usagi-yojimbo-160-feature Reviews 

“Usagi Yojimbo” #160

By | December 23rd, 2016
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Dinner turns deadly as Stan Sakai wraps up a hearty run of regular “Usagi Yojimbo” issues! Will readers be delighted by a skillfully prepared delicacy, or is this issue as deadly as the liver of a fugu? I suppose you’ll have to nibble on this spoiler-free review to find out!

Fugu, or pufferfish, is a delicacy but can be fatal if not prepared properly. When a shogun’s agent is murdered, fugu poisoning is suspected—and Usagi’s friend, a fish merchant, is the primary suspect, as he prepared the deadly dish! Will Usagi and Inspector Ishida clear him of suspected wrongdoing, or will they find the evidence to convict him?

Everyone loves a good cooking manga, right? They’re often as educational as they are exciting, relying on equal parts food science and comics bombast. While “Usagi Yojimbo” is certainly not classified as manga, cartoonist Stan Sakai infuses as much of his Japanese heritage as possible, often harkening back to old folk tales and ancient myths from the island nation. So I suppose it’d only be a matter of time before he infused one of the most popular genres of Japanese comics into his own.

As can often be expected of the series, this issue is a stand alone story set in a time and place that is of little consequence to the reader. Sakai does everything he can to imply what the readers need to know, without ever requiring prerequisite knowledge to enjoy his story. Do you need to know about Usagi’s Hell Screen adventure with Inspector Ishida to have a grasp on what’s going on? No in the slightest, as Sakai shows the reader the familiarity and instant comradery between the two characters, implying that they share some history. If you’ve read their previous adventure, great, now there’s an added layer of richness. If not, you’re given everything you need without it. It’s one of the best things about “Usagi Yojimbo” comics that I think is sometimes lost: you can start reading the series at any point. This is the sort of thing that comes in handy when you’ve got nearly 200 issues under the various volumes of the title, and is also something that so few comics do anymore.

I’ve long been a fan of Sakai’s art, and I find this issue to be as impressive as ever. Anyone who’s ever read or listened to me talk about cartooning knows that I’ll eventually get to the idea of ‘gesturing.’ What that word means to me, in a nutshell, is when an artist uses as few lines as possible to show the reader what it is they need to see. Whether it’s motion or a character’s emotion, Sakai’s cartooning is succinct and masterful. Sure, he’ll really get in there and render out his backgrounds, but all the while he has his characters act while using as little as he can. Take this sequence for example:

Notice the way it looks as if the plated food is giving off a glow. In the center panel we see the ill-fated Shogunate as if he is lit from beneath, as Sakai cast darkness on the top of his head and cheeks. Then, in the last panel, we see that the chopsticks drawn in a bold line, while the pieces of food beneath then have a much finer line to them. This is intended to indicate that it is the food itself that is acting as the light source in the scene, glowing on the plate. Sakai os able to convey all of this simply and cleanly, gesturing his way through a sequence that could easily warrant a much higher degree of rendering.

Beside looking neat and serving as an example of expert cartooning, the glowing sashimi also acts as a narrative tool. This plate of food is about to end someone’s life, and its glow is almost a theatrical way of drawing attention and foreboding to it. The way it lights the Shogunate’s face is not unlike how children use flashlights to illuminate themselves when telling scary stories: from underneath. We so infrequently see ourselves lit in this way, so it feels weird and unsettling when we encounter it. So while this guy thinks he’s about to enjoy another meal, we read it as a series of signals that something is wrong in the scene.

The narrative itself is a fairly straightforward one: someone poisoned the Shogunate, and Usagi takes it upon himself to join Inspector Ishida on his quest to solve the crime.There are twists and turns, and often nothing is as it seems. All the while, Sakai populates his pages with Japanese language words and phrases as well as footnotes to help the reader learn about what Usagi is seeing and experiencing. This quasi-educational aspect of “Usagi Yojimbo” has long been a staple of the series, serving to further immerse readers in the world Sakai has set them in.

Final Verdict: 8 – Sakai’s cartooning is as excellent as ever, as is his sense of storytelling. While the issue’s main story ends on a decidedly bleak note, Sakai (along with his daughter Julie) leave us with a “Chibi Usagi” back-up strip to act as an after dinner mint. This issue is perfect for both first and long time readers.


Mike Romeo

Mike Romeo started reading comics when splash pages were king and the proper proportions of a human being meant nothing. Part of him will always feel that way. Now he is one of the voices on Robots From Tomorrow. He lives in Philadelphia with two cats. Follow him on Instagram at @YeahMikeRomeo!

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