Duel at Kitanoji

First Published: August 2002 by Dark Horse Comics

I kept flip-flopping to the very last minute as to the winner of the duel. The duelists were two sides of the same coin, though Koji is much more the idealist and truer to the warriors' spirit. Katsuichi is much more grounded in the real world though he still answers the call of bushido.

When I first thought of the duel, both Katsuichi and Koji would realize that neither could win and call it a draw. That's why I brought in that technique of predicting the outcome of a duel that Usagi used. Anyway, in the original story, Koji would walk off into the sunset (or sunrise, in this story) and out of Usagi's life. But, six years later, I realized this would be too much of a cop out. One of them had to die.

The next intent was to have both die. They were evenly matched. This makes sense, right? However, who would teach Jotaro? Not Usagi. He's too much of a loner and is still learning so would not make a good teacher.

Katsuichi would die. Koji would take Jotaro as a student, if for nothing else so Jotaro can learn enough so one day he can avenge Katsuichi's death. However, during the years, Jotaro will realize that it wasn't Koji who killed his sensei, it was the ideals of bushido. This went out immediately because it took 6 years to bring us to this duel [Koji requested this duel in USAGI YOJIMBO Volume 3, Number 7 in 1996!]. How long will it take for Jotaro to grow up enough to learn this lesson?

Koji had to die. Jotaro goes with Usagi which may make for some interesting stories but Jotaro won't be a permanent appendage. Katsuichi makes a pilgrimmage to the warrior-monk.

As I said, the outcome kept changing up to the time I drew that page of Koji's death. That is why I set up the preceeding issues so any outcome was possible. Wizard magazine even ran a winter preview saying that Usagi would be travelling with his son, that threw a few people off thinking that Katsuichi would lose. Normally, I sent the completed pages in and Diana would read them at her leisure. This time I sent it with a note saying "read this immediately and get back to me." She liked the story (though she did think Koji would win) and said I wrapped it up nicely.

One thing I will change, however, is to add a page after that double-page spread so that the page of Koji falling over dead will be on a left hand page. Incidentally, each panel of that double-page was drawn and not photo-copied. I don't know why I mention this except that the lunch group I meet with on Fridays just assume the panels were xeroxed until they noticed differences in each panel.

- STAN SAKAI

FIXME

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, 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 authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.