Usagi Yojimbo (pt. 2)

Alright, let's finish this second arc of Samurabbit and hopefully the one after it too! Tomoe just fell in the river, leaving Usagi alone to guard Noriyuki. If it turns out that she drowned, then he'll have to escort the lordling the rest of the way to Edo on his own. Hopefully she didn't drown, that would kind of suck.


With the enemies defeated, Noriyuki wants to swim/raft after Tomoe and try to pull her out of the river, but Usagi vetoes that. Neither of them have the skills to navigate this kind of floodwater; the best they can do is just move along the bank after her and hope she made it into the shallows on her own. It takes them several hours, but they do find her washed up on the riverbank eventually. She's in bad enough shape that they actually mistake her for dead at first, but she's still breathing. Barely. They warm her up by their campfire, but disease has already set in.

Also, there are a bunch of small sauropods clustered just outside of their campsite, for some reason.

Are those adult versions of the little frog-dino things we saw climbing the trees earlier? They kinda look like it. Weird.

Anyway, they'll need to bring Tomoe to the nearest large town immediately to find a doctor, if they want to save her. However, doing so would cost them several days' travel, and likely trip any feelers the enemy has put out for them in the nearby towns. Making it much more likely that they'll be attacked again.

Since Usagi is an honor-and-duty-before-all-else type, he'd euthanize Tomoe (even though he'd personally rather she live) and rush straight to Edo, since his job is to keep Noriyuki alive and nothing else. However, Noriyuki - despite his youth - is also his employer, and Tomoe is a retainer of his. So, the decision must be made by the young lord himself.

Prime reaction image fodder.​

It's not a surprise what he chooses. But still, the weight of having to choose one of his underlings' fates is obviously hitting Noriyuki heavily.

I don't know how old he's supposed to be, exactly, but clearly way too young for this. Especially considering that he's probably still mourning his father. Feudalism, man, it fucks you right up.

They bring her to the nearest town. To be clear, there's no guarantee that Tomoe would have survived the trip, or that a doctor would have been able to save her even if they got her to one, so it's not like Noriyuki's choice was that much of a Hard Decision. But, happily, the doctor IS able to stabilize her, given a day or two's work. She's going to need much more recovery time before she can travel again, let alone fight, though. And they don't have the money, patience, or security to wait in this town that long.

She's loathe to accept it, but she'll have to sit the rest of this trip out and trust Usagi to protect her liege.

So, the new plan is to dress Noriyuki up in some different clothes and have him pretend to be Usagi's son. Just a wandering ronin and his probably-less-than-legitimate offspring, meandering around the outskirts of Edo looking for shenanigans to take part in. It's not a great plan, but it's the best they've got.

I guess this means that "which kind of furry are you" is either matrilineal, or non-hereditary. Worldbuilding!

As they stock up on supplies and eat their last meal in town before departing on the last, dangerous leg of the journey, this random encounter happens:

That...aardvark? tapir?...looks vaguely familiar, but I don't know from where. Another comic, maybe? I'm not sure what Usagi means by "barbarian," given that this person seems to be wearing at least a Japanese-ish headband and pair of swords. Is he supposed to be, like, ainu or something?

...

Looked this episode up. Apparently this is indeed a crossover character, from something called "Groo the Wanderer." He's a parody of the Conan archetype, which I guess includes the Conan-like habit of adopting the dress and equipment of whatever place he visits. In this case that must include the ears, because in his own comic Groo doesn't have those; he's just a human with a comically large nose.

Stan Sakai wasn't Groo's creator, but he joined its writing team prior to this Usagi Yojimbo issue. Which I guess gave him cameo rights. Fair enough.

For a silly little one-panel shoutout gag, I do like that this highlights one of Usagi's flaws. Like his historical inspiration, Miyamoto Musashi, Usagi is piously loyal to shogunate-era Japan's moral system, but also displays many of that culture's blind spots and flaws, including acute xenophobia. It gives the impression that he's a really well meaning and fairly smart guy, but being conservative and not very critical-minded sometimes gets in the way of those merits.

This is the kind of character study that I said I wanted more of in the first story, so I'm happy to be getting it in the one right after.

...

Once they're ready, they set out toward Edo. There are a few panels of them crossing fields, woods, and a bridge over a river that a herd of those WTF sauropods are currently drinking from. It's when they're two thirds of the way across this bridge that the ninja clan Hijiki used the last couple of days' waiting time to hire makes its attack.

