Lady Snowblood

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Lady Snowblood
修羅雪姫 (Shurayuki-hime)
Genre	Gekiga, Action
Manga
Authored by	Kazuo Koike (writer) Kazuo Kamimura (artist)
Publisher	? Dark Horse Comics
Serialized in	?
Original run	? – ?
No. of volumes	4

Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫, Shurayuki-hime^?) is a gory revenge-themed action manga by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Kazuo Kamimura. The plot centers around the title character, an assassin who seeks vengeance against the bandits who raped her mother and murdered her father, often using her sexual appeal as a weapon. Originally published in Japan in the early 1970s, it was translated and published in English between 2005-2006 by Dark Horse Comics.

Contents 1 The Story 1.1 Volume 1 1.1.1 Episode 1 - Sumida River Loincloth Cutting Board 1.1.2 Episode 2 - Stylish Woman and Umbrella over rain of Blood 1.1.3 Episode 3 - Love, Hate, String of Blood, and Confession 1.1.4 Episode 4 - Dead Cherry Blossoms and the dance of short sleeve with white blade 1.1.5 Episode 5 - Rokumeikan Murder Panorama 1.2 Volume 2 1.3 Volume 3 1.4 Volume 4 2 Film adaption 3 Trivia 4 Bibliography

[edit] The Story

Dark Horse Comics published the English version into 4 separate volumes. Within each volume there are separate episodes, although episodes is usually a self contained arc it is also a continuation of the larger story.

[edit] Volume 1

The first volume contains 5 episodes :

1. Episode 1 Sumida River Loincloth Cutting Board
2. Episode 2 Stylish Woman and Umbrella over rain of Blood
3. Episode 3 Love, Hate, String of Blood, and Confession
4. Episode 4 Dead Cherry Blossoms and the dance of short sleeve with white blade
5. Episode 5 Rokumeikan Murder Panorama

[edit] Episode 1 - Sumida River Loincloth Cutting Board

Lady Snowblood is contracted to assasinate the oyabun from a gambling den. She cheats using powdered dice to lure out the oyabun before killing him and the guards outside in the snow.

[edit] Episode 2 - Stylish Woman and Umbrella over rain of Blood

Lady Snowblood is hired to assasinate Jinba, a brothel owner and find out what makes his brothel so popular. She starts a fire on one of Jinba's buildings before helping to put it out to gain his trust. Upon learning brothel's popularilty is a lesbian sex show, she kills Jinba.

[edit] Episode 3 - Love, Hate, String of Blood, and Confession

A child is born in a female prison. The mother suffers terribly giving birth but before dying she tells the tale of how her husband and son were murdered and she was brutally raped.

Her four tormentors are :

• Gishiro Tsukamoto
• Hanzo Takemura
• Tokuichi Shoei
• Okono Kitahama

She escaped their clutches by killing Tokuichi Shoei but was caught by the police and sentenced to life imprisonment. This child "Oyuki" is cursed to carry out the vengeance her mother is unable to. This is where the reader learns Lady Snowblood's name.

[edit] Episode 4 - Dead Cherry Blossoms and the dance of short sleeve with white blade

Oyuki is given a contract to slay Kotozo Shimaya who runs a rickshaw business which preys on unaccompained women.

[edit] Episode 5 - Rokumeikan Murder Panorama

Oyuki learns the skills of pickpocket from an inmate friend of her mother. Using her newly acquired skills she frames corrupt high rank officials into shutting down a rokumeikan (Social Hall) which was for the westernisation of Japan.

[edit] Volume 2

[edit] Volume 3

[edit] Volume 4

[edit] Film adaption

Main article: Lady Snowblood (film)

In 1973, it was adapted by film director Toshiya Fujita, starring Meiko Kaji as the titular character. The film spawned a sequel, Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (Shurayukihime: Urami renga, 1974), and a science fiction remake, The Princess Blade (Shurayukihime, 2001), starring Yumiko Shaku.

[edit] Trivia

• The Japanese title Shurayuki-hime is apparently a pun originating from 白雪姫 (Shirayuki-hime "Princess Snow-White"), which was the the Japanese title of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.^{[citation needed]}
• The Kanji character 羅(shura)means Carnage. The title was translated into "Lady Snowblood" because the character is connected the terms shura-no-chimata (bloodshed) and shuraba/shurajō "scene of carnage".^{[citation needed]}
• In Kill Bill Vol. 1 during the animated sequence when O-Ren Ishii is getting her revenge, the line "Look at me closely. Do I look like someone you may have killed?" is taken directly from Lady Snowblood, except Snowblood says "raped" instead of "killed."

[edit] Bibliography

Title	ISBN	Dark Horse Published
The Deep-Seated Grudge Pt.1	ISBN 1-59307-385-2	September 2005
The Deep-Seated Grudge Pt.2	ISBN 1-59307-443-3
Retribution Pt.1	ISBN 1-59307-458-1
Retribution Pt.2	ISBN 1-59307-532-4