Crying Freeman, Vol. 4 (v. 4)

Cult leader Naiji Kumaga is poised for a hostile takeover of Japan. He has the tools - 1000 submachine guns in a land with few firearms - but needs expert hands to wield them, and the assassins of the 108 Dragons definitely have what it takes. Kumaga's plan: capture the Dragons' leader, Crying Freeman, and replace him with a trained double. Snatching the world's deadliest killer is a tall order, but maybe not too tall for the merciless giant, Tohgoku Oshu! Written by the legendary creator of Lone Wolf and Cub, Kazuo Koike, and spectacularly illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami, Crying Freeman is adult manga pushed to the limits: breathtakingly violent, morally ambiguous, graphically sexual and regarded worldwide as one of the jewels in the the crown of manga.

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.