While this story had great potential, I had a few issues with the content.

It started off so well. The Foreword was both touching and inspiring, and then the story began with such an intriguing concept - #1 and #2 assassins facing off against each other, one to steal the other's sign of power - a headband stating their position - in the pursuit of ultimate power. #1 is with his son when #2 challenges and eventually kills him, sparking an intense need for revenge in #1's young son.

Fast forward to when #1's son is an adult, he's now #2 assassin and spends the rest of the book single-mindedly searching for the current #1 who killed his father.

I really understand #2's struggles, his desire for revenge...right up until he repeated history and perpetuated the cycle. Once he killed a man right in front of that man's son, with a close-up implying that he would now be the target of that boy's hatred, the character lost all credibility. And I lost interest. I was looking for a John Wick-esque revenge story and what I got was more unrepentant, unfeeling than a T-1000 Terminator. That completely took away all my interest in his revenge, because he was so emotionless and uncaring that I was left with no one to root for. I didn't have this deeply scarred character that I could follow, and hope he eventually got his revenge. Instead, he shamelessly murders everyone in his path to get to his goal, including using a DISABLED woman as a shield, to protect him from bullets...right after mindlessly murdering her little brother...a CHILD!

Sorry, I was invested until #2 became a robot who didn't care about anything except revenge. I get that this was written/created 25 years ago and it was probably really revolutionary back then, but it just doesn't stack up well. Maybe it's the fact that I'M disabled and in a wheelchair, that I really don't appreciate seeing a version of myself being picked up off the ground and used as canon fodder just so that some emo kid can get revenge for a father that died when he was barely 3-4 years old...

If that stuff doesn't bother you, then ABSOLUTELY read this graphic novel. The art is sketchy but detailed, the plot is clever, but I just can't get behind a nameless assassin who has no soul. When they start killing women, children and the disabled just because it suits them, then you've lost me.

I've given it a 3* for the huge potential of the plot, the art and legacy of the book overall, and for the fact that the problems I had were *my* problems.

This book is really good and I would recommend the graphic novel as well paced. The art is really intriguing is very eccentric and over the top which I really enjoyed. I would recommend this to people who like mangoes such as bleach as it doesn’t fall in the shonen category, and it follows a really cool backstory of the main character and I’m intrigued to read on

Definitely big on style and small on substance, the lead character No. 2 is a character motivated singularly by revenge. While I think the anime pulled it off a little better, as the action shots of the manga were at best repetitive and at worst confusing, it is at least a manga that fulfils it's premise and doesn't stray from the brief.