alt title(s): Shogun Assassin
The trials of single fatherhood.
Lone Wolf and Cub (
Kozure Ohkami) is an iconic
manga created by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, describing the adventures of Itto Ohgami, former executioner for the Shogun, and his son Daigoro. Ohgami, after being framed for treason against the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, faced a choice between
death and
dishonor. Instead, Itto
Took A Third Option: abandon
bushido to follow
"Meifumado" - roughly, either "the way of the demon" or "the road to hell". He would become a
ronin assassin,
Walking The Earth while planning his vengeance. And his son Daigoro, due to a
Secret Test Of Character from his father, now follows the same bloody road.
The original manga was published from 1970 to 1976. The series has been adapted into several movies and a live-action TV series in Japan. An English-dubbed "
adaptation" of the movies was released in 1980 as
Shogun Assassin.
AnimEigo has released both subtitled and dubbed versions of the films.
Lone Wolf also
inspired the American comic
Road To Perdition, which changed the setting to
1930S ILLINOIS.
Road To Perdition was later made into a movie starring Tom Hanks.
Unrelated to famous
Lone Wolf gamebook series by Joe Dever.
Lone Wolf and Cub provides examples of:
- Against The Setting Sun: Used in one case to try and blind Itto during a duel, though Genre Savvy Itto puts a reflective ornament on Daigoro's head to blind the enemy and wins.
- More like battlefield savvy. Or duel savvy. Or pretty much anything warfare-related savvy.
- And Your Little Dog Too: Itto once went *even more* Unstoppable Rage than he had previously been, when the Shogun directly threatened to kill little Daigoro.
- Audible Sharpness
- BFG: The "multiple-fire rifle"
- Big Ol Eyebrows
- Bowdlerise: When the movie adaptation was released under the American title Shogun Assassin, among other things these were mercilessly Bowdlerised:
- As Long As It Sounds Foreign: The word "Hara-kiri" was used to describe the ritual suicide following a defeat or failure, though in context they would have used the much less vulgar word "Seppuku".
- Lull Destruction: Extraneous dialog and narration added to otherwise silent scenes, not to mention a grating synthesizer replacing the traditional music of the original.
- Noble Womans Laugh: Given to the head Kunoichi in the English version (even in a scene that didn't originally have it), making her sound totally insane when the original was a barely audible snicker. It must be heard to be believed.
- Macekre: All mentions of the complicated clan warfare making up much of the driving point of the plot is removed in favor of vague references to "The Shogun". The film footage is actually comprised of most the second Lone Wolf & Cub movie, Babycart at the River Styx, with the first twelve minutes of the first movie, Sword of Vengeance bolted on to the front as an introduction.
- Close Call Haircut: Happens to Daigoro's topknot in one scene and is the closest the movie actually gets to injuring him.
- Cheerful Child
- Conservation Of Ninjitsu: Subverted once when a team of Kunoichi successfully take out an unlucky mook to demonstrate their skill, then played straight when a group of Kunoichi can't do anything to the protagonists, but the boss lady can pretty much hold her own against Itto (IE not get killed) Also somewhat toward the end when all the remaining Grass work together and succeed in breaking Itto's sword.
- Cooldown Hug: The very last chapter. It totally doesn't work. Especially since the hug is only AFTER Daigoru stabs the bad guy, or are we talking Daigoru's attempt to fight Regutsu, or his attempt to keep Lone Wolf alive?
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: While the main character, Itto, seems to have an existence made entirely out of the transition between these moments, other characters get them too; e.g., Abe-no-Kaii - after suffering a life of being utterly pathetic throughout the book - is sentenced to commit Seppuku, where he redeems himself. When he loses his nerve, guards attempt to force the knife into him themselves, at which point he gains new strength, beats and kills several of them, and refuses to go down despite further injuries and a gaping wound in his stomach. Only after Itto reveals that after him, Itto is next, followed by Abe's master (who framed him in the first place so as to have him put to death). Abe calms down, and graciously accepts a beheading from his nemesis, the Lone Wolf...and his head does not stop guffawing with laughter until five minutes after falling from his body.
- Deep Cover Agent: The "grass"
- Disposable Woman: Azami who?
- Evil Versus Evil: Abe no Kaii versus Retsudo.
- End Of An Age: The story is set right as Japan's feudal era started breaking down. The rising merchant class and the ever-growing masses of unemployed samurai are minor recurring themes in the story. Frank Miller, who did some of the American cover art for Dark Horse, described the story as "a man, a boy, a country, and their journey into Hell."
- Enemy Mine: Itto and Retsudo works together to stop a flood caused by Abe No kaii.
- Eyepatch Of Power: After losing his eye to an arrow, the Big Bad spends the rest of the manga proving that the eyepatch may be an even more Bad Ass accessory than the pram.
- Grand Finale: A seriously hardcore one that encompasses at least the last three books.
- Harmful To Minors: Daigoro's childhood is traumatic even by manga standards.
- High Pressure Blood
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The Yagyu clan are traditionally portrayed in both history and folklore as noble and brave and champions of the common people. On the other hand, they also had the reputation of founding one of the greatest swordfighting schools in Japan, were believed to have ties to ninja (if not ninja themselves), and were very close allies and servants of the ruling Tokugawa shoguns, so few other organizations in bakufu-era Japan would have been as big as a threat to Ogami Itto.
- Its Personal: The entire premise of the plot after Itto's wife is killed.
- Kill Em All: The only characters who survive the whole story are Daigoro and the shogun, and the shogun only survives because it would have messed up history.
- Whether or not Daigoro survives the sequel remains to be seen.
- Lawful Evil: Retsudo
- Lawful Neutral: Itto
- Lawyer Friendly Cameo: Both Daigoro and Itto show up in episode 22 of Samurai Champloo, and Daigoro makes another appearance in episode 24.
- The pair also make an appearance during a flashback in Samurai Jack.
- Missing Mom: Daigoro's mother has been killed before the start of the events.He never had any chance to spend time with female role-model
- Morality Pet: A running theme in the novels is the fact that Daigoro keeps Itto from going too far over the edge when it comes to killing and becoming an outright Noble Demon; although with all the blood that's spilled, it makes one wonder what would happen if Daigoro wasn't there.
- To be fair, Itto mostly kills the people he's paid to kill, or those who try to kill him first. Assuming Daigoro wasn't there, he would most likely go berserk and get killed rather quickly.
- Also, subverted in the last chapter. Daigoro kills the big bad!
- My Master Right Or Wrong
- Neutral Evil: Abe no Kaii. The way he completely fails at being a badass samurai, simply because he doesn't want to die, actually makes him sympathetically Neutral Evil in comparison with all the Bushido-obsessed heroes and villains.
- Ninja: The Yagyu have literally hundreds of them in their service. By the end of the manga, Itto has killed them all.
- The Mole: About two hundred of the thousands of Yagyu soldiers are the "Kusa" — "The Grass", deep-cover agents placed in each province of Japan to act as agents for the Yagyu. Retsudo is forced to summon them all back to the capital before the end.
- Non Action Guy: Abe no Kaii.
- Samurai: Though Daigoro and Itto are technically Ronin, they are pursued by Samurai (and the occasional horde of Ninja)for much of the plot.
- Only Six Faces: Goseki Kojima was an excellent artist who showed a lot of variation in his male characters, but for some reason every woman he draws looks exactly the same.
- Seppuku: Itto's original job was technically to serve as a second (kaishakunin) for feudal lords ordered to commit seppuku by the Shogunate.
- Papa Wolf: AND HOW!
- Single Stroke Battle
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: lampshaded, explained and justified. It works because he is perceived as a ronin/samurai with at least some shred of honor, which he is not (he's an assassin), thus catching his oponnents completely off guard.
- Walking The Earth
- Women In Refrigerators: Almost every important woman in the story ends up being raped, murdered, or both — in either order.
