4 out of 5

This is near perfect.  In terms of the core story and the artwork, Sakai is at his prime here, again working in darker territory content-wise.  There’s just a slight hiccup with the way the story is concluded / epilogued – billing this as a 1 of 1 tale when it must lead into the next issue.  Stan gives us an interesting cliffhanger – and structurally it’s pretty awesome, because you realize how Stan has skillfully shifted focus from one character to another – and yet, because it’s an Usagi tale that comes packaged with a moral to the story, we have a ‘one year later’ final page that bookends the core plot but adds nothing to the cliffhanger.  It’s an unfortunate compromise; the time jump totally undermines the impact of that cliffhanger, and the moral was already pretty well highlighted in the main pages.  BUT THERE I GO AGAIN WITH THE SNIPPY SNIPPING FIRST…  What’s definitely more important is how well the bulk of the issue works.  Very _un_-Usagi-ish is how we’re dropped directly in the middle of things: Our rabbit ronin is trying to help a small village shore up their borders during an intense storm.  Sakai’s pencils are ragged and Usagi looks exhausted, on the brink of snapping.  This is a great use of Stan’s recent looseness blended with detailing and more patient figurework than was in the last issue; there’s so much going on with the storm and Usagi and the villagers that you really feel the intensity of the moment.  And then before we can catch a breath, bandits are stealing the village’s scant supplies, requiring our tired lead to bark some orders and then go on the prowl, resulting in our somewhat typical but always respectfully executed Sakai spin on things.

There’s not much humor in the issue (which is maybe why Stan felt the need to tack on that epilogue), but I’ve been digging that darker tone in the post-Sense world.  In the letter pages he mentions that he’s building up some details for a longer storyline, which is awesome to hear.  At the same time, smoothing out how to apply the one-shot when you want to leave some large lingering plot details could’ve made this a perfect issue.  But, as usual, the quality of the core far exceeds any negatives.