shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Sept 3, 2016 23:56:54 GMT -5
   Published: June-August, 2016 Synopsis: On a dark and stormy night Usagi seeks refuge in a distant temple only to get wrapped up in a mystery with Inspector Ishida.
Interesting notes: We see an animal other than a tokage in the first issue, in this case a frog.
Usagi's arm still hurts from his encounter with the Kappa. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm still adjusting to Stan's evolving style -- it's been so much more raw as of late. The lines are less clean and more expressive, and the panels more busy. I think I like it, but it requires more work to look at. The mystery itself resolved perhaps too easily. The most obvious suspects were the culprits. The priest's backstory was somewhat intriguing (and I'm REALLY disappointed Stan didn't include a note at the end to discuss the historical basis for the Teko-Kagi), and the second reveal at the end was a lot of fun, but it also left me wondering -- how did those priests go back and forth through the Hellscreen in order to access their store of food supplies? Really though, my absolute favorite part of this entire thing was the frog in the first chapter. I love those little subtleties -- the charm Stan invests in Usagi's world, and the bookends it offered to the violence of the first issue. One of these days, Stan needs to do an Inspector Ishida story Rashomon-style. The constant rain in this tale especially put me in the mood for such a nod. Finally, Ishida's comment that, "As usual, my mind is open to all solutions, but the supernatural is not one I will consider unless all other solutions have first been disproven" convinces me more than ever that he needs to be teamed up with Sasuke in a future adventure. |
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Post by usagigoya on Sept 4, 2016 13:06:19 GMT -5
Ishida and Sasuke together would be an interesting story....
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Post by jabba359 on Sept 19, 2016 20:58:09 GMT -5
I enjoyed the story. Probably my favorite part, however odd it may seem, was the story notes in the last issue where Stan talked about how the Japanese have so many words for the different kinds of rain. I find little things like that fascinating and it just adds to my appreciation of the series.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Sept 20, 2016 7:36:47 GMT -5
I enjoyed the story. Probably my favorite part, however odd it may seem, was the story notes in the last issue where Stan talked about how the Japanese have so many words for the different kinds of rain. I find little things like that fascinating and it just adds to my appreciation of the series. I sometimes think a coffee table edition of Stan's notes, paired with full page Usagi watercolors, would be the dream collection. |
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Post by lobsterjohnson on May 7, 2018 15:11:55 GMT -5
Interesting note: We see an animal other than a tokage in the first issue, in this case a frog. It seems amphibians and some reptiles (like the tokage) are animals in Usagi's world, while other reptiles (like Lord Hebi) are people. Have we ever seen a turtle besides the TMNT? |
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Post by thwhtguardian on May 7, 2018 21:12:00 GMT -5
Interesting note: We see an animal other than a tokage in the first issue, in this case a frog. It seems amphibians and some reptiles (like the tokage) are animals in Usagi's world, while other reptiles (like Lord Hebi) are people. Have we ever seen a turtle besides the TMNT? I made a similar comment while back, though I can't remember which issue, where the plot had something to do with frogs. Other than horses, frogs and birds I'm not sure if there are other animals that are just animals but it's certainly something that I enjoy thinking about in these types of books. As for the plot itself it was really fun to see Ikeda again as he's one of my favorite characters. I really liked the action, and the rain scenes were beautifully drawn. Seriously, I don't know who draws a more perfectly emotive rain scene than Stan. That said, though fun the mystery of who was killing the guards wasn't very difficult to figure out and while I liked the priest's back story the flash back wasn't done very naturally. Still, all in all, this was a story well worth using three issues to tell. Although I love the short stories having the breathing room to expand on action and characterization is fun. |
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