GRAPHIC NOVEL
Basilisk
The Kouga Ninja Scrolls - Volume 3

Author: Futaro Yamada
Artist: Masaki Segawa
Tanoshima
RRP: £6.99, US $13.95
ISBN-13: 978 0 099 50474 0
ISBN-10: 0 09 950474 X
Ages: 18+
Available 04 January 2007


In an old Japan that never was, a war between two feuding ninja clans is underway. The ninja wield awesome and deadly supernatural powers, which will only make the battle all the more desperate. Ten champions from each clan must fight to the death - with the victor ruling Japan for the next thousand years. But when the son of one clan meets the daughter of the other, they fall in love. Will their forbidden love end the war or drive the clans into their next battle...?

Thanks to the machinations of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the age-old truce between the Kouga and the Iga clans is no more - and now a fight to the death will decide who will reign supreme. Oboro has blinded herself in order to avoid having to kill Gennosuke, her lover - and her rival. Meanwhile, Gennosuke has urged the Iga clan to join him on a journey to Sunpu to find out the real motive behind Ieyasu Tokugawa's orders to fight. But the Iga have other plans. The hirsute Nenki and the butterfly-wielding Hotarubi rush to assassinate Gennosuke, while Tenzen has sinister intentions for a defenceless Oboro. The epic battle of blood and betrayal continues.

Volume Three in the Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls series continues where Volume Two left off - I imagine. This was my introduction to the series. Odd, I know, but sometimes that's how things are in publishing. We weren't sent the first two volumes and so I had to hit the ground running.

To be perfectly honest this wasn't as hard to follow as I was expecting. While three of the Iga clan and five of the Kouga clan are already dead, I didn't really feel as though I'd missed that much. The action comes thick and fast, and the only real let down for me was the attempt rape. Was it really necessary for the perpetrator to use such degrading language?

Other than that, this is a fantastic release and I look forward to reading the next volume.

Pete Boomer

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