The ninth episode of the first season of Lone Wolf & Cub is Six Roads to Infinity, which was edited, with one other episode, for an English-dubbed feature adaptation called Through A Child's Eyes directed by Minoru Matsushima. I've never seen the dubbed version so can't assass its quality, but for me it is absolutely essential to hear the original language & Kinnosuke's actual voice.
In episode 9, Gunbei is the only remaining acknowledged son of Retsudo, the head of the Yagyu spies, & the arch enemy of Ogami Itto. Gunbei is the only Yagyu other than Retsudo himself with any chance of standing against Itto. Plus Gunbei bears a grudge as of old, for having lost an exhibition duel years before on a technicality. He has never stopped believing he would otherwise have defeated Itto & has ever since wanted a rematch.
 Six Roads to Infinity is an unusually talky episode in dire need of little Daigoro's presence. The episode provides a fuller political background for how the intense enmity between Itto & the entire Yagyu clan came about, & shows the deceitful treasonous nature of Yagyu Retsudo himself.
When the long flashback is over, the film comes back alive for the final encounter between Itto & Ganbei. The duel is exciting, but overall it remains a weak episode.
Lone Wolf & Cub 1:10: Babycart on the River Styx (1973) introduces us to a group of yakuza on the river road. Among them is a woman gambler, Oko, who lost her child & is still swollen with milk.
Itto & his little son Daigoro are on the same road, with the flag mounted on the baby cart saying, "My Sword & Son For Rent." The yakuza ask to rent Daigoro to relieve the woman gambler's breast pain. Itto says, "It's his feeding time anyway" & does not want payment.
These seem to be chivalrous code-abiding yakuza. Daigoro most charmingly learns the traditional method of yakuza greetings, made from a half-squat with hand held forth empty.
Oko's father killed her husband & her child, as she had married the boss of a rival gang. Now she is gathering men to battle for revenge against her father's men.
 As the plot thickens there'll be superb swordplay & a startling plot twist, with some excellent stuff about yakuza mores.
In episode 11 The Deer Hunters, Ogami Itto's arch enemy, the Yagyu clan, has arranged for a false commision for the famed Assassin with Child, knowing as they do, "He will go to Hell for money." Even though aware it's a trap, Itto accepts the commission, as he welcomes every chance to eradicate more of the Yagyus, & getting paid for it doubles the pleasure.
Meanwhile a wandering ronin has joined a group of scam artists. They arrange bets on phonied duels. They're also "deer hunters" who bait rich marks into crooked dice games for a fee from the gambling houses.
Knowing he'll be walking into a fierce trap, Itto leaves Daigoro with a five day ration. "If I don't come back by then," he says, "use your skill to find something to eat." Daigoro lingers at the prayer shrine waiting & despite that he's only three years old, he's an uncommonly capable child, & is doing fine.
The ronin spots the baby cart & Daigoro. This is a man who killed his own family before becoming outcast from his clan, & is full of self-hatred. When Daigoro is offered money, he understands the exchange in terms of "My son & sword for hire" & agreeably goes with the ronin. Having accepted a commission, Daigoro will commit himself to the ronin as fully as to his own father.
With the little group of con artists they work out a scam for the ronin to pose as the Lone Wolf with Child & collect Itto's usual fee of 500 ryo. The con artists would then abandon Daigoro & the baby cart & let Itto take the blame for a commission never fulfilled, but the self-hating ronin has his own agenda.
This guy has no intention of just running off without completing the commission. He wants really to become the Lone Wolf & sets out with Daigoro & the baby cart with every intention of becoming Ogami Itto.
In the meantime Itto has fought his way out of the Yagyu trap, but has taken an arrow in the chest & has fallen from a cliff. As a series hero we know he'll survive, but he's too injured to get back to Daigoro within the five days intended.
Itto does not realize Daigoro is now with a ronin who may well be a madman, who seems awfully eager to be himself attacked by the Yagyu, & who has told Daigoro straight out, "Once I've killed the Yagyu, I will kill your father," for there can only be one Lone Wolf with Child.
 It's an action-packed episode with more of the swordplay coming from the ronin than Itto. His motivation is a strange one in that he wants to forget who he was or is, & become a different man. But it may also be that he is so full of guilt for having killed his own son Daisuke that he's arranging his own final duel with the only man who might be capable of killing him.
This is a poetically violent tale of painful samurai ethos & fatherhood. A fine episode.
Episode 12, Ochiyo's Boat has Ogami Itto hired to kill an unstable clan lord, as conspiring clansmen see no other way of keeping the family from being abolished should their lord's eratic behavior become known to the shogunate.
A beautiful young woman, Ochiyo, operates a ferry boat. She has been forced very much against her will to serve a wicked samurai as his personal prostitute, in perpetual & humiliating repayment of his having provided her with medicine & living expenses when her father was dying.
Other ferry operators care about Ochiyo & wish they could help her escape her obligation of being a clansman's harlot. She is in love with a poor ronin who doesn't know how she makes a living for them both.
Her beloved ronin is too depressed over his own situation to see anything but his own plight with clarity. Ochiyo is grateful to him for her very life, as without his intervention, she would have been murdered by the eratic lord. Due to his intervention, he lost his position in the clan, so Ochiyo feels responsible for his support.
Itto & Daigoro overhear the story of Ochiyo's situation. On a rainy evening, Itto arrives at the shack of Ochiyo & her ronin lover, asking if he & his son can come in from the weather.
The ronin spends every waking moment lost in his drawings & calculations. Before he was cast from the clan, he'd worked as an engineer, & still wants to prove it is possible to build a bridge across the wide river, which would change the economic fortunes of even the peasants for the better.
He has fallen ill with his bridge design unfinished, & struggles through his anguish to finish the work so that the bridge can be built even if he should die. Because Itto admires the girl's selfless efforts & silent sufferings so that the ronin she loves can finish his life's work, Itto acts in their behalf.
copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl
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