"Death and honor"
Space Usagi #1-3 (June-August, 1992)
Reprinted in Space Usagi



Summary:

Chapter 1: Kajitori ships attack the fleet outside the White Star Castle, the stronghold of the Shirohoshi Clan. Two ships go kamikaze and one manages to explode into the bay door. The main fleet was being held in reserve by Lord Matabe behind Planet Shadow. Commander Usagi, piloting a ship, overrules his orders and calls in the reserves, winning the day. The enemy retreats.

Usagi returns to the castle and is informed by Jiro that Lord Hideaki has called a meeting. There Hideaki congratulates Usagi on his victory and charges him with being bodyguard and tutor to his son, Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi is to be married to Princess Masayo of the Mino Clan to solidify an alliance against the Kojitori. Hideaki also rebukes Matabe for his failures in defending the castle. Then a cloaked Neko Ninja tries to assassinate Hideaki. Usagi stops and kills him, but everything that was said had been transmitted back to the Kojitori.

About 7 months later, Matabe has betrayed the clan and helps the Neko Ninja break in with their ship, the Kameyama. They overtake White Star Castle. Usagi manages to escape with Kiyoshi and Lord Hideaki chooses death over capture.



Chapter 2: Over Usagi's objection, he and Kiyoshi help rescue a transport ship with evacuees. They are successful despite having difficulty with a particularly able enemy starfighter. When ready to leave, they are caught in the tractor beam of a Kajitori shark cruiser. Usagi escapes its pull, but only by jettisoning the fuel tanks, leaving them without enough fuel to reach the Mino Clan.

Admiral Niiro arrives at Shirohoshi Castle and finds that the treasure vaults have been emptied and all military information has been deleted. Niiro's psitech Ryoko probes the mind of Jiro and of the dead Hideaki to learn that only Kiyoshi knows the code to retrieve what has been lost.

Usagi and Kiyoshi wind up near the Mino system and find a Mino ship under attack by Kajitori fighters; they help out. One ship is destroyer by a dinosaur on the planet below. On the planet, they meet the occupants of the Mino ship: Princess Masayo, Minister Hodo, Katsuko, and two guards. They set up a homing beacon when two more monsters (that look like dinosaurs) attack, killing the guards. Usagi and the princess overcome the creatures.

At night, Kiyoshi expresses concern over how much older Masayo is. Later, while Usagi is keeping watch, and and Masayo share a near-romantic moment under the stars, before Hodo interrupts. Later, the Kameyama arrives.

Chapter 3: A shuttle from the Kameyama lands, throwing Jiro to the ground as it descends. Jiro dies in Kiyoshi's arms. Matabe and Ryoko emerge from the shuttle and Matabe challenges Usagi to a duel.

The duel is a distraction for Ryoko to pluck the information she needs from Kiyoshi's mind. Once she has it, she departs to the Kameyama, abandoning Matabe. An enraged Matabe draws blood against Usagi, but ultimately loses.

Ryoko contacts Niiro to give him the information, but a ship crashes into the bridge of the Kameyama before she can.

Epilogue: It turns out that Katsuko was the princess in disguise. Her bodyguard and tutor Tomoeh took her place. While Usagi healed, Kiyoshi adopted a lizard and named it Spot. The wedding is being rushed forward to seal the alliance.

Thoughts: From the opening sequence, this series gives off a very Star Wars vibe. From the starship dogfights to the pilot's helmets. Fitting, as many point to Kurosawa as an influence for Star Wars. And Kurosawa is an explicit influence of Usagi Yojimbo. It's all coming full circle. And all works pretty well. The samurai epic and the space opera have much in common (and with the western as well, of course).

Stan appreciates the importance of the first good look at Space Usagi after he removes his helmet and gives a panel to the moment. Eight years since the first Usagi story, Stan has basically mastered his craft. From character design to facial expression to page design to conveying action, it is hard to argue with. Mostly prior to his we have seen him refine the particular story. This series shows he is equally adept at drawing exciting futuristic space battles.

We see the jealousy in Matabe's face, a Neko Ninja uncloaking, a deft depiction of bow hunting

Obviously my favorite ships are the ones shaped like giant turtles.

I'm not certain if the confusion was intentional or not, but I guessed from the opening scene that Matabe was a traitor, and that is why the ships were held back and the first castle was penetrated. We learn later he had not been a traitor but incompetent. It was being ridiculed for his incompetence after that battle that made him turn traitor.

All in all the first issue itself was quite dramatic, and made a great springboard for the series. At a rapid pace, it introduces all the characters and conflict, and then delivered the epic fall of White Star Castle to the traitorous Matabe.

The second issue sets up a more key villain in the imposing Niiro. This is good as Matabe is too much a weakling to be a serious villain. We also get more space battles, and some character work involving Usagi, Kiyoshi, and Masayo. The scene of Usagi and Masayo looking at stars in beautiful, and the scene where Usagi and Kiyoshi argue about whether to help the transport contains great drama which shows the strength of each character when faced with a conflict of goals.

The final issue is much more familiar territory, with the brunt of it consumed by a swordfight between Usagi and Matabe. As excellent as all of them.

Notes:

• Introduces a lot of characters and concepts, particularly Kiyoshi, Tomoeh, and Niiro.
• Usagi's father is named Miyamoto.

"Gen"
Usagi Yojimbo #34-36 (June-November, 1992)
Reprinted in Usagi Yojimbo Book 7: Gen's Story

Summary:

Chapter 1: Lady Asano's story

Gen is cornered by his intended target, an outlaw with killer lizards. His situation seems hopeless when Usagi rescues him. Gen agrees to give Usagi a portion of the bounty and asks him to pick up some expenses in the meantime. He'll be reimbursed if he saves the receipts. Usagi notices Gen's new ceramic horn.

Gen has a doctor tend to his wounds while Usagi gets lunch at the inn. A pair come along begging for handouts, the woman claiming to be a Lord's widow. The innkeeper tries to shoo them away but Usagi invites them to sit down.

Lady Asano of the Shirogeta Clan, widow of Lord Asano Nobu, tells her story.

The Asano Clan had picked the wrong side in the Shogun's war. And Councilor Oda betrayed the Clan and assassinated his lord. Several loyalists, including General Murakami, agreed to hunt for Oda, but never returned. So Lady Asano left her estate, forfeiting her stipend, to seek out Oda and vengeance for herself. She has wandered now for twenty years.

At the inn, Lady Asano sees Gen and mistakes him for Murakami, for Murakami was Gen's father. She asks Gen to carry on his father's work but he refuses. Outside, Asano and her retainer see Oda, now the town magistrate. The retainer charges at Oda and is killed by a guard. Oda recognizes Asano and orders her detained.

Chapter 2: Sins of the father

Gen tells Usagi his story.

He was a child when Murakami set off on his quest for vengeance, bringing him and his mother along. They were poor wanderers, with the mother providing for them using whatever means she had, until finally she died. Murakami was a perfect samurai but a poor father. He did teach Gen skill with the sword. Eventually Gen left, and found there was profit in bounty hunting.

Gen wants nothing more to do with his father's quest.

Usagi confronts Oda without Gen, asking for mercy for Lady Asano. The magistrate orders him detained to be executed as well.

Gen is angry with Usagi and his do-gooder ways, and considers not helping him. But Usagi has all the money. Gen breaks into the compound, but gets himself caught as well.

Chapter 3: Lady Asano's revenge

Gen had a blade baked into his ceramic nose. Usagi shatters his nose and the break free. Asano separates to seek out her vengeance. Gen follows her. When Oda stabs her, Gen charges at him. Gen defeats most of the guards; Asano rises to stab Oda. With her dying breath, she kills him, satisfying her vengeance.

Gen had picked up another set of blades upon breaking out of the prison. At Lady Asano's grave, he has the chance to look at them and recognizes them as his father's. His father would not have parted with them while alive.

When the reward money comes, Usagi asks for his payment. Unfortunately, when they threw him in jail, he lost his receipts...

