Book Review: Usagi Yojimbo Book 6 by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo Book 6 by Stan Sakai

More adventures of the ronin rabbit as he heads back to his hometown...

The Bridge--Usagi crosses a bridge during a dark and stormy night. He thinks he sees something on the bridge but maybe it was just the lightening. He stops at the inn on the other side of the bridge. The customers and the innkeeper don't believe he made it across at night. A demon haunts the crossing and kills nighttime travelers. The next morning, one of the customers discovers a severed hand in the middle of the span. Usagi stays to see the problem through. The book has some nods to The Evil Dead, which I found surprising. It's a good, creepy story.

The Duel--Usagi winds up dueling a local swordsman in some random town on Usagi's way to his hometown. A bookmaker made a bundle of money off the fight, though he has his own ronin who will fight Usagi the next day, so the two (the bookie and his swordsman) can make even more money. The other ronin has been working with the bookmaker for a year in order to earn enough money to retire with his wife and infant child. Fighting Usagi turns out to be a bigger challenge.

Yurei--Sleeping by a river, Usagi has an encounter with a ghost or yurei. The ghost is an innkeeper's daughter who married one of the hired hands. When her father died, the hired hand took over the inn, played around on her, and finally killed her and threw her body in the river. In the morning, Usagi assumes it was a dream but does find an expensive hair pin. He goes to the local inn to trade it for a small meal. The innkeeper recognizes his dead wife's pin and thinks Usagi is trying to blackmail him. Through circumstances, justice is satisfied. This is another spooky and satisfying tale.

My Lord's Daughter--Usagi tells a tall tale of his saving the daughter of his lord from an ogre and the ogre's minions. The story is short and fun and not too deep, just some light entertainment.

Circles--The last half of the book is taken up with this story where Usagi finally arrives home. Things are the same and totally different. His old master has new students; his childhood sweetheart has married the chief of the village and has a son; said chief is still a rival to Usagi. Usagi plans to settle down but bandits have been raiding. On their last raid, they kidnapped the child. The head of the bandits is an old foe of Usagi's who wants the ronin dead. The story shifts from action to drama quite deftly and has a fine melodramatic ending.

Recommended, highly for fans of the series--the storytelling is as good as always and the art matches well.