Comic Recap and Review : Usagi Yojimbo : Senso #1

On the title spread, we are told that senso is Japanese for war, and this is no metaphor: we are told concisely the premise for the story is that “it was the final battle between Lord Hijiki and the Geishu Clan led by the adult Lord Noriyuki.” After this, the action begins with mounted samurai breaking a line of blade-brandishing footmen. We see that Noriyuki has grown up and is surrounded by advisors that include more familiar faces, Lady Tomoe and the eponymous star, Usagi. Tomoe and Usagi convince Noriyuki not to listen to his advisors, who would have his forces retreat. The sage Takenoko introduces a steampunk tank onto the battlefield for immediate use, and Noriyuki says that it would dishonor him to win a battle through its implementation. In this moment, we see that Noriyuki has matured and is making his own decisions; he is not the boy he was in Usagi’s second story (Albedo #3 and #4, “Lone Rabbit and Child'” 1984). Next, Noriyuki signals his reserves to enter the fray: first, Usagi’s old friend Gen, and then a new face, young Jotaro, lead their forces into battle. A weary Usagi pulls back from Noriyuki’s throng of advisors and prays to the gods to keep Jotaro, his son, safe. Usagi adds a prayer that he not come to regret not telling Jotaro that he is his true father. Jotaro’s horse is slain, and dismounted, he is surrounded and about to be run through by Hijiki’s footmen. Usagi takes Noriyuki’s horse and charges into the melee to help his son. (This scene involving Usagi and Jotaro can be previewed on the Dark Horse Comics website.). We learn that this is also a pivotal point of the battle; Hijiki’s army is being overrun by Noriyuki’s and Hijiki gives the order to deploy the entirety of his own reserves. A skull-piercing shriek rattles all the fighting men on both sides, and a flaming rocket crashes to the earth and tears an epic hole in the samurai genre.

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with Usagi Yojimbo, and arrived at this review by googling the thing your tweeps were talking about on twitter. Not unlike Walt Kelly’s Pogo or Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge, in Stan Sakai‘s Usagi Yojimbo we have not “funny animal” stories but anthropomorphic animals that conceal, in their animal forms and faces, human hearts, minds, and motivations. Where Sakai differs from other writers of anthropomorphic animal comics, is that he brought Usagi Yojimbo to life as the central protagonist of a thirty year samurai epic; the sword-wielding rabbit may occasionally and incidentally make us laugh, but he is not a comedian by trade unlike those other famous ducks, bunnies, and mice that populate comic pages. Like a superhero, his main purpose is as an exemplar for moral behavior to contrast with the sinister world of underhanded ryu-grubbing and power hungry villains in which he lives. If this is your first read of a Usagi Yojimbo comic, think of him as a mash-up of the unstoppable, globe trotting, Uncle Scrooge, and the resourceful, benevolent Doctor of Doctor Who. In the usual Usagi story, he arrives in a village beset by wickedness and by the end of the story, he has vanquished it.

Senso is very different. In Senso, rather than arriving to a lost cause, Usagi starts in the middle of the action and is part of the conflict that needs resolving. We get the sense that time has changed Usagi more than just making a father out of him; this Usagi has descended from the high ground of deciding good and evil down to the more worldly political arena where he has picked a side. Usagi is uncomfortable in this conflict, and perhaps he would prefer the world to be black and white, as it was in his youth. What is more troubling to Usagi, though, perhaps the true War of the comic’s title, is his continued entanglement in the most morally ambiguous decision he has made, to let Jotaro’s true parentage remain secret, and that comes to an upshot in this issue. Long time readers know that in issue 75, Jotaro revealed to Katsuichi that he knows Usagi is his biological father, although he believes Usagi is unaware of it. In order to protect appearances and honor, both Usagi and Jotaro continue in their mutual deception, and we know in the issue in front of us that Usagi has been tortured by the knowledge.

The genius in Senso is that new readers and fans will read the paternity subplot in entirely different ways, with the new readers not seeing beyond the panels in front of them and curious as to how the events will unfold, and the fans knowing the true poignance behind these scenes. In a period of history in which great comics are raided by movie and television studios, we can only hope that Usagi is adapted with great care, as the story relies on the unique strengths of the comic book medium, such as this hidden continuity that Sakai employs in Senso. Usagi Yojimbo is a serial fiction that exists not only as a series of stories: those stories interlock and complete each other. Sakai writes not only for the audience of the single issue, but for the dedicated audience that can use their memory to see the work as a whole.

Usagi Yojimbo : Senso comes highly recommended. If you’re a fan of quality creator-owned comics, and haven’t discovered Usagi Yojimbo yet, you’re in for a real treat, and the good news is that under this issue lies thirty years of continuity and development of beloved characters. You may find a copy at your local comic shop, and you can also buy it on the Dark Horse comics website or through the Dark Horse app.