Lone Wolf and Cub

Lone Wolf and Cub
Ogami Ito & Daigoro (Lone Wolf & Cub)
Genre	Historical, Action, Samurai
Manga
Written by	art: Goseki Kojima; story: Kazuo Koike
Published by	Manga Action (Futabasha) Koike Shoin Publishing co., Ltd. Tokyo Dark Horse Comics Panini Comics Planet Manga

This article is about Japanese graphic novels. For other uses, see Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf and Cub (known in Japan as Kozure Ōkami 子連れ狼) is a well-known gekiga or manga created by the writer Kazuo Koike and the artist Goseki Kojima. Its story led to the creation of six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, television series and much more.

Lone Wolf and Cub chronicles the story of Ogami Ittō, the Shogun's executioner who uses the Dotanuki battle sword. He was disgraced by false accusations from the Yagyū clan and has been forced to take the path of the assassin. Along with his three-year-old son, Daigoro, they seek revenge on the Yagyū clan and are known as "Lone Wolf and Cub".

Story

A formidable warrior and a master of the Suio Ryu, Ogami Ittō (拝一刀), had become the Shōgun's executioner, the Kogi Kaishakunin, a position of high power used by the Tokugawa Shogunate (along with the Oniwaban and the assassins) to enforce the will of the Shogun over the daimyo or domain lords. For those samurai and lords ordered to commit seppuku, the Kogi Kaishakunin would assist with their deaths by decapitating them to relieve the pain of cutting their own stomachs.

Shortly after Ogami Ittō's wife's childbirth with Ogami Daigoro (拝大五郎 Ogami Daigorō), Ogami Ittō returned to find his wife, Asami, and their maidens brutally murdered, with only the newborn Daigoro surviving. They were ostensibly murdered by three men to avenge a lord who was executed by Ogami Ittō. However, the entire matter was designed to disgrace Ogami Ittō by placing and then revealing an ihai (funeral tablet) with the Shogun's name on it in Ōgami's family shrine (representing Ogami's wish for the Shogun's death). This would make Ogami a criminal and thus forfeit his post. The set up was planned by Ura-Yagyū, Yagyū Retsudō (柳生烈堂), leader of the Yagyū clan, in order to seize Ogami's post for the Yagyū clan.

Disgraced, Ogami Ittō and his now infant son, Daigoro, become a powerful assassin team, vowing to eventually destroy the Yagyū clan to avenge his wife and his disgrace.

On the "Road to Meifumado", the cursed journey for vengeance, Ogami Ittō and his son, Daigoro, encounter numerous and countless adventures, eventually befalling Yagyū Retsudō's children and leading up to Yagyu himself.

Before his final duel with Yagyū Retsudō, Ogami was attacked by the last of the elite ninja of the Yagyu clan, The Grass. His sword was tampered with earlier by a visit from a member of The Grass disguised as a sword polisher, causing Ogami's longtime Dotanuki sword to finally wear down and break during The Grass's final assault. He was inflicted with wounds that would ultimately be his demise against his battle with Retsudo. After eliminating each and every ninja, Ogami and his shattered Dotanuki were finally met with Retsudo and his spear. His will to end the Yagyū flowed through his soul, but his wounded and exhausted body would eventually leave Ogami to his fate. In the middle of the battle Ogami's spirit left his body after a lifetime of fatigue and bloodshed. Ogami was unable to destroy his longtime enemy and his Road to Meifumado had ended. The story finishes with Ogami's son, Daigoro, taking up Retsudo's spear and charging in fury. Retsudo opens his arms, disregarding all defense, and allows Daigoro to drive the spear into his body. Embracing Daigoro with tears Yagyu Retsudo names him, "Grandson of my heart", thus concluding the epic.

Manga

When Lone Wolf and Cub was first released in Japan in 1970, it became wildly popular (some 8 million copies were sold in Japan) for its powerful, epic samurai story and its stark and gruesome depiction of the violence during Tokugawa era Japan. The story spanned 28 volumes of manga, with over 300 pages each (totalling over 8,700 pages in all).

Lone Wolf and Cub was initially released in North America by First Comics in 1987, as a series of monthly, square-bound prestige-format black-and-white comics containing between 64 and 128 pages, with covers by Frank Miller, and later by Bill Sienkiewicz and Matt Wagner. Sales were initially strong, but fell sharply as the company went into a general decline. First Comics shut down without completing the series, publishing less than a third of the total series in 45 prestige-format issues. However, in 2000, Dark Horse Comics began to release the full series in 28 trade paperback volumes, completing the series with the 28th volume in 2002. Dark Horse reused all of Miller's covers from the First Comics edition, as well as several done by Sienkiewicz, and commissioned Wagner and Guy Davis to produce new covers for several volumes of the collections. Mike Ploog, Ray Lago and Vince Locke also contributed covers to the English translations of the series.

