Lady Snowblood (manga)

Lady Snowblood (修羅雪姫) is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Playboy magazine from February 1972 to March 1973. The series revolves around the title character, a female assassin who seeks vengeance against the bandits who murdered her stepfather and older half-brother and raped her mother.

Lady Snowblood was translated into English and published in four volumes by Dark Horse Comics between 2005 and 2006. The manga was adapted into a live-action film of the same name starring Meiko Kaji in 1973, which was followed by Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance in 1974. The manga and film adaptations have influenced a number of other works.

Title
The Japanese title Shurayuki-hime is a pun on Snow White's Japanese name (白雪姫). Additionally, shura nods to the Buddhist path of the asura, in which a devout follower is prepared to kill. The title was translated as Lady Snowblood because Asura is associated with the term shuraba "scene of a great battle" or "scene of carnage".

Plot
Four bandits-Shokei Tokuichi, Okono Kitahama, Gishiro Tsukamoto, and Banzo Takemura-murder the husband and son of Sayo, a woman whom they also rape. Sayo kills Tokuichi, but gets locked up in a women's prison for life; she then seduces multiple men to conceive a child whom she wants to deliver her vengeance on the three remaining bandits. Months later on a cold snowy night in winter, Sayo gives birth to a baby girl, whom the other women inmates name Oyuki after the snow. Sayo tells the midwife who had delivered Oyuki her story and makes her the girl's guardian before dying from childbirth complications.

Raised by the midwife, Oyuki is subjected to hellish training by a Buddhist priest. By the time she growns into an adult, Oyuki has become the assassin known as Syura Yuki. With her sword concealed in the shaft of her umbrella, Oyuki travels around Japan to hunt down her mother's enemies and deliver her vengeance. Along the way, Oyuki does contract killings, seduces her female targets, dons disguises, and even has the pickpocket Kiku-who had served time at the same prison where Oyuki was born-train her to become an expert thief.

After Oyuki gets them a hojicho, an impoverished man named Matsuemon and his fellow beggars aid her by looking for the bandits and informing her of their current whereabouts. Matsuemon even convinces Oyuki to recruit the writer Miyanara, whom she inspires to publish books about her life to draw out her mother's enemies and who becomes a father figure to her. With Miyanara and the beggars' help, Oyuki successfully commits her acts of vengeance: she frames the mastermind Okono as a murderer so she will be convicted; when Tsukamoto discovers Oyuki's plan, he holds Miyanara hostage, only to be outsmarted and slain by her; when Takemura begs Oyuki for forgiveness, she kills him and sends his body falling into the sea, yet saves his young daughter, Kobue, from a life of prostitution.

Having avenged her family, Syura Yuki throws her umbrella sword into the sea.

Characters

 * Oyuki/Syura Yuki
 * Oyuki, also known as Syura Yuki, is the main protagonist of the manga. A seductive and beautiful woman, she has formidable skills in using a sword hidden in her umbrella. She has been entrusted with a task of vengeance by her mother Sayo to kill the three surviving criminals who murdered her half-brother and stepfather. When necessary, she uses her sex appeal to distract her foes.


 * Miyanara-san
 * A writer who pens Oyuki's story in an effort to draw the final two tormentors out in the open. Although antagonistic at first, he comes to treat Oyuki as his daughter, even risking his life to assist in her quest. It is implied through their final interaction that Oyuki will return to take care of him, as he is the closest thing to a father that she has ever had.


 * Matsuemon-san
 * The leader of a band of beggars who assists Oyuki in discovering the location of her kill list in return for Oyuki stealing a hojicho for him.

Production
Written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura, Lady Snowblood was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Playboy magazine between February 29, 1972 and March 6, 1973. The chapters were collected and published under the Playboy Zōkan imprint in two volumes on December 10, 1972 and March 15, 1973. Since then the manga has been republished in various editions by different publishers, including a 1976–1977 three volume edition by Akita Shoten, a five volume 1985 edition by Takeshobo, and a two volume 2001 edition by Kadokawa Shoten.

Lady Snowblood: Resurrection Chapter (修羅雪姫 復活之章) was serialized in Weekly Playboy from November 1973 to June 1974.

Lady Snowblood was translated and published in English between 2005–2006 by Dark Horse Comics as a series of four volumes, collected into more-or-less self-contained chapters.

Film adaptations
In 1973, the manga was adapted into a feature film of the same name by director Toshiya Fujita, starring Meiko Kaji. The film was followed by Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance in 1974. A science fiction remake titled The Princess Blade, starring Yumiko Shaku, was released in 2001.

Lady Snowblood and its 1973 adaptation are credited as major sources of inspiration behind Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume One and Two and its protagonist The Bride (Beatrix Kiddo), as well as the Marvel Comics supervillainess Lady Bullseye (Maki Matsumoto), created by Ed Brubaker, Marko Djurdjevic, and Clay Mann, and voiced by Reiko Aylesworth in the animated series Hit-Monkey.

Additionally, the manga and film adaptation are an inspiration for the 2021 anime series Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood.

Stage adaptations
In November 2021, the stage adaptation of the manga was performed at the CBGK Shibugeki theater in Tokyo, with Yui Imaizumi as the main character. A sequel titled Lady Snowblood – 50th Anniversary Revival – Lady Snowblood and the Eight Rogues (修羅雪姫-復活祭50th- 修羅雪と八人の悪党) was performed in February 2022.

Video game adaptations
Character of Setsuka from the SoulCalibur franchise (started as a "Soul Edge" in the first entry of the series) of fighting video games was heavily inspired by Oyuki, both in visuals and her fighting/fencing style. Setsuka uses a knife concealed in an umbrella, exactly the same way Oyuki does, and also has nearly identical backstory and motivations for her actions in all respective SoulCalibur games where she appears. Some of Setsuka's extra costumes and additional color palettes directly reference and mirror Oyuki's clothes in original Lady Snowblood manga and both movie adaptations.

Reception
Tom Rosin from Manga Life considers Lady Snowblood "another cold-blooded revenge drama from the author of Lone Wolf", and says he enjoyed the mix of Western modernization and Japanese traditionalism. W .E. Wallo from Blogcritics.org finds the English translation weak compared to that of Lone Wolf and Cub, but recommends it to any fans of the latter series. Similarly to Tom Rosin, he praises the prevalent East–West dichotomy.