47 Ronin

Writer:

Mike Richardson

Artist:

Stan Sakai

Cover Artist:

Stan Sakai

Genre:

Action/Adventure

Publisher:

Dark Horse

To make a confession, upon viewing the cover for this comic, I hadn't high hopes for it. Despite it being based on a famous Japanese legend with art provided by a modern legend of comics, Stan Sakai, 47 Ronin looked amateurish and just a little bit like a rush job.

I'm glad to say that I didn't judge the comic by its cover (that and I fear the bosses' wrath for not reading it :p). It was just a poor cover, for inside Sakai's usual high standard of work comes to the fore, producing simple but elegant pages that bely just how hard it is to maintain such a steady standard through a long career.

The story of a samurai who is disgraced and tricked into seppuku (ritualised suicide that was considered honourable) due to corrupt politicians and his faithful servant who tries to avenge him, as told by said servant to a monk, its a slow paced story that takes time to unwind. The first two issues cover the opening chapters of the tale, whilst providing some commentary to explain elements that may otherwise fly over the average readers head.

What is nice though is that to those who haven't heard of the tale before probably won't be able to guess what direction the story is heading, a welcome change to most limited series, which you can figure out exactly what will happen by the mid point of the first issue.

In the end, there's not much to say about 47 Ronin. It's certainly well crafted and that in itself shows admirable qualities. It isn't flashy and certainly doesn't attempt to entice the audience in with anything other than good solid storytelling. That's something to be said in the current comic book world, where every minor character has to have a tragic backstory and be involved in, at least, three world saving events to be considered worth our interest.

I just think that perhaps I'm the wrong audience. It's clearly a tale from another age, where the villains are cackling schemers, the good people wise and noble and the women not heard from unless relevant to the plot in some way that affects the male characters.

That in itself isn't a crime and it certainly doesn't mark it out as a bad comic per say. I just wish that perhaps the writer could have been a bit more liberal with his retelling of the story to at least add a few moral grey areas to proceedings.But then that does seem to be the aim of the comic, so perhaps I'm just asking it to do something I shouldn't expect of it.

As faithful adaptations go (bearing in mind my knowledge of Japanese culture is pretty much fug all) it achieves that well. So if that’s your thing, or else you've always wanted a gateway into Japanese history as those big textbooks have been putting you off? Give this a go.

You can buy 47 Ronin here

Reece Morris-Jones will one day understand Japanese folklore. Just give him a chance to learn his own countries first. To clue him up, talk to him on Twitter @reecemjones

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.