Graphic Novel Review: USAGI YOJIMBO BOOK 1: THE RONIN by Stan Sakai

Stan Sakai’s creation Usagi Yojimbo has always been a favorite but I’ve never been able to read the story from the very beginning and Book 1: The Ronin gives readers a chance to see where it all began by reprinting some of the character’s earliest appearances before he got his own long running series. At over 140 pages Sakai puts together a very good collection for new and old readers to enjoy.

Usagi is a ronin, or wandering samurai without a master, who travels the country side town to town helping out wherever he can for whatever little money he can make. The thing about the world of Sakai and Usagi, in particular, is that Usagi is a rabbit and the world that he inhabits is filled with all manner of animals and creatures right out of a Walt Disney film (just with more violence). Don’t let the “cute” animals fool you. These characters are as ruthless and cunning as in any other adult comic book but because of the world in which they inhabit Sakai doesn’t skimp on the humor either (in fact, the humor is at times more effective than the violence).

Usagi encounters goblins, helps a prince ascend to the throne before getting killed, becomes a bounty hunter, and is accused of being a horse thief, to name a few. There is no trouble too big for him to wander into. The most enduring quality about Sakai’s character is that he gives up many qualities of a normal life in order to maintain honor and a since of morality that slowly disappears from his world. He is of a dying breed (made even more apparent in the superior stories “Lone Rabbit & Child” and its sequel “The Confession” and the more personal “Homecoming” and “Village of Fear”). Some of Usagi’s funniest stories are his misadventures with the bounty hunter Gennosuke (in “Bounty Hunter” & “Bounty Hunter II”) and when he is accused of a horse thief in “Horse Thief.”

Readers will enjoy going on the long adventure with Usagi especially if they are fans of the Japanese manga and film series Lone Wolf & Cub or Zatoichi (which are both heavy influences on this character).