Writer, Artist & Letterer: Stan Sakai & Julie Sakai
Colorist: Emi Fujii
Cover Artists: Stan Sakai & Tom Luth; Peach Momoko
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 23, 2024
Admiral Niiro of the Kajitori Empire holds Shirohoshi Castle. Prince Kiyoshi lives as a refugee in the Mino Clan. Kiyoshi knows where his father hid the treasury and has access codes to strategic information in the white star castle's computers. Can Usagi sneak back into the enemy-held stronghold and use Prince Kiyoshi's codes to secure the vital intel before Niiro’s savvy techs hack the system? Let's grab our arcane katanas, leap into Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1, and find out!
Story: White Star Rising
Stan Sakai begins by reminding us of Lord Matabe’s failure. The servant of Lord Hideaki was fortunate to find a rare carcass of a Kameyama. Yet despite being entrusted with the Shirohoshi clan’s first castle and commanding a fleet of warships from the bridge of a retrofitted space turtle-dreadnaught, Lord Matabe’s jealousy led him to betray Lord Hideaki to the Kajitory Empire. And when Matabe had Prince Kiyoshi in his clutches, he opted for a duel with Usagi over returning the prince to Admiral Niiro.
Lady Ryoko, Admiral Niiro’s Psitech, recognized Matabe’s weakness. After mesmerizing Kiyoshi and probing his mind, Lady Ryoko returned to Matabe’s Kameyama dreadnaught. But Lady Ryoko had also probed Admiral Niiro’s mind and knew where she stood with her lord. So when the Mino Clan fighters ambushed KAME-1, and she realized death was imminent, Lady Ryoko sent a psychic message to her daughter instead of relaying the access codes and the treasure vaults’ location to Admiral Niiro. Lady Ch’Yoko relives her mother's last moments of life when she sleeps. She tells Admiral Niiro she felt her mother's psychic touch but couldn't interpret the message. But Niiro’s plans for her life worry the promising young Psitech.
Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1 begins a race against time. The young Lord Kiyoshi knows he is a target. The Mino Clan needs the Shirohoshi clan's financial and strategic resources to repel the Kajitori invaders. Usagi fell in love with the woman he thought was Princess Masayo. But like him, Tomoe was Princess Masayo’s tutor and bodyguard. Now, Tomoe and Usagi partner on a desperate mission. Can they sneak into a fortified White Star Castle, get the information they want, then escape and return safely to the Mino system? The mission seems impossible. Then, Usagi gets an idea.
A giant turtle swims between the stars like Great A’Tuin. Yet people see no elephants on its shell as it descends through a planet's atmosphere. It leaves behind a furrow after scooping food into its beak. Slender bipedal dinosaurs like Coelophysis feed on the newly hatched turtles. When the adults return to rest in peace, the dinosaurs and their pterosaur cousins return to feed in Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1.
Lady Ryoko’s lofty manner fades when glimpsing a fiery starfighter. Then she closes her eyes and touches her forehead like Spock. So it is her daughter, Lady Ch'Yoko, and her attendants at Shirohoshi Castle, whose eyes bulge and jaws drop when she “remembers.” On Gifu, a cyborg ninja sneaks into the Mino Imperial Palace. A yellow glow surrounds him, and red colors the air when he attacks. Lord Kiyoshi wears purple and sleeps beneath a purple blanket. Usagi rides a beige biped dinosaur through the yellow-brown desert. He passes green reptiles, brown rodents, humanoids, and aliens as he heads toward a green and orange dome.
Story: Akemi and the Secret Invasion
In Space Usagi: Yokai Hunter #1, Usagi promised Akemi she would go on missions someday. But like her advanced quantum Trigonometry lessons, Akemi gets bored mapping uncharted planets on the outskirts of the Shirohoshi system. So when she finds an uncharted planet, Akemi decides a little exploration is in order. Seeing all the strange plants and animals is fun. But could there be a reason this planet is uncharted? In Akemi and the Secret Invasion, Julie and Stan Sakai begin a children’s story akin to their graphic novel Chibi Usagi: Attack of the Heebie Chibis. Like young Princess Leia in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series, Akemi reminds us of the things that delight us, such as reading favorite stories and discovering new aspects of nature.
Art: Akemi and the Secret Invasion
Emi Fujii lavishes a loaded palette on Akemi and the Secret Invasion. Yet the colors owe more to the pastel family than in White Star Rising. As Akemi pilots her one-person scout ship, her red and yellow clothes match the yellow fire spurting from the ship's nacelles and the planets and five-pointed stars she passes. As Akemi passes fanciful flora and fauna, sunlight reveals a streak of horizontal lightness through her burnt sienna hair. Her features constrict when facing a sudden gust of wind. Yet Akemi’s irrepressible smile soon returns as she explores this uncharted world in Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1.
Lettering
Stan Sakai places generous-size uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. Thoughts hover in puffy clouds, letters swell for volume, and sound effects capture every slamming barrier, conflagration, bloody death, and explosion. Thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Dogu Publishing for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
As Stan Sakai enhances the history and mythology of this future universe, Usagi enlists a criminal's help in a lightning raid on enemy soil, and his daughter begins her space-faring career in Space Usagi: White Star Rising #1.
Rating 9.7/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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