Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer's Road: 1. The Tower by Stan Sakai

Originally published March 1988 Fantagraphics Books in Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 1 Issue 7; this edition August 2010

Fantagraphics Books

G

Suitable for all audiences

(V, D)

Some violence (G)

Drug Use (G) {an attempt to drink some tea}

Representations

Gender:

Only male characters with speaking roles. Think I saw some women in the crowd.

Sex:

No presence

Race & Ethnicity:

Characters are all anthropomorphic animals in a culturally Japanese (Edo period) setting.

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

No presence noted.

Awards

None found

Notes

In this episode, our ronin rabbit hero, Miyamoto Usagi rescues a hungry tokagé that is being bullied by an unnamed restaurant owner for stealing food. According to the author's notes, tokagé is a Japanese word for lizard; they seem to be little dog-sized sauropods that are the main non-person animals I've seen in this setting so far.

Even though this is mainly marked and regarded as a children's series, I have been finding them fun and quick enough to want to keep reading what volumes I can source from libraries. I read the first collection a few months ago, and was unable to get hold of Book 2, so this Book 3 is the second one I have been able to read.

In this particular story it seems the restaurant owner's lack of charity and growing anger at being thwarted that bring his misfortune upon himself. At the end Usagi leaves in the company of the tokagé he has named Spot, and I rather liked the idea of him travelling with a trusty animal companion henceforth.