Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/ Usagi Yojimbo One-Shot (2017)

Written, drawn, and Lettered by Stan Sakai

Established Histories

   I first learned about Usagi Yojimbo from a random visit to a toy store in 1989. I was on a major Ninja Turtles kick at the time and I had to have all of the figures. A new batch of figures had just arrived and Usagi was one of them. Decked in a blue samurai outfit, and brandished two sharpened katanas, I instantly fell in love with that white rabbit!

   So what if the toy manufacturer Playmates called him by the wrong name? He was super cool looking! For those of you new to the character, Usagi Yojimbo is the name of the series. Miyamoto Usagi is the rabbit's full name. Usagi is hired out as a yojimbo; a kind of Japanese bodyguard.

    When I learned that IDW was putting out a new crossover one-shot starring Miyamoto Usagi and the Turtles, I was thrilled. Stan Sakai is doing the story and art? Consider me first in line! Variant covers by talent such as Sergio Aragones- with a team-up of Stan and Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman? Consider my comic reserved and paid for!

Hello Again For The First Time

   An ancient danger threatens to tumble all of feudal Japan into the sea. To battle it, the Kakera-Sensei must replace a stone fragment that has broken off the seal that weakens the beast. Needing protection, Kakera-Sensei calls upon the rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi to guard him on his quest.

    However, this mission is far too important for the yojimbo to face alone. So Kakera-Sensei summons a quartet of heroes from the future to assist in the quest: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While this is Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael; these are not the same turtles that Usagi has teamed with in the past.

   This Turtle team is from an alternate universe. They are just as skilled and qualified as the ninja master Usagi knows. But the danger is mounting in the form of a army led by the wicked Jei. Can the rabbit warrior and the reptilian fighters learn to become a cohesive fighting unit and save Japan before it’s too late?

Classic Usagi

   As true to Stan Sakai’s style, he combines Japanese folklore with historical settings. Sakai’s use of Namazu, a giant catfish, who’s massive body resulted in earth-moving tremors, was classic Usagi fare. Then to use actual places like the Kashima Shrine, Sakai makes a story like this one-shot come alive.

   I’m not very sure that I liked that these turtles weren’t the same version that Usagi knows. The camaraderie between the two sets of friends is a missing dynamic. It does help to simplify the story as this book is only 48-pages. But that spark of friendship is sorely missing. However, now that we’ve established alternate versions of the Turtles exist, could we be seeing a crisis on Infinite Ninja Turtles on the horizon?

   Don’t stop reading after the story ends. Be sure to flip a few pages to the great interview with Stan Sakai. It gives so very informative backstory as to how a group of Ninja Turtles meet up with a samurai bunny in the first place. Plus, it’s talks about that beloved Yojimbo figure of mine from 1989!

    The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle/ Usagi Yojimbo one-shot is a fun trip down memory lane indeed!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.