The shinobi kitteh army doesn't do that much better than the previous waves of attackers, at first. Also, for some reason NOW we're allowed to show gore and blood splatter, whereas in previous battles not even a decapitation spilled blood.

Yeah, I'm really not understanding this censorship paradigm.

Finally, the nekoninja squad leader is left facing Usagi alone. He identifies himself as Hanzo of the Neko Clan (hah! they're actually called the neko clan!), and asks to know the name of the worthy opponent who he's about to kill. Usagi grants him that favor, and...actually comes damned close to living down to his expectations as well. Usagi actually loses this duel!

Hanzo produces a box of toxic powder and throws it in Usagi's eyes, blinding the samurai. Then, while he's blinded, he maneuvers him into tripping over one of the bodies of his fallen comrades, causing Usagi to keel over on his back. Usagi only survives because, just as Hanzo is bringing his blade down, Noriyuki rises to the occasion and scores what's almost certainly his first kill.

On one hand, loss of innocence. On the other...the kid is about to join the warrior-aristocracy of Feudal Clusterfuck Island. He's going to have to start doing this as part of his job very soon, so it's just as well that he gets used to it before the Shogun recognizes him rather than after.

Thematically, I feel like Usagi helped him prepare for this. Both by serving as a role model, and by forcing him to make a life-or-death choice about Tomoe earlier. Really drove it home for him that from now on, he has to be an adult, and that in his social class that means being a warrior.

Also, I'm kind of surprised that Hanzo Shinobicat bit it just like that. After both naming him and establishing him as a serious (and stylish) threat, it seemed like the comic was setting him up as a recurring character. I guess it probably wants the reader to think that. Keep us on our toes. Fair enough.

Usagi's vision is slowly recovering. Which makes sense; you don't want to throw permanent blinding poisons around in close quarters outdoors where the wind could flare up at any moment. When a group of armed horsemen approach from the Edo direction before Usagi can see properly again, Noriyuki puts himself between them and him and holds up a sword, trying to stall for as long as it takes Usagi's eyes to recover. Admirable, but also unnecessary. It turns out that these guys are Geishu retainers stationed at the family's Edo palace (during the Tokugawa Shogunate era, major noble houses would have their main palace in their own territory and a second ambassadorial residence in the capital). He's behind schedule, so they decided to go out and look for him themselves already. After identities are established, they escort Noriyuki and Usagi the rest of the way to the capital. As soon as she's healthy enough to travel, Tomoe is summoned along after them.

The Geishu clan has compensated Usagi for his yojimbo services. However, by the time Tomoe rejoins her master in Edo and asks after the heroic ronin, Noriyuki informs her that he's already left. He offered to make him a Geishu retainer, but Usagi refused. He wouldn't say why; he just politely said no and then left the capital. She rides out after him, in order to thank him in person or say goodbye or polish his naginata or whatever, but he's long gone. Cut to him on a flower-covered hilltop, smiling contentedly at the rabbit-shape on the moon.

He might still not think it proper for him to become a retainer again after letting his last lord die on his watch, but this is still at least a partial redemption. He was tasked with defending another lord from the same dickhead who killed the last one, and this time he succeeded despite struggle and hardship. How many more times will he have to do this before he considers his honor restored and himself a proper knight again? Maybe he's just decided he prefers the life of a ronin, at least for now, whether or not he's conscious of that decision.

But wait, there's an epilogue!

Cut to a very imposing looking palace, which turns out to be the home of the infamous Daimyo Hikiji. He's getting an update from his spymaster; a rattlesnake named Hebi. Hebi is considerably less anthropomorphic than the other characters we've met so far, to the point of not having either hands or feet. I wonder if the comic will ever have to deal with the implications of some people just lacking manipulator appendages, or if it'll just carefully steer around Hebi ever needing to hold anything. Anyway, Hebi was tasked with cleaning up after this disaster of an operation, and has done a much better job than the guy who was tasked with the operation itself.

The halfwit who arranged five different ambushes (Tomoe mentioned two previous ones having occurred before the one Usagi rescued them from) but couldn't make any of them stick has been told that he'd better be dead by the next time the boss looks his way, or things will be a lot more painful than they need to be. Hikiji's frustration with him is...well, I can't say it isn't understandable, lol.

