Lone Wolf and Cub

Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine Weekly Manga Action from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 volumes. It is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential manga series of all time, spawning various adaptations, including six films, four plays, and a television series.
Lone Wolf and Cub chronicles the story of Ogami Ittō, the shōguns executioner who uses a dōtanuki battle sword. Disgraced by false accusations from the Yagyū clan, he is forced to take the path of the assassin. Along with his three-year-old son, Daigorō, they seek revenge on the Yagyū clan and are known as "Lone Wolf and Cub".
Lone Wolf and Cub is considered to be among the most influential manga ever created. It has been cited as the origin for the trope of a man protecting a child on a journey across a dangerous landscape. This is known as the Lone Wolf and Cub trope or genre, which has since inspired numerous books, comics, films, television shows, and video games.

Plot

Ogami Ittō, a formidable warrior and a master of the suiō-ryū swordsmanship, serves as the Kogi Kaishakunin, a position of high power in the Tokugawa shogunate during the 1700s. Along with the oniwaban and the assassins, Ogami Ittō is responsible for enforcing the will of the shōgun over the daimyōs. For those samurai and lords ordered to commit seppuku, the Kogi Kaishakunin assists their deaths by decapitating them to relieve the agony of disembowelment; in this role, he is entitled and empowered to wear the hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa clan, in effect acting in place of the shōgun.
After Ogami Ittō's wife, Azami, gives birth to their son, Daigorō, Ogami Ittō returns to find her and all of their household brutally murdered, with only the newborn Daigorō surviving. The supposed culprits are three former retainers of an abolished clan, avenging the execution of their lord by Ogami Ittō. However, the entire matter was planned by Yagyū Retsudō, leader of the Ura-Yagyū clan, in order to seize Ogami's post as part of a master plan to control the three key positions of power: the spy system, the official assassins, and the Shogunate Decapitator. During the initial incursion, an ihai with the shōguns crest on it was placed inside the Ogami family shrine, signifying a supposed wish for the shogun's death. When the tablet is "discovered" during the murder investigation, its presence condemns Ittō as a traitor and thus he is forced to forfeit his post and is sentenced, along with Daigorō, to commit seppuku.
The one-year-old Daigorō is given a choice by his father: a ball or a sword. If Daigorō chose the ball, his father would kill him to send Daigorō to be with his mother; however, the child crawls toward the sword and reaches for its hilt; this assigns him the path of a rōnin. Refusing to kill themselves and fighting free from their house imprisonment, father and son begin wandering the country as "demons"—the assassin-for-hire team that becomes known as "Lone Wolf and Cub", vowing to destroy the Yagyū clan to avenge Azami's death and Ittō's disgrace.
On meifumadō, the cursed journey for vengeance, Ogami Ittō and Daigorō experience numerous adventures. They encounter all of Yagyū Retsudō's children along with the entire Kurokuwa ninja clan, eventually facing Retsudō himself. When Retsudō and the Yagyū clan are unable to kill Ittō, the shogunate officially proclaims him and Daigorō outlaws with a price on their heads, authorizing all clans to try and arrest/kill them and permitting anyone to go after them for the bounty. The last duel between Ogami Ittō and Yagyū Retsudō runs 178 pages—one of the longest single fight-scenes ever published in a manga.
Toward the end of their journey, Ogami Ittō's dōtanuki sword is surreptitiously tampered with and damaged by a supposed sword-polisher who is really an elite kusa of the Yagyū clan. When Ittō is finally attacked by the last of the kusa, the sword breaks and Ittō receives wounds that are ultimately fatal. Deadlocked in mid-battle with Retsudō, Ittō's spirit leaves his body after years of fatigue and bloodshed, unable to destroy his longtime enemy and ending his path of meifumadō.
The story finishes with Daigorō taking up Retsudō's broken spear and charging in fury. Retsudō opens his arms, disregarding all defense, and allows Daigorō to drive the spear into his body. Embracing Daigorō with tears, Retsudō names him "grandson of my heart", closing the cycle of vengeance and hatred between the clans and concluding the epic.
Many of the stories are written in a non-chronological order, revealing different parts of the narrative at different times. For example, Ogami's betrayal is not revealed until the end of the first volume, after many stories have already passed.

