Crying Freeman, Vol. 2 (v. 2)

Crying Freeman, the deadliest assassin of the 108 Dragons clan of the Chinese mafia has taken a bride, and she has passed the harsh tests of the Dragons and been given a new name, Fu Ching Lan, "Tiger Orchid." And despite Freeman's Japanese heritage, he has been chosen to become the eventual leader of the Dragons. But someone inside the Dragons wants Freeman dead, and Tiger Orchid should make a fine hostage to draw Freeman into the open... where a monstrous killer awaits! Written by manga legend Kazuo Koike, creator of Lone Wolf and Cub and Samurai Executioner, and illustrated by the acclaimed Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is manga at its most adult: intensely violent, morally ambiguous, boldly erotic. Presented in its original right-to-left reading orientation.

Kazuo Koike is a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist, and entrepreneur. Early in Koike's career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series. Koike, along with artist Goseki Kojima, made the manga Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub), and Koike also contributed to the scripts for the 1970s film adaptations of the series, which starred famous Japanese actor Tomisaburo Wakayama. Another series written by Koike, Crying Freeman, which was illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, was adapted into a 1995 live-action film by French director Christophe Gans.

Ryoichi Ikegami was born in 1944. He got his start as a manga artist as an assistant to Shigeru Mizuki in 1966. Ikegami has produced art for a number of popular series, including Mai, the Psychic Girl, Crying Freeman, Sanctuary, Spider-Man: The Manga, and others. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga in 2001.