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Stan Sakai

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Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 2: Samurai Kindle & comiXology

by Stan Sakai (Author, Artist), Mark Evanier (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 149 ratings

Part of: Usagi Yojimbo

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The bunny's back! Originally printed in the long out-of-print Usagi Yojimbo#1 through 4, this volume features Usagi's origins as a wandering rabbit warrior in feudal Japan, and introduces many members of the cast of characters. Brimming with exciting swordfights, authentic locales and costumes, drama and humor, this is some of Stan Sakai's finest work. If you're unfamiliar with this multiple Harvey and Eisner winning comic for all ages, then what rock have you been living under?! Get your history lesson right here.

From the Publisher

Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo, ronin, samurai, Fantagraphics

Like Bone and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo is one of the breakout hits of the 1990s independent comic book boom. This award-winning all-ages graphic novel series chronicles the action packed wanderings of a rabbit ronin in feudal Japan. Available from Fantagraphics in affordable easy to read paperbacks, this perennial favorite is also featured as a deluxe slipcase set collecting the entire initial seven book run—with over 1000 pages of story, this Special Edition box set is the complete, definitive, early Usagi with lots of extra material for fans and collectors!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I’ve just finished the fourth Usagi Yojimbo trade and the fifth is sitting next to me... If you’re like me, throw away your preconceptions about anthropomorphic comics and get on board. As a fan of samurai fiction (to the point of having a Seven Samurai tattoo) and comics, I can’t recommend Stan Sakai’s beautifully drawn, note-perfect reinvention of the genre highly enough."
― Kevin Church, BeaucoupKevin.com

"These bittersweet adventure stories offer entertaining reading, especially for young Asian-Americans who feel excluded from mainstream juvenile literature."
― Los Angeles Times

"One of the most original, innovative, well-executed comic books anywhere to be found."
― Stan Lee

"I don’t think I’m exaggerating at all when I say that Stan Sakai is arguably the greatest living comic book creator in the world, and Usagi Yojimbo is a thirty-year masterpiece that has a consistency and craftsmanship that other comics only touch when they’re at their peak."
― Chris Sims, ComicsAlliance

About the Author

Mark Evanier is an American comic book and television writer, known for his work on the animated TV series Garfield and Friends and on the comic book Groo the Wanderer. He is also known for his columns and blog News from ME, and for his work as a historian and biographer of the comics industry, such as his award-winning Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of Comics.

Stan Sakai is a Japanese-born American artist and comic book creator. His creation, Usagi Yojimbo, first appeared in 1984. Usagi has been on television as a guest of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as toys, on clothing, in comics, and in a series of trade paperback collections. He is a multiple Eisner-Award-winning cartoonist and the recipient of numerous national awards including an American Library Association Award and a Cultural Ambassador Award from the Japanese American National Museum. In 2020, Sakai was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame. He currently is an executive producer on the Netflix original CGI animated series Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, which is based on "Usagi Yojimbo". He lives in Pasadena, CA.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01GQJT3KG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fantagraphics (January 1, 1989)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 1989
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 309748 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 145 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,166,425 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,613 in Children's Historical Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1,906 in Historical & Biographical Fiction Graphic Novels
- #2,043 in Children's Comics & Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 149 ratings

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Stan Sakai

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Sakai began his career by simply lettering comic books as he perfected his art and began working in the industry.

He also wrote and illustrated The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy; a comic series with a medieval setting, influenced by Sergio Aragones's Groo the Wanderer. The characters first appeared in Albedo #1 in 1984, and were subsequently featured in issues of Critters, GrimJack, Amazing Heroes and Furrlough. Stan Sakai became famous with the creation of Usagi Yojimbo, the epic saga of Miyamoto Usagi, a samurai rabbit living in late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century Japan.

Usagi Yojimbo, first published in 1984, continues to this day.

It progresses with Stan Sakai as the lone author and nearly sole artist (Tom Luth serves as the main colorist on the series, and Sergio Aragonés has made two small contributions to the series: the story "Broken Ritual" is based on an idea by Aragonés, and he served as a guest inker for the black-and-white version of the story "Return to Adachi Plain" that is featured in the Volume 11 trade paperback edition of Usagi Yojimbo). He also created a futuristic spinoff series Space Usagi.[10] His favorite movie is Satomi Hakkenden (1959). The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles's Little Tokyo presented an exhibit entitled "Year of the Rabbit: Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo" from July 9 through October 30, 2011.

Sakai wrote and illustrated the story "I'm Not in Springfield Anymore!" for Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #7 and illustrated the back cover of Treehouse of Horror #6. Sakai was the artist for Riblet, the back-up feature in the trade paperback of Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails.In 2013, Sakai illustrated the limited comic book series 47 Ronin, an adaptation of the famed story of the 47 Ronin written by Dark Horse Comics Publisher Mike Richardson and with Lone Wolf and Cub writer Kazuo Koikeas an editorial consultant. He resides in Pasadena, California.

