Usagi Yojimbo (vol. 36): Tengu War!

“Usagi Yojimbo” has been around for over thirty years now.  You’d think that at this point the character’s backstory would be pretty well filled in and that creator Stan Sakai wouldn’t feel the need to add anything more to it.  If there’s one thing that binds all of the stories in this collection together, it’s the idea that this isn’t the case.  Sakai can add to Usagi’s personal history whenever he wants; though, the results here are more “okay” than anything else.

For instance, did you know that after Usagi finished his training with Katsuichi but before he entered into the service of Lord Mifune, he sought instruction from a tengu?  That’s the story behind “Sojobo,” which opens up this volume as we see a younger, more reckless version of the title character nearly lose his head when he bangs on the door of this mountain goblin.  The story plays out as you’d expect, until we get to the surprise at the end which takes things back to the modern day.

Then it’s “Tengu War!” as Usagi learns from Sojobo about the evil race of tengu, guhin, who have decided that they want the mountain that was given to their rivals by the gods.  Not wanting to stand by while an old friend is in trouble, the title character pledges his help.  This leads to a reunion between Sojobo and other members of his clan, a fight to the “death” between Usagi and a crow tengu, and a fateful showdown between Sojobo and the guhin that took his hand.  It’s all solidly executed as you’d expect from an “Usagi” story.  Aside from introducing an interesting new character to the series’ mythos, the longest story in this volume doesn’t have anything new to offer longtime readers of this series.

The next story, “The Master of Hebishima,” does, but not in the way you’re expecting.  This story is the first time in thirty-six volumes of “Usagi Yojimbo” to feature someone other than Sakai on full art chores.  Randy Clute is credited with an “art assist” on the issue as he handles the first three pages over Sakai’s layouts.  Clute’s style is less defined than what we’re used to seeing in this series, but that winds up giving the characters an appropriately animalistic look to them.  Especially Usagi on the opening page as he looks downright haunted in a way we haven’t seen before.

As for the story itself, it involves the Rabbit Ronin helping out some travelers in a pinch by agreeing to deliver a bundle of tokage to a hermit living on an island.  The catch here is that the hermit has had a previous encounter with Usagi, one which left him in a greatly diminished state.  Things have changed and now he’s looking for some payback.  It’s a fairly standard story, noteworthy for how it shows the title character had some trouble when he tried to save his lord’s head from Lord Hikiji’s troops, and the “themed” nature of the villain here.

Last up is “Yukichi” and it’s the best of this bunch of stories.  It involves the young head of a sword school who encounters Usagi while on a mission to deliver his master’s sword to his nephew.  Yukichi Yamamoto is his name, and he had a brief encounter with our protagonist years ago wherein he was quite rude and failed to recognize the skill being displayed to him.  After expressing his regret to Usagi, the two continue to travel together until they’re accosted by some ruffians from a rival sword school.  Usagi and Yukichi are able to fend them off with ease, but that just has the students run back to their master, who now has his own plans for the sword.

Yukichi shows a willingness to learn from Usagi throughout the story, both in the way of the sword and the school of life.  That gives them a mentor/student vibe that the title character doesn’t have with any of the regular cast members.  Jotaro doesn’t count because Usagi isn’t around much to do any actual mentoring.  So seeing someone that Usagi can actually teach and pass on his own knowledge to is something new for the series.  There’s also the surprise connection we find out that they share later on, which continues the trend of adding to the title character’s backstory in this volume, but not much else.

While the stories in this volume do make it clear that Sakai can still add to Usagi’s personal history after all these years, the downside is that we don’t get much out of it.  You could’ve taken out the additions here and the stories would’ve played out the same.  They’re unobtrusive, which is about the most that can be said for them.  At least the storytelling is still rock-solid and Yukichi looks like a worthy addition to the series.  If nothing else, it’s nice that things ended with an addition that builds on “Usagi’s” future in a worthwhile fashion.