Crying Freeman

Yo Hinomura is a celebrated ceramic artist until a Chinese crime syndicate kidnaps and conditions him into a flawless killer. The hook in the title is real: he sheds tears after every assassination, the last trace of the man he used to be. A woman witnesses one of his murders, and instead of running she falls for him, and the series builds out from there into syndicate wars, betrayals, and a slow change in who Yo actually is. Koike writes it pulpy and operatic. Ikegami draws it like a photo-realist, with film-still composition and faces that could pass for portraits, which is exactly what makes the violence land.