Every manga reader has a favorite series by which they measure the rest. The series at the top of my pantheon of greatness are Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond and Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga. My GOAT manga are two historical seinen action manga in which their heroes learn there’s more to life than fighting to be the best or getting their licks back. They are introspective marvels, and I plan to get matching tattoos of them in the near future because I adore them so much. There are also two series whose high I’ve been chasing to the point of ruin: the former is in a permanent hiatus and may never see its way out, while the latter just ended, meaning I’ve been chasing the high for a series to fill the void they’ve left. And after years of searching, I believe I’ve found that series, and what’s more, it doesn’t let its philosophical predicament over the superego outshine its brilliantly detailed, bloody action. That series is Issak. © Shinji Makari/Double-S/Kodansha In tandem with the headline that brought you here, Issak, written by Shinji Makari and illustrated by Double-S (Ji-Hyung Song), is a manga that’s also giving Shōgun, Blue Eye Samurai, and, oddly enough, Spy vs. Spy. Now that I’ve hit my load-bearing SEO reference quota out of the way, let’s get into what the damn thing is actually about.