Thoughts: I'll ask for a little help with this one. The comic opens with a chase scene. Gen is being chased by lizards. They splash through puddles, jump over a log, and finally Gen is cornered. This seems extremely familiar. Is it just suitably generic or is it a specific reference?

It is obviously coincidence that brings Oda, Asano, and Gen to the same town at the same time. But on such coincidences are all great stories built.

The relationship between Gen and Usagi is one of the highlights of the series. Best of friends, though not to hear them talk. The contrast between Gen's selfish speeches and often heroic acts is the heart of his character. Often the relationship is played for comic relief, and so going too much into Gen's origin is a dangerous thing to do. It could easily wreck a great foil.

But the origin provided here works. Adds just enough gravitas to his background, while still leaving plenty of room for Gen to be Gen. And of course sets up this story where he confronts his past.

The delicate balance to walk with Gen's character, and ultimately one of Sakai's greatest strengths of the series, is the ability to jump between sentiment and comic stylings. Within two pages, we see Gen standing alone and crying over his father's death and then finding his usual way to cheat Usagi out of money. It's hard to get such disparate tones to work so well together, and that is Sakai's genius.

On morality. Usagi often talks about his dislike of killing, but nonetheless racks up quite the body count. These circumstances here I find particularly questionable. Oda is clearly a villain, but he is also the town magistrate. The jailkeepers may or may not be corrupt. They are merely watching over a prison, and Usagi was charged with conspiring to assassinate the magistrate. While prudent, Usagi's killing of the prison guard seemed rather callous. It's not at all clear he's a bad guy.

On swords. A detail I will note because the question of Usagi's swords came up recently after the Space Usagi reviews. (Space Usagi was published almost concurrently with Gen's story, but came out more frequently) When he seeks audience with Oda, he is asked to surrender his swords and refuses. He instead ties the hilt to demonstrate peaceful intention. When Usagi is imprisoned, the jailers comment on what nice swords they are. After the escape, Usagi gets his swords back. When Gen does not, he says, "I was never attached to [my swords] as you [Usagi] are to yours."


Notes:

• Origin of Gen.

Not counting animated versions, did Usagi ever team up with all the Ninja Turtles, aside from that 3-issue story that took the foursome back to Usagi's time?

Pretty sure that's the only one, and I'm fine with that. Any more would have felt forced.

"Fox Fire"
Usagi Yojimbo Color Special #3 (September, 1992)
Colors by Tom Luth
Reprinted (in black and white) in Usagi Yojimbo vol. 22: Tomoe's Story




Summary:A fox jumps into Usagi's tunic, causing Tomoe no end of amusement. The fox was being pursued by hunters, whom Usagi led away from the fox.

Later, there is a storm and they seek shelter in a hut. They are welcomed their by a woman Kuzunoha. Usagi finds the food delicious and the house comfortable; Tomoe vastly disagrees. Usagi's manners become increasingly strange and tense; while Tomoe is ready to leave the hut as soon as possible, Usagi wants to stay a few days.

Suspicious, Tomoe follows Kuzunoha on walk; in Kuzunoha's reflection, Tomoe learns she is a fox and deduces she has bewitched Usagi. She assumes it is the same fox Usagi rescued earlier. Tomoe then finds herself lost in the woods but eventually returns to the hut to warn Usagi. But Usagi turns on her and bids her to leave.

Tomoe stays near and that night sees Kuzunoha taking Usagi toward fox fires, signalling a gathering of foxes. She does battle with Kuzunoha when the other fox, the one Usagi had saved, intervenes on her behalf. Kuzunoha escapes, only to be killed by the hunters.

The spell broken, the see the hut for the broken down cottage it was. After nursing the fox back to health, Tomoe relates these events to Lord Noriyuki while Usagi bids his fox friend farewell.


Thoughts: The comic opens with the beautiful splash pages which frequent this series, portraying at once a beautiful idyllic scene and the sense of camaraderie between Usagi and Tomoe. It continues with its trademark interwovern lessons about Japanese culture. Brief asides where we learn fox liver is used in healing and about the mythology of foxes.

This is a rare story where Usagi is not the central character. His role in the story is that of victim in need of rescuing. It is Tomoe who takes center stage as the hero of the adventure, who must save Usagi from Kuzunoha's traps.

