Lone Wolf and Cub Omnibus Volume 2

The first Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus did a phenomenal job introducing the main characters and collecting enough stories to get anyone new to the saga interested enough to want to read more. The second volume has fewer stories, but most of them are much longer than those in the first volume. While I love this story and always enjoy reading any chapter, I have to say that I won’t give in to my inner LW&C fanboy and give this volume 5 stars by default. It’s still a lot better than many other Japanese comics that are getting published left and right these days, but in comparison to other volumes, this one doesn’t have as much oomph. Even then, it’s a great read and very much worth your time.If you’re on this page, then I’m sure you’ve already read the first volume, or maybe you’ve already read the entire series and are wondering how the omnibus books hold up. These books are a bit bigger in size than the original volumes, but are still printed in left-to-right format, something that drives me crazy. The quality of the paper used for the cover leaves a lot to be desired, as the image chips away over time even with light use, and I really wish these would’ve been released in hardcover formats. You’re getting a ton of material for an insanely low price here though. 11 chapters, over 700 pages!Just as I did in my review of the first omnibus, I’ll give a brief summary of some of my favorite chapters here:-Chapter 1: The White Path Between the Rivers. The book starts off with a backstory, showing Ogami Itto doing his job as executioner. There’s a pretty horrific decapitation at the beginning, as well as a child lord who is executed, despite many retainers crying for Itto to stop. It’s here where we find out what exactly happened to Itto’s wife, and what started his whole journey on the assassin’s path. How he was framed was just downright dirty, and then for it to continue when the higher ups pay a visit, even wearing chain mail under their robes, it shows just how badly the Yagyu wanted Itto out of the picture. This is a very powerful chapter, and you can’t help but feel bad for the Ogami clan, especially Daigoro.-Chapter 3: Close Quarters. Ok, this isn’t all that memorable of a chapter for the most part, but it ends with a bang. Literally. I was laughing out loud with joy when it ended because I couldn’t believe Itto would do what he did. You would think people would know better than the double cross the guy!-Chapter 6: Parting Frost. This is mostly a Daigoro chapter, showing us a good look at how special he is and how much he’s learned from his father at such an early age. Daigoro is waiting for his father in a temple, but several days go by with no sign of him, so the little boy heads out to see if he can find him. Tired and hungry, he passes a temple and finds some food left in front of a statue. Despite no one being around to catch him if he were to just take the food, he still makes an offering- his vest, and trades it for the food. A samurai who was praying at the temple sees this and follows Daigoro, seeing that he has a certain look in his eyes. Daigoro eventually makes it to a field that’s about to be burned down by the farmers, and becomes trapped with nowhere to go.-Chapter 7: Performer. Probably the best chapter in the book because of how it plays out. A woman with a huge tattoo on her back, and a big one covering her right breast is killing samurai and cutting off their mage. Itto is sent out to find and kill her, but while he’s doing so, other men are out for the woman. When he finds out why she’s doing it, he allows her to go through with her quest, out of respect because he’s doing the same thing. It turns out that she was a skilled fighter, and got a job to train a lord’s women, but her male equal didn’t like this, and did horrible things to her. She’s out for him and won’t stop until she gets her revenge.-Chapter 10: Black Wind. A very different chapter from what we’re used to. Itto has taken up work at a farm, planting rice. Daigoro watches his father, seeing a different man from what he’s seen for the past 3 years. Everyone on the farm is wondering why a ronin has come to plant rice when he’s not a beggar, and is actually keeping up with all the other workers. Apart from a few older men on the farm, Itto is the only man working, as all of the others have been rounded up to work on levees to help fight the flooding. Several officials see Itto working and demand he come with them to work with all the other men, but he refuses. Planting the rice is more important than anything else at the moment and he makes quick, surprisingly non-violent work of them. Soon, even more “important” people come to take him away. When you find out why Itto was planting rice, it’s pretty touching.-Chapter 11: Decapitator Asaemon. Just like with chapter 3, I didn’t really think this was -that- great of a chapter, but it’s an important one if you’re a fan of Koike and Kojima’s other stories, as Asaemon is from Samurai Executioner! Asaemon is the one entrusted with the task of making the test cut with the shogun’s sword. He’s called on by two lords to find and kill Ogami Itto, as there are rumors going around that the Yagyu framed him, and while they’re being hunted and need to pay, Itto needs to be taken care of as well because it’s dishonorable for the shogun’s executioner to be an assassin. Asaemon is considered to be right up there with Ogami Itto and Yagyu Retsudo, and is seen as the only one capable of ending this. Not long after he leaves, he’s attacked by Retsudo’s men. Rather than send everyone out to dispose of Asaemon, Retsudo figures it’d be better to just let Asaemon fight Itto and save them the hassle. If Itto lives, fine. If Asaemon wins, Retsudo will finish him off. A duel is setup between Itto and Asaemon, and it ends in such a cheap way that you’ll wish the Yagyu hadn’t been involved.I did like a few of the other chapters, notably chapters 2 and 9. The thing is, while the chapters here are longer, they just didn’t feel as built up as they could’ve been. I would’ve liked more explanation of things to have them more fleshed out, rather than getting the problems taken care of so quickly. I also didn’t understand a few things in this book. In chapter 4, there’s a part where Ogami Itto is fighting with someone, and I can NOT figure out how his opponent died when it doesn’t look like his sword made contact with the guy. In chapter 3, on both pages 168 and 169, a random illustration of a weapon takes up the top panel of both pages, and it has nothing to do with what’s going on on either page. I also noticed an error on one of the drawings- page 601 on the top panel. Daigoro seems to have an outline of a bandanna on his head, but he doesn’t put it on until the bottom panels. I hate to seem nitpicky but there’s also some drawings in this chapter that look unfinished, notably on page 618 with the guy standing right in front of Itto. That’s like the most non-detailed drawing of a person I’ve ever seen by Kojima.These issues aside, volume 2 of the Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus is still really good. Even if there’s a future volume that I end up giving 3 stars, this is still a fantastic series everyone should give a shot, because Ogami Itto is hands down one of the best characters I’ve ever seen, and seeing the story play out from start to finish is really something. Ignore the terrible cover art by Frank Miller- most of the content is awesome.

Scalpers during pandemic wanted a lot of cash and I waited as hard as it was and saved 200 story continued as norm love it.

The greatest samurai story ever created continues it's epicness and awesomeness in this second volume of the omnibus editions. This volume includes the rest of vol. 3, all of vol. 4 and all but the last story of vol. 5 of the previous editions. The stories "The White Path between the Rivers" thru "Decapitator Asaemon". I love the bigger size and length of these new editions, but there are small things I miss about the old editions.In the old editions, there is a picture on the title page of every volume before the table of contents, and a picture on the title page of each individual story (giving a pretty good visual summary the story you are about to read.) And there is also a small picture on the bottom of the blank page after each story, usually Daigoro being cute. I also like how the old editions have "Lone Wolf and Cub Book (whatever):The End, To Be Continued" printed under the final panel at the end of every volume, and THE END printed much larger at the end of the final story. Also it seems that these new editions will not be including the "Ronin Report" (very insightful segments about various themes in LW&C, descriptions and history of swords and other weapons, the LW&C movies and other things) or the picture galleries that appeared in the back of various volumes.Anyway those are all relatively small details that don't affect my enjoyment of these awesome new omnibus editions. It does however mean that I won't be selling off my collection of the old editions anytime soon. I will enjoy having the complete set of both editions in my collection, both having their advantages. The hard part is going to be waiting until 2015 to get the full set, at the rate they're being released. But on the bright side we do have "Shin (new) Lone Wolf and Cub", Koike's recently released 11 volume follow up to LW&C, to look forward to sometime early next year.And speaking of details, take note of the small new detail in the Frank Miller cover art of this volume: At the bottom left there is the face of a guy screaming in agony as Itto stabs him with his Dotanuki that didn't quite fit on the cover of the old edition (vol. 12). I always looked at it as Itto with his sword behind him swinging at the opponent in front of him, who looks to have his sword ready to block. I suppose it's obvious at first glance, but I felt it worth mentioning because with Lone Wolf & Cub, as with most things, it's all in the details.Can't wait for volume 3!EDITED: I also forgot to mention two important things I like better about the old editions: the first is each one has it's own title. "The Assassin's Road", "The Gateless Barrier" and so on. Usually (but not always) it's the title of the most important story found in that volume, and sums up the volume as a whole. Whereas the omnibus editions are just volume 1, volume 2, etc. I find it much more interesting to think of a volume in terms of a cool title like "Talisman of Hades" versus just "volume 11".And the final, possibly most important detail regarding why I think the old editions are better: The stories fit so perfectly well into 28 volumes of, on average, 5 stories each. For example, Volume 2: The Gateless Barrier contains 5 stories that all take place during the winter with snowy backdrops (with the exception of maybe the first story) and then in vol 3 back to no snow. But in the omnibus vol 1, it's all just lumped in there with volumes 1 and 3. Another example is Volume 15: Brothers of the Grass. All 5 stories in that volume deal in some way with the "Kusa" (grass), secret ninjas planted in hans and villages around the nation. And the stories in the previous and following volumes do not feature the grass. But when the omnibus editions catch up to that point, volume 15 will probably be lumped in with volumes 14 and 16, and you might not notice the thematic nature of the stories as well. I'm not sure how it was released in Japan, but it feels to me like it was in fact meant for exactly 28 volumes of roughly 5 stories each.Ok end of rant.

But the stories in this volume, which are better than the first, and the price almost make up for it. My aging eyes still has to squint from time to time to read the word balloons and the small size does take away some of the grandeur of the artwork, but it still a handy way to acquire one of the best samurai sagas ever. Yes, the story still holds up after all these years.

Yeah!

Assassin Ogami Itto and his young son Daigoro travel a dark road, beset by enemies sworn to destroy the Lone Wolf & Cub. But how did Ogami, once the Shogun's Loyal retainer & trusted executioner, become a dishonoured fugitive marked for death by the shogun Himself? What hidden forces plot & move to destroy Ogami's family and fuel his relentless quest for retribution.

The 2nd omnibus volume is a collection of volumes 4 through 6 and it's presented in the same satisfactory condition as the 1st book. I would also like to add that the spine seems to be more flat and stable. I remember a previous review stated that the 1st book was slightly curved in the middle but it seems like that will no longer be the case.

Was introduced to this series back in 1988, when they were published here in the states by First Comics. Great series, it came on the heels of reading Frank Miller's RONIN. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of black & white illustration as well as Japanese history.

I never expected to get hooked on these stories in the way that I have done. Yet here I am, writing another five star review for them.If you love samurai stories, then they come no better than this. Go for it!

Great quality, story and obviously hundreds of pages to read! :)

So this was much better then volume 1 which I was not too impressed with after reading the entire Samurai Executioner series. As such I have order the next two volumes of the omnibus through a local comic shop since Amazon does not have these in stock. Love the stories and the art work has gotten even better to helping bring the stories to life the much better, overall a fantastic second outing.

Este manga lo consideró uno de los mejor que me eh leído. Tiene un desarrollo brutal de la trama. La combinación del arte con la escritura es simplemente hermosa, por lo cual te mantiene en un constante cambio de emociones.El tomo fue el que me engancho con esta historia, ya que capitulo por capitulo te presenta situaciones morales y éticas, las cuales son solucionadas de manera que te hacen cuestionarte si esa fue la manera correcta o no.Recomiendo que lean este manga para abrir mas el mercado a historias innovadoras como lo es esta obra.

Good condition. But for the price, its a deal.