Crying Freeman (Dark Horse)

(Dark Horse, 2006)
™ and © 1986 Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami

Being an assassin is in vogue, so it’s fitting that Crying Freeman assault a new generation of readers. Though abducted and brainwashed by the Chinese gangsters known as The 108 Dragons, Yo Himomura can’t help but cry for his targets, and this shred of surviving humanity may eventually lead to his captor’s downfall.

But first he is on a collision course with the female artist Emu Hino, who witnesses his handiwork and begins to obsessively paint his portrait. Now that he’s been made, can he make love to his next victim, as well?

In the first wave of Japanese comics that gained cult popularity in America, this breakthrough title was “mature” before such fare was shrink-wrapped and stickered. This buff hero raised more eyebrows than his own, with a penchant for bloody executions while in his tattooed birthday suit. He also attracted a boatload of horny femmes fatales. Written by Lone Wolf’s Kazuo Koike and pencilled by ultra-realist Ryoichi Ikegami, this intoxicating brew of sex and violence continues to define the standard for mature manga.

— Oliver Chin

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