Usagi Yojimbo: Crossroads

Usagi Yojimbo: Crossroads by Stan Sakai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Usagi Yojimbo: Crossroads collects Usagi Yojimbo #22-26.

I don't know how he does it but Stan Sakai has kept up a high standard of quality for fifty years at this point. This was my favorite Usagi volume since the series moved to IDW.

The first story involves Usagi and Yukichi getting ensnared in one of Kitsune's thefts. The second involves Usagi and Yukichi chasing down some bandits. That doesn't sound like all that much but both were vintage Sakai with questions of honor, moral dilemmas, and bad guys being cut down. In the second, I feared for Yukichi's life when he crossed paths with an old enemy of his uncle's.

The art is the art. Stan Sakai hasn't lost a step in 30 years and is stick hatching the fuck out of things he could probably get by with letting the colorist handle now that the series is in color. His faces are expressive and gets so much mileage out of Usagi. You'd think he'd be tired of drawing the bodyguard rabbit by now but the art is still so perfect.

Five out of five stars. I stand by my earlier statement that this is the best Usagi trade IDW has put out.

View all my reviews