3 out of 5

I’m… a little annoyed at the numbering here. This is two miniseries that are being bucketed under one miniseries name so it’ll fit nicely into a trade. I get it; I get that not every book can get away with running mixed-length series, but I’d think longer running ones like UY could. There are tenuous ties between the series, but not any more than any other issues in the sense that Stan lays out small details over time. This doesn’t impact the rating, just complaining.

So: our two stories start with the three-part titular one, which finds Usagi, Yukichi, and Gen taking a side stroll to a town known for its plum blossoms… but more especially its umeboshi, which was used to save the local shogun. Hence the shogun’s army hanging around and protecting the blossoms, as some bandit has been ravaging the trees as of late. Could this be connected to a prologue sequence in which a talking wolf spirit takes the guise of an old woman, and requests assistance from the town but is denied? I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say it is, but Stan spins up a tight tale of morality, with the spirit having been wronged, but also doing wrong in taking revenge. There are some interesting character beats with Yukichi, and Gen is hilarious – and effective when it matters – as always, but a bit of plot seeding Stan does with one of the shogun’s men alluding to knowing of Usagi feels a bit clunky, and I can’t help but feel that the spirits transforming abilities could’ve been played up a bit more; it almost feels like a wasted diversion.

The second story is an odd one. Tabo whittles us down to Yukichi and Usagi, once more, and gives us a bit of history on the Christian (“Khiristian”) faith in Japan during Usagi’s Edo-era setting. There are absolutely interesting historical details wound in, as our duo accompany some Christian folllowers on a pilgrimage to a holy statue, but as the story is (per the backmatter) a tribute to Stan’s faithful brother, we get close to incorporating religion into the UY world. Sakai does play both sides, with Usagi clearly a skeptic, and Yukichi cautiously believing, it’s just a difficult line to tread in a book that tends to go middle of the road with any politics or other such topics. It’s definitely interesting character development. The short runtime of two issues maybe just isn’t enough to fully give the story color, making it feel slightly trite.

Hi-Fi colors Ten Thousand Plums; Emi does Tabo. Seeing them side by side is a wild difference – Emi’s colors absolutely bring out the rawness of Stan’s work, but she’s also maybe a bit too fanciful; Hi-Fi’s more digital look is smoother overall – whereas I like seeing more of Sakai’s hand in the art -but the color feels more grounded. Both work.

Some historical backmatter is included in most issues, provided by Zach Davisson.