The writing invokes a very classical fairy-tale sense throughout, particularly in the details of how the enchantment affects perceptions: Usagi finds the food delicious, Tomoe thinks it tastes like mud: Usagi finds the bed exceedingly comfortable, Tomoe is aching from sleeping on it.

The relationship between Usagi and Tomoe is a constant background piece of the series. Friends who care about duty first, but who seem to long for something more from each other. This background brings the emotion of the issue to the fore, when Usagi so callously dismisses Tomoe, making her leave because he wants to stay with Kuzunoha.

Adding to the thematic richness is that Tomoe is not herself entirely virtuous in the story. She has an inherent distrust of foxes. This distrust paid off in Kuzunoha's case, but she wrongly jumped to the conclusion Kuzunoha was the fox from earlier, based only on the evidence that she was also a fox. By the end of the story, she learns not all foxes are the same. There are good and there are bad foxes.

Kuzunoha looks confusingly like Kitsune. This makes some sense as both are foxes. But Kuzunoha is an actual fox that has assumed the guise of an anthropomorphic fox, whereas Kitsune is an anthropomorphic fox. The whole Goofy/Pluto distinction made even more confusing.


Notes:

• Introduces the trickster fox, Kuzunoha

Yet another thread I've been neglectful of! Again, I blame life. Luckily today seems to be a holiday for some reason.

"Return of Kitsune"
Usagi Yojimbo #37 (February, 1993)
Reprinted in Usagi Yojimbo vol. 7: Gen's Story



Summary: Not making enough money from her performance with tops, Kitsune resorts to her usual tricks of pickpocketing. She is going for a money purse, but ends up with a letter.

Usagi and Gen are walking through town and come across a group looking for a woman. They are told to report anything suspicious to Yuden, the oil merchant. They then come across Kitsune and Usagi realizes she must be who the thugs were after. Gen and Kitsune hit it off and they duck into an inn.

Inside, they learn the letter tells of a rebellion up north, information an oil merchant could use to profitable advantage. The inkeeper tells of Yuden's greed, and that only his competitor Aburage keeps him in check.

Kitsune leaves the inn and is captured by Yuden's men. Usagi and Gen visit Yuden to exchange the letter for her life. Upon seeing that they read the letter, Yuden orders them killed. They escape when Usagi uses Yuden as a hostage.

At another inn, they meet Aburage, and learn things were not as they seem.

The next day, Kitsune reports, and Gen seems to be short some reward money.

Thoughts: Shaxper's favorite character returns!

Even though Shaxper has his misgivings, Kitsune and Gen seem to be the perfect pair. Basically decent folk happy to cheat others on occasion. Kitsune will give Gen a taste of his own medicine, harking back to the earliest stories of the Usagi/Gen friendship/rivalry. And Usagi's eyerolling at their flirtations is quite cute.

After all, a girl does what she has to do to get by.

All in all, a forgettable issue, but marked by fun character moments, particularly between Usagi and Gen.

A reference is made to the local magistrates still hunting for Oda together, showing Stan's focusing on the continuity of the series.

Final thoughts on Usagi Yojimbo Book 7: Gen's Story

This book reprints Usagi Yojimbo #32-38, the final issues of Usagi's first series, and includes one story from Critters which had been ommitted from previous volumes. As the title suggest, Gen takes the story's focus, as the latter half of the run involves Gen and Usagi wandering together. Their odd friendship is one of the strongest character relationships of the series, and these issues cement that. We learn at last the origin of Gen. Why such an excellent swordsman is a wandering bounty hunter. Gen at first was always played for comic relief, and Stan gives occasional hints of sentiment to his story. This is a fine line to walk, doing serious thing with a comical character, but Stan walks the line well.

In addition to the origin of Gen, this book introduces Kitsune, another lovable rogue, and bids farewell to Zato Ino.

Ranking of the stories:
The Last Ino Story, A
Gen, A
Broken Ritual, B+
Kitsune, B
The Tangled Skein, B
The Return of Kitsune, B
Gaki, B-