Usagi Yojimbo (vol. 41): Ten Thousand Plums
From one perspective, the title story is as solid a story as you’d expect from this series. Usagi, Yukichi, and Gen wind up in a village renowned for its plums and the pickled variety, umeboshi, that are produced from them. However, someone is currently trying to ruin it through fire and murder, leading the shogun to send some of his retainers to investigate. We learn a bit about this aspect of Japanese life, Usagi and company turn up the real culprit in the end, and a valuable lesson is learned through loss. There should be nothing to complain about here.
Except that this is the very rare “Usagi” story where some confusion on the art led me to believe we were getting a more interesting story than what we got. *SPOILERS* It begins with a fox and its kit struggling in the snow, and after a bit we see the fox transform into someone who looks like a dead ringer for Kitsune. I thought this was a bit of artistic license and that we were getting a story about a vengeance-crazed version of the character taking her anger out on was just a fox demon who wanted revenge on the village for the death of its kit. *END SPOILERS* I was all ready to admire creator Stan Sakai’s guts for doing this to a longtime supporting character only to just have to content myself with the expected quality from this story.
The follow-up story is better, though. “Tabo” sees Usagi and Yukichi falling in with a group of Christian pilgrims on their way to visit a statue of Kanon that’s said to produce tears that will heal any ailment. Masa hopes to heal his brother Tabo and they, along with many others, are prepared to wait as long as it takes to happen. Even if the story does play out the way you’d expect, it’s done with enough attention to detail that the feelings it tries to convey play out as genuine. That’s also before Sakai explains the origins of the story in his afterword, which will hit you right in the feels. Excellent work and another example of why I continue to follow this series after all these years.