Ryuko is a 2-volume crime-spy-revenge-thriller Yoshimizu originally self-published in 2010. Ryuko was forced to leave Japan with her father, leaving her mother behind, at a young age. They ended up in Afghanistan, dealing weapons to the muhjahideen for the CIA. After that went sideways, in an incident involving a Soviet major dealing opium, an airstrike, and an Afghan kid named Harim losing his eye, Ryuko and her dad move to a fictional kingdom of Forossyah, where they had close ties with the king. Until he was deposed by one of his generals. This eventually led to a falling out between Ryuko and her father over her agreeing to protect the king's infant daughter. A falling out that ended with Ryuko killing her father to protect the baby.
In the present, Ryuko is a highly-regarded Yakuza, who learns from that same general as he's being overthrown, that she is a potential heir to the "Dragon's Head." What that is, she doesn't know, but it makes her a target. Of rival gangs, and of the American government. In particular, a CIA guy that Yoshimizu draws as a dead ringer for Brian Cox's character from the Bourne movies. (Maybe Yoshimizu was doing that throughout, using real people as a visual reference for characters, but that was the only one I caught.)
As it turns out, being Dragon's Head means you're the leader of a vast shadow army, two million strong. Only women can be the Dragon's Head, and a) it requires having a small gold necklace, and b) having killed your father. As discussed, Ryuko took care of "b" a while ago, so it's a matter of people trying to get the necklace from her and get their own candidate in place. Primarily a younger girl named Situ Zi, who Yoshimizu always draws like she's wearing a domino mask, even when having dinner with her father.
The position isn't something any of the women seem to want. Rather, it's always men trying to put a woman in that position, so they can control the army from behind the throne. Heck, two-thirds of the women mentioned as possible candidates don't actually kill their fathers. Ryuko's mother says her father died in an accident that she doubts was an accident, but this apparently didn't matter and she was made Dragon's Head anyway, though the only edict she ever issued was to not interfere in her getting married. Situ Zi doesn't kill her father, who isn't involved in crime at all. A member of that Soviet corps does it on the orders of her grandfather. When she protested his ordering her to kill her father, his response was, 'Your will does not matter. The decision has been made.' It seems like, if she became Dragon's Head, she could order his death, but even assuming she was allowed to issue orders, she doesn't want to lose her father to gain that sort of power (and Ryuko doesn't want Situ Zi to experience what she did.) And, of course, all the CIA agents we see trying to make sure no one gains the title are dudes.
Yoshimizu really likes to make everything connect. Harim arrives in the present working for Brian Cox, who was Ryuko's father's supplier of the weapons he was providing in Afghanistan. As a boy, Harim spoke up to save the life of a captain in that Soviet corps who didn't participate in the attack on his village. Nikolai ends up working for Ryuko, but when they return to Japan to attack the man who took Ryuko's mother hostage, Nikolai meets the daughter of his former commanding officer, who became an exotic dancer after the USSR ruled her father's death was dishonorable. Which is funny in a sad way, since the major ordered the airstrike to eliminate all evidence of his dealing in opium, precisely so his death would be considered honorable and his daughter would receive his pension.
All of that makes the book sound pretty heavy, but Yoshimizu fills it with characters doing cool shit. At one point, Ryuko's firing dual grenade launchers. Later, she drives a motorcycle into a subway car in pursuit of a guy with information she wants. There's knife fights and gunfights and fistfights and gunfights while on motorcycles, guys getting sniped, guys getting thrown off buildings to crash on top of someone's car as they're getting in.
Heck, the scenes in the present day begin with the king's daughter and her friend trying to rob a train car full of the general's gold by faking an emergency to clear the car, then detaching it from the train so they can load the loot into a jeep. Except Ryuko then swoops in, literally, by simply stealing the entire train car with a massive helicopter. That's just a reason to bring the general into close contact with Ryuko, but also to establish her bonafides. Mission accomplished. In a particularly satisfying moment, Ryuko kills Situ Zi's grandfather by ramping her motorcycle into the open side of his chopper and essentially running him over with it. If the shot of his legs sticking out the side of the chopper and twitching, with only part of the motorcycle visible, had been a splash page I'd have gone with it.
Visually, Yoshimizu changes things up a lot. In some fights, Ryuko may be wearing an all-black outfit that almost merges with her hair and turns her into this shadowy blur. At other times, Yoshimizu dispenses with any blacks or shadows at all, the art just an outline of the person, their eyes, their clothes. Wide, short panels of people weaving on motorcycles, or extreme close-ups peering at someone over the end of the barrel of their revolver. Narrow vertical panels that slowly topple towards the far side of the page as someone's world falls apart. The occasional pull back to middle or long distance to establish a location. I reviewed both volumes about 3 years ago if you want to see some other examples of the art.
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