Just your average Yakiza story, but fun in its own way.
An old man, blind and kept in solitary confinement in the pitch black for 30 years.
A Yakuza kingpin, who ordered him put away.
A young Yakuza, fed up with having to take orders.
Who lives, who dies, who tells their stories?

A young upstart tries leads a mutiny against the head of the Yakuza as he's not satisfied with his position. So the head unleashes a blind assassin who has spent the last 30 years in prison. It's got your standard revenge tropes in it and borrows a lot from Old Boy. The art is the star here but I wasn't a fan of its overuse of silhouettes.

Further proof, if proof were needed, that mafia/yakuza stories are just boring. The design here is better than the norm, I suppose, but with several wide-screen double-page spreads it's not ideal as a digital-only release. One star for the story, as it is, three for the art.

This was not for me. The colouring was too dark and it was very wordy. I dislike wordy graphic novels because I feel it distracts from the artwork.

After five minutes if reading I had totally lost track of who was who. This is all a matter of personal taste. This one was just not for me.

This was a nice, well-written and also well-drawn comic that made me read all other comics that I already ordered and owned. It has a nice and intriguing action, and a SUPER cool adventure. I loved this comic so much!

(Contains 18SG and 18SX themes)
‘Sometimes, all that separates family and business is the width of a blade.’

My first impression based on the cover: It’s seems bold and dangerous with the main character, Shi, with his Yakuza pose.

The plot: The introduction by Jerome Pierrat on the Yakuza’s world, especially in terms of its early history and culture making me interested to know more. It’s neatly describing how Yakuza weren’t just dominating in a vendetta’s world, but also official businesses that occurred on a micro- or macro- scale, apart from shunning their Yakuza status. Furthermore, most Yakuza ‘minions’ were originated from the ‘ghetto’ – burakumin – and they’re making up a high figure for the biggest Yakuza gang in Japan, Yamaguchi-gumi.

The character: I love the way Améziane describes Saburo Yoshitoshi, Shi and Eiko. For the young and handsome Saburo, he might be a junior in the Yakuza’s world, but the way he describes how Yakuza dominates the economic structures makes him ‘someone to look at’. He’s quite skilful and determined to take ‘oyabun’ Kodama’s ‘minions’ and himself down. For the blind old man, Shi, who’s finally being released from a maximum security prison for 30 years, paving his way to finish Kodama off and find his wife back. He’s quite skilful and calm in sensing the rivalry movements. Eiko, Shi’s wife and Saburo’s mother, was a beautiful woman and works in her own small bar in a secretly dark and dirty alleyway. I felt bad for her, as she has to bear such pain in a ‘nonsensical’ turmoil made by them, targeting Kodama at the same time with a same reason.

'Clan' with story and art by Amazing Ameziane is a stylish looking graphic novel about rival gangs in Tokyo.

Saburo is a young upstart who wants to start a war between gang factions. Kodama, sensing his power is in danger, orders the release of fighter Shi. Shi is blind and he's been in prison for 30 years, but that doesn't mean he's gotten soft. Shi wades into Saburo's men with a vengeance.

I had a hard time following or staying very interested in the story, but darn did it look really cool. The art really deserves a better story, but I'm not sorry I got to read it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Pretty standard gangster/yakuza/revenge plot. the art was pretty, but if you've read Frank Miller, then you have pretty much gotten everything you can get here and more. The themes of honor and blind obedience to a code being a cover for fear to take control of their own life were moving but also pretty standard. A perfectly fine beach read.

An okay Yakuza revenge story, where violence typically only begets more violence, all presented in an exceptional art style.

A young Yakuza member wants to remove his clan's leader, the leader won't go easily and calls in the help of a long incarcerated blind sword assassin.

It's all about family, both in the crime family sense and the blood sense. Speaking of blood, a lot of it is splattered about - some of it stylised, quite a lot of it more directly.

The story is nothing you haven't seen or read before, but it's entertaining enough, and moves at a steady clip.

But you're not here for the story, you're here for the art. A mix of moody, stylised art and near photo-realism with a sharp line, it's quite excellent and worth the price of admission alone.