USAGI YOJIMBO
Behind the Rabbit's Mask
by Paul Dini

Paul Dini is a writer and producer whose animation credits include He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Transformers, Batman Beyond, and Superman: The Animated Series.

From the Ancient Fables of Aesop to the contemporary cartoons of Bugs Bunny, the humble rabbit has long been a symbol of cleverness and survival. Even mythology’s master strategist, the fox, routinely comes off the loser when he tries to match wits with his fleet-footed adversary, as the African-American folktales of Br’er Rabbit readily attest. Whether he is called hare, cottontail, or jackrabbit, the little guy with the big ears and buck teeth is truly a timeless figure, and his legends have been told as long as there have been human beings around to tell them.

The storytelling tradition of ancient Japan holds friend rabbit in high esteem as well. As a child, one of my favorite bedtime stories was a rather ghoulish Japanese “fairy tale” telling of the murder of a farmer’s kindly wife by a wicked tanuki, or raccoon dog. It seems the good wife fed and sheltered the little demon, who later repaid the woman for her generosity by murdering her and serving up her stewed remains to the farmer. Pretty gruesome behavior for old tanuki, a comical creature usually depicted wearing an oversized straw hat and toting a saké bottle. Maybe he drank too much saké and became unhinged, or maybe he was simply one seriously sociopathic raccoon dog; the story was vague on that point. What is known is that the grief-stricken farmer was horrified at the crime, as was his good friend, a rabbit who lived in the nearby woods. Playing on the tanuki’s greed, the rabbit lured the evil creature away on a treasure hunt, then secretly set fire to the tanuki’s backpack. When the nasty varmint jumped into a river to douse the flames, the rabbit clubbed him with a paddle and that was the end of that tanuki. In this story, as in many others told throughout the world, we witness the triumph of a small and traditionally meek character who has called upon his brains and bravery to defeat a larger, more aggressive enemy. It is a classic theme and one which writer/artist Stan Sakai weaves masterfully through his endlessly imaginative ongoing series, Usagi Yojimbo.

Stan often pits Usagi, a rabbit ronin of seventeenth-century Japan, in combat against a host of humanoid wolves, cats, bears, and other less easily defined carnivores. Far more than a funny animal conceit, it always seemed to me that Stan was making a visual comment on the true natures of heroes and villains while perhaps referencing the great print maker Tsukikoa Yoshitoshi. In his depictions of Japanese legends, Yoshitoshi often revealed the hidden, many times horrifying animalistic nature of his human subjects. A woman’s shadow partially cast on a screen reveals the head of a fox. A samurai gazing into a dish of water sees not the pretty girl behind him but a reflection of her demonic inner being. In Yoshitoshi’s world, the face of serenity masks the darker parts of the human id. It’s only upon closer examination that we see the beast lurking within.

In the world of Usagi, the reverse is true. The animals’ faces are their masks while their humanity (or lack thereof) is revealed through their personalities, or to be more accurate, through Stan’s deft characterizations. Whether he is armed with swords or not, Usagi is often perceived by many to be a physically weaker character. Ignorant enemies overlook his speed and skill, to say nothing of his courageous heart, and that is their inevitable undoing. Usagi also possesses the samurai’s most valuable weapon, the wisdom of knowing when to fight and when to stand down. It’s a trait that some might mistakenly read as cowardice (as the boy Eizo does in the short story “A Life of Mush”), but it subtly recalls the moral put forth in directory Akira Kurosawa’s samurai epic Sanjuro that the best swords are the ones that stay in their scabbards.

With the stories collected in this volume, Stan Sakai shows off every facet of Usagi’s engaging and complex personality. We see him as Usagi the warrior certainly, but in “The Inn on Moon Shadow Hill” we also meet Usagi the trickster. After discovering the truth about a colony of obakémono (goblins) infesting the woods near a lonely inn, Usagi adds his own fantastic spin on the tale, preserving the legend of the creatures while slyly arranging a tidy profit for his efforts.

A much more serious encounter with demons is recounted in “Kumo.” Here Usagi joins forces with the mysterious demon-hunter Sasuké to destroy a terrifying spider-creature that has laid siege to a mountain village. The fox-like Sasuké is a terrific addition to Usagi’s extended cast of allies and enemies, and unlike the reluctant Usagi, I can’t wait for the mystic to make a return appearance.

The collection’s longest tale, “The Mystery of the Demon Mask,” places Usagi in a situation that calls on him to be as much detective as he is samurai. While searching for the masked fiend that has been killing masterless samurai, the rabbit ronin fights to stay alive in a tightening web of tragedy, betrayal, and madness. As with all good mysteries, the outcome is both surprising and satisfying, but Sakai goes a step further to add a final bitter yet not inappropriate twist to the epic. It's the sort of human touch that has placed Usagi Yojimbo far in front of every other "funny animal" book published since Carl Barks bid adieu to Duckburg thirty-five years ago.

It’s the mark of a great storyteller. It’s the stuff of legends.

– Paul Dini

“Usagi Yojimbo” and "Space Usagi", including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai.  Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.