Crying Freeman, Part 1: Portrait of a Killer

by Kazuo Koike

Book Overview

He is Yo Himomura, deadly assassin for the 108 Dragons, the Chinese Mafia. But to the criminal underworld who fear him, he is known as Crying Freeman, the killer who sheds tears at the fate of his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0929279670
• ISBN13: 9780929279671
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Viz Media
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

If only Amazom.com allowed 10 stars

This book is a very touching and gripping story about death, loyalty, and the invulnerable tie of love between two people. Kazuo Koike's takes you into the world of not just the average street punk crime syndicate, but of one which exemplifies of the bond of family. That's not the say this book is all about family get together with an occasional killing between meals, oh no, this book with satisfy every craving you have. The violence in this book is masterful. It's not all about shoot 'em up and bang, bang, but goes deeper into what makes a person kill, and how far would they go to put their lives down for the sake of others. The book begins with the hero doing what he does best, killing. But what Kazuo Koike tried to amplify with Freeman was to put a human touch to his character. The fact that he sheds tears every every time he kills, hence the title, allows more sympathy in his agony than hate for the fact that he's a killer. The book also introduces the strength of love, and how it can brake all barriers, forcing a man who's killed without remorse many times, to be conflicted not to do so by the mere meeting of eyes of a woman he's hired to kill. The structure of the 108 dragon syndicate was well written. These aren't Mafia men who put money before friends and meet loyalty with the end of a barrel. The 108 dragons is more of a family than a crime organization. Each member looks to the other as a brother or sister and put their lives in the face of a cocked gun barrel to spare the life of the other (one scene in the book shows this best, you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it). The writing of the book is more serious than comical. Calling this a comic book is more of an insult really. Once you've read past the first few pages, you'll soon know what I mean. The characters in this book are also legendary. If you take the time to really feel the dialogue shared by Freeman and his enemies, you'll find that nothing ever written can compare to this. They don't fight for money, or just cause their hired too. Freeman is more like a challenge to these men and women who dare to come and face him. From the African woman who fell in love with him just for the way he fought, to the syndicate vileness woman who's taste for blood first submerged by watching one of Freeman's assassinations. And lastly, the master of graphic novel illustration, Ryoichi Ikegami. There really are no words to compare Ikegami's art but to see it for your own eyes. Every detail form the human form to the facial expressions and very (and i mean very) detailed love scenes in the book are just jaw dropping. It's very, very sad that the anime version of this book is out of production because they really stayed true to what crying freeman was all about. Buy it, read it, and fall in love with this book. You owe it to yourself.

Star-crossed Lovers?

Portrait of a Killer, the first in a five part series is the hook that will draw you into this story of organised crime.A beautiful young artist named Emu Hino introduces us to this world by telling us via a diary she is writing, how she witnessed a brutal gang killing.What makes her account special is that upon seeing the face of the killer, she notices that this beautiful young man, seemingly distraught by his own actions, cried after carying out this multiple execution. She obsesses about him. Knowing full well that because she is a witness to this crime, she will be his next victim. After all, that is the code. So she waits for him.We agonise with Emu because, she is being torn by the knowledge that she will die soon by his hand and she doesn't want to die a virgin, a fact that she puts in her diary. So in the depths of her desperation and loneliness she hatches a plan. She will ask her killer to take her virginity before he takes her life. This he agrees to do after reading her diary, but in so doing, Emu's simple request touches him in an unexpected way. Their burgeoning love for each other puts him in deep water with not only the rival gang who want him dead, the police who want him captured, but also with his own crime syndicate whose rules he has broken.We learn through Emu's eyes who Crying Freeman is and how he became the head hatchet man for the 108 Dragons, and by the end of the tale, you end up empathising with this Assassin's plight, for although his name is Freeman, he is not really free. Portrait of a Killer in my mind is the best of the Crying Freeman series and is at its heart an unusual love story. As is the case with most manga, you will find it is packed solid with extreme violence, sex and very beautifully drawn characters. Ryoichi Ikegami's illustrations' makes this one of the most visually gripping series around and Kazuo Koike's story will keep you glued to the pages to the very end. A definite buy for all who want something more from manga than just pretty pictures.

Wow.

It's really amazing how close to the comic book the Crying Freeman movie was -- and the book is pretty incredible. Sex, violence, and a stunning storyline. Why haven't Americans made this a national bestseller?

a new hero for the millenium

As the razor sharp distinction between what is good and what is evil blurs the closer we get to y2k, a new type of hero has emerged from Japan who is not James Bond or John Wayne.Crying Freeman is an assassin, an anti-hero, but he is so good at what he does that the reader is rooting for him to win in the end.He is, after all killing others of his own kind.The story captures the imagination because it is realistic and the key ingredients are very similar to a book written by Jack Trevanian called "Shibumi".In that book, an assassin named Nicholas Hel dispatches his targets with an obscure martial art that could only be translated as "naked kill". He is also very well versed in the art of seduction. I wonder if the author of Crying Freeman ever read that book? Shibumi is a Japanese word to describe the art of "effortless perfection", a quality amply displayed throughout the manga.In any case, if you're bored with the clean-cut goodygoody heroes of the past and are looking for something grittier, then Crying Freeman is for you.