Stan Sakai has been writing about the adventure of the most famous rabbit samurai in comics Miyamoto Usagi, aka Usagi Yojimbo for forty years. To celebrate the fortieth anniversary Dark Horse and Dogu Publishing have released “Usagi Yojimbo: 40th Anniversary Reader” featuring eight fan-favorite stories.
The collection starts with “A Mother’s Love” where Usagi helps an elderly woman whose son controls a town like a ruthless mob boss which includes beatings and threats. It’s a decent story that has a sad ending once you realize what the elderly woman did and why.
“Blade of the Gods” sees Usagi dueling with a samurai who claims he was given power by the gods to strike down anyone he thinks is evil. This is one of those rare times when Usagi fights an enemy that appears to be much stronger than he is, almost godlike. The fight scene is one of the best Sakai has ever drawn with lightning continuously striking above the two samurai.
Usagi meets the legendary General/Magistrate Oyaneko who is now running a small town. What starts as a harmless visit turns into a duel that Usagi wants no part of. Overall, it’s fine but the message at the end is a string one.
“Chanoyu” is about Tomoe performing chanoyu (tea ceremony) for Usagi. That’s the entire comic. The comic also details what needs to be done during chanoyu from where each item needs to be set, how to make the tea and how to hold the cup. The comic feels like you’re in a chanoyu from the little dialogue and how slow the comic is. It’s almost Zen-like.
“Cut the Plum,” the shortest comic in the collection at two pages has Usagi teaching Jotaro how to be an expert swordsman. Usagi also tells Jotaro about when Katsuichi cut a plum that was stuck up Usagi’s nose with a single, deft stroke. Jotaro wants to try that and hilarity ensues. Not much to say except the punchline is hilarious.
The two-part story “The Artist) sees Usagi protecting an artist who draws in a Western-style from people who want him dead. It’s over quickly but it does give the reader some sense of how Western ideas were not tolerated in Feudal Japan.
“Buntori” has Usagi seeing ghosts from The Battle of Green Leaves. It’s unremarkable despite why he’s seeing ghosts. The payoff is better than the story.
Finally, “Adachi” had Usagi dealing with an old enemy from when he became a Ronin. It’s interesting to see some of Usagi’s backstory and then see what became of his enemies. Here, what became of one of his enemies is insane.
The artwork is exactly what you expect from the “Usagi Yojimbo” comics. There are times when it’s goofy and cartoony and straight-up violent. Sakai manages to fit both perfectly in a way that does not drive away many readers.
“Usagi Yojimbo: 40th Anniversary Reader” has stories that range from interesting to decent. None of them are horrible and are worth reading to get a sense of what kind of world this is and why “Usagi Yojimbo” has lasted for so long.
Leave a Reply