I had this one on the back burner for a while, hoping I could dose up on some manly when I was feeling the need, but it fell quite a bit short of my expectations. The premise is quite interesting, a softhearted, handsome man with a natural charm forced to kill for a foreign mafia, but it doesn't do enough with the premise to warrant further attention. Crying Freeman feels like a humorless eighties cop film. The overall aesthetic is bland and melancholic, lacking characters that draw the reader in or give reason to care about what's happening. Side characters arethrown in to be violated or injured simply to showcase how gruesome the world can be, coming off flat and heavy handed.

The art's decent, no real flair to it or anything unique. It does the job of covering the action and setting, but the realism leaves much to be desired. Could have easily been simple traces of real life locations, which is off putting and unimaginative.

If you're looking for a crime story, this might be a decent piece to check out, but otherwise Crying Freeman is so middling I can't truly recommend it.