Lady Snowblood, Vol. 2: The Deep-Seated Grudge, Part 2
Acclaimedmangamaster Koike's historical series look enough alike to suggest that his relationship to his artist collaborators is like that of a film director to a cinematographer. He probably constructs scenarios detailed right down to angles of vision and charges the artists to realize them with differing degrees of realism. The revenge-cum---sword-for-hire sagaLady Snowbloodis as violent as Koike'sSamurai Executionerbut set some 200 years later, in the 1890s. Perhaps because the protagonist's physical allure--she is most lethal when distractingly naked--is essential to the action, Lady Snowblood has a more romantic and fanciful appearance: imaginary lines of force abound, and a character's mental imagery may appear as a backdrop. Athletic Yuki (Lady Snowblood) adds to the fantasy in the fight scenes, tumbling and flying like a martial-arts film star. In this collection, she extends mercy (?) to a dying young woman by making love to her and dispatches one of the targets of her vengeance before getting herself in a pickle while pursuing her trade as a dazzling hit woman. A flashback acquaints us with her early training in lethal skills. Like everything Koike has a hand in, it seems, it all looks marvelous.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved