Kazuo Koike wrote the greatest manga of all time. Why the fuck did he write this garbage ten years later? Crying Freeman is about an artist who upon witnessing mafia activities was kidnapped and hypnotized into becoming a perfect assassin. And yet as he never wished to be a killer he cries every time he kills. Thats pretty much all there is to his character other than how horny he is. Freeman never has to change grow or even struggle. He can be outnumbered and surrounded by men with guns but as soon as he takes out his knives you pretty much know hes gonna come out of it on top with the other guys dead. Theres no tension because Freeman is already the ultimate assassin and nobody can really compete with him. If it ever makes it seem like hes in trouble dont worry its probably all according to his plan anyway. The static protagonist the paragon is a technique that Kazuo Koike has used before in a much better manga. There it worked because the character was deeply interesting with many complex themes to explore. Here it feels like no more than a power fantasy. Its not just in fights that Freeman has an easy time. If a woman shows up in the story shes almost certainly going to end up horny for Freeman and chances are if shes attractive shell be having sex with him sooner or later. The amount of sex in the story feels juvenile rather than mature and people tend to fall in love for no reason. Including at the start of the story where Freeman and his love interest fall in love at first sight. And somehow falling in love turns Freeman from a tragic character forced to kill without the heart of a murderer into an ambitious mafia lord. He gets handed leadership of the supposed most powerful mafia in the world simply because his assassination ability with no tests of his loyalty or leadership ability. And apparently my initial read on his character was wrong because hes actually fine with killing and will spend the rest of the manga as the ruthless leader who takes down other mafias that dared to mess with him. Thats how most of the story flows. Some other criminal gang tries to take over theirs or crosses them in some other way. Freeman deals with them with very little struggle. It never builds up to a finale or climax theres just more of these episodes until its over. At least you get some violent fights out of it which dont hold back on gore. The arts fine. I like how it draws faces in closeup. From a distance they can be a little undetailed with thick brush strokes possibly in imitation of a much better artist Koike has partnered with in the past. The backgrounds can be very detailed which can make the undetailed characters look jarring against them. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of it is traced. I hated reading this manga. No character has depth. Theres an idea they start from which mostly just boils down to badass or loyal wife or whatever and they never diverge from that base idea with a single surprise. Their decisions are illogical and never fleshed out in a believable way because theyre just written to conform to that base idea even if how they got there is completely unrealistic. If I wanted to be as charitable as possible I would maybe say it explores themes of loyalty and dedication. Does it honestly say anything interesting about them? If you honestly just want a badass mafia man killing people and dont care about the story being well written beyond that or if you love the idea of mafia leaders tattooed with animals that represent what their gang does then maybe youll find this entertaining enough to be worth reading. Personally I thought it was pure mindless schlock. I only read it because it came from the same mind that created Lone Wolf and Cub. If youre looking at it for the same reason please just dont bother.