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Writer/Artist: Stan Sakai
Colorist: Hi-Fi
When reading through an issue of Usagi Yojimbo I often wonder what makes this comic work so well for so long. Reading through this issue the answer seems to be to get the fundamentals right early and often. As this issue opens Yukichi has a monologue where he goes through where his head is at after the events of the last issue. He’s still upset about how he reacted. Instead of giving us a page of text to recap everything it was organically placed within the opening pages.
Thought balloons or internal dialog like this may seem passé but it is all within the execution. While Yukichi is going through this diatribe Stan Sakai is showing casing his talents as a visual storyteller as well. We get a complete picture of this town and its current state.
A drunk is passed out in the ally, a man is begging for scraps, and the majority of people are simply living their lives. Within these few pages, readers are completely caught up and also have an understanding of the way the current world works. Someone retreating to the profession of bounty hunter makes sense at a time with many having it far worse.
Yukichi’s youth inexperience gets the best of him as he is lured into a trap set by the four he and Usagi fought last issue when they mistook them for bandits. He holds his own for a bit but quickly becomes overwhelmed and captured. Within this exchange, there’s another example of why Usagi is so new and reader-friendly as Yukichi directly calls out who those individuals are so if you happened just to pick up this issue all the backstory is there for you.
So with so much being restated why doesn’t this series feel redundant? In some ways, it may be because you are taking a step back before taking two steps forward, but also this has always been a story about the characters.
Yukichi being direct is part of who he is so it serves two functions being an important character moment and a plot recap. Plus these are stories that never rush things because Stan Sakai does not need to hurry up, He has a level of patience with his storytelling that is unheard of in today’s world.
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Of course, the key to everything is the cartooning of Sakai which is as wonderful as always. This issue had bits of action, comedy, and drama which are drawn so well you can forget how good Sakai is at his job. For
example, drawing an Anthropomorphised Rhino eating soup while cracking jokes is incredibly hard but he makes it look so natural. His characters are so vivid with great expressions. I love living in his world with the colorful characters he creates.
The only thing Sakai doesn’t do is the colors. Those are done by Hi-Fi Colour Design and they fill out the world so well. As mentioned the opening pages are so vivid in large part due to the color work. From the clothes to the settlements every piece is purposely designed.
Overall this was the part of the story dedicated to getting the pieces together for the overall arc. You see the small characters being introduced that will no doubt play a larger role as the story continues. Usagi spends most of this issue just eating with his old pals. Those scenes did work as a nice comedic counterbalance to what was happening with Yukich. So the list of things that happen in this issue is small, but the benefit is you get to be with these characters and their silly antics. It’s like stretching before a major run. It may not be the most exciting but its benefits will pay off later.
Overall: 7 out of 10
