Kozure Ookami
Lone Wolf & Cub

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TL:DR
Initially episodic and a little repetitive at the start but then gets really, really good half way through.

Story: 7/10
The manga is inseparable from the era it was written in: a spate of terrorist attacks, rampant political corruption and student protests. This manga makes a point to emphasise that Itto is one of the last ‘true samurai' (multiple people are moved to tear by this), how the rest of society has forgotten bushido, the lords are corrupt or have forgotten their duty, etcetera and I don't think it's a big leap to suggest the manga is the author's reaction to the world around them.

The first 70% ... of the manga are episodic, unconnected stories with little relevance to the overarching plot except a few that builds on Itto's backstory or the machinations of his nemesis. However, they do build up the characters and some of Itto and Daigorou's backstory. They also cover the pair's philosophy and show us how our protagonists react to the world. They are not bad, individually interesting but they're fairly repetitive and feel a little aimless.

This is not aided by the fact that the majority of fight in the early manga are entirely uninteresting. They are extremely short (not usually more than a page or two), not very visually interesting and there is hardly ever a single moment where the reader believes that Itto could lose a fight. And if he does lose? Well, it was actually on purpose you see. Yeah, the fights are not that interesting to begin with.

Then we get to the latter 30% of the manga, and it goes from decent to absolutely amazing. When the author gets serious with the overarching plot, I couldn't put the manga down it was so intense. I was flying through the volumes, I simply had to see what was next. I wish we got here sooner but reading this manga was worth it for this.

Character: 7/10
Itto is less a real personality and instead the idealised personification of bushido. He is not exactly complex, he simply does whatever the most ‘samurai’ thing it is possible to do in the situation. As a modern westerner, it is interesting to see how one was supposed to live the complicated Bushido way of life.

Daigorou is the least realistic depiction of a child I can think of. Actual child soldiers are more child-like than this. I think it fits the themes of the manga but the way he behaves is almost distractingly unbelievable.

Retsudo is quite similar to Itto but I actually found him more interesting though I won't spoil it.

The one-off characters in the episodic episodes are more hit or miss. Sometimes they'll be interesting but they re-use the same archetypes a lot.

Art
Absolutely phenomenal for the most part, the character design, the facial expressions, nearly everything.

Overall: 8/10
Good but sort of dissapointing considering it's reputation. If it had gotten to the real meat of the story sooner instead of all the episodic fluff then I think this could easily be a 9. However, I do recommend this manga for the real story in the latter half of the manga, it's spectacular. I'm not saying that the episodic stuff is bad, I enjoyed my time with the first half of the manga but the final arc is just so good that it makes the rest look kind of dull.

I have tried to like this manga, I have tried to force myself to keep going because I know it's a classic. A part of me is even disappointed in myself for dropping this series but I have to be honest with myself, nothing can please everyone.

I respect this manga. I respect the art, it's fantastic. I respect the themes, not everything is as simple as good and bad. I respect the amount of research that was done to create an authentic feudal japan setting.

My biggest issue with this series is the episodic format. I understand this is a completely subjective thing and from ... an objective point of view this is a really bad reason to not be a fan of something, but personally I prefer a consistently flowing story. I dropped this series after the 19th chapter and have been told that eventually it reaches a continuous arc, but that is apparently near the end of the series. Some information flows through between chapters but it's very minor and you will basically be dealing with the same two main characters the whole way through. These are also long chapters, eventually some reaching over 50 pages. So to continuously have to slog through these long chapters for some self contained story that doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things is not a good pay off in my opinion.

There was a chapter or two about the MC's past and why he does what he is doing now, they were easily the best chapters I managed to read. You will get bits and pieces of character development flowing through but it's very minor.

If you're like me and don't care much for episodic series, then you might not be a fan of this. It definitely has good qualities, don't get me wrong. If you like episodic series then by all means please give it a try, you will probably enjoy it.

This manga is actually a compilation of dozens of very short and completely independent stories that only share the same protagonists (in fact, you can read the chapters in any order you want, it doesn't matter). That means that there is no progression in the story at all, the author could have ended it at chapter 10 and it would be the same as ending it at chapter 100, it's just adding more of the same.

Also, the adult protagonist is pretty dry and impassive, the drawing style makes it difficult to differentiate some characters, and in general it can get repetitive (after all, each ... chapter is always the Wolf killing a new target, the only novelty is how he approaches them and why they hire him to do it).

To be honest, I don't understand why this manga has a higher score than other works by Kazuo Koike like Hanzou no Mon (yes, that manga also has some issues, but at least it's a proper story, with its progression and character development...).

The only strong points here are the setting (it skillfully shows some of the customs and mentalities of feudal Japan) and the occasional moments when the child has some prominence (he proves to be very resourceful for his young age, but also pure and kind).