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A manga by superstar team Kazuo and Goseki, I went into this one having loved Lone Wolf & Cub but having hated Samurai Executioner. Overall, I'm finding Path of the Assassin to be somewhere in between.

I think the biggest reason this comic is significantly better than Samurai Executioner is that it actually has a story. I think the reason it's not quite as good as Lone Wolf & Cub is because the story is meandering and tends to dwell in tedious, exposition-heavy places.

This is a fictionalized account of the end of the Sengoku period, when numerous Japanese warlords fought for control of the country. Joining ... the frey is Matsudaira Motoyasu (the future Tokugawa Ieyasu), a young warlord who has grown up the hostage of one of his political rivals. Ieyasu's fortunes change when the Igamono, the ninja clan serving his family, sends him a servant on his 16th birthday. That servant is Hattori Hanzo Masanari, and though neither man knows it, they're both destined for greatness.

Hagiography runs rampant in Path of the Assassin, but that's to be expected from any historical drama. Hanzo is peerless in everything he does, Ieyasu's motives are always clear-eyed and intellectually pure, every victory is due to some kind of brilliant battlefield revelation, etc. It gets to be exhausting after a while. Ieyasu loves his speeches.

Overall this is a fair-to-good comic. Definitely give it a shot, especially if you're into Japanese history. It's probably not the best thing to binge, as it can get tiresome. You might want to make it a casual read.

I was absolutely blown away by Lone Wolf & Cub, so after finishing I quickly tracked down as much of Kazuo's work as possible, desperate to get more. What I learned is that Lone Wolf & Cub is an amazing comic.

Samurai Executioner is basically an attempt to make lightning strike twice. Same creator duo, similar settings, similar leads, same episodic format. The only difference is that Samurai Executioner is awful.

Before I break it down I want to disclaim one thing: The art is absolutely outstanding. It has exactly the kind of spaghetti western-influenced, Eastwood-esque heroes you expect from Goseki.

Back on point: There's not really a ... story to Samurai Executioner, no over-arching narrative like in Lone Wolf & Cub. It turns out you really need that narrative, otherwise each vignette feels disposable and pointless. Yamada begins the story as a flawless model of bushido, but because he has no quest nor equal his stories quickly lose any sense of tension or drama.

I think even Kazuo realized this, as he introduced the rookie cop Kasajiro to the series about halfway through, to give the series a character who might actually grow and develop. The only problem with that is that I'm a normal human in 2016 reading about an Edo-era cop as written by a fairly conservative Japanese man in the 70s. Plucky little Kasajiro quickly loses my sympathy when he does stuff like beat his wife for sleeping on a hot day, or torture someone for a confession.

There's stuff to enjoy in Samurai Executioner, particularly in the beginning when you can still fool yourself into thinking that it's going somewhere. Unfortunately the longer you read the more lackluster, aimless and frustrating an experience it becomes.

Overall poor. Would not recommend.