How ironic that after more than a decade without the quintessential Japamerican comic, it’s En who re-introduces me to Usagi Yojimbo.

(Ironic, because En’s more or less dropped the American comic for manga, and manga is the one thing I would never touch, especially not Naruto - for reasons even I can’t comprehend.)

Anyway, En unearthed two volumes of Usagi comics from among the library@orchard collection, and I unflinchingly grabbed them from her. Shameless, but I really missed the rabbit ronin. My first encounter with him was in the cartoon version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the Fred Wolf version from 1987, not the current animated series from Fox) and back then I thought Usagi was the result of a mutagen experiment between a samurai and a rabbit. It was only years later that I discovered that Stan Sakai was the genius behind the bushido bunny who despite being an anthromorphic oriental warrior in the vein of Splinter and the Turtles, was conceived quite seperately from Eastman and Laird’s creations.

But I get ahead of myself. One of the volumes I was fortunate to *ahem* obtain thanks to En was the Grasscutter epic. A volume of 12 chapters (4 prologues and 8 story issues), the Grasscutter was one of the biggest story arcs ever found in a Usagi story. The titular item is the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, a mythological sword that equals King Arthur’s Excalibur in cultural prominence. In the story, two warring political factions (belonging to the Shogun and the Emperor) seek to obtain the lost sword, believing that ownership of the blade will represent the true mandate of authority. Naturally, the weapon falls into the hands of neutral party Usagi Yojimbo, who recognises its power over the populace, and realises that regardless of which side ends up with the blade, civil war will erupt.

The story is told in a simple fashion, with many of Usagi’s friends and enemies from previous stories making appearances, but the message is no less epic as a result. The climatic fight scene would rival any Naruto battle and the characterisation goes deeper than any Samurai X story. Truly, the tale of Usagi Yojimbo is an evergreen classic - two decades on.