My favorite Usagi stories tend to be those that are the single issue, self-contained tales, but it's always worth noting when Stan Sakai embarks on one of his multi-issue epics, ala "Grasscutter," and this issue is the beginning of one such epic, "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains." This first issue jumps forward in time, covering flashbacks from five years ago and developments that take place over the course of months, and sets up an interesting premise based on the invasion of benevolent Lord Noriyuki's lands, a story that will involve Tomoe, another of Sakai's extended supporting cast for the book. This first issue offers a lot more questions than answers, but they're fascinating questions, and Sakai also serves up a terrific action scene and another turning point in Tomoe's struggle with the corrupt Lord Horikawa along with the new story developments.
It is clear to anyone reading Usagi Yojimbo that Sakai is capable of long-term plotting and exceptional work in terms of laying foundation for stories. The first issue of "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains" is clearly the beginning of one of these extended stories, reaching back into Tomoe's backstory and across the lines of feudal politics, finding its foundations in events that sometimes takes months to unfold. Sakai cleverly covers a lot of time in this issue with simple "one month later" style captions, indicating the passage of time simply and without tricks, but letting readers know that a lot of time has gone into the setup of the story.
And what is the story? Well, the beauty is that it's still a mystery, but there are any number of portentous hints about what's going on to keep the wheels of the mind turning waiting for the next issue. A hapless hunter finds a bush which seems to have some significance to him, a town is beset by what appears to be the plague but turns out to be something far more sinister and a loyal vassal of Lord Noriyuki faces insidious trouble in her present that may be tied into her past. I'm not sure how all of these story threads will tie together, but the strength of the cliffhanger, which finds Tomoe alone and outnumbered, is certainly enough to bring me back for the answers.
Sakai has always done a good job of conveying the alien aspects of Usagi Yojimbo's feudal Japan-based culture while making it approachable, and that continues here. The modern nature of office politics makes it easy to understand the relationship between Tomoe and Lord Horikawa even if the specifics of their conflict are more ancient, the universal fear of aggression from outside parties makes it easy to grasp what's going on at the end even if the specifics of who is invading and what they're doing are keyed into politics of Usagi's world.
Even in a heavily expository issue like this one, Sakai offers up plenty to keep the casual reader engaged as well. The opening duel between Noriko and her cousin is beautifully choreographed, and the ambush at the tail end seems far more energetic and involved than the three pages allotted to it would seem to allow, and both of these action scenes owe their strength to Sakai's perfected artistic storytelling. This issue is short on answers, but it features plenty of satisfying moments and promises to lead into another strong multi-part tale from this long-running and deservedly much-lauded book. 10/10
