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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uy5.jpg]]
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3This comic book series by Creator/StanSakai chronicles the adventures of Miyamoto Usagi, once a loyal retainer of Lord Mifune who, after his whole clan was vanquished in battle, [[WalkingTheEarth walks the earth]] as a {{Ronin}}, meeting interesting people, facing mythological monsters and solving the odd murder mystery too.
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5Also, he's an anthropomorphic rabbit in an alternative dimension HollywoodMedievalJapan. And the historical background and strong sense of cultural nuances work ''so'' well. As does the addition of tiny dinosaurs.
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7One of the [[LongRunners longest-running]] comics of all time to be drawn and written by a single person, ''Usagi Yojimbo'' has been running (under various publishers) since 1984. It's been noted for its meticulously researched and accurate portrayal of feudal Japan (talking animals notwithstanding) as well as its ability to take readers by surprise by messing with tropes; a seemingly lighthearted story may turn out to be a heartrending tragedy, or vice-versa.
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9His most well-known appearances are those with the Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, thanks in part to several crossovers between different incarnations of the properties, and the friendship between Sakai and the Turtles creators. Besides ''TMNT'' comics, Usagi has appeared in two episodes of [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 the 1987 cartoon]] (and even had a figure in the toy line), eight of [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 the 2003 show]], and three on [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the 2012 show]] (with one being written by Sakai himself). The latter two shows have also done episodes set in Usagi's world--the closest things then to an ''Usagi'' animated series. He also appeared as a playable character in the ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesShreddersRevenge'' DLC "Dimension Shellshock".
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11As one of the more famous and successful examples of creator-owned comics, ''Usagi Yojimbo'' has had a number of different publishers. Starting out in the anthology ''[[ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF Albedo Anthropomorphics]]'', it later moved to Fantagraphics Books where it started its ongoing title. It was then published by Eastman and Laird's Mirage Studios for a time, before moving on to Creator/DarkHorseComics. Collected editions are available, with the first seven books published by Fantagraphics and the rest by Dark Horse. [[note]]Though the Mirage issues, which were originally published in colour, are in B&W as the colour plates were lost at some point.[[/note]] In March of 2018, the series moved to a series of miniseries, with both the total numbering and the Dark Horse numbering listed in the indices. In 2019, [[ChannelHop the series moved to]] Creator/IDWPublishing, renumbered yet again and being published in colour, but in September 2022, Sakai announced the return to Dark Horse, this time under his own inprint, Dogu Publishing.
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13Gold Rush Games published ''Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game'' using the Instant Fuzion game system and later Creator/SanguineGames published ''Usagi Yojimbo: Role-Playing Game'' using a variant of the Cardinal system used in ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' with the second edition using the UsefulNotes/PoweredByTheApocalypse system.
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15A {{Chibi}} version of Usagi, Gen and Kitsune was added as an expansion to Creator/{{CMON}}'s ''TabletopGame/ArcadiaQuest'' in 2020.
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17A video game for the Platform/{{Commodore 64}} called ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriorTheBattlesOfUsagiYojimbo'' was released in 1988. A mobile game for iOS and Android was also released, ''Usagi Yojimbo: Way Of The Ronin''.
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19[[http://kidscreen.com/2018/02/06/unleashing-usagi/ On February 6, 2018, a full animated series was officially announced as being in development]] and in July 2020, it was announced as ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiRabbitTheUsagiChronicles'' [[https://www.animationmagazine.net/streaming/stan-sakais-usagi-yojimbo-embarks-on-new-adventure-with-netflix-series-samurai-rabbit-the-usagi-chronicles on Netflix.]] Rather than an adaptation of the comic, it's a future-set series about a descendant of Usagi, much like the once-proposed ''Space Usagi'' series. [[HistoryRepeats Everything old is new again]]. Unfortunately, the Turtles don't make an appearance.
20----
21!!''Usagi Yojimbo'' contains examples of:
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23* AccidentalMisnaming: When Usagi appears with in the 1987 ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', "Usagi Yojimbo" is incorrectly used as his actual name. In the 2003 series he's properly referred to as "Miyamoto Usagi".
24* ActionGirl: [[DarkActionGirl Chizu, Inazuma]], Tomoe Ame. The occasional one-shot story may feature an ActionGirl [[spoiler:who inevitably dies or is [[strike:written out of the series]] married off]].
25* ActuallyIAmHim: The Red Scorpion gang kidnaps a magistrate's son and holds him for ransom, with the head of a fencing school accompanying him to deliver the ransom money. [[spoiler:The magistrate knows the swordmaster's behind the kidnapping... because ''he's'' the Red Scorpion.]]
26* AllJustADream: When a younger Usagi attacks a sleeping Katsuichi, and smashes his head (really just his clothes set aside with a pumpkin under it), he falls unconscious and dreams of a monstrous Katsuichi trying to kill him.
27** The book "A Town Called Hell" has one where Usagi stays with a peasant family. When they go to sleep, a monster comes in and eats the husband and wife, and kills Usagi. It was all just a dream of the little boy who had eaten too much candy, and Usagi says good-bye to them the next day. [[spoiler:That night Jei comes to the door and asks if he can stay the night.]]
28** Usagi has a terrifying dream where he's possessed by Jei and kills all of his friends.
29** Inazuma has a dream where she's in hell and has to fight an army to get out [[spoiler:where she meets Jei, who later possesses her]].
30** Tomoe has a dream where [[spoiler:Noriko, her evil half-sister, struggles to find her way out of a cave in order to get revenge on Tomoe and Usagi. After Tomoe wakes up Usagi assures her that despite not finding the body it would be impossible for Noriko to have survived]].
31* AlternateContinuity:
32** Usagi's cartoon incarnations, because they're technically linked up by the whole Turtles multiverse. Usagi meets both the Mirage and IDW Turtles, and the former have met both the '03 and '12 animated Turtles, who've met both their "own" '03 and '12 animated Usagis and the '87 Turtles, who've met the animated '87 Usagi. [[LongList Whew.]]
33** The ''Senso'' miniseries, which is set after a TimeSkip and is a riff on ''[[spoiler:Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds]]'', has been described as this, though it has the feel of a GrandFinale. The very end shows it may have an UnreliableNarrator, [[spoiler:namely Space Usagi.]] Sakai has said that when it gets published as one volume, the book will not be numbered unlike the other Usagi books since it's outside normal continuity.
34* AmbiguouslyEvil: Oyama Tadanori, the Lord of Owls. Like Jei, he operates on BlueAndOrangeMorality, unlike Jei, he has no quarrel with Usagi, and most of his victims attacked him first. However in one instance he laid waste to a group of Samurai... who were jokingly asking if he wanted to drink with them, even trying to de-escalate the situation when the Lord of Owls drew his sword and declared his intention to kill them. The Lord of Owls presents himself as a sort of Grim Reaper like figure who kills those whose time is up, like those samurai and the other bandits he's fought.
35* AnyoneCanDie: If you aren't Usagi or one of his closest companions, there is about a 50/50 chance whether you see the end of a story.
36** Taken further in Space Usagi, where unless your name is Usagi, you have a good chance of biting it. [[spoiler:This includes Tomoe, Usagi's love interest, who is still alive and kicking in Yojimbo.]]
