Crying Freeman, Vol. 3: Shades of Death

Ｃｒｙｉｎｇフリーマン [Crying Freeman] #3

by Ryōichi Ikegami (Illustrator), Kazuo Koike

Crying Freeman is challenged by two formidable opponents! First he must put Ivory Fan, the jealous granddaughter of the former leaders of the 108 Dragons, in her place. Then he must outwit beautiful Kitche, a high-tech killer who dreams of going down in history as the woman who assassinated the master assassin himself!

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels

261 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 1987

About the author

Ryōichi 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.

Reviews

[Federico Lucifredi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read the Crying Freeman series while in college, as I went through everything with art drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami. It still reads well 20 years later, as a crime story with rough moments and beautiful art.

Freeman is trained as an assassin by a shady underworld syndicate, and against his will. When he completes his missions, he releases his angst, and weeps — hence the name. As a seinen manga, it is second only to Sanctuary and the short Samurai Crusader in my book.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Baffling Manga tale that I couldn't follow at all.

Seemed to involve a submarine painted to look like a dragon, a morbidly obese woman, a tattooed couple, a secret society and a fair amount of nudity.

I'm still none the wiser.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars.