title: Samurai Executioner, Vol. 1: When the Demon Knife Weeps
author: Kazuo Koike
description: The 28-volume Lone Wolf and Cub is one of the least conventional-looking <i>manga </i>series to Westerners. Instead of the big-eyed people, sketchy backdrops, and sticky-cute aura of youth <i>manga,</i> it features realistically rendered Japanese, settings that Americans will recognize from historical samurai movies, and the atmosphere of such films. This book inaugurates an English-translation series of the Lone Wolf and Cub spin-off Samurai Executioner, which is a stunner in every way. Like youth <i>manga,</i> it has plenty of violence--but graphic, realistic violence. Unlike youth <i>manga, </i>it has plenty of sex--brutal and perfunctory, though hardly pornographic (no visible genitals). Dialogue is sparse; period terms are merely transliterated (a brief glossary is appended). Best of all, imagery, angles of vision, composition, and visual-narrative procedure bespeak Kojima's deep knowledge of classic Japanese cinema (the late artist's last works were graphic novelizations of Kurosawa films). The five stories here are crime shockers with medieval-Japanese-style police-procedural elements; the first also introduces the executioner, thereafter a secondary character, though always around at each tale's climax. <i>Ray Olson</i><br><i>Copyright &#169; American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Season Opening Ceremony & First
  
  
  Inning
  
  
  
  
  
  **Season Opening Ceremony**
  
  
  “I’m a killer, and I came to kill you today.”
  
  
  Shunsuke Saruwatari concisely stated his business and flicked
  
  
  open the knife he was holding.
  
  
  The other man was greatly surprised. Since a killer with a
  
  
  weapon suddenly busted into the bathroom as he submerged himself
  
  
  into the bathtub and was relaxing, it was natural for him to be
  
  
  shocked.
  
  
  “Here.”
  
  
  The man was even more surprised when Saruwatari handed over his
  
  
  knife.
  
  
  “……Eh?”
  
  
  His mouth gaped open, and he stared at Saruwatari’s face. He had
  
  
  thought he would be killed out right, yet for some reason the
  
  
  killer gave him his weapon. _How come? What does he mean to do
  
  
  with this? Is it a trap?_ Uncomprehending, the man was left
  
  
  bewildered. That was his mannerism.
  
  
  “Here,” Saruwatari grasped the blade of the knife and had the
  
  
  scabbard face the other. “Take it.”
  
  
  “Ha? Eh? W-why -”
  
  
  “Get right on with it.”
  
  