Lone Wolf and Cub
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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 Ōgami Ittō, the Shogun's executioner, who 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".
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Story
A formidable warrior, Ōgami Ittō 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 Ōgami Ittō's wife's childbirth with Daigoro, Ōgami 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 Ōgami Ittō. However, the entire matter was designed to disgrace Ōgami Ittō by setting him up as the murderer and placing an ihai (funeral tablet) with the Shogun's name on it in Ōgami's family shrine (in the story this symbolized Ōgam's wish for the Shogun's death). This would make Ōgami a criminal and thus forfeit his post. The set up was planned by Ura-Yagyū, Yagyū Retsudo, leader of the Yagyū clan, in order to seize Ōgami's post for the Yagyū clan.
Disgraced, Ōgami 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.
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 9,000 pages in all).
Lone Wolf and Cub was first released in America by First Comics in 1990. Due to lack of interest they discontinued the series before its completion. However, in 2002 Dark Horse comics released the full 28 volume series, and commissioned Matt Wagner to produce new covers for the first several collections.
Films
Six Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ōgami 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, 73 and 74 respectively.
| No. | English Title | Year | Kanji | Romaji | Translation |
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| 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 | Lone Wolf and Cub: 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 | 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 | Lone Wolf and Cub: 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 | |
| 5 | Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Land of Demons | 1973 | 子連れ狼 冥府魔道 | Kozure Ōkami: Meifumando | Lone Wolf and Cub: 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 | Lone Wolf and Cub: Go to Hell, Daigoro! |
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 Ōgami 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 2005.
The movie Lone Wolf Cop: The Sex Doll Case, an S&M themed film noir, is sometimes refered 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 Ōgami Ittō, he later reprised the role in a miniseries in the mid-1980s and several related television movies. Yorozuya's portrayal of Ōgam in the series, and the series as a whole, is said to be more faithful to the manga than the Wakayama films. Considering the lenght 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 Ōgami 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 protagonist and her daughter watch Shogun Assassin as a bed-time story.
- 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 your 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 and the comic Usagi Yojimbo also have refereces to Lone Wolf and Cub.
External links
- Mighty Blowhole: Lone Wolf and Cub (http://mightyblowhole.com/lwc_info.htm)
- Dark Horse Comics: Lone Wolf and Cub manga (http://www.darkhorse.com/search/search.php?sstring=lone+wolf+cub)
- About the manga series, covers of the manga (http://www.artsofthesamurai.com/LWC/HTML/lwc.html)
- "The Shogun Assassin Movies", about the films (http://www.artsofthesamurai.com/LWC/HTML/movies.html)
- Website of 2002 TV series (http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/kozure/) (Japanese)de:Okami