37** At its zenith in Senso, which is fitting since it serves as a possible conclusion to Usagi Yojimbo. By the end, [[spoiler:Hikiji, Hebi, Gen, the remaining Neko ninjas, and finally Usagi himself all die.]]
38** With the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' crossover "Wherewhen" apparently being a StealthPrequel to [[spoiler:"Senso"]], the character who aren't present in that story seem to be fair game as shockingly, [[spoiler:Kitsune is killed in issue #3]].
39* ArchEnemy: At first, Lord Hikiji filled the role. Later, Jei [[spoiler:(or the demon which possessed first Jei and then others)]] took up the role.
40* ArtEvolution: Early installments featured characters with more animal-like appearances, especially in-profile, and squat, dumpy figures. As the series wore on, however, characters gained more human proportions and more stylized, human-like appearances, while still keeping their key visual animal traits. Other species (such as the Komori ninja or Gen) actually got their muzzles and other animal traits emphasized, drawn in a slightly less cartoony manner.
41* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The one big deviation history-wise is that guns and gunpowder seem to be unknown to this version of Japan until European contact, despite the fact that they were already known centuries earlier due to proximity with China.
42** A smaller, but still jarring one, is that Usagi is shown eating takoyaki from a street stall during a festival. While takoyaki are an integral part of Japanese street food culture today, takoyaki are significantly NewerThanTheyThink, and were invented in 1937.
43* AsianFoxSpirit: The ''character'' named Kitsune is just a 'person' who appears foxlike. A couple of kitsune in the Japanese myth sense have appeared, with the ability to switch from non-anthropomorphic fox forms into fox-humanoids, but they are generally (though not invariably) villains.
44* AsYouKnow: Characters will sometimes explain things well-known to their listener.
45* AuthorAvatar: Stan Sakai shows up as a character named Masa in the 141st issue of the Dark Horse run (and number 200 overall) as an artisan who dreamed that creating 200 small statues of a god will save his village from bandits that have taken over. With Usagi's help, the 200th being used upside the leader's head, and a mudslide, the dream comes true. His character then states that he'll continue his work after reaching the milestone until he's unable to hold the tools of his trade.
46* BackToBackBadasses: One of Sakai's favorite tropes. Thanks to his ChronicHeroSyndrome, Usagi will go back-to-back to help almost any honorable warrior ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Gen, too.]]) He's guarded the backs of Tomoe, Ikeda, Nakamura Koji, Chizu... well, just about everybody!
47* BackdoorPilot: Usagi's guest shot on the original Ninja Turtles cartoon was supposed to be a set up for his own cartoon show, but the show was never made due to CreativeDifferences between Stan Sakai and Creator/PlaymatesToys. His appearance on the 2003 TMNT show carried no such aspirations; it was just a treat for the fans.
48** On that note, a ''Space Usagi'' pilot was made (they even released an action figure into the TMNT toy line, though taken in a more comedic direction), but the project was canned after the failure of ''ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars'' [[DuelingShows projected its demise]].
49* BadassPreacher: Sanshobo, who was a samurai until he took his vows. Priest Jizonobu was also a samurai and still an excellent fighter [[spoiler:before he became Jei]].
50* BadFuture: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with "Senso", a WhatIf that ends in [[spoiler:most of the main cast's deaths.]] On one hand, [[spoiler:the AlienInvasion is thwarted and Hikiji and Hebi are killed, thus removing the greatest threats to Feudal Japan.]] On the other, [[spoiler:several innocent people are also dead, [[TheHeroDies including Usagi himself]]...and, if you pay attention, you may notice [[SerialKiller Jei]] has finally possessed Keiko, meaning ''[[OhCrap he's still around]]''. Thankfully, so is [[HeIsAllGrownUp Jotaro]], who has [[TakeUpMySword inherited Usagis swords]].]]
51* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: Jei behaves this way, attacking as "evil" characters who are the most moral by the rest of the world's standards. Though actually, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality he seems to consider someone evil if they understand what evil means.]] Only a sociopath is safe.[[note]]On the other hand, he has also killed "evil" characters [[PayEvilUntoEvil who actually are]], or are at least not very moral. So it's more "[[BlueAndOrangeMorality Bad is Bad and Good is Also Bad]]".[[/note]]
52* BarehandedBladeBlock: Usagi regularly does this with no explanation. A ninja is seen doing a singlehanded version, but we can see a metal bar protecting his palm.
53* BattleInTheRain: A few, most notably "Blade of the Gods". Said story also [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] it--the combatants are wielding ''metal weapons'' in a ''thunderstorm''. [[HighVoltageDeath Take a wild guess as to what happens]].
54* BeastMan / WildMan / RunningOnAllFours / PrimalStance / WildHair: Two primitive-looking characters have appeared as "familiars" to sorcerers, most notably in "Grasscutter".
55* BerserkButton: Genosuké is a walking berserk button. His questionable character traits tend to set off more Usagi temper tantrums than anything else.
56* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: A lot of people who commit seppuku.
57** Also inverted: A lot of warriors would rather die in battle than live in misery, or die of illness.
58* BettyAndVeronica: Tomoe and Chizu respectively fit the bill pretty well. Both have romantic chemistry with Usagi but have night and day personalities. Tomoe is the respected (for a woman at least) personal bodyguard of a major lord and would have a rather typical romantic connection with Usagi if not for the fact that he is resistant to permanently settling down and [[spoiler:she later is pressured into a political marriage]]. Chizu and Usagi's relationship is a fair amount "edgier" for lack of a better word, particularly early on when she was specifically working for Hikiji, the nemesis of Usagi's late lord. Though she later defects, this doesn't make a relationship between them any easier as she is constantly on the run and sticking around with Usagi would put ''him'' in danger. She also has a great tendency to put whatever her current objectives are ahead of her relationship with Usagi, something that he isn't happy about.
59* BewareTheNiceOnes:
60** Usagi's very nice but if you're a bad guy he won't hesitate to cut you down.
61** Keiko is a friendly CheerfulChild who also hangs around insane serial killer Jei [[spoiler:and anyone possessed by him/it]]. Jei considers ''Usagi'' to be "evil" so when he declares that Keiko is "innocent" it kind of makes you wonder what's really up with her.
62** Tamago is a friendly, [[PintsizedPowerhouse tiny]], tea-loving elderly wandering priest whose over-sized head is shaped like an egg complete with a crack scar/birthmark. [[spoiler:He's also a senior member of Koroshi, the assassins guild, has done a YouHaveFailedMe at least once, and is yet another person who has it out for Usagi (nothing personal, it's just that he's really good at screwing up their plans)]].
63* BigNo: Usually before a dramatic death scene.
64* BigOlEyebrows: Ishida, Koji.
65* BittersweetEnding:
66** Gen's story ends with [[spoiler:Gen discovering that the swords he stole from Magistrate Oda's house were his father's swords; Gen explains that the only way Oda could have obtained them was by killing Gen's father.]]
67** Lady Kiku's story ends with [[spoiler:her and Usagi alive but forced to separate, and Usagi not learning that she still remembers and cares about him years later.]]
68** Lady Maple's story ends with [[spoiler:her and her lord's son being raised safely and anonymously by Inspector Ishida and his wife, but she's dead because she didn't know Usagi brought a doll in place of her son]].
