Usagi Yojimbo, #5 - Elämän rajoilla

by Stan Sakai

Samuraijänis Usagi Yojimbon vaeltaessa halki shôgunin hallitseman Japanin, on uusista tuttavuuksista joskus vaikea tietää, ovatko nämä ystäviä vai vihollisia. Moraalisten ja todellisten rajojen harmaudessa vaeltaa myös Usagin perivihollinen omia polkujaan, omien sääntöjensä opastamana. Jokaisella on omat käsityksensä kunniasta ja rajoista, mutta niiden hämärtyessä eivät parhaimmatkaan tarkoitusperät välttämättä pysty pelastamaan viattomia kärsimyksiltä.

Taikausko ja yliluonnolliset kohtaamiset haalistavat entisestään elämän ja kuoleman välistä rajaseutua ja huomaamme, että ajan kuluessa kostonhimoisinkin kauna voi muuttaa muotoaan yllättävään suuntaan.

Zum Teufelin viides ja tähän mennessä paksuin Usagi Yojimbo -kokoelma sisältää Dark Horsen julkaisemat kirjat 10 (The Brink of Life and Death) ja 11 (Seasons).

424 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2025

About the author

Stan Sakai (Japanese: 坂井 スタンSakai Sutan; born May 25, 1953) is an artist who became known as an Eisner Award-winning comic book originator.

Born in Kyoto, Sakai grew up in Hawaii and studied fine arts at the University of Hawaii. He later attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He and his wife, Sharon, presently reside and work in Pasadena.

He began his career by lettering comic books (notably Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier) and became famous with the production of Usagi Yojimbo, the epic saga of Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century Japan. First published in 1984, the comic continues to this day, with Sakai as the lone author and nearly-sole artist (Tom Luth serves as the main colorist on the series, and Sergio Aragonés has made two small contributions to the series: the story "Broken Ritual" is based on an idea by Aragonés, and he served as a guest inker for the black and white version of the story "Return to Adachi Plain" that is featured in the Volume 11 trade paper-back edition of Usagi Yojimbo). He also made a futuristic spin-off series Space Usagi. His favorite movie is Satomi Hakkenden (1959).

Reviews

[Dbgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit middle of the road walker storywise, but at least there weren’t bad stories. This clearly focused on what the morals were in 16th century Japan. For me it was hard to understand their thoughts, but what do I know, didn’t live back then.