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shaxper

Sakai's legendary ronin begins to find his way

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2008

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Usagi Yojimbo is the kind of quality work that transcends time, genres, demographics, and even age groups. It crafts a delicate and beautiful balance between honor and savagery, cute innocence and dark brutality, simple heart-warming stories and multi-part epics that shape a dense continuity. Whether or not you've ever been a fan of feudal Japanese culture, furry anthro characters, or independent, non-superhero comics, Usagi Yojimbo is a comic that can't help but impress even the harshest critic.

Though this is volume 2 in the Usagi series, this is really the volume where Sakai's masterpiece begins to take shape. "Samurai," which begins with Usagi's classic four part origin story, weaves an almost mythological tale of a young, reckless child growing into a serious adult and becoming burdened by the weight of his honor. We see young Usagi dream, struggle, succeed, fail, love, lose, achieve his greatest honor, face his darkest day, and gradually come to terms with the cards that fate has dealt him. This is a powerful, character-building tale that makes you truly care for the character of Miyamoto Usagi with far more emotional investment than you might care for the more serious looking characters found in those other, non-furry comics.

The volume also includes several other stories from the two issues that followed the four part "Samurai" epic. "The Test" is a truly disappointing story, written by Peter Laird as an attempt to help promote Usagi by including a beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but the story is largely self-serving and makes Usagi look like an utter chump. The rest of the stories are stand-alone adventures that do little to further any sense of continuity or character development, but they are quite fun, action-packed, and often heart-warming. I particularly enjoyed "The Silk Fair" as a story in which Usagi's heroics truly make a difference in the lives of an entire community.

In short, this is a great starting point for anyone new to Usagi. It provides a great entrypoint in the form of Usagi's four part origin story, does much to develop the character from how he appeared in Volume 1, and provides a few classic stand-alone stories as well. I highly suggest beginning here with volume 2. It will definitely leave you hungering for the next installment.

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Kindle Customer

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023

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It's usagi to jumbo. Nuff said

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2011

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It begins with Usagi in a duel with another samurai, and once it's finished (decisive victory for Usagi) Gen reveals himself. He saw the whole thing. Gen asks just what the fight was all about. In order to adequately explain Usagi basically tells his life story: from leaving his hometown to his training with mountain hermit Katsuichi to his employ with Lord Mifune to the military defeat which found Usagi masterless.

It is with this volume that Stan Sakai really kicks in the world building after a few years of doing Usagi stories for various anthology comics (collected in Book 1). This paperback collects the beginning of the ongoing Usagi comic book which still runs today. Building up on the facts established in the earlier stories, Sakai fleshes out Usagi's back story and starts the transition from the somewhat boring hero of Book 1 into the very human character we know today. Perhaps the biggest addition in this book is the introduction of Usagi's sensei Katsuichi, one of the best characters in the series. This story gives a brief overview of Usagi's training with the master swordsman, but Sakai goes back to this time period many times in future books and fills in the blanks with all sorts of lessons and adventures young Usagi had while in training, a very rich vein of stories.

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Usagi Yojimbo Book 2

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2009

Verified Purchase

The second of the books put together from the Usagi Yojimbo comics is fun and entertaining from the humerous foreword to the good feeling the reader is left with at the last panel.

This book mostly details the important events of Miyamoto Usagi's life under the premise of telling Gensuke why he killed a man. When the tale is eventually wound up and at least four bottles of sake have been finished off the reader is left with more knowledge of Usagi himself and a little bit of food for thought on the subject of Samuri honor.

After this long story line the book is finished up with a couple of little stories that will entertain the reader.

Personally I'm a reader of novels and regular books, I'm really not too fond of pictures when I read and that includes comics, but Sakai's art is refreshing and simplistic, often including small gestures that make me laugh without overloading the reader with details and color the way some of the major publishers do. His stories and interesting and often thought provoking. I highly recommend this volume.

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021

The first story (which fills two thirds of the book) tells the backstory of Usagi's training as a samurai, his joining with a lord, and the death of that lord, turning Usagi into a masterless samurai, i.e. a ronin. The story is dramatic and humorous. The young Usagi makes some mistakes and has an interesting sword master that teaches him not only swordsmanship but also honor and humility.

The second story, Kappa, is about a legendary vampire-like creature who demands a toll when Usagi travel through Kappa's swamp. Luckily, Usagi found some out-of-season cucumbers growing nearby and was able to pay off the Kappa. He comes upon a home with an old lady who makes him a meal and is waiting for her son to arrive. Usagi has used the cucumber she left for her son to pay off the Kappa, so Usagi is honor bound to protect the son. The ending has a nice twist.

The third story, Zylla, is a charming story about an egg and a hot spring, though it is mostly a set up for a joke at the end. I laughed at the joke, so it works.

The final story, Silk Fair, sees Usagi run into a mugging just outside a town. The outskirts of town are ruled by the bandits; town itself is ruled by the silk mill owner, who has no interest in hiring Usagi to deal with the bandits. The owner has another samurai on retainer but that fellow does not do much. When the bandits come back during the town's silk fair, things play out in a fun way.

Recommended.

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