69** "Travels With Jotaro" ends with [[spoiler:Usagi and Jotaro being unable to compromise the other's happiness by revealing they're father and son, even though they both really want to.]]
70** "Sparrows" ends with [[spoiler:Inazuma being forgiven by her family for running off and dying as herself.]]
71** Senso (which is not in the main canon) serves double duty for the story itself and for Space Usagi. [[spoiler:After piloting a robot and destroying the last alien walker, Usagi gets stabbed in the back by the last remaining alien. Before he dies, he and Jotaro both learn that the other knew about their relationship as father and son, and he confesses his love to Tomoe. Then we see that the whole story was told by Usagi from Space Usagi to children, showing that he survived the events of his story and found another love in that canon's version of Mariko, who is pregnant.]]
72* BlackBlood: In the colored version of the first standalone issue, released by IDW in 2020, the blood from the first duel that Usagi cleans off of his sword is colored black.
73* BloodlessCarnage: Although blood is present, it is lesser quantities than one would realistically expect.
74** Mostly, it seems to be used in sequences where it has the maximum dramatic effect, such as the story arc where Usagi [[spoiler:was poisoned and began to [[FeverDreamEpisode hallucinate]] that he had become Jei's new host, fighting Tomoe]]. The sudden, shocking appearance of so ''much'' blood drove home just how traumatic an experience this was for the protagonist.
75** In most cases where blood is spilled, but Sakai wanted to keep gore down, he instead drew characters exhaling a cloud with a cartoonish skull (in some cases with the haircut of the dying character) to symbolize death. The trick (possibly inspired by Stan's work with Creator/SergioAragones on Comicbook/GrooTheWanderer) is an iconic part of the series these days.
76** In one extreme case, a young Usagi comments on all the blood after killing a gang... which is nowhere to be seen.
77** Early ''Usagi Yojimbo'' stories also featured a number of on-panel decapitations (many of them committed by Usagi himself), but they were never graphic in appearance, with no blood to be shown and the beheaded characters often having their tongues comically sticking out to lessen the impact of the scene.
78* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Jei. He's a demon who claims to do the work of the gods, and kills several evil people. He also kills ''lots'' of innocent people whom he deems to be evil. He does spare at least two people whom he deems to be innocent.
79** Jei's first meeting with Usagi is actually non-violent, initially. Both meet in an abandoned peasant's house and agree to spend the night. Usagi is creeped out by Jei, but neither attempt to harm the other and Jei even explains his philosophy. When Jei is asleep, he seems to get a vision from the gods telling him that Usagi is evil, which starts their animosity.
80* BodyDouble: For Lords [[spoiler:Noriyuki and Hikiji]]. Dolls are used for another lord and [[spoiler:Lady Maple's son]].
81* BodySurf: [[spoiler:Jei-san: First Priest Jizonobu, then Inazuma, and currently Priest Hama, the only survivor of Jei's original rampage on Jizonobu's temple.]]
82* BountyHunter: Gennosuke, Inukai, countless extras, and -- occasionally -- Usagi.
83* BreakTheHaughty: After losing his eyes during "The Mother of Mountains", the Orphanmaker reappears sometime later and Usagi discovers that he's become a wandering monk. When asked, he reveals that after becoming blind, he spent a lot of time angry and miserable, but eventually learned to accept help and charity from others. He also began to understand what it felt like when the strong bully the weak, and realized he had been just as bad. Eventually, he became a monk to atone for his past misdeeds.
84* BrokenPedestal: Mainly in ''Space Usagi''.
85* BrokenAesop: Done InUniverse and PlayedForLaughs by Katsuichi and Usagi, just before Usagi's very first tournament.
86-->'''Katsuichi''': Do you remember what I taught you?\
87'''Usagi''': Yes, sensei. I am here to test my skills, not necessarily to win.\
88'''Katsuichi''': And?\
89'''Usagi''': "Spirit and inner strength are essential. Winning is unimportant!"\
90'''Katsuichi''': And if you don't win?\
91'''Usagi''': You'll beat me to a pulp!\
92'''Katsuichi''': Hah! You've learned well.
93* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler:Noriko and Tomoe, although it's Noriko who gets killed... probably.]]
94* CallBack: In the second issue, Usagi meets a tiny fire-breathing lizard who {{Pokemon Speak}}s "Zylla!". More than a hundred issues later, he fights a sorcerer whose ink drawings come to life, so Usagi draws him "[[{{Franchise/Godzilla}} all grown up]]".
95* CallToAgriculture: Zig-zagged by General Ikeda in "The Patience of the Spider". Originally, Ikeda settled in the farming village just to hide his identity and bide his time until he could get revenge. However, in the meantime, he managed to become elected as village headman, led the construction of a new irrigation system, married and had a child, and just [[BecomingTheMask became the mask]] so thoroughly he realized the remnants of his old life no longer called to him.
96* CanonImmigrant: Usagi's cousin Yamamoto Yukichi, introduced in 2021, is obviously based on Yuichi, the protagonist of the Netflix animated series which was announced in 2020 and came out in 2022.
97* CaptainObvious: "Follow me, Spot! Our life of peace depends on us staying alive!"
98** In "Blade of the Gods", Jei pins Usagi's sleeve to the wall. Usagi's response? "He's pinned my sleeve!" Take note that he says this out loud. This has happened so many times over the years that it's an apparent personality quirk. [[note]]Usagi, awakening to find spiders crawling on his face, brushes them off quickly: "Gah! Spider on my face!"[[/note]]
99* CatchPhrase: Sasuke will frequently call someone by name without having been properly introduced to them. When they ask how he knew their name, he'll say something like, "You must have mentioned it earlier." [[RuleOfThree The third time]] this happens Usagi says "No I haven't."
100** Not quite a "phrase", but everyone has a different [[{{Kiai}} yelling style]]; for instance, Usagi's '''''"RYAAAAAH!"'''''
101** Kitsune's motto: "A girl has to do what she can to get by, ne?"
102** Often, after narrowly escaping a horrifying situation with their skins intact, Usagi will regard Gen with a death glare before shouting, "You and your stupid short-cuts!"
103* CatsAreMean: While there are numerous characters that avert this, such as Tomoe Ame, the Neko Ninja clan serves the BigBad Lord Hikiji, Usagi, Gen, and Tomoe fight an Obakeneko in one chapter, and a few minor villains are cats, such as Arimura, Ryoko, and Rodriguez. And while Inazuma isn't a villain, she isn't exactly friendly either. The characters living up to this trope the most, however, are Noriko, EvilCounterpart to Tomoe Ame and her cousin ([[spoiler:and also her half-sister]]), who is a complete and utter {{Sadist}}, and Kagemaru, who betrayed Chizu and [[spoiler:turned nearly the entire Neko Ninja clan against her.]]
104** At least Noriko has a FreudianExcuse...
105* CavalryBetrayal: Happens to Lord Mifune and Lord Noriyuki's dad.
106* ChildrenAreInnocent: Exactly three people have met [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Jei]]'s standards of innocence. Two of them ([[CheerfulChild Keiko]] and [[DelicateAndSickly Keifumi]]) are young children. (The third is [[NaiveNewcomer Yukichi]], for those curious.)
