Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5 Review

 

Writer, Artist & Letterer: Stan Sakai

Colorist: Hi-Fi Colour Design

Cover Artists: Stan Sakai & Emi Fujii; Dustin Nguyen; Mitsuhiro Arita

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 21, 2024

 

When Usagi, Gen, and Stray Dog stormed the abandoned temple, Inuyoshi’s bounty hunters surrounded them before they could escape with Yukichi. Then Heizo, one of Inuyoshi’s bounty hunters, stumbled into the abandoned temple and reported that Jimmu’s army had them at a disadvantage. Inuyoshi wants the bounty on the bandit terrorizing the neighborhood. Gen and Stray Dog also hope to earn that bounty. Can Usagi and Inuyoshi’s people put the past behind them and work together to prevent Jimmu from robbing more merchant caravans? Let's grab our katanas, charge into Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5 and find out!

 

Story

After night falls, Usagi, Gen, Yukichi, and Stray Dog take out Jimmu’s sentries. Inuyoshi orders his band to gather firewood and plans to smoke the bandits out of their hut. But Usagi and Inuyoshi’s plan didn’t account for Yatagarasu. Jimmu’s trained crow warns the sleeping bandits, and they rush out to turn their night callers into sushi. Usagi and Inuyoshi’s surprise attack becomes a melee, as the samurai and bounty hunters fail to surround the house, and the bandits abruptly roused from sleep to fight for their lives.

 

While Jimmu's army outnumbers Usagi and Inuyoshi’s combined forces, skills matter in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5. Usagi recognizes that Jimmu has worked hard to become a formidable swordsman. And while the bandit leader dismisses most of Inuyoshi’s gang as poorly trained, he likens a few of his attackers to dragons. But character also influences the battle. Jimmu has amassed an army. Strategic planning and a cool head when ambushing a merchant caravan earn him comparisons with his historic namesake. But Jimmu’s first thought is for himself. So when the tide of battle turns against him, Jimmu opts to flee for his life rather than stand by his men.

 

Like Usagi and Inuyoshi, Jimmu is likely a former samurai who became a ronin. Whether his parents named him after the first emperor of Japan or he adopted the moniker, Jimmu sought to create an aura of invincibility. So, he trained a crow and named it after the first emperor's pet. Ironically, in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5, Yatagarasu shows more loyalty to his master than Jimmu pays his men. But then, as Inuyoshi bitterly commented in the third issue, while the samurai were supposed to be loyal to their lords, the arrangement wasn’t reciprocal.

 

Stan Sakai delivers an intense battle, gives major characters a chance to shine, and brings The Crow miniseries to a satisfying conclusion. The issue sparkles as society forces its protectors to become criminals while those who need protection must fend for themselves.

 

 

 

Art

A singing sentry takes a swig from a jug as he treads a dirt path. When Usagi appears behind him, the jug goes flying. A trio of lookouts fall, surprise writ on their faces, as Gen, Stray Dog, and Yukichi run away. A crow sits on a barren branch near a thatched roof house that vents smoke from the front and back. Within, outlaws sleep on a built-up wood floor around a recessed cooking fire. A sleepy outlaw who stumbles out smiles when he reaches a tree. After a surprisingly graphic moment, the outlaw's body and head tumble to the ground separately in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5.

 

Hi-Fi Colour Design lavishes a loaded palette on Stan Sakai’s expressive characters and intense action. Highlights and shadows lend depth and drama to people, clothing, and the bushes and trees of the forest. Everyone shines brightly amid the dark blue air except Jimmu. His dark blue and hippo-gray clothes help the gray-furred bandit slip away into the fog before distant trees. But brown-furred and cloaked Inuyoshi won’t let that happen!

 

Stan Sakai honors readers with generously sized letters in white dialogue balloons. Raised voices swell and darken words while colored exclamation marks and gray skulls invade dialogue balloons. White letters shout within a crimson splotch while a black Tang flies off katanas. Yatagarasu’s caws soar through blue dialogue balloons, and an ivory storm cloud signals a character's final decision in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5. Thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Dogu Publishing for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Caught in a caste system rigged against them, formerly respectable warriors weigh their sense of honor and worthiness against each other. While some live, others die. Appearances can be deceiving, and snap judgments likewise unjust, in Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow #5.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.