Review by: Neil Rodriguez Okay, so I have been in a bit of a samurai kick this week, first I read the trade for Samurai’s Blood and now I've picked up the Usagi Yojimbo comic.What's with all samurai action this week? I don’t know. I just enjoy samurai stories whether in human form or in animal form and this week I got a double dose of it.
In Usagi Yojimbo #144 our hero is currently staying at a Soy Sauce Brewery working as a bodyguard for Mitsui the owner of the said brewery. He asked for Usgai’s help because the brewery was being attacked by a rival soy sauce company that wants him out of business. During his stay at the brewery with Mitsui one of Mitsui guards gets killed by a mercenary that was hired by the rival company and it is up to Usagi to find out the responsible party and bring the evil doer to justice.
I liked Usagi Yojimbo #144 very much it was a simple and charming adventure. Usagi using his code of honor, goes out to help out people in need and at the same time defend those people from the evil doers that are committing a wrong to these good people. The story does not have any complicating twist or turns, it is a very straightforward with what is going on the story and you get clean resolution out of it just to get Usagi ready for his next adventure. What I also enjoy about this book is that is not very heavy with violence. There is action and some violence in the book, but the scenes that are violent do not show a blood bath after every kill instead a small little skull shows up to let the reader know that his opponent has been vanquish. I thought that that was a very cool and very clever idea for storytelling.
The art I also enjoyed a lot as well, it is very simple and clean just like the tone of the book, the art just screamed cartoony adventure to me and I really enjoyed my time with the book. The book reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon when I read the book and I saw the images.
Overall, Usagi Yomibo was fun. The story was simple, charming and fast. It sets the reader up for another new adventure after this issue and the art was good and tight as well.
Score: 4/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Stan Sakai Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 2/29/12