“Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” — Excited and Frightened
Back in the last batch of solicitations from Dark Horse, I saw word that Stan Sakai was going to be writing a new “Usagi Yojimbo” series. Titled “Senso,” there was no indication whether it was going to be a soft relaunch of the ongoing series which went on hiatus after Saki went to work with Mike Richardson on “47 Ronin” or just a miniseries. Well, the word is out now and “Senso” is a miniseries set 20 years in the future of the current continuity that promises to show us the final fates of the rabbit ronin and his friends. It also promises something that sounds like it has no place in the series at all.
Let me just start off by saying that I really like the idea behind this miniseries. While it’d be okay by me if “Usagi” kept going on as it has been, the fact remains that Sakai is getting on in his years and if he wants to put his pen down to do other things then he has more than earned the right. Doing so would mean that the the ultimate confrontation between Usagi and his oft-unseen nemesis Lord Hikiji would be left unresolved after being teased and set up for the past thirty years. The series needs closure and finally pitting the two against each other would be the best way to do that.
That’s what “Senso” is set to offer, at least initially. I mentioned that it’s going to take place 20 years in the future of the characters as we know them now, so you could also think of this as a kind of “The Rabbit Ronin Returns” if you were inclined. The idea of seeing a more mature Usagi, whose skills are now on the level of his sensei Katsuichi’s, finally settling the score with Hikiji and avenging the death of his lord is an irresistible thought. Seeing how Gen, Tomoe, Noriyuki and Chizu have turned out over the years as they join him in the fight sounds similarly thrilling as well. Best of all, with the “ending” out of the way, Sakai will have the freedom to do whatever he wants with the title afterwards and not have to worry about annoying fanboys like me asking when Usagi and Hikji are going to have their final face-off.
So far so good, right? Well that’s not all that “Senso” is promising. This final conflict is apparently going to be spoiled by a metal rocket crashing to Earth. Inside the rocket are… MARTIANS! Not just any martians either — tripod vessels straight out of H.G. Wells’ “The War of The Worlds.” That part comes from the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo and not the official Dark Horse site, so there’s a chance this may not be the exact situation but the basic concept is utterly bonkers and not in a good way.
I get that Sakai would want to end the “Usagi” saga with a bang, and a big twist like this could be seen as taking it to the next level at the end. However, the best surprises in finales stem from building on what has come before and not nailing another genre onto the series in the last chapter. “Lone Wolf and Cub” didn’t end with Itto Ogami fighting off the living dead, and I can’t imagine Takehiko Inoue plans to end “Vagabond” with Msuashi and Kojiro being thrown forward in time to see what modern Japan is like. When I heard that “Senso” would involve a metal rocket from space, my first thought was that it could only work if the person inside it was the Usagi from “Space Usagi” — Sakai’s story of the samurai’s descendant in the far-off future that allowed him to tell science-fiction stories involving dinosaurs. It would still be jarring, but I could at least get behind the kind of crazy that unites these two versions of the character across time and space. If martians are really in the mix, then all that goes out the window.
The only other series I can think of that tried to do something like this was “Future Diary” when it jumped from its supernatural apocalypse into a time travel story. It worked only because there was at least a little foreshadowing for it and that the title had already gone so far off the rails that transitioning into another genre just made the fiery trainwreck that was its narrative that much more glorious. “Fiery trainwreck” is not something I’d use to describe “Usagi Yojimbo’s” stories and it’s a term that hope I never have to. Sakai’s plotting has always been meticulously straightforward in every issue and arc with the fun coming from all of the little details and twists he invests in its execution. It’s about as far away from “Future Diary” as you can get, to be sure.
That being said, I can count on one finger the times I’ve been let down by Sakai’s work on “Usgai.” Considering he’s been writing and illustrating the character for thirty years over two hundred issues and 27 volumes so far, there exists strong precedence for “Senso” to ultimately deliver as a story. In fact, I’m sure Sakai has already done a pretty good job of thinking this through and anticipated the kind of response that this story is going to elicit from fanboys like me. This anticipation also extends to addressing obvious plot points like Usagi and Hikiji being forced to team up to defeat the invaders, with the dark lord planning all the while to stab his partner in the back.
Let me finish by saying that my idea for “Usagi’s” final storyline was relatively simple: Hikiji teams up with Jei while Usagi and his friends have to team up in order to stop the forces of darkness from taking over Japan. Truly, the stuff legends are made of and the kind of story they give Eisners to without thinking about it. (Meanwhile, back in reality…) It’s my hope that with “Senso” Sakai blazes past my own ideas and expressed misgivings and shows us once again why he’s a revered master of sequential art. Make no mistake: I will be buying this series. I’ve been following Usagi’s adventures for well over a decade and there’s no way I’m going to pass up seeing how his story is meant to end. Maybe feudal Japan and martians will go together like chocolate and peanut butter rather than chocolate and vinegar. In the meantime, I’ll be busy manning up to find out when the first issue of “Senso” arrives this August.