Dark Horse announced at the New York Comic Con that they have licensed Shin Lone Wolf & Cub, Koike Kazuo and Mori Hideki's follow-up to Lone Wolf and Cub, starring the famous child in the baby cart after the original revenge epic.

The release name for the series, which might be New Lone Wolf and Cub, and format, whether it will be released in the 6.0" x 4.3" dimension of the original Lone Wolf and Cub, are still being considered. Hideki Mori who takes up the job of illustrating the epic from the late Goseki Kojima. Mori employs an art style and vigorous, organic brushwork which is strongly reminiscent of Kojima's, but he brings his own individuality to the task .

Koike begins the new "Lone Wolf and Cub" manga right where the original ended, with Daigoro amidst the aftermath of his father's revenge. A mysterious samurai appears at the seashore and forms a new bond with the boy.

Volume 1 will also contain an essay by Koike about his return to the manga epic after almost thirty years, and his thoughts on the international popularity of the story, including its influence on the graphic novel and film ROAD TO PERDITION.

Films

Six Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Ittō have been produced based on the manga. They are also known as the Sword of Vengeance series, based on the English language title of the first film, and later as the Baby Cart series, because young Daigoro travels in a baby carriage pushed by his father. The first three films, directed by Kenji Misumi, were released in 1972 and produced by Shintaro Katsu, Tomisaburo Wakayama's brother, and the star of the 26 part Zatoichi film series. Shogun Assassin (1980) was released as an English language compilation for the American audience, edited mainly from the second film, with 12 minutes of footage from the first. The next three films were produced by Wakayama himself and directed by Buichi Saito, Kenji Misumi and Yoshiyuki Kuroda, released in 1972, 1973 and 1974 respectively.

No.	English Title	Year	Japanese	Romanization	Translation
1	Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance	1972	子連れ狼　子を貸し腕貸しつかまつる	Kozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru	Wolf with Child in Tow: Child and Expertise for Rent
2	Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx	1972	子連れ狼　三途の川の乳母車	Kozure Ōkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma	Wolf with Child in Tow: Baby Cart of the River of Sanzu
3	Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades	1972	子連れ狼　死に風に向う乳母車	Kozure Ōkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubaguruma	Wolf with Child in Tow: Baby Cart Against the Winds of Death
4	Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril	1972	子連れ狼　親の心子の心	Kozure Ōkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro	Wolf with Child in Tow: The Heart of a Parent, the Heart of a Child
5	Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Land of Demons	1973	子連れ狼　冥府魔道	Kozure Ōkami: Meifumando	Wolf with Child in Tow: Crossroads to Hell
6	Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell	1974	子連れ狼　地獄へ行くぞ!大五郎	Kozure Ōkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigoro	Wolf with Child in Tow: Let's go to Hell, Daigoro!

Sword of Vengenance DVD Covers
Film 1	Film 2	Film 3	Film 4	Film 5	Film 6
File:Lonewolf1.jpg	File:Lonewolf2.jpg	File:Lonewolf3.jpg	File:Lonewolf4.jpg	File:Lonewolf5.jpg	File:Lonewolf6.jpg

The films are renowned for the incredible amount of onscreen stylized violence. In fact, after the second film, each movie would climax with Ogami slaughtering an entire army single-handedly.

The films are also noteworthy in how closely they resemble the comics. Entire panels of the manga are recreated in perfect detail throughout the film series.

In addition to the six original films and Shogun Assassin, various television movies have been aired in connection with the television series as pilots, compilations or originals. These include several starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya Nakamura (see section Television series) but more notably the 1979 film Lone Wolf With Child: An Assassin on the Road to Hell better known as Baby Cart In Purgatory where Hideki Takahashi plays Ogami Ittō and Tomisaburo Wakayama as Retsudo Yagyu! In 1992 the story was once more made into a film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Final Conflict known as Handful of Sand (Kozure Ōkami: Sono chīsaki te ni; literally A Child's Hand Reaches Up), directed by Akira Inoue and starring Masakazu Tamura, and a Darren Aronofsky film based on the manga will reportedly be released in 2008 (according to IMDB).

