Story wise there is nothing new to be told here. It is story of revenge, where samurai try to clear their master's name after he is accused of capital crime and executed in a matter of hours by the Shogun. As a direct consequence of his crime his entire family is banished and his household is no more. Angered with the way their master is brought down his samurai decide to take action and bring the parties involved to justice.

For all means and purposes this is a story of a suicide attack executed by group of people that have no further reason to live (loss of position and rather rigid social rules that do not allow for survival of anyone who lose their face - in a manner of better to die than live [in shame]).

Story is as far as I know (having read few translations) the most popular telling, one were spotlight is on honor and justice.

Art is more comic-y than one might expect. It is classic Stan Sakai comic with only difference being that he is not working with anthropomorphic animals but human characters. For some this style might be in conflict with the seriousness of the story but I had no issues with it.
Shots and angles are great and you cannot get lost and wander what is going on. Colors are a little bit subdued but I think this was for a dramatic visual effect. All in all I liked the art pretty much.

So for a classic story this is a really good book. If you never heard the story then I wholeheartedly recommend this book. And if you have I recommend this one as a pretty good comic adaptation. ( )

Se la leggenda diventa realtà, vince la leggenda.

(146) ( )

Fascinatingly brutal depiction of honor in feudal Japan. It designs a perfect moral conflict with their society’s strict do-or-die rules, so I can see why this is an essential tale. The art is reliably well-drawn and spaced. It was interesting to see Stan Sakai in a supporting role here solely as artist, though I imagine he had some input with Richardson’s clear (yet plain) dialogue. Very good! ( )

Excellent rendition of a traditional Japanese tale

Visit my blog, The Itinerant Librarian to read my full review of this. Click (or copy/paste) the link below.


http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2014/03/booknote-47-ronin.html ( )