shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Feb 10, 2016 21:29:04 GMT -5
 Published: February 1988 Synopsis: Usagi must rescue a distraught widow's son from a water monster that controls minds. Notes: Though published after "Silk Fair" (UY #5), this and the story after are reprinted first in the collected editions. Discuss the issue and/or post full reviews below! |
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Post by coke & comics on Feb 20, 2016 18:22:59 GMT -5
Summary: Wandering through marshes, Usagi finds cucumbers growing out of season. A kappa appears and demands a toll for crossing the marsh. He accepts the cucumbers as payment.
On the other side, Usagi accepts an old woman's hospitality. She is dismayed though to learn that Usagi picked the cucumbers. Her son was on his way and would have nothing to offer the Kappa.
Usagi returned to find a samurai, the woman's son, in the thrall of the Kappa. Usagi battles the Kappa and wins, spilling the water in the Kappa's forehead indentation.
Usagi agrees to save the Kappa if the Kappa will release the samurai and promise to stop harassing travelers.
Usagi then learns the samurai's mother is dead, a victim of the Kappa a year previously, and that he was on his way to her gravesite.
Thoughts: The story of Usagi confronting a supernatural threat is becoming a common trope, already seen in Usagi's first adventure as well as "Village of Fear". While both those stories have their strengths, Kappa does a better job evoking a mood. This is a creepy story.
The first evidence is the detailed opening splash page. A pin-up worthy opening page with more detail than the interior panels has become Stan's go-to standard. They are almost invariably beautiful. This was the first to be dark and somewhat spooky.
This mood builds to the final revelation. The revelation works, but is a fairly common trope amongst short horror stories.
The word "Kappa" means "river-child" and they are a common form of supernatural creature in Japanese folk stories. The tropes we see in this story all seem to be drawn straight from folklore--the love of cucumbers, the sense of honor, the basic appearance, the vampiric tendencies. the desire to drown victims, the weakness of needing water on the forehead. But my cursory internet search suggests there are many kappa legends with much room for variation within the concept.
Grade: A-
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Post by thwhtguardian on Mar 14, 2016 21:00:04 GMT -5
This was the great story, I love a good monster and the Kappa was fantastic and the ending with the ghost mother was a great twist. One thing I've noticed this time around on my readings kind of spoils the ending; I've noticed that Stan seems to draw the hair of his supernatural women very similarly as the woman from he Goblin of Adachigahara and the Tangled Skein both look similar to the mother from this story so I kind of had a feeling there might be more than meets the eye with her despite not really remembering the end.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Mar 15, 2016 6:41:08 GMT -5
I've noticed that Stan seems to draw the hair of his supernatural women very similarly as the woman from he Goblin of Adachigahara and the Tangled Skein both look similar to the mother from this story so I kind of had a feeling there might be more than meets the eye with her despite not really remembering the end. That's a REALLY good point. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Mar 15, 2016 17:59:45 GMT -5
I've noticed that Stan seems to draw the hair of his supernatural women very similarly as the woman from he Goblin of Adachigahara and the Tangled Skein both look similar to the mother from this story so I kind of had a feeling there might be more than meets the eye with her despite not really remembering the end. That's a REALLY good point. When viewed all at once over a short time period like I have the last few night it definitely seemed like a stylistic choice, which is actually pretty darn cool. I love it when artists develop their own visual language, it really makes their work that much richer, however thinking on it now I'm wondering if in this particular instance it might be a cultural thing as the demon that tells the fortunes of Banqou and Macbeth in the Japanese retelling had a similar crazy head of hair as well. Even so, if that is the case(and I'm far from sure!) it still adds a fun visual layer to the story. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 9, 2020 10:53:58 GMT -5
I'm the odd man out. This is the first story that disappointed me completely. This is nothing but the ghostly hitchhiker urban myth transposed to medieval Japan.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Dec 9, 2020 12:59:38 GMT -5
I'm the odd man out. This is the first story that disappointed me completely. This is nothing but the ghostly hitchhiker urban myth transposed to medieval Japan. It won't be the first time that Stan utilizes a familiar trope to tell a simple story. Hopefully, the artistry carries it when originality doesn't. Usagi's is a world rooted in tradition, so the repetition of old story ideas somehow feels fitting to me, so long as he spaces such homages far apart from one another. |
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