kazuo Koike's tale of revenge and blood and guts definitely holds up well over 40-some years later. ...more

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Jan 28, 2016 Marquise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: samurai, historical-setting-1600s, 4-5-stars, manga, graphic-novels, historical-fiction

A lone samurai working as an executioner for the Shogun who, betrayed and framed for treason, is forced to earn a living as an errant assassin for hire with his baby in tow? Now that's an unique premise, and of course I was going to be caught like a fly in a honey pot.

The promotion blurb didn't lie, for once, and the storyline didn't disappoint. Following an episodic narrative structure that tells of Ogami Itto's assignments in relatively long vignettes, we come to learn of the man's peculiariti A lone samurai working as an executioner for the Shogun who, betrayed and framed for treason, is forced to earn a living as an errant assassin for hire with his baby in tow? Now that's an unique premise, and of course I was going to be caught like a fly in a honey pot.

The promotion blurb didn't lie, for once, and the storyline didn't disappoint. Following an episodic narrative structure that tells of Ogami Itto's assignments in relatively long vignettes, we come to learn of the man's peculiarities: he's lethal as all hell, and his services will cost you an arm, a leg and an eye for good measure. Oh, and your secretest of secrets, too. Because it's not enough that you put his standard fee of 500 ryu of gold in his hand, you have also to tell him why you want to kill and everything about and round that killing, don't even dream of hiding anything, before he accepts the task. And if he says no, you're out of luck. If he says yes, consider the person you want dead is already dead from the moment the word of acceptance is out.

Ogami Itto's methods are . . . unorthodox, to put it mildly, and brilliant in a "bloody bastard, he duped me!" way. And his son Daigoro is part of the team, too, the wolf's cub is also a wolf and so he must hunt. This may be uncomfortable, the idea of using a baby as bait, and even some characters say it so out loud, but read on, read on and you'll see why this has to happen. The opening scene works as a red herring, and it's only by the last vignette that we learn that Itto (and Daigoro, because families aren't spared in the samurai way of life) was framed for treason, and then all pieces fall into place and it's understood it's all about survival and retribution, and if both are to live and strike back at those who want them gone, father and son must work as a team.

It's very gritty, graphic violence is all over the place, as well as graphic nudity. Those who've read Hiroshi Hirata's works will likely get to this comfortably like ducks to water, as I did, but for those who may have difficulties, let me tell you that this isn't all about senseless violence and suffering. Kazuo Koike is an excellent storyteller, his stories are interesting, and the short nature of the vignette style of narration makes it easy to digest in small bites, so to speak. ...more

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May 26, 2009 Mohammed rated it it was amazing

Shelves: manga-other-comic-books, kojima-koike

This series might look like non stop Samurai action,epic story but the strenght of the writing is how much the story shows less romantic,more realistic view on Samurai era,culture. The normal people that didnt thrive under the caste,honor system of the Samurai.

The most brilliant part of the work is though the stunning,cinematic artwork. 40 years old it still looks more beautiful,stronger than 100% of other japanese comics,other comics i have read.

There are maybe many classic important series l ...more

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Aug 08, 2020 Juho Pohjalainen rated it it was amazing

It's a bit wordy at times, but apart from that this classic more than deserves its formidable reputation. ...more

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Feb 21, 2016 Tom Ewing rated it it was amazing

Shelves: manga

When Daigoro was little, his father was famous. He was the greatest samurai in the empire and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut off the heads of a hundred and thirty-one lords. It was a bad time for the empire. The Shogun just stayed inside his castle and he never came out. People said his brain was infected by devils. Daigoro's father would come home, he would forget about the killings. He wasn't scared of the Shogun, but the Shogun was scared of him. Maybe that was the problem. Then, one ...more

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Sep 23, 2015 Jedi JC Daquis rated it it was amazing

Lone Wolf and Cub Volume 1 is a perfect example of how to start a great and epic story, commencing Ogami Itto's vengeful path against the Yagyu clan.

The first volume establishes the Lone Wolf as a masterful swordsman and a sword for hire assassin who is able to defeat and kill his targets in the most glorious and dramatic ways. Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima are meant for each other in creating this masterpiece.

Lone Wolf's son Daigoro also proves to be a capable ally (in a cunning way) instead of ...more

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Mar 21, 2014 Lono rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

One of my all time favorites. A story that embodies honor, sacrifice, family, loyalty, discipline, revenge, love, and violence. Epic in scope and unlike anything else I've ever read. Love it from beginning to end (all 28 volumes). A classic that should be included in the short list of the greatest graphic novels of all time. ...more

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Sep 25, 2017 L. McCoy rated it it was ok

Shelves: action, borrowed, comics-and-graphic-novels, war, dark-horse, manga, reviewed, creator-owned, historic-fiction

So, I'm really into samurai stuff. I love old samurai movies, there's some samurai comics that I think are fantastic, I'm interested in samurai history and even have a samurai sword so when I saw this beloved classic samurai manga sitting at the library I had to read it. I don't know why people love it.

What's it about?
A samurai guy with a little baby goes around killing people.

Pros:
The art is extremely well done.
The action scenes are pretty sweet. Always a fan of good samurai action.