107* CloseCallHaircut: To Katsuichi from Koji during their duel, though no one comments on it.
108* ConservationOfNinjutsu: {{Ninja}} mooks abound; the really lethal ones are the named characters.
109* CoolSword[=s=]: Less explicate than other examples, but Usagi's pair of swords are truly awesome. He first earns them as a prize, from Lord Mifune himself, for winning a kenjutsu tournament, and they're even [[NamedWeapons named Young Willow and Willow Branch.]] The swords are practically invincible considering they haven't been shown to have so much as a chip after all the things he's sliced with them, and in a few panels they're even shown to have cut into opponents swords during a BladeLock! Once he even sliced an ogre's club clean in half with some effort. In a series where it's stated over and over how a Samurai's swords are his soul, Usagi's never disappoints. The story ''Daisho'' shows the forging of the swords by the swordsmith Koetsu three centuries before Usagi's birth, making clear just how they have such admirable qualities and just what is at stake should he ever lose them; numerous high-ranking samurai are shown all but demanding Koetsu to sell them the swords, only to be refused as the swordsmith sees that they would only use the swords for bloodshed and butchery. Only when a father and son wearing the Mifune clan ''mon'' - who are possibly Lord Mifune's ancestors - respectfully approach Koetsu, with the son saying that he is untried but "will strive to be worthy of the blades," does the swordsmith happily relent, knowing that the blades will have a worthy owner. Precious indeed.
110** They're ''very'' durable: Usagi's descendant wields them in ''Space Usagi'' and only "arcane katanas" can be modified with AppliedPhlebotinum into AbsurdlySharpBlade[=s=]. The swords are even used to bring Usagi into the future just long enough for the two Usagis to say hi and [[spoiler:give him a few goodies to take back so he won't get killed by ninjas]].
111** There's also PublicDomainArtifact Grasscutter, which is at the very least an extremely well-made mundane sword, having laid at the bottom of the ocean for 500 years without losing its edge or getting the least bit rusty. There's also some indication that its divine heritage might be true, such as Jei being unable to corrupt it like he does with his other weapons.
112* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of Vol. 28 shows a Red Scorpion Gang member with a tattoo; the real gang members don't have any identifying markings.
113* CreepyChild: Keiko, after Jei designates her as his "innocent" (acting like a witch's familiar). Although she's quite [[CheerfulChild cheerful]] about it, which, as Keiko cheerfully bids a polite farewell to the men Jei has just murdered, makes it all the eerier. She hasn't changed much personality-wise from when Jei first found her, but the way she never acknowledges the swathe of horror Jei is carving across their travels is very unsettling. In her latest appearances, she's taken up flute-playing with DissonantSerenity and she cheerfully reveals that she's used to eating raw game.
114* CrossOver: The comic featured several early appearances by the Comicbook/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|Mirage}}, and Usagi is a RecurringCharacter in the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 TMNT]] [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 cartoons]].
115* CruelTwistEnding: The Teru Teru Bozu story has Usagi staying at a family's house where he makes friend with their young son and teaches him how to make the titular Teru Teru Bozu which one can place outside the house to ask the gods for better weather. That night, the house is attacked by a big monster that eats the boy's parents before [[spoiler:killing Usagi and attacking the boy.]] This turns out to just be a nightmare the kid had due to eating too many sweets Usagi gave him the previous night. Usagi makes him some stilts and they play together for a little while longer before Usagi goes on his way. A mostly lighthearted and low-stakes story. Except that night, it is storming and someone knocks on their door. The child runs to the door, thinking Usagi came back to get out of the rain. However, he opens it to find [[spoiler:Jei standing at the door.]]
116* CunningLikeAFox: Kitsune, [[MeaningfulName literally]], Inspector Ishida, and Usagi. Jei's original body is an aversion, as he is literally a fox but is not so much "cunning" as he is "pants-shittingly terrifying."
117* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Space Usagi'' has this up the wazoo. To name a couple of examples, [[spoiler:Usagi's main love interest is killed shortly after her introduction, and his sensei is revealed to be a traitor.]]
118** Senso is also this while somehow being DenserAndWackier. On the one hand, [[spoiler:goofy-looking aliens invade Earth during the heroes' final showdown with Hikiji. On the other hand, they start slaughtering ''everyone''. On the one hand, they build a giant Usagi mech that looks straight out of Gundam. On the other hand, many of the main characters, including ultimately Usagi himself, die.]]
119* DeadArtistsAreBetter: The husband of an author, envious for her fame eclipsing his own, murders her - only to find this trope in full effect.
120* DealWithTheDevil, complete with GiftOfTheMagiPlot: During the Heian period, a mediocre artist called Katsushige sold his soul for the ability to create "art the like of which had never been seen before". [[spoiler:The dark gods turned him into an ink set. Anything that was drawn with it became real, but still... he's an ''ink set''.]]
121** [[spoiler:Then we have the unfortunate Priest Jizonobu, whose well-meant DealWithTheDevil had even worse consequences.]]
122* DefiantToTheEnd: Usagi is ''never'' one to do anything else when facing an enemy who seems to have the drop on him. As Usagi is a fervent believer in karma, it's to be expected.
123* DefrostingIceQueen: Princess Kiku.
124* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
125** Invoked by the author in order to accurately portray the era and culture of the characters. Certain things considered right and honorable would be deemed harsh and cruel by modern standards. [[spoiler:A good example is found in Sanshobo's origin story: Sanshobo (in his prior, samurai life) failed to save the son of his lord from an accidental death, so Sanshobo's adult son committed suicide to make amends.]]
126** The series often plays up how devotion to your lord is supposed to take precedence above all else. In one notable instance, the villain has Usagi captured while Tomoe escapes. The villain plans to torture and mutilate Usagi unless Tomoe comes back for him. She does come back for him, but since she is immediately captured for it when she could have reported the entire operation back to her lord, she states multiple times that she should have left him for dead to let her lord know what the villain was doing. Usagi, for his part, doesn't seem too hurt whenever she says it (and even expected her to leave him to die initially.)
127** Characters who would rather die than be dishonored make decisions that can seem strange to the reader. Similarly, characters who renounce that honor and start a new life as monks are making a tremendous personal sacrifice that, to modern eyes, doesn't seem all that significant.
128** As tolerant as Usagi can be, he's still amazed in "The Hidden" upon learning that the Christians worship an executed criminal (albeit an innocent one). And while he's not particularly hostile to the Japanese Christians in hiding, when he and Inspector Ishida find one, Usagi thinks that he should be arrested since Christianity is outlawed, and continues to think so even after Ishida reminds him that the man would most likely be executed if brought in. Ishida on the other hand is very sympathetic to the Christians' plight, [[spoiler:which makes sense considering he ''is'' one.]]
129** Similarly, he doesn't like "foreigners" in general. Given that most of his experiences with them involve guns, tuberculosis, and an entitled Spanish AssInAmbassador who demanded to see a harmless tea master commit seppuku simply for his own twisted entertainment, you can't really blame him.
130** The treatment of the lower classes is bad to modern eyes and rather extreme even by the standards of the rest of the world in the 16th century.
131** While Usagi is almost always friendly and largely treats people equally regardless of social class, he is not afraid of pulling societal rank on peasants if they prove uncooperative or disrespect him.
132* DemonSlaying: Sasuke the Demon Queller. Usagi does his share of youkai slaying as well.
133* DeusExMachina: Jei's first death saw him [[HighVoltageDeath fried by a random bolt of lightning]] ''seconds'' before he could kill Usagi. Granted, they ''were'' wielding metal weapons in a thunderstorm...
134* DiabolusExMachina: The Teru Teru Bozu story. Usagi stays with a family for the night, and teaches their child about the Teru Teru Bozu, a doll that you hang up to herald good weather. That night, he has a nightmare about a monster who kills his parents and Usagi before eating him. But it was just a nightmare and Usagi plays with him some more before going on his way. And all in all it seems like a rather light hearted story. But then that evening, there is a knock on their door and when the child opens it, thinking Usagi had returned, [[spoiler:in the doorway stands Jei.]]
135** In regards to Senso, the "potential" finale to Usagi Yojimbo overall, [[spoiler:Usagi goes to battle with the last alien warmech in a giant robot of his own. He manages to destroy it but gets buried in rubble. Tomoe and Jotaro pull him from the wreckage and everything seems to be happy. But then one last surviving alien impales Usagi with a shard of wood. Usagi dies shortly after, having just enough time for him and Jotaro to acknowledge their relationship as father and son finally and Usagi nearly being able to profess his love to Tomoe before expiring.]]
136* DisabilitySuperPower: Zato Ino, "The Blind Swordspig", who can "see" things thanks to his sense of smell -- a common trait of the blind being the heightening of their other senses.
137* DoNotGoGentle: In "The Way of the Samurai", Oyaneko, once a legendary general, has been demoted to the magistracy of a small rural village. Knowing he is dying, he challenges Usagi to a duel, demanding to die by the sword instead of in his bed. Usagi refuses, convincing him instead to serve his people as best he can in the time he has left. Oyaneko agrees, overseeing the construction of a much-needed canal which is completed shortly before his death.
138* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In the 2003 TMNT series, Chizu leading the Neko Ninja is made to resemble Karai leading the Foot Ninja.
139* DownerEnding: Many of the stories end on depressing notes. The one-off villains rarely get away with their schemes, but good characters often suffer greatly in the process.
140** The three-part "Demon Mask" storyline is about a serial killer wearing a demon mask who has been killing any ronin who come to the town the story takes place in. The local police are run by an kind old man whose son died in a fire years earlier and his second in command, a very surly man who hates ronin due to his father who became a ronin rather than commit seppuku after being falsely accused of embezzlement, bringing his wife and son with him into shame and poverty, making the second in command seem like a perfect candidate for the killer. It also happens that the man's ronin father is in town wishing to make amends with him before he dies of a lung disease. In the end, [[spoiler:it turns out the killer is actually the police chief who has gone insane with grief over the death of his son, which was caused by a drunk ronin. He now kills any ronin who come to his town out of hatred for them, and he manages to kill the second in command's father before Usagi can arrive to stop him. Usagi is forced to kill the police chief in self defense, and the second in command shows up shortly after to tell Usagi to leave town, having zero sympathy for his dead father lying at his feet. The end.]]
141** Tatami, a two-issue story arc in the IDW run, ends with the premium titular mats destroyed by ninja hired by Hikiji, but there's no concrete proof of this. The guards of the mats plan to commit seppuku in an attempt to allow their daimyo to save face for the visiting Shogun, as the mats had been planned for a tea ceremony in a state visit.
142* DramaticIrony: Usagi knows that Jotaro is really his son. Jotaro learns from his mother that Usagi is really his father. Neither thinks the other knows (though the audience knows that ''both'' know), and both struggle with whether to tell the other the truth, as they both believe that doing so will destroy the other's happiness (Usagi doesn't want to destroy Jotaro's relationship with his step-father Kenichi, who his mother Mariko married. Jotaro doesn't want to make Usagi feel like he needs to settle down to raise Jotaro, as he knows Usagi feels that his place in life is on the road).
143** "Blade of the Gods" sees Usagi join another wanderer in an abandoned hut for the night. Said wanderer is [[AxCrazy Jei]], who slaughtered several samurai in the ColdOpen. Usagi is completely oblivious, while the audience nervously awaits the impending murder attempt.
144* TheDrifter: As a consequence of the setting's backstory (the Shogun's Peace forcing all the great lords to disband most of their military forces), a lot of samurai are traveling 'the warrior pilgrimage.' This includes Usagi, Gen, Stray Dog and a number of others.
145* DueToTheDead: In the story "Broken Ritual" (plot by Creator/SergioAragones), a village is haunted by the ghost of General Tadaoka, a vassal of Lord Mifune whose ''{{Seppuku}}'' attempt was interrupted by a squad of Lord Hikiji's soldiers in the aftermath of the Battle of Adachigahara. The ghost is exorcised when Usagi waits for its next appearance and helps complete the ritual.
146* DyingAsYourself:
147** [[spoiler:Inazuma. She even gets to make peace with her family.]]
148** [[spoiler:Also Usagi in a dream sequence of himself as Jei.]]
149* DyingMomentOfAwesome: In "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy," [[spoiler:Usagi, Gen, Zato-Ino, and a force of Neko ninja led by Shingen attack the castle of Lord Tamakuro, who has been stockpiling gunpowder and arquebuses in preparation for revolting against the Shogun. They do some damage, and rescue Tomoe, but the attack fails and they begin to retreat, with the Neko ninja taking heavy casualties. But then Shingen, dying of gunshot wounds, uses the last of his strength to set fire to the black powder, annihilating himself and Tamakuro and ending the potential rebellion.]]
150* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: There's a few things in the initial stories that stick out as odd. The art style especially is much more stylized with characters given more squat chibi proportions. There's also a wider variety of FunnyAnimal people, including horse, reptile and frog people, which Sakai [[FurryConfusion eventually phased out]] in favour of only using mammalian characters and {{Dogface}}s. Lord Noriyuki [[FurryConfusion owns an actual dog]] in his earliest appearance. Hikiji's [[TheDragon second-in-command]], Lord Hebi, is a snake, making him TheArtifact in newer stories where characters are exclusively humanoid. Hikiji himself was given a face reveal [[spoiler:as a human]] which was supposed to be set up for a plot involving [[spoiler:humans and their gradual presence in Japan and potential conflict with the animals]] which the author ended up scrapping. Since then Hikiji's gone back to being TheFaceless, but the author's never retconned that reveal.
151* EarsAsHair: Usagi most often has his ears tied into a ponytail, or rather a [[SamuraiPonytail samurai topknot]], (and the author credits the idea of a rabbit samurai to a doodle showing just that). When he puts on a hat or a helmet, they disappear completely.
152* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
153** Lord Noriyuki in ''Lone Rabbit and Child'' quickly gets between Usagi and Tomoe and cries out that he's the one Usagi's after (as both had mistaken the resting ronin for an assassin waiting for them). He may be young, but he takes his responsibilities as ''daimyo'' seriously.
154** "Blade of the Gods" opens up on a group of samurai chasing a lone wanderer who killed their master. When accused, the killer just [[EvilLaugh laughs]], doesn't try to deny it, and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality says the lord was evil, so that's why he killed him]]. When asked who told him to do so, the killer claims [[KnightTemplar the gods have tasked him with slaying sinners]]. At this point, the samurai have had enough, and attack...and the killer [[ImplacableMan dispatches all of them easily]]. Ladies and gentlemen, meet [[SerialKiller Jei]], possibly one of the most twisted villains in all ''Usagi Yojimbo''.
155* EternalEnglish: This phenomenon occurs when he appears in crossovers with the Ninja Turtles, and was even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the 1987 cartoon; he comes from an AlternateUniverse, from a world with a culture that mirrors FeudalJapan, "So, naturally, he speaks English," says Raphael. (In the 2003 cartoon the Battle Nexus and in the actual comic there is some slight, very slight attention paid to explaining the lack of language issues.)
156* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Subverted/inverted in "A Mother's Love". [[spoiler:Even moms love their bad sons, but sometimes they're just ''too'' bad... and ''must be stopped''.]]
157* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Jei cares for Keiko and leaves mid-fight when he sees she's in danger; the leader of the vicious Red Scorpion Gang [[spoiler:(actually a local lord)]] has loved ones.
158* EvenEvilHasStandards: Quite a few of the villains have ''some'' standards of honor.
159** At one point, Inazuma realizes that the operator of a lonely roadside restaurant has slipped poison into her tea so he can collect her bounty. She terrifies the man into drinking the tea, watches him die in agony, and then pays for her meal before she departs. After all, she's not a ''thief.''
160* EvilCounterpart: Keiko is this to Kiyoko since they're both young girls with no family who become sidekicks of older characters. Keiko's companion is Jei while Kiyoko's is Kitsune. However, neither of the pairs have met.
161** Arguably Jei is one to Usagi himself, and Noriko is definitely one to Tomoe,
162* EvilIsDeathlyCold: The air around Jei-san becomes noticeably chilly.
163* EvilDesiresInnocence: Jei-san is a supernaturally-powered lunatic who kills people he deems to have sinned, without any explanation as to what those sins ''are''. He's accompanied by a CheerfulChild named Keiko he calls "my innocent" and is very attached to her, growing agitated if she's in danger (one possible reason is that whatever Jei is, he needs an "innocent" to incarnate in if defeated).
164* EvilOldFolks: The Assassin's Guild and the Neko Ninja clan both employ the elderly as assassins, to pretty good effect when Usagi isn't involved.
165* ExactWords: Gen keeps saying that Zato-Ino was "shot" during the end of the Dragon Bellow Conspiracy. He only implies that the blind swordspig was killed, but knows that he is still alive.
166* {{Expy}}: A TMNT crossover in the comics had a rat sage named Kakera with a suspicious resemblance to Splinter who summons the Turtles through magic. [[BilingualBonus "Kakera" is Japanese for "splinter" or "fragment".]] He reappears again many years later for another TMNT crossover, only this time he summons the IDW Turtles instead of the original Mirage ones, and is aware of the fact.
167* EyePatchOfPower: After losing his eye in the battle that makes Usagi think he's dead, Katsuichi-sensei covers it with a sword guard.
168* EyeScream: In "The Mother Of Mountains", the mercenary known as The Orphanmaker loses both his eyes over the course of the story, Usagi pokes one out with his bare fingers when the Orphanmaker is grappling with him, and during the climax cuts the other one out with his sword, leaving him blind. He's such a JerkAss it's hard to feel sorry for him, but ironically, it leads to BreakTheHaughty, as seen above.
169* FaceDeathWithDignity:
170** As a samurai, Usagi is prepared to do so. During "Grasscutter," when Jei appeared to have Usagi on the ropes and stated his intention to kill him, the latter simply replied, "Such is karma."
171** The Neko Ninja motto is "a ninja's duty in life is death," and none of them have ever begged for mercy no matter how vile the ninja in question might be.
172** In general, you can tell the quality of the antagonists by whether or not they fulfill this trope. Weak and cowardly villains will beg and snivel for their miserable lives, while the brave will be DefiantToTheEnd.
173* FaceFramedInShadow: Lord Hikiji [[spoiler:and Jesus on the crucifix]].
174* TheFaceless: Lord Hikiji, for the most part. He was actually revealed to be a human in his first appearance, but has gone back to being masked ever since.
175* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Chizu's brother had one [[spoiler:before [[TakingYouWithMe he blew himself up together with the boss of the Dragon Bellow Conspiracy.]]]] She thus replaced him as the head of the Neko Ninja. Invoked many times since by Chizu herself as their BadassCreed.
176-->"A ninja's duty in life... is death!"
177* FailedASpotCheck: "Blade of the Gods". Pro tip, Usagi: if a stranger has [[ProphetEyes blank white eyes]], a voice "like death itself", carries a black spear, and speaks in such ominous phrasing you'd have to be deaf to notice the subtext, ''maybe'' don't agree to stay with him for the night. But alas, he does--and nearly ends up just another name on [[AxCrazy Jei]]'s long list of victims.
178* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Don't let the [[BloodlessCarnage lack of blood]] or the [[ArtStyleDissonance style of the art]] fool you. The body count of this comic is frankly ''[[CharactersDroppingLikeFlies astonishing]]'', and most of the deaths are extremely graphic. Of particular note is the cruel capture and execution of poor, innocent [[GentleGiant Noodles]]. His only friends are kept back by corrupt lawmen while he is tortured, then [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice graphically run through with spears]].
179* TheFarmerAndTheViper: Jei-san actually ''tells'' this story to a fisherman who saved his life... in order to explain why he's going to kill the poor man.
180-->'''Jei''' ''(still quoting the viper in the story):'' [[PreMortemOneLiner You knew what I was when you rescued me.]]
181* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler:Inazuma.]]
182* ForgottenChildhoodFriend: Well, forgotten childhood encounter. Usagi and Tomoe met once as children and although they didn't get each other's names they did think [[ShipTease the other was kinda cute]].
183* FourIsDeath: The quartet of assassins known as "Shi."
184* FriendToAllChildren: Whenever he interacts with children, Usagi tends to get along well with them. Notably in one story, he meets with a group of orphan children [[spoiler:(oddly, the same ones whom Inukai helps out although their paths don't cross in this story)]] and entertains them by telling them the story of Literature/{{Momotaro}}, recasting himself in the lead role.
185* FreudianExcuse: Tomoe's cousin is a total psychopath who casually kills peasants and enjoys inflicting suffering on others. However, she had a pretty unfair childhood. [[spoiler:Her mother had her through an affair with her husband's brother, aka Tomoe's father, making her Tomoe's half-sister. Her legal father couldn't stand the sight of her knowing where she really came from and sent her off to live with her blood father, who refused to acknowledge her as his daughter due to the scandal it would make. She was always jealous of Tomoe who was well loved and well treated.]] On the other hand, Noriko was already a psychopath during her childhood, so it may have contributed to why she was hated by her own family. It's never fully explained.
186* FullyAbsorbedFinale: ''Senso'' ends up being one to ''Space Usagi''. [[spoiler:At the end, it turns out the whole story was one that Space Usagi was telling to some children, showing that he survived the events of his canon and ultimately found a second love in this continuity's version of Mariko.]]
