Path of the Assassin, Vol. 15: One who Rules the Dark

半蔵の門 [Hanzou no Mon] #15

by Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima (Illustrator)

Koike and Kojima's tale of how the ninja Hattori Hanzo helped Tokugawa Ieyasu become the shogun who united Japan is in its fifteenth and final volume. All of the action, suspense, political intrigue, and love will come to an end. But, before Ieyasu can claim his position, there will be much misery, murder, and tragedy on this already blood-soaked road. The path to the shogunate is a long and arduous journey, made easier by such a vassal as Hattori Hanzo, but in this last volume of Path of the Assassin, Koike and Kojima will tell us just how difficult that journey can be.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Japan

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2009

About the author

Kazuo Koike (小池一夫, Koike Kazuo) was 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 famous Japanese actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Koike and Kojima became known as the "Golden Duo" because of the success of Lone Wolf and Cub.

Another series written by Koike, Crying Freeman, which was illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, was adapted into a 1995 live-action film by French director Christophe Gans.

Kazuo Koike started the Gekika Sonjuku, a college course meant to teach people how to be mangaka.

In addition to his more violent, action-oriented manga, Koike, an avid golfer, has also written golf manga.

Reviews

[Jedi JC Daquis · Rating 2 out of 5]

That seems to be a very abrupt end. I really felt that Kazuo and Koike still have so many things to cover regarding this part of Japan's history but volume sixteen simply did not happen.

Even the revolt that led to Nobunaga's death felt so rushed wherein that could be another couple of chapters. There is still so much more to flesh out between Hanzo and Ieyasu.

I really felt disappointed this time. I thoroughly enjoyed both Lone Wolf and Cub and Samurai Executioner, so this was a bit of a letdown for me.

From a historical point of view, Koike's interpretation on how things unfolded was nothing less than interesting, minus the cringeworthy sex-rape-porn thing Japanese style.

If you are a collector of Kazuo Koike's (and Goseki Kojima's) creations, you have to have this series in your library. Otherwise, just the Lone Wolf and Cub collection would be more than enough.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, a bit of a complaint. I have the first 14 volumes of this in paperback. The final volume cannot be found at anything resembling a reasonable price in paperback, so I was forced to get the Kindle version. Dark Horse had no answers as to why this final volume wasn't available in paperback, but my guess is that it was under published due to drops in sales as the volumes continued.

As far as this being the final chapter in the saga, it doesn't appear to be. In fact, the ending comes so abruptly it seems like there was much more to this, and from what I've read, there may have been. Dark Horse doesn't drop the ball much, but if this series is left truly unfinished, and it's that company's fault, it makes me doubt its ability to finish any other series I may enjoy. (It's the same reason I don't read any of Kevin Smith's comic book work anymore, too.)

[Nick Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This rating is more for the series than the final volume, but it certainly delivered. The sheer amount of content packed into this volume is impressive and almost every end was tied. Fantastic series.
4.5/5

[Doug Brunell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An abrupt ending to what has been a great series up this point.

[Yonatan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid end to the series. A bit sad that it skips forward to much at the end and then doesn't even go all the way to the end of the real story.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty weak ending. It feels like the series was cancelled with how jarring the conclusion is.

Overall I wouldn't quite recommend the series although it does start off strong. Goseki Kojima does some really great artwork throughout. The series gets bogged down with Koike's proclivity to dive into weird sexual stuff. Something like this lives or dies on how well the historical characters come to life. Hanzo and Ieyasu are pretty good characters but become more unlikable as the series goes on.

The historical fiction element is alright, but it feels like Goseki could just be copying+pasting the same images for each battle. It's just people on horseback riding towards different castles.

The series was strongest when we see Hanzo do his assassin stuff, Ieyasu developing into a compassionate leader, and Art of War style battle tactics. At its weakest it was distracted by weird sexual erotica or just drab political talking heads both elements I don't think translate very well for a Western audience.

[Ewan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it best to leave a review of the series as a whole on the final volume, as there seems little point reviewing each volume individually with a series like this.

I'd tried to read Path of the Assassin when Dark Horse first began to publish it, but I stopped about four volumes in as it became incredibly confusing, especially when read at the same pace it was published (one volume every two or three months). I nonetheless collected the whole series planning to tackle it again, and have now finished ploughing through it in the space of two weeks. Reading it in such a concentrated time is certainly beneficial, but it's still a complex, confusing series.

Aside from the fact that it shares the same period setting, and the general samurai/shinobi themes, this is very unlike Lone Wolf & Cub, for which Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima are most famous. There are some similarly ingenious assassination schemes, and bizarre ninja techniques, but this is largely a political and historical epic. I get the impression that it is largely aimed at a Japanese audience who would be somewhat familiar with the history and figures in the story, since the narration throws names and places at you and expects you to keep up. The series is most engaging when dealing with individual characters - Ieyasu's relationship with Hanzo, for example, or some of the duels between Hanzo and other ninjas - but much less so when it becomes a case of characters explaining complex war stratagems to each other, or worse when the narration details which armies invaded which castle or territory. In the last few volumes I really just started to zone out when this happened as I just didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

It is worth sticking through all the hard-to-follow political stuff to the end of the series though, as the drama between the main characters is still engaging to the end. However, it does end very abruptly, and I wondered if there was intended to be more to the series.

This isn't something I can see myself coming back to re-read in a hurry, if at all, but it was worth a once-through. I'd suggest this is for hardcore Koike fans only, and anyone else would be best to read Lone Wolf & Cub, and maybe Samurai Executioner.

[Tucker Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the final volume of Path of the Assassin, and while parts of it read like a conclusion, like the part where a main character has his wife murdered, other sections read like they could be the opening of a new narrative, until one reaches the final page and realizes that no, that was it, the one guy just decided to rape his buddy’s sister with the old “ask her for one of her pubic hairs, and when she is plucking it, attack her at that moment of weakness/generosity,” and that’s the end of that subplot. I don’t mean to single out that one rape scene over the other rape scenes, I know your supposed to let the reader pick their favorite. That one just seemed notable, because it ended with the guy pointing out that he didn’t have a choice, he had to rape the lady, that was the quickest way to make her love him. While it may have been a fact of life in Japan during the time period the story is set, rape is a well that this series went to over and over again, and while Kojima was able to separate the consensual sex in such a way that the visuals of the sexual assaults are primarily disturbing (as opposed to the more complex erotic scenes he was tasked with presenting at other times, like the one above), the rest of Path of the Assassin is a pretty talky book, and that’s a difficult switch to constantly make, and a supremely irritating one to boot.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems like an abrupt ending. I'd like to see the characters get older than they did. I suspect more was intended for the series, but it didn't get time to complete. I've read some more of the history of Ieyasu to try to get a better understanding of the series and it's a little disappointing not to see him later in life. (The series is largely fictional from what I can tell as far as the ninja/assassin material, but many of the political and warfare parts of it seem to be based off of actual history.

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

And the series comes to it's grand conclusion. Except it's not so grand. This final volume feels rushed compared to the ones preceding it, and then it just ends without much explanation. Boo!



As a whole though, the series was quite brilliant. Solid action and suspense mixed into a great study of respect, growing and friendship. Worth checking out even if it never does reach the heights of "Lone Wolf & Cub". 4/5 for the series.

[David the Ñoldo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish the series would've at least continued on to the Battle of Sekigahara, as well as actually showing Honda Tadakatsu. Found it a bit anti-climactic even with Nobunaga's death. Overall, I enjoyed the series as a historical fiction and seemed to provide some insight that would be lost.