We’ll talk later about how accessible Grasscutter is and how that adds to its charm, but if you’ve read the previous ten years of Usagi Yojimbo up to this point, Grasscutter is an entirely different experience. While I stand by that statement – pieces are being specifically moved into place by creator Stan Sakai as he prepares the board for the story to come – it’s also true that it’s not just those stories: everything that’s come before is building towards Grasscutter. We talked last time about the stories from the previous two volumes of Usagi Yojimbo, and how, in the modern comics parlance, they would be referred to as “preludes” to Grasscutter. Please allow me to elaborate before I get ostracised from the community. The thing is though, while it is entirely true that this is an amazing story, I can also completely understand why someone reading Grasscutter for the first time wouldn’t get what all the fuss is about, and may even be a little underwhelmed. That statement alone, however, can be daunting for a reader approaching this for the first time, not to mention the fact that, in the wider landscape of praise this story receives, one more critic calling it great can lose its significance. Grasscutter is genuinely a masterpiece of storytelling. Once you start reading Grasscutter, though, (and I mean really read it), you come to realise that all of that praise and all of those expectations are earned and deserved. Regardless of how good Grasscutter is (and it is very good), you’d find it difficult to go into it without an immeasurable level of expectation, which would inevitably colour your reading of it. That’s a lot of weight for a story to carry. It’s won awards, garnered decades of critical and cultural acclaim, and is frequently listed on Best Comics of All Time lists (or variants of). ![]() ![]() ![]() So begins Grasscutter, which is viewed by many as the quintessential and definitive Usagi Yojimbo story. Welcome to the Usagi Yojimbo Reading Companion! Each month, I’ll be analyzing a certain aspect of the long-running series Usagi Yojimbo and its history and its influences, as well as reading through the series from the very start.īorn in Takama-No-Hara (“The Plain of High Heaven”) when Heaven and Earth Began were the Kami.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |