Book Review: Usagi Yojimbo Book 3 by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer's Road by Stan Sakai

More stories about the samurai rabbit from feudal Japan...

In "The Tower," Usagi wanders into a town where a local noodle shop owner has chased a lizard up the town's tower. The owner is a bully, so rather than condemning him, the townsfolk start making bets on when the lizard will fall off the tower (the top isn't very big and the winds are picking up). Usagi says this is awful and climbs the tower to bring the lizard down. The owner chops the steps of the ladder, forcing Usagi to come up with a new plan as he tries to calm down the frightened and hostile lizard. The story throws in a lot of humor and the lizard winds up being Usagi's travel companion. 

"The Good Mother" is a much darker story. Usagi and Spot (that's what he named the lizard) have a meal with an old woman. To repay her kindness, he carries her back to her town. She'd been on a pilgrimage to pray for her son. Once they get to town, the son's problem is obvious. He's inherited his father's loan business but uses it to oppress the town. He's hired thugs to collect payments. The mother is ashamed and sad. The son is hostile to Usagi but cowers before his sword. Things get much darker as the story concludes. The grimness is surprising but narratively satisfying. Not really a kid's story.

"Return of the Blind Swordpig" reunites Usagi with an old foe whose nose he cut off. The tenseness of the confrontation is mitigated by the lizard, who inadvertently helped the blind swordpig earlier in the story. Even as mortal enemies, they still have humanity between them.

"Blade of the Gods" has Usagi facing an insane ronin who thinks he's been appointed by the gods to destroy evil in the world. The evil he destroys is other people with little justification on his part, an activity generally seen as evil by everyone else. They have an intense fight in a lightening storm that ends dramatically.

"The Tea Cup" is a little tribute to Groo the Wanderer (which I've never read, so I don't know how much of a tribute it is) where Usagi teams up with Gen, one of his samurai friends. Gen has to take an expensive tea cup to a tea merchant. A rival tea merchant wants it, so Gen has been fighting off hired thugs. Gen and Usagi have a break at an inn where they pick up two orphans headed to the same city. The usual mayhem ensues. The story has a good blend of action and humor.

"The Shogun's Gift" tells the tale of a ninja stealing a priceless sword from Lord Noriyuki. Usagi wanders into town as the search is on and has some encounters with the thief, who has disguised himself as a woodcutter. The ending is predictable but still fun.

"Turtle Soup and Rabbit Stew" is an out-of-continuity meet-up of Usagi with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, just Leonardo, who falls through time into feudal Japan and has a quick encounter with Usagi. For the few pages it lasts, the story is fun.

These Usagi stories are very entertaining and have a unique art style that I like.

Highly recommended.