Development

Writer Kazuo Koike was inspired by the legendary hero Sigurd, who is made invulnerable by bathing in a dragon's blood—except for where a leaf shields part of his back and retains his mortality; the character of Daigorō was created to mirror this weakness in Ogami.
Koike stated in an interview that he crafted the manga to be based upon the characters themselves and that the "essential tension between imperative to meet these challenges while keeping his son with him on the journey" drove the story. According to Koike, "Having two characters as foils of each other is what sets things in motion" and "If you have a strong character, the storyline will develop naturally, on its own."
Less than a year after the manga's debut, Tomisaburo Wakayama came to Koike to propose starring in the films, to which he immediately agreed.
According to Koike, he knew from the beginning, being killers themselves, both Ogami and Retsudō must die at the end, while Daigorō should survive. Both the producers of the 1970s television series and the magazine publisher opposed this, so he had to end his story in his way "without their permission".

Characters

—The shogun's executioner, Ittō decides to avenge the death of his wife, Ogami Azami and to restore his clan.
—The son of Ittō and Azami, Daigorō becomes a stronger warrior as the story progresses.
Yagyū Retsudō—The leader of the Shadow Yagyū clan, Retsudō tries everything in his power to ensure that Ittō dies.
Abe Tanomo—The shogun's food taster and a master of poisons; originally ordered to assist Retsudō in disposing of Ittō, Tanomo dishonorably tries to kill Ittō, Daigorō, and Retsudō in order to seize power for himself. In the original TV series, his character was introduced in Episode 13 of the third series, "Moon of Desire".
Media

Manga

Japan

Written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine Weekly Manga Action. Its first installment was published on September 10, 1970. The series finished with the 145th installment published on April 1, 1976. Futabasha collected its chapters in 28 volumes, published from May 1972 to May 1976. When Lone Wolf and Cub was first released in Japan in 1970, it became wildly popular for its powerful, epic samurai story and its stark and gruesome depiction of violence during Tokugawa era Japan. As of October 2006, the manga had sold 8.3 million copies in Japan and 11.8 million worldwide.
Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the most highly regarded manga due to its epic scope, detailed historical accuracy, masterful artwork, and nostalgic yet brutally frank recollection of the bushido ethos. The story spans 28 volumes of manga, with over 300 pages each. Many of the panels of the series are depictions of nature, historical locations in Japan, and traditional activities. A couple of years into the series, a story depicts the fate of Yamada Asaemon, the main character of Samurai Executioner, also created by Koike and Kojima. One reviewer notes that Asaemon looks different in this appearance, apparently due to Ogami Ittō having been designed so similarly to the original Asaemon.

North America

Lone Wolf and Cub was initially released in North America in a translated English edition by First Comics in 1987. The monthly series of comic-book-sized issues featured covers by Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, Matt Wagner, Mike Ploog, and Ray Lago. Sales were initially strong but fell sharply as the company went into a general decline. First Comics shut down in 1991 without completing the series, publishing less than a third of the total series over 45 issues.
Starting in September 2000, Dark Horse Comics began to release an English translation of the full series in 28 smaller-sized trade paperback volumes with longer page-counts, similar to the volumes published in Japan. Dark Horse completed the presentation of the entire series, fully translated, with the publication of the 28th volume in December 2002. Dark Horse reused all of Miller's covers from the First Comics edition, as well as several done by Sienkiewicz, and commissioned Wagner, Guy Davis, and Vince Locke to produce new covers for several volumes of the collections. In October 2012, Dark Horse completed the release of all 28 volumes in digital format as part of their "Dark Horse Digital" online service.

Volumes

Dark Horse Omnibus collected editions

Starting in May 2013, Dark Horse began publishing their translated editions of Lone Wolf and Cub in softcover Omnibus editions.

Vol.	Volumes Collected	ISBN	Publication Date
1	1, 2, 3*		May 2013
2	3*, 4, 5		August 2013
3	6, 7, 8*		November 2013
4	8, 9, 10		April 2014
5	10*, 11, 12		July 2014
6	13, 14, 15*		October 2014
7	15, 16, 17		January 2015
8	17, 18, 19		April 2015
9	19, 20, 21		July 2015
10	21*, 22, 23		October 2015
11	24, 25, 26*		January 2016
12	26*, 27, 28		April 2016

Partial volumes collected in Omnibus form are marked with an asterisk.