( 3 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 10 2009
Usagi Yojimbo is the kind of quality work that transcends time, genres, demographics, and even age groups. It crafts a delicate and beautiful balance between honor and savagery, cute innocence and dark brutality, simple heart-warming stories and multi-part epics that shape a dense continuity. Whether or not you've ever been a fan of feudal Japanese culture, furry anthro characters, or independent, non-superhero comics, Usagi Yojimbo is a comic that can't help but impress even the harshest critic. Duel At Kitanoji (vol. 17) resists the urge to continue in the vein of the previous volumes, delivering ground-shaking events of epic magnitude, introducing memorable new characters, and/or charting new genres for the title. Instead, it takes Usagi back to his roots. When Usagi's sensai is forced to dual to the death with Koji, a dangerous and honorable warrior who has spent years preparing to defeat him, Usagi is left to wonder why two brave and valiant samurai must kill each other in the name of honor. Faced with the knowledge of Koji's one vulnerability and the question of whether or not he should share it with his mentor, Usagi is forced to reevaluate his own code of honor. In one particularly stunning scene, Koji points out the fact that Usagi no longer thinks like a samurai and does not truly follow their code, much to Usagi's own amazement. While we have watched Usagi change and evolve for more than 15 years, this is the first time that his full progression as a character finally becomes clear. This is not the same Miyamoto Usagi who first appeared as the perfect embodiment of a disciplined samurai in volume 1, and that is the result of a careful and considered evolution of character that has been at work since at least volume 6, ultimately bringing Usagi to this defining moment. Duel at Kitanoji does not provide an epic adventure for Usagi, but it does provide the basis for Usagi's most intense self-examination in over twenty five years of publication. If you want to truly understand where Usagi has been and where he is going, this is the volume to read. Add Usagi's reunion with Jotoro into the mix (he's still darn cute!) and you've got yourself one heck of an essential Usagi volume.
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( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 23 2004
I was not quite as caught up in this story as I was in many of the rest. As others have said, Sakai does an incredible job of creating a world in which animals as Samurai in feudal Japan don't seem bizarre. The characters are interesting and varied and the minor episodes are compelling while he doesn't lose sight of the larger story he is telling about the journey of the title character. (If you're still reading and you don't want to see the spoiler, stop now!) But I couldn't quite believe that Sakai would be willing to kill off Katsuichi. Sure enough, he didn't. Which isn't a problem, except that because I couldn't believe that Katsuichi might die, I didn't feel the suspense during the run-up to the duel that I think Sakai was trying to build. Sakai doesn't kill off his major characters. And while that's fine for the running theme of Usagi travelling the warrior's pilgramage, it means that when Sakai tries for an impressive and dramatic showdown, the tension isn't there. It's the nature of having an open-ended story with no planned conclusion. I can think of only two recurring characters that have died in the first 17 books: Shingen and Ikeda. (Jei doesn't count because he always comes back, and my money is on Kagemaru to go next, but we'll see. I haven't read book 18 yet.) In sum, it's good for all the reasons Sakai's work is good, but it's not so hot because of the weakness of the type of story Sakai has chosen.
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( 4 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Oct 10 2003
Quite simply, I love this book and the fantasy world that Stan Sakai has woven for us all these years. Duel At Kitanoji Temple climaxes a storyline of honor between Usagi's teacher and a swordmaster whom he defeated many years earlier. At the end of the book Usagi sets off on new adventures with his son and a new chapter of Usagi Yojimbo begins. This is a classic series that has outlasted all the comic book trends of the last 15 years. So when everyone has forgotten about Bendis, McFarlane and all the other flavor of the month artist and writers, Usagi Yojimbo will still stand as one of the best series in the history of comic books. Thank you Stan!