The movie Lone Wolf Cop: The Sex Doll Case, an S&M themed film noir, is sometimes referred to as a genre transfusion of the Lone Wolf and Cub story, however it has little more in common than the name.

Television series

Two full-fledged television series based on the manga have been broadcast to date. The first, Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ōkami) was produced in a typical jidaigeki format and broadcast in three 26-episode seasons from 1973 to 1976, each episode 45 minutes long. Kinnosuke Yorozuya Nakamura played Ogami Ittō, he later reprised the role in a miniseries in the mid-1980s and several related television movies. Yorozuya's portrayal of Ōgami in the series, and the series as a whole, is said to be more faithful to the manga than the Wakayama films. Considering the length and number of episodes this can only be expected. The series was released for the Toronto, Canada market by CFMT-TV (now OMNI 1) in the original Japanese with English subtitles as The Iron Samurai. It has also been aired in Germany dubbed in German.

The latest television series, also titled Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ōkami), was aired from 2002 to 2004 in Japan. It had Kinya Kitaoji assume the role of Ogami Ittō. Episodes of this series are more readily available in DVD format, whereas the previous ones are extremely rare and often only bootlegged copies, if any, can by purchased.

See also: List of Lone Wolf and Cub episodes

Influence

Because of its immense popularity in Japan and its cult status in the West, both the manga series and subsequent film adaptations have had a lasting impact on popular culture both in Japan and elsewhere.

Lone Wolf and Cub and Kazuo Koike's style have heavily influenced other manga by creating a romanticization of the rōnin, or masterless samurai, the lone wanderer who follows his own code. Similar titles in spirit include Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack and later Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin. It has also influenced American comics, most notably Frank Miller in his Sin City and Ronin series and Max Allan Collins in his Road to Perdition series.

There are also various references to Lone Wolf and Cub in popular culture:

• The Jet Li movie The New Legend of Shaolin (1994) stars Jet Li's real-life son as his character's son. The movie begins with the infant son having to choose between a toy and sword, the same way that Lone Wolf and Cub begins.
• In Kill Bill Vol. 2 near the end, the protagonist and her daughter watch Shogun Assassin as a bed-time story. In the end, it is said that she has rejoined her "cub".
• The video game Puyo Pop Fever features a character named "Kozure Franken", who is a Frankenstein's monster who pushes a baby Frankenstein's monster in a baby carriage.
• The video game Final Fantasy X features a Samurai character named Yojimbo, who can be hired to attack the player's enemies. One of his attacks is performed by a sidekick (in this case a dog), which goes by the name "Daigoro".
• The animated television show Samurai Jack has references to Lone Wolf and Cub. See References in Samurai Jack.
• The comic Usagi Yojimbo also has references to Lone Wolf and Cub in a pair of characters known as "Lone Goat and Kid."
• The 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series had an episode called "Lone Raph and Cub" as an homage to Lone Wolf and Cub.
• The video game Kung Fu Chaos/Panic features a character(s) named "Chop n Styx", who are a father and son duo samurai, in which the son is a baby named Styx in a basket and the father named Chop carries him on his back.
• The album Liquid Swords by rapper GZA contains several samples from Shogun Assassin, including Daigoro's monologue, flute of the fallen tiger, and the choice between ball and sword.
• In Episode 20 of Samurai Champloo, when one of the protagonists, Mugen, is asked to look for a toy a young boy would like he randomly picks up Daigoro out of a group of kids and asks what kind of toy he would like. Daigoro responds Mugen's sword, to which the angered Mugen scares him off. This can be seen as a humorous reference to Daigoro's choosing between the toy and the sword.
• At the conclusion of the 22nd episode of Samurai Champloo, both Ogami Ittō and Daigoro appear when a meteor hits the ground. Daigoro is shown saying, "Look, a Mushroom!" referring to the cloud of debris left from the impact.
• In Episode 24 of Samurai Champloo, while the character Fuu is asking around for Kasumi Seizou, the woman who tells her is seen taking care of Daigoro. It is unknown where Ogami Itto is during this, or whether his character is still alive by this time.
• Lone Wolf and Cub served as the inspiration for Dark Horse Comics' futuristic retelling, Lone Wolf 2100, written by Mike Kennedy, with art by Francisco Ruiz Velazco.

External links

• Mighty Blowhole: Lone Wolf and Cub
• Dark Horse Comics: Lone Wolf and Cub manga
• About the manga series, covers of the manga
• "The Shogun Assassin Movies", about the films
• Website of 2002 TV series (Japanese)
• Lone Wolf And Cub manga review at Mangareviewer.com