Lady Snowblood – if she sees your xxxx you’re dead already

In the Meiji era a kimono-clad woman enters a brothel. Hanging on the wall is, get this, an altar enshrining two penis-shaped ornaments. The woman speaks with the brothel’s owner who wishes to hire her to kill his business rival. She demands an extraordinary sum of money in advance and the man balks. With lightning speed she grabs a pair of fire pokers and, without even glancing behind her, hurls one over each shoulder. They zip through the air and pierce the penis ornaments straight through, causing them to tumble to the ground in front of the horrified man. Naturally he pays up.

This is how Lady Snowblood begins and it’s only a small taste of what’s to come. If you’ve ever heard of Lone Wolf and Cub you may be under the impression that Kazuo Koike is some kind of well-respected writer of historical manga. Perhaps you’ve heard that his work has influenced the likes of Frank Miller or that famous graduates from his program for aspiring mangaka include Tetsuo Hara (Fist of the North Star) and Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2). This is all true. Yet what nobody bothered to tell you is that Koike writes pulpy manga full of sex, violence and more sex with historical accuracy mixed in just to make you feel like this could be educational if you weren’t so distracted by the blood and tits.

The premise of Lady Snowblood is simple. Oyuki, which comes from “yuki” the Japanese word for snow, is out for revenge. Her sole purpose in life is to utterly destroy the three people who took part in killing her family and raping her mother. Ever since infancy she has been primed for this task and now she is a master assassin who takes on jobs while slowly tracking down her real targets. Oyuki is beautiful, heartless and extremely cunning. She’s been to hell and back; she’s the kind of woman you don’t want to cross. Ever.