Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles has its rabbit feet in the samurai past and takes a group of misfit friends into a fun future! The long running comic book started with Fantagraphics in 1987, went through various publishers, and is currently published by IDW. It is currently streaming on Netflix. The opening has a tokage, a dino lizard, foraging with peach blossom petals floating past and one peach blossom tree behind him. Then, we get the beautiful, black and white with grey tones of Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai! This can't get any better with Stan Sakai illustrations! The narrator (Darren Barnet) says that the samurai is facing a Yōkai (a spirit or monster), Ōnyūdō, in this case a massive skeleton creature. It reminds me of the Yōkai in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) with swords in its head.
We see this in different panels so it is apparent that this is a black and white manga. The Yōkai is seen in shadow, a great effect, and the page ends with Usagi holding his katana ready to strike! Then, we see the narrator, young Yuichi Usagi with ears in top knot, blue and black armor, reading the manga. A Tokage, Spot, is at his side. Usagi admires the samurai and takes out two kamas, farm instrument-like sickles. He thinks of himself like his ancestor, Miyamoto Usagi. He tells Spot that Miyamoto’s sword, Willowbranch, was “like lightning.” Usagi looks at a mock wooden robot and leaps up. We get the black screen and slashes, very cool. Then, the samurai’s battle with the Yōkai now rendered in color. Spot has covered his eyes and whimpers in fear. Usagi tries to reassure him saying that Auntie’s farmbotto is not turned on. The tech makes it sci fi even though we have a traditional farm. He just thumps it with his kama and this causes it to activate! The farmbotto starts to move towards Spot with its thresher arms!
Usagi takes Spot in his arms and tosses him aside to deal with the runaway farmbotto, no off switch? It starts to head for the house, then turns to a watermelon patch. Usagi leaps and throws his kama into the bot’s inner workings. The farmbotto shorts out, but Auntie (Sumalee Montano) is not happy at the chaos. She has puffy cheeks, uses a cane, and one of her ears is wooden! Auntie points out a sign that Usagi reads “No fighting farmbotto”, very funny. She says he is turning 16 and dreams of becoming a samurai. Auntie gives him a wrench to fix farmbotto. It is a Luke Skywalker choice, stay on the farm or become a Jedi. The farm turns to misty and then to night. Usagi rolls out his steamcycle planning on leaving for the city. Steampunk tech, very cool. He practices his martial arts and kicks the tree and Auntie drops down from it. Usagi says he has decided to go to Neo Edo, love the name in Akira (1998), it was Neo-Tokyo. Edo is the ancient name of Tokyo that was the capital in the Tokugawa shogunate.
Auntie takes out a katana scabbard, it is called a sword in this series. She presents him the katana, Edgewing, the blade forged by Auntie and his great-great grandfather. There is a crystal, Omurasaki, that Miyamoto Usagi carried, on the end of its hilt. Auntie says she was lucky with it and then taps her mechanical leg. She knows that he can’t stay on the farm even though she promised his parents to protect him. Auntie says her goodbyes and wants Usagi to find a sensei in Neo Edo. Usagi says she had already trained him. He rides off in the night just playing with Edgewing. “Patience…you must learn patience”, spoken by Sensei Yoda. Usagi rides from the forest and reaches the golden city of Neo Edo. Riding through the streets, the steamcycle suddenly jets forward, Usagi says it is from the Ki-Stone. An energy burst travels through the cables of the city to a massive Ki-Stone like the Dark Crystal watched over by a bear technician.
There is an announcement from a lantern topped bot, a newsbotto, that says Warimashi has escaped. There is a 100,000 joules reward for him. Usagi images in manga form defeating the hog criminal and his gang. Then, touching the Ki-Stone that makes him Hulk out to a Conan (or Groo)-like warrior. Usagi sees himself taking on the Skeleton Yōkai and Karasu tengu, I know the Tengu as bird demons, also known as Crow Yōkai, “master of martial arts.” Finally, there is the Spider Yōkai. He goes into his imaginary Dragonball finishing move saying he is “the ultimate Yōkai fighter!” Um, he hasn’t found his sensei. We find Usagi closing his eyes and swinging Edgewing. Spot gibbers waking Usagi from his dream. The steamcycle pitches over hitting stairs and Usagi flips up and Spot lands on his arm. No one notices his acrobatic feat.
Usagi starts to wander the streets and looks up to see a hovering airship. His gawking has a worker ram the brakes on his constructionbotto. Usagi is bored and then sees a pig menaces by a rhino. His imagination has him see a raging, “ugly brute” which the rhino hears in the alley. He says his name is Gen (Aleks Le) and he attacks Usagi with a spiked club, Kanabō, while holding onto the pig’s head. Usagi leaps over him and smacks his hand with the scabbard. The pig runs off. Gen says that he is a bounty hunter and the pig is Warimashi! He tells Usagi that he should know first what’s going on before engaging in combat. Gen asks about Usagi’s sensei. Usagi tries to escape and lands on a skeleton, a puppet of a fox woman, Kitsune (Shelby Rabara). Gen continues chasing him and this rocks the puppet cabinet revealing stolen goods from the audience!
Kitsune chases after the duo. They end up hearing finger snaps, it is the Mogura gang, monkeys wearing sunglasses. Mogura is translated as a mole like the lil' burrowing animal. Their leader, Chikabuma, has a tall pompadour. They begin dancing and snapping their fingers. Monkeys dancing is very funny. Suddenly, they unleash an energy wave from a power snap. He finds a crack in some roks and then wedges his scabbard in to bring the rocks down on the Mogura. The chase continues with Usagi smashing into a restaurant swept by a cat woman in red, Chizu (Mallory Low). They end up chasing Usagi to the Ki-Stone and its bear guardian Tetsujin. He wears a bead necklace like a monk. Tetsujin says he is the “last of the Kaikishi”, whom Usagi says are Yōkai fighters. The others don’t believe in Yōkai.
Tetsujin says they are in a Kaikishi temple. The Ki-Stone starts to crackle with energy, Tetsujin notices that energy is connected to Usagi. He is drawn to the stone, Tetsujin tries to pull him away, and then all turns to white. Usagi gets visions of Miyamoto Usagi walking through a forest, very beautiful, and Yōkai. They all recover to see blue globes of Yōkai escape from the Ki-Stone. I think all of the young group members are become Kaikishi. The Yōkai must be defeated including the strange leader with three eyes and a face like a hannya (demon) mask. Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles builds a fresh, futuristic world that is funny with anime action!, but also connected to the Usagi Yojimbo of the past, with Usagi's mismatched friends to save the world from Yōkai!
Five Joules out of Five!
#SamuraiRabbitTheUsagiChronicles, #StanSakai, #DarrenBarnet, #AleksLe, #ShelbyRabara, #MalloryLow, #SumaleeMontano
Comments
Post a Comment