Cons:
The sto ...more

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Jul 15, 2013 First Second Books added it

Shelves: calista

It's like putting your head into a bathtub filled with film pulled off of reels of Kurasawa movies. ...more

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Sep 12, 2008 Angus rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: historical fiction buffs, those interested in knighthood beyond the British Isles, romantics

Recommended to Angus by: Jeff Derose

Please, please, try the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

The art of "comic book" storytelling, while not exactly a lost art in the States, is nevertheless not something particularly prized here; comic book readers seem to be objects of scorn and ridicule to mainstream folk, lumped in with those who attend renaissance faires and Star Trek conventions as people perhaps not right in the head.

In Japan however, the reading of comic books, or manga, as the format is more properly called, is as common a practi ...more

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Mar 01, 2016 Arild Klokkervoll rated it it was amazing

I'm only marking the first book in the series, but all 28 books and all the separate little stories are amazing little gems of Japanese perfection. The artwork is beautifull, and the historical and cultural portrayal of Japan's Edo-period is both fascinating and - apparently - very accurate. The main character is a Ronin assassin, a former royal executioner and top-ranked samurai gone on a long, honorbound vengence spree. He is as unstoppable as Conan the barbarian, but follows a strict bushi co ...more

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Feb 21, 2019 Ming Wei rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-japan-related-books

Great book, great story line (no spoliers) one man and his kid wandering around Japan, great black and white graphics Very enjoyable book. 1st class.

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Dec 18, 2019 Chad rated it really liked it

Shelves: ircb-2019

A dishonored samurai and his son wander feudal Japan killing people.

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May 14, 2014 Andrew rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Andrew by: andrew.edwards91@gmail.com

Shelves: comics, classics, i-own-wishlist, comics-favourites

The start of an amazing epic (and as much as that word is overused I think this is one of the only books I've read that is deserving of that title).

I've re-read this volume more than the others due to it being the first one, but I've yet to tire of the stories here. I love the serialization of stories style that Koike employs here. The plot moves along slowly as we enjoy a variety of exceptional short stories and learn more about our protagonist and the foreign, and ancient, world that he lives ...more

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Jul 20, 2020 James DeSantis rated it liked it

A classic but I wasn't in love. I didn't get attached to anyone. But some of the story structure was interesting, nice twist here or there, and the art remains great. ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Derek rated it it was amazing

Shelves: anthologies-n-short-stories, speculative-fic, highly-recommended, comic-books, read-in-2020

My absolute fav Manga right now!

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Jan 29, 2015 Kaimynas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: visual-novels

Just to set things straight, it's 4 stars, but I'm a sucker for samurai stories and feudal Japan. And now I have almost 30 volumes of greatness waiting

It's my first manga, and how lucky I was to start with such classic! I don't bother you with story as you can find it in annotation, but this volume consist short stories, which are connected and slowly tells the story and character of main protagonist. What I really liked, is that it showed not only bright side of the samurai, but also the other ...more

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Apr 15, 2015 Cheese rated it really liked it

This is very different from anything I've read before. It's full of history and traditional ways of the samurai.

A fantastic story, one I think I will pursue until the end.

I liked it so much I just bought all the omnibus editions :) ...more

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Aug 08, 2018 Jay rated it really liked it

Shelves: manga, comics

A legendary manga, later adapted to film, this is a great action read, if a bit flawed.
The art is fantastic, veering from almost impressionistic to realistic, generally residing in the trad-manga comfort zone. The writing is good, too, but the book is very episodic and a bit repetitive. Up until the final chapter, all motivation and long-term story are absent. This can leave some readers dissatisfied, but what is here is good. Will continue this series.

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Jan 03, 2020 Malum rated it really liked it

Shelves: manga

Lone Wolf and Cub travel around Japan kicking ass, staying one step ahead of their enemies, and occasionally philosophizing. Add in the awesome artwork and it's easy to see why this is such a beloved classic.
...more

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Jun 17, 2020 Victor The Reader rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-five-star-books, borrowed-from-comixology-unlimited, manga-reviews

This samurai manga has a unique premise and bring something so riveting and intense. Taking place during feudal Japan, we follow a traveling ronin (samurai with no lord or master) and his toddler child in a carriage who meet many unfriendly and dangerous types of people who are no match for him. While there’s not much depth about the main duo or what the main story is about, the manga’s presentation is so captivating and action packed while having little dialogue at time. Still, an interesting t ...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Timothy rated it it was ok

Shelves: manga

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 ...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Michael Kitchin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: comics-graphic-novels

Lone Wolf and Cub centers around Ogami Ittō, a Shogun's executioner during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Betrayed, most of his family murdered, he wanders 17th century Japan in a saga of justice and revenge spanning 28 volumes and 7,000 pages, all with a 3yr-old son (absolutely a chip off the old block) in tow. This tale isn't blessed with numerous, regular characters or multilayered plots, but its story arcs are strong and satisfying with an unequaled sense of place/time. Relationships (including tha ...more

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Dec 20, 2015 Leonard O'Grady rated it it was amazing

If you want a masterclass in the power of sequential art, you could do no better the study the art of Kazuo Koike and his opus, Lone Wolf and Cub. The story and depth of the story is excellent, but it's in the sheer visceral power of the comic art in terms of pacing, structure and storytelling that this series shines. You've never seen a story express tense pensiveness through watching rain sweep through a courtyard in silence until you've read Lone Wolf and Cub. Magnificent. ...more

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About Kazuo Koike

Kazuo Koike

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Kazuo Koike (小池一夫, Koike Kazuo) is 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 famou ...more