187* FurryConfusion: The world is populated with {{Funny Animal}}s of most species. Horses, lizards (tokage), birds, fish, and insects are excepted to minimize potential {{Squick}} value. {{Lampshade}}d by Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, since he's from another canon and this is all new to him.
188-->'''Mikey:''' Like... do you guys have tails?\
189'''Gen''' ''(offended):'' Hey! Don't get personal!
190* FutureBadass: Pretty much everyone has taken a level or two in ''Senso'': Jotaro is entrusted with a large part of the army, Gennosuke is a general (like his father before him), Noriyuki is a capable military leader, and even Keiko managed to pick up a scar. The only exception is Jei of all people, who gets fried by a Martian death ray at random and then has no more relevance to the story [[spoiler:only appearing as a cameo implying that he finally possessed Keiko.]]
191* GenreBusting: ''Usagi Yojimbo'' is a funny animal period piece action drama. With jokes. And dinosaurs. Little ones.
192* GentlemanThief: Kitsune, her sidekick Kiyoko, and Nezumi.
193* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion:
194** Some stories have had changes made between the comic and graphic novel collections -- such as Usagi [[strike:kissing]] hugging Kinuko after [[http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/casl/letters/volume3/uyletter_16.html a reader pointed out]] that kissing was a courtesan's trick imported by foreigners. (The story referred to was an earlier one than the Kinuko story, namely Chizu's first instance of kissing Usagi and his utterly baffled response. This has been left as is, as it still fits both their characters.)
195** Appropriately in "Tomoe's Story," (as the original artwork had been lost leading to Stan having to redraw the whole issue) Tomoe's is made more clearly expressive in the framing story and in the original story, she comes out of the climactic fight that got her appointed Noriyuki's personal bodyguard much more scuffed up than in the original version.
196* GiveHimANormalLife: Usagi does this for [[spoiler:the son of a lord and his courtesan, Lady Maple, when he gives the child to Inspector Ishida]]. He also did this unknowingly for [[spoiler:his son Jotaro, and decided not to tell him for pretty much this reason]].
197* GoodScarsEvilScars:
198** Usagi gets a cut over his eyebrow during the Battle of Adachigahara, courtesy of Lord Hikiji.
199** Not a "scar" per se, but Gen had his horn chopped off.
200* GoryDiscretionShot: At the end of part two of "Crossroads", one of the bandits flees into the forest from the pursuing Usagi. [[OutOfTheFryingPan And into Jei]]. We don't see what happens, but it's a fair bet the guy did not survive.
201* {{Geisha}}: In one story, Usagi comes to the rescue of a woman working for a famous Geisha and that Geisha invites him to bunk at her compound on the house. Given the cheap inn he's staying at, he doesn't take that much persuading
202* GratuitousEnglish: The French translation had absolutely no way of getting the "Are you a god, Zilla?" pun across, so they have Usagi say "Oh my god!" in English, translate that in a footnote, and then have him say "Are you a god, Zilla?" in French.
203* TheGreatSerpent: Lord Hibki is a giant snake who is [[TheDragon second-in-command]] to the Big Bad, Lord Hikiji.
204* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: In ''Space Usagi'', the titular character does this to his lord's murderer with help from a modified katana.
205* HastilyHiddenMacGuffin: In the "A Potter's Tale" issue, a thief slips into a pottery workshop while on the run and hides a valuable gem in the wet clay of one of the bowls. So he knows which one contains the gem, he pinches the rim to make it stand out. Unfortunately for the thief, the potter sees the difference, likes the addition and does the same to all his bowls. The thief desperately buys all the bowls and smashes them to find the gem but the potter had already unknowingly given the bowl containing the gem back to the man that the thief stole it from as part of a business deal. Then thief's partners come looking for their share of the loot...
206* HeDidntMakeIt: At the end of the Dragon Bellow's Conspiracy, Gen tells Usagi and Tomoe that Zato-Ino was shot and fell during the battle. [[spoiler:However, as he mentally notes, Zato-Ino didn't actually die from the bullet. It was Gen's way of paying Zato-Ino back for saving his life during the fight.]]
207* HeroOfAnotherStory:
208** Katsuichi briefly becomes this as he travels the countryside for a time. His exploits are not seen for the most part, but when he encounters Usagi, the recollections of his student indicate that his adventures were at the very least as exciting as Usagi's own.
209** Usagi himself can be considered this whenever he appears as a SpecialGuest in [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Ninja Turtles]] continuity.
210* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:[[{{Ninja}} Saru]] and [[RetiredBadass Ikeda]] both do this in ''Journey to Atsuta Shrine'', but for different reasons]]
211** [[spoiler:Lord Noriyuki has a body double -- or rather he ''had'' one. He never speaks even after being wounded because his voice is different, and a remorseful Tomoe promises he'll get an honorable burial.]]
212** [[spoiler:Lady Maple throws herself in front of a scheming lord's sword to save her son; unfortunately she didn't know Usagi had brought a doll in his place. For double irony points Usagi had already dealt with a doll-double and hated people sacrificing themselves for it.]]
213** [[spoiler:The secret Christians are willing to put their lives on the line to get one crucifix to their followers; if any of them were caught they would've been crucified themselves.]]
214* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Hikiji as the sole human, something Sakai later regretted doing. [[spoiler:Jesus on the crucifix -- lion, lamb, human, or something else entirely?]] Also, foreigners, until issue #150 of the Dark Horse run, which introduces a Spanish feline named Rodriguez. Unfortunately, he fulfills pretty much all the racist beliefs the Japanese hold towards foreigners in the setting, as he's both violent and sadistic.
215** Sakai has said Hikiji is mostly kept off panel because he feels the character works better as a Sauron-like figure, manipulating things unseen. As far as the Europeans go, his Nilson Groundthumper strips take place in that part of the UY Earth. The characters there seem to be of a wide variety of species. It should be noted the Nilson stories predate the Ninja Turtles by a few years, despite the latter often being given credit for at least partially inspiring UY.
216* HeirClubForMen: Tomoe is more skilled than her brother but didn't inherit the family dojo because she's a woman. Her father does acknowledge that she is by far the superior swordsman, but has no interest in wrecking the dojo's reputation in a futile attempt at singlehandedly changing everyone else's sexist attitudes.
217* HiddenInPlainSight: In the acclaimed "Grasscutter" storyline, Usagi discovers the fabled lost sword whose owner can lay claim to being Emperor. Knowing that the fight for the sword could instigate a civil war, Usagi decides to take it to Atsuta Shrine, a temple where an exact replica of Grasscutter is on display for visitors. By switching the real sword for the fake, Usagi will have it kept safe while totally in the public eye.
218* HighPressureBlood: In the beginning, and notably in Tomoe and Noriyuki's debut episode. But keeping in the ''Usagi Yojimbo'' style, the blood spurts are quite brief and rather cartoonish in appearance.
219* HitMeDammit: In ''Space Usagi'' when [[spoiler:Usagi is pretty much beating himself to death after the death of Tomoe]].
220* HoistByHisOwnPetard: the Snitch in "Snitch" spends the story cheating Gen and Usagi, Stray Dog, and a fugitive thief out of their money to either reveal or hide the location of the thief. At the end of the story, [[spoiler:the thief, who has discovered the Snitch had been cheating him out of his money and was attempting to sell him out, catches up to the Snitch, and beats him (possibly to death) to make him give over his now-fattened coinpurse of ill-gotten gains, saying "Robbing honest people is one thing, but stealing from a thief and a liar is another!"]]
221* HonestAxe: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. The woodcutter in the story [[spoiler:freezes to death because a golden axe is useless to cut firewood.]]
222* HonorBeforeReason: Reconstructed. Usagi has no problem using trickery, usually to help the underdog. Characters who mistake honor for weakness frequently come off the worse for it. Also played straight, averted, and subverted, depending on the character and occasion. For instance, if a character takes a stand in this series and says "I am adamant!", you will know that ''nothing'', especially death threats, is going to make them change their mind.
223** Played with in regards to the various schools of sword fighting that Usagi comes across. Many will do very dishonorable things to protect the "honor" of their school if they are worried that a travelling sword student could defeat their master such as attempting to ambush them on their way to the school.
224** As in RealLife, most samurai would prefer to die in an assassination attempt on their lord's murderer, rather than live and let the murderer get away with it.
225** [[ShoutOut Watanabe Ken]] would sooner die from fighting the police than live comfortably with his daughter after she married into the merchant class.
226** ''An entire fortress of samurai kill themselves'' to protest the Shogun's orders to give the fortress to their enemy.
227* HorrifyingTheHorror: Ryoko is a witch who can mind-control others in huge quantities, even at vast ranges. Then she runs into Jei while remote-piloting her servant Kitanamono, and is appropriately horrified.
228* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The main villain, the shadowy Lord Hikiji, is a human in a world otherwise populated by anthropomorphic animals; the only ''other'' human-looking character with a speaking part [[spoiler:is really a flesh-eating monster]]. However, none of the main characters (and few of the minor characters) have seen Hikiji's true face, nor has his species -- something that Sakai later regretted showing -- been pinpointed as the reason for his evil.
229* HyperAwareness:
230** Katsuichi made sure to drill that into his student to be constantly alert for danger; a skill any warrior has to have to survive. As a result, Usagi is ''very'' difficult to bushwhack.
231** Other characters feel it too, it's common for ambushes to start with one character saying another's name and get "I sensed him/them too" in reply.
232* {{Hypocrite}}: Usagi understands perfectly well that one must have total devotion to their lord. His devotion to his dead lord is why he refuses to serve under Noriyuki, as much as Usagi likes and respects the young lord. However in the quasi-canon Senso, [[spoiler:he is extremely bitter that Tomoe ultimately went through with her arranged marriage. The fact that Noriyuki arranged it and that she is a woman made it all but impossible to refuse it to be with Usagi. To Usagi's credit, he is quick to apologize when she calls him out on it.]]
233** Usagi's first love Mariko demanded that Usagi stay away from their hometown and never tell Jotaro that Usagi is his real father, as Mariko didn't want to ruin the relationship between Jotaro and his step-father Kenichi, who Jotaro thinks is his real father. However, Mariko went on to tell Jotaro the truth anyway, which led to both Usagi and Jotaro struggling with whether to reveal their blood relationship to the other, both scared that learning the truth would destroy the other's happiness.
234* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Only for stories that take up whole books:
235** ''The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy'': [[BattleInTheRain "The Clouds Gather" "The Winds Howl" "Downpour" "Thunder and Lightning" "The Heart of the Storm" "Storm Clouds Part"]]
236** ''Grasscutter'': All titles are just the names of whoever's the focus ("Jei" "Inazuma" "Ikeda")
237** ''Grasscutter II: Journey to Atsuta Shrine'': [[SuperSenses "A Whisper of Wings" "Scent of the Pines" "The Hunger for Death" "Visions in the Shadows" "The Feel of Salt" "In The Realm Of The Senses"]] they also get a TitleDrop.
238* IdiotBall: The usually alert Usagi gets it in "Those Who Tread On The Scorpion's Tail" when he fails to see anything suspicious about a group of sword students suddenly showing up at his room, swords drawn after beating everyone but their Sensei [[spoiler:who he allowed to win out of respect]] and they're talking like this:
239-->'''Usagi''': What did you do -- sneak out to an inn?\
240'''Student''': Uh-- Yeah. We had a... uh, few drinks to... uh... celebrate Sensei's victory.\
241'''Usagi''': ''Ha!'' I also did such things that Katsuichi-sensei never knew about.
242** "Blade of the Gods", too. YMMV on whether it's better or worse, since unlike the above, he ''does'' realize something's off about Jei...and yet stays for the night anyway. [[SarcasmMode Way to almost get yourself killed by the local immortal psychopath, Usagi]].
243* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: Gen "invites" Usagi to an inn, orders enough sake to make two men blind... and then asks Usagi what he's having.
244* ImplacableMan: Jei-san, Inazuma, and [[spoiler:Inazuma after she gets possessed by Jei -- presumably also Jei as Hama]].
245** After being (seriously) wounded in one fight, Inazuma reassures [[MoralityPet Keiko]] that it's [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "merely a]] [[OnlyAFleshWound flesh wound"]].
246*** [[spoiler:The possessed Inazuma isn't quite as implacable as original!Jei, though - she doesn't get better when you make large holes in her.]]
247** Usagi does a brilliant job of this with General Fujii, to boot (with appropriate NightmareSequence), but as TheHero, this is {{Determinator}}.
248* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Usagi provokes a bandit into demanding that Katsuichi-sensei perform a near impossible feat of cutting a seed off Usagi's nose. Katsuichi calmly replies that this is near impossible, and asks the bandit to release Usagi. The bandit refuses. Katsuichi kills the bandit. When Usagi comments that Katsuichi couldn't/didn't cut the seed, he does so to teach Usagi not to shoot his mouth off.
249** In a short story, Usagi tells Jotaro about it, and Jotaro decides to try it himself. Usagi finds a pumpkin and sticks the seed on it, Jotaro strikes... [[SubvertedTrope pulverizing the pumpkin]].
250** Also, any time a character strikes an arrow or shuriken out of the air with a sword. Which is apparently only a middling-difficult technique. Usagi's been known to block three at a time.
251** When Inazuma was first introduced she sliced up some ruffian's clothes for hitting on her, and it took four panels to show the damage.
252** In one early story a bunch of filthy ruffians surrounded by a cloud of flies are getting rowdy and insulting Usagi, who draws his sword and slashes repeatedly. The ruffians look appropriately scared, then their confidence comes back, only to run for the hills as one of them notices Usagi cut ''the flies''.
253* ImprobableAimingSkills:
254-->'''Kinuko''': "I just aimed at everything '''except''' the target!"
255* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Mainly due to "the foreigners and their black ships" and a major cause of [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled "better to be killed than to die"]]. General Oyaneko suffers from this [[spoiler:and dies of it after Usagi refuses to duel him]], as does a bounty hunter/ronin searching for the "Demon Mask" killer [[spoiler:he's killed by the killer, who hates ronin for killing his son]], and an old lord who [[spoiler:tricked Usagi into bringing his enemy's son so he could avenge his real son's death and get the honorable Usagi to kill him as a bonus (he doesn't)]].
256* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Every blade picked up by Jei becomes black... except the Kusanagi.
257* InexplicablyTailless: Possibly. This is a ShrugOfGod area. One convention exclusive ashