About Heroes

Story: Kazuo Koike
Artist: Ryochi Ikegami
Translation: Kumar Sivasubramanian
Publisher: Dark Horse

You might recall that during the ending of our manga podcast I briefly mentioned the name Ryoichi Ikegami. I was specifically talking about his work on Crying Freeman and Sanctuary. This put the idea in my head of going back and reading all those comics that I had from Viz back in the day. Then I noticed that just recently Dark Horse had released 5 omnibus trades collecting the series uncut in its original right to left format. I know the wonderful job they have been doing with the Gun Smith Cats trades, so I was really excited about reading them like this for the first time.

If you’ve ever heard anyone talk about manga then the name Kazuo Koike should ring a bell. He’s the writer of such great works as Lone Wolf and Cub, Samurai Excutioner, and Lady Snowblood. Funny enough, he also did the Hulk manga back in the early 70’s in Japan. Ikegami is also a popular artist in Japan and once you take a glimpse at his artwork you can understand why. Most of his work has been translated here in the States such as: Mai the Psychic Girl, Sanctuary, Strain, Wounded Man, and Offered. Even Marvel released the Spider-man manga that he drew back in the 70’s. This story is different than any other Koike stories I have read, because it’s set in a modern era (of course this book was originally published in 1986).

This story begins with a bang! Literally as Emu Hino, a 28 year old artist witnesses two Yakuza (Japanese mafia) hits performed by the same assassin. The assassin cries after he kills his targets, and it's this moment of vulnerability that Emu focuses on so much so she develops an unhealthy fixation on him. When I say unhealthy, she wants to lose her virginity to him before he kills her on her 29th birthday. Because she knows that once an assassin tells you their name, you become the next target. She starts painting portraits of his crying face litter her studio. Instead, he ends up falling for her and eventually they get married. We learn that his name is Yo Himomura and he is an assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to most in the criminal underworld, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears after he kills his victims. Yo was once an up and coming pottery artist, until he got hold of some negatives that the 108 Dragons wanted back. However, thinking that he was doing the right thing he sent the negatives to the police. In retaliation, the 108 Dragons kidnapped him, used put post-hypnotic suggestions to turn him into the perfect assassin. He was trained and then set loose under their control. He has lost all free will and that is the only thing he wants back, hence the codename: Freeman.

As the story unfolds, Yo has become used to the idea of being an assassin and now does it willingly. After Yo and Emu get married they have to destroy their past and old identities. Emu is now known as Fu Ching Lan, the beautiful "Tiger Orchid." And Yo, now Long Tai Yang “Sun Dragon" is set to become the 108 Dragon’s new leader. But as usual some people are not best pleased with this, and there are plenty of murders, kidnapping, and violence. It’s funny to see how Freeman uses his body as an instrument against women. Deadly enemies such as Bai Ya Shan, Dark Eyes, and Kimie become allies after falling or sleeping with Freeman. He reminds me a lot of Batman in that way. Apparently, I’m not the only one that seems to think so as you can see here . Koike really tries to get the point across that you can’t trust anyone in the underworld, but if you have a giant dragon tattooed on your body and have a certain aura, women will just fall on their knees….not a bad idea. The latter two volumes have more adult elements than the first three. There is kidnapper that gets off on watching Freeman fight and some really disturbing scenes with her masturbating while her body is being blown up. In the Journey to Freedom, Freeman begins his long path to freedom by indirectly taking on all of the remaining underworld powers of Japan. I felt the end of the series was a bit rushed or maybe it was me just wanting some more Freeman action!

I can say that the shrink-wrapping and parental advisory sticker speaks honestly of the manga's content rather than being a bloated attempt to look cool like some other comics out today. I’m not one to usually complain but sometimes I feel the pornographic scenes and extreme violence come out a little pointless. We have grown people just walking around naked all the time. I also love the fact that not even once do we see Freeman work out and stay so buff. I guess he just works out the ladies and the bad guys. So yes plenty of extreme violence, which leads to my other minor gripe during sexual acts, an erect penis, or a woman opening her legs in anticipation of pleasure and bam we get whiteout, or ridiculous shading, or even pixilation. That is some weird censorship! I guess you obviously get the idea that the characters are having sex, but it’s strange that some things are censored. But, let me clarify, these minor gripes take nothing away from the fantastic story.

The main thrust of this series is really the story of one man forced into dark practices and his consequential guilt. The characters were unique and would lure me to keep turning the pages. I couldn’t put the book down and the entire book remains utterly compelling from cover to cover. The plotting is mature and complex and its artwork reflects this effortlessly. I really don’t do Ikegami’s work justice by talking about it. It’s so fluid, so lifelike, so beautiful, so detailed, and so damn perfect. The great thing is that which each volume you can also see him evolve that art style to perfection. The bottom line is that for 15 bucks where else are you going to get 400 pages of great ass kicking action? It is so great to have these books reprinted and it was great to re-read them again after so many years. I highly recommend this great series and I promise whether you read manga or not, you will be hooked. A-