"A Mother's Love" begins as a simple enough tale but ends with such a powerful unexpected twist that leaves me incredibly moved and, perhaps, as ethically confused as Usagi. This one really makes you both feel and think.

"The Tower" gives us the first appearance of Spot, as well as a touching story in which Usagi takes pity on an unfortunate animal in a dire circumstance. I'm generally not a pet person, but I also cannot stand cruelty to animals, and so this one moved me quite a bit.

Kappa - How does Stan do so much with such seemingly simple stories? A great introduction into the weird and wonderful creatures of Japanese mythology(?) which seems to be a simple adventure tale until the end. One of Stan's earliest ghost stories, which completely sneaks up on you.

The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy: one of the first multi-issues, longer, adventures.

Bounty Hunter: First time Gen! And the first time he cheats Usagi into paying the drinks.

A favorite of mine has always been A Kite Story because that is the first time that I actually did intensive research for a story. I had bought a book on Japanese kite making, specifically about the Odako, the giant 40 foot fighting kites. I thought that I should write a story about this someday. A few years later, while sketching in my sketchbook, I drew a picture of Usagi flying away on a giant kite. That sparked the idea for the entire story and lead me to do even more research.

A Kite Story tells the tale from three perspectives--a kite maker who goes into the forest to strip the bark of the mulberry trees, makes the paper, cuts and seasons the bamboo for the kite's bones and paints the image; the gamblers who come to town for the kite festival and starts cheating the people with crooked dice; and Usagi who is also drawn to the festival.

Usagi exposes the gamblers for the cheats they are, the townspeople chase the gamblers out of town, the gamblers chase Usagi out of town and into the kite field where Usagi makes his escape holding on to a giant kite. 

I would like to nominate Homecoming for being the story that introduced a lot of the heart to the Usagi saga, and gave a sense of why he wanders. For adding the characters of Mariko and Jotaro. But also Kenichi who you almost don't want to like, but proves himself to be stronger and more decent than he first seems. Because the Mogura Ninja are awesome, the first animals to really use their unique animal traits. And because the ending page is heartbreakingly touching and told with cinematic grace.

Blade of the Gods because Jei is the coolest villain of the series, the battle between the two is so well-coreographed, and the mood is so consistently well set throughout the issue.

Samurai for any number of great moments.

Between Usagi and his father. With Kenichi and Mariko and Katsuichi. Usagi receiving his swords. And excellent duel with Gunichi.