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I'm not sure why it's taken a decade for New Lone Wolf and Cub to be published in English. Certainly it took until 2000 for Dark Horse to properly release the original series, so I suppose we were pretty far behind to begin with. Late or not, I'm glad that Dark Horse are now publishing the new series, because it's incredibly good.
We pick up exactly where the final page of Lone Wolf and Cub left off. Daigoro stands watch over his father's corpse and refuses to leave. When he eventually collapses from exhaustion, he is picked up by a wandering ronin (a masterless samurai) named Togo Shigetada. Togo nurses Daigoro back to health, and begins to train him to became a master swordsman. Forces are already at work, however, to finish the job that Yagyu Retsudo started and kill Diagoro.
Daigoro has to be the most hardcore child in the history of graphic fiction. He has spent his entire short life in a constant state of bloodsoaked conflict. He shows endurance beyond what you'd expect from grown adults. He's killed, and he's managed to survive several attempts on his life. Shortly into this first volume he even tries to kill his new companion Togo, because anyone he can kill is unworthy to succeed his father.
It's always a risk to produce a sequel to a well-known and very well-regarded work, but I think Koike has actually pulled it off. This is a wonderfully entertaining manga that manages to retain the flavour of the original but, thanks to Hideki Mori's warmer, slightly looser artwork, feel like something fresh as well. There is more warmth to this book, mostly due to the less stoic Togo taking much of the spotlight. Dark Horse release the second volume in September, and I for one cannot wait.
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