Crying Freeman Vol. 1 Review

He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his victims. Young, handsome, sensitive, an artist, Yo has been hypnotically programmed by his Dragon masters to kill on command: he cannot resist his masters'commands to kill, his masters cannot stop his tears of remorse.

It was quite a surprise to discover that Kazuo Koike wrote Crying Freeman. Before reading my experience with the title barely stretched beyond its ubiquity in the manga sphere and the fairly dire anime version from days of yore. After reading I feel that touch more confident in exclaiming The Manga is [generally] Better, as is the case eight times out of ten. Obviously not confident enough to remove the parenthesis and the additional disclaimer, there's too many exceptions to the rule, but in this case it's a dead cert. This is seminal work.

Kazuo Koike, for those who don't know, is best known for writing Lone Wolf and Cub; one of the most critically lauded and beloved mangas ever. For me, this adoration is based on cold hard fact. The twenty-eight volume epic offered countless examples of Koike's writing chops and mixed an acute degree of intelligence and knowledge with a mastery of dramatic tension. Conversely, my experiences with Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman's artist, are non-existent. Regardless, this first volume speaks more than enough of Ikegami's abilities as an artist. His depiction of anatomy is outstanding, and the manga makes brilliant use of this anatomical dynamism with breathtaking effect. There's little criticism to be had when considering the prowess of both men's technical abilities and this is what makes Crying Freeman a work of seminal quality.

Story-wise, Crying Freeman deviates greatly from the staunchly historical tone of Lone Wolf and offers something more character driven and modern (in an 1980s sense, at least). There's still mythology surrounding its characters, but the story of one man forced into dark practices and his consequential guilt is its main thrust. Generally speaking the characters in Crying Freeman don't deviate massively from the standard archetypes of fiction. The virtuous maid; the insidious, cavalier bad guy; the tragic hero. Much is accounted for and it goes a way in undermining the unpredictability of the story. This is less of an issue when you're dealing with a fantastic writer such as Koike, however, and the entire book remains utterly compelling from cover to cover. The plotting is mature and complex and its artwork reflects this effortlessly. Sometimes it can feel slightly campy, with its design and style betraying the time period it was written in, but this compliments the pulpy feel of the manga rather than undermining it.

The issue of graphic content is important when considering this title. The shrink-wrapping and parental advisory sticker speaks honestly of the manga's content rather than being a bloated attempt to look cool. There are a lot of pornographic scenes and the violence is brutal and detailed, but both cases rarely feel pointlessly gratuitous. They compliment the mature themes and strengthen the distinctly adult nature of the book. This is not written for kids and the 18+ rating is particularly justified in acting as a guideline.

Dark Horse have done their usual bang-up job of presentation and translation. Print quality is excellent, the original cover art is used, it reads from right to left. Everything manga aficionados want from their books is accounted for and done well.

Conclusion
As a first volume Crying Freeman doesn't fall prey to many introductory conventions. We get a strong love story that compliments the main plot thread rather than straining to add humanity to its explicit violence. Even the violence is seeped with guilt and remorse, removing much of the numbing mindlessness of it. Characterisation perhaps doesn't push the boat out much, but as an entire package it reeks of quality and sophistication. I'd eagerly recommend this to anyone who enjoys 'adult' manga and especially to those who adored Lone Wolf and Cub. If this kind of pacing and character development is maintained, there's no question that Crying Freeman will justify its elevated position of love and respect.

Comments

[Ewan]

Hi, I found your review here by Googling. I've found it pretty hard to find anything about the manga rather than the anime of Crying Freeman. I too was surprised, after reading Lone Wolf and Cub (my favourite manga by far), to find that Koike also wrote Crying Freeman, which I had only heard of as an abysmal anime from back in the early days of Manga Video (in the UK, not sure if you're UK or US). It took me a while to get around to reading it, as I was rather hesitant based on the anime's reputation. It's certainly strange to read something by Koike that isn't about Samurai.

I generally agree with your review, I only wish I'd never heard of the anime so that I could have enjoyed the manga 'fresh'. I'm on the second volume now, and I've found that it gets going a bit better around there. Thinking back, I think it was the same with Lone Wolf and Cub; the first volume was rather pulpy, but by the second volume he'd really gotten into it and it became deeper and more though-provoking - he found his feet with the character by then I think. I found the first volume slightly lacking in terms of pacing and characterisation (it felt a bit rushed yet slow at the same time, hard to explain...), but in the second volume I can see some of Koike's meditative writing starting to show much more clearly, which allows the characters more expression and complexity.

Sorry to ramble like that, just glad to share my thoughts with someone else who's read this one! Check out my blog if you like, I sometimes write about anime and manga stuff in there.

[Ivan Linares]

Hello! (Before my comment, I would like to apologize for any English mistake from me) I see you liked very much the "Crying Freeman" manga. Unfortunately, this is not my case. I feel compelled to disagree.

In my country (Brazil), the gap between the second volume and the third took ten years, due to economic questions of its publisher, and I waited patiently for its conclusion. You don't know how disppointed I felt after waiting so much to get too little plot.

The story is sometimes confusing, sometimes unbelievable. For instance: the plan to find an African guerilla man in Paris by spreading sabotaged perfume bottles through the city still makes me scratch my head.

In the first two volumes Yo Hinomura wants desperately to come back to his early life and stop killing people. After the third, the author seems to have forgotten that, and Yo kills lots and lots of mobstes and para-militarians as if he liked it. The tears he sheds are only a detail, with no psychological conflict shown.

I hope the final volumes bring back the issues raised in #1 and #2. I will buy them only if they show some decent plot. By now I will only borrow them from some friend.

Also, by now I crying, like Yo. Crying for all the money I spent in this crappy issues and the better things I could have used it for. "Crying Freman" is truly a case where waiting for something is better than the thing itself.

[comic books]

that looks awesome, i'm going to have to get my hands on it to read it.

[naruto manga]

real life manga is boring. fantasy manga rocks!