Hikiji asks Hebi for more information on this last bodyguard of Geishu Noriyuki's who managed to fend off that whole team of ninjacats they shelled out on, and is shocked to learn that it wasn't even a house samurai. A ronin with that kind of fighting ability is something to keep aware of, given the unpredictability of where and when they'll next turn up. When Hebi relays the name of Miyamoto Usagi, Hikiji seems to recognize it. Which means he's probably put two and two together and determined that the bodyguard of the last rival he killed might be back for a campaign of vengeance.

...

Hebi the hypercompetent snek spymaster who acts as sidekick to the main villain. I wonder if Sir Hiss from Disney's Robin Hood was a minor inspiration here? The whole "famous feudal-era folk hero, but everyone's a furry" concept was already strongly reminiscent of that, and the movie had been out for a good while before this was written. This could have been a nod to a similar-ish work then, yeah. Not saying it necessarily IS, it just strikes me as a strong possibility.

On the other hand, Hikiji is a very different kind of villain than Disney's take on Prince John, and he has a much more mutually respectful relationship with his Intel Snek, so maybe not.

...

Also, the last panel of the story has us seeing Hikiji's face, and it looks like this:

To get the LESS pressing question out of the way first; how old is this guy supposed to be? I got the impression that the battle of Adachigahara was supposed to have been a long time ago, but Hikiji looks awfully young for that. Maybe he was an upstart teenager who'd just inherited his house and started his expansionism when that happened? In that case, a decade or two could have passed since then and he'd still be in his twenties or thirties. His current methods do seem a lot subtler and more deniable than his past ones, so him having been a brash (though still cunning) teenager back then would make sense. I guess his appearance makes sense for the timeline, if that's how it went.

Now, for the more obvious question; what in the actual fuck?

We got dimensional bleedover shit going on here? Is he from the mirror universe? Did he perform a black magic experiment to rid himself of his animal nature and try to ascend to a higher state of being? Did he and Hebi exchange parts until one was just animal and one just human? Or is it just random chance that he's the only human we've seen so far, just like we've only seen one bear so far in Noriyuki?

Granted, if it's the last one, then if Usagi is a rabbit-person and Tomoe is a cat-person and Hebi is a snake-person, then does that make Hikiji a person-person? A double-human? Twice the man that you are? That would definitely make him a worthy foe, to put it lightly.

Also, is it just coincidence that the first person-person we've met is a total psychopath? Could it be that...man is the real monster? <:O

Anyway, that's the end of Bushido Bunny episode 2.


Alright, it got me. "Lone Rabbit and Child" is everything that the first story left me wanting, and then some. It's got all the strengths of the first arc, and virtually none of the weaknesses.

Honestly, if I was recommending Usagi Yojimbo to someone, I'd probably tell them to start with this one. Introducing us to Usagi as a mysterious man meditating in a shack that we thought was empty feels right to me in a way that following him through the snow doesn't. Likewise, I think his reaction to hearing Hikiji's name makes for an interesting mystery, and the ending - with Hikiji seeming to recognize Usagi's in turn - just heightens it. Now, instead of just randomly hearing a story about the villain before he's really relevant, we encounter him mid-villainy and are shown rather than told that our hero has a score to settle.

I guess one thing that the first episode did do better was establish the whole theme of moral systems and their strained relationships with the people who create and (theoretically) uphold them. "Lone Rabbit and Child" did play with that theme a little, but it didn't put it front and center like the first story did. Still, it had plenty of other stuff going on to make up for it.

Another difference that jumps out at me is that the first story is much more fantastical, and sets an expectation for more supernatural goings-on. Compared to that, episode two is near-realistic historical fiction, just with the "drama" and "body count" dials turned up a bit. Before anyone asks, the female samurai does not detract from the realism. Female samurai (more properly referred to as onna-bugeisha) were less common in the Shogunate era than they were in the preceding Warring States period, but they still existed. They're traveling to Edo, a real place, rather than the fictional locations named in the first episode. All in all, I was surprised by how grounded this arc was beyond the concessions made to genre-conceits. I'm not sure how much fantasy vs. how much historical fiction I should expect going forward, given the data so far.

In any case, I can confidently say I've been sold on Usagi Yojimbo at this point. However, I also need to say that I'll have to make this a three-parter after all. The third episode should be up tomorrow or the next day.