Summary: Gen is carrying a valuable tea cup to the
Geishu province.
Usagi offers to accompany him. Assassins have been hired to retrieve the cup from Gen. Along the way, Usagi lets orphan children tag along. When they are attacked again, Gen throws the cup to Usagi. Usagi fights off the bandits but the cup is destroyed.
Or was it?
Thoughts: I love the cover. Captures the tone (and basic plot) of every Gen story so far.
I realize that in my reviews of
Samurai, I focused too much on the main story, neglecting the framing sequence. But the framing sequence is important for what it reveals about the relationship of Gen and Usagi: that no matter what Usagi may say, he clearly sees Gen as a friend. Why else tell him his life story over
sake? This is even clearer here as he chooses to accompany Gen. Theirs is an interesting relationship, as Gen always tries to take advantage of Usagi. But we've seen Usagi is able to repay in kind.
This tells a standard Gen story, but with an added dose of heart. Gen assures Usagi nobody else is coming after them, knowing it's false, but that he can use Usagi's help. But, he then almost walks away to protect Usagi and two kids (with whom he identifies, giving us the first glimpse into what makes him tick) but lets his love of money win out. He then has a clever ruse with the tea cup. In the end they both try to cheat each other, and end up in hot water.
And of course the revelation of what happened to the reward money just makes you smile.
Gen has been the most frequent return guest, so clearly Stan likes him.
Tomoe and
Noriyuki dominated the earliest stories, but we have not seen them for a while. Though in this issue Usagi and Gen are headed to the Geishu province, so that may change.
We see something we haven't seen for a while, which is Sakai using dialogue to tell the reader something, where it doesn't necessarily make sense in dialogue. In this case, Gen takes a sentence to explain the importance of tea in Japanese culture to Usagi. Usagi likely needs no such explanation. Gen is talking to us. I'm curious if people have opinions on this. The fear is that it may take you out of the story, but I am certainly never taken out of any of these stories. (Except in that the process of taking notes as I read does pull me out some.) On the whole, as I have previously commented, I feel positively toward how unpretentious and unassuming the storytelling is when it comes to Japanese culture. Stan realizes he's probably not telling most of his audience anything new, but it may help a few people.
The art in the issue seems looser, detail skimped on. But it fits the comic tone and more frequent use of the comic catoony facial expressions Stan occasionally gives us.
How many
Groo references can people spot? I see: the opening poem, the word mulch a couple times, the silhouetted figure thinking about cheese dip, the crew of Groo showing up at the end, and the moral. What else? Possibly the sound effects on the opening page? Or Usagi's use of the word "slay"?
Notes:- Gen delivering a tea cup made by Oware to Hokuse, the Geishu tea master.
- Okii Hana is a rival to Hokuse, behind the attacks on Gen
Grade: A-/B+
