I'm reviewing this last chapter alone, since I would have rated the whole series with a glorious five stars. Volume 9's end promised a vague foreboding of what is to come, that for those who knew Asaemon in The Lone Wolf and Cub, would certainly feel that at least things will wrap up in the tenth volume. 
 I may have interpreted it mistakenly because nothing big really happened in volume ten. Even references to what will become of him in the future are not found anywhere. It is just, like the previous ones, a compilation of standalone stories that require only a light backstory knowledge to appreciate them. For someone like me who have been emotionally invested in the story, this is a big letdown. 
 My rating bears much more on my personal expectations than the material quality itself (though I can argue that writer and artist fatigue is apparent in the last two volumes). The cultural and historical details are accurately depicted in the whole series. The characters are depicted as deep and not shallow, thanks to Koike's impeccable writing and Kojima's absurdly fantastic art. 
 Another gripe that I have on this volume is the extended screen time of Kasajiro and Shinko the Kappa because they felt as filler issues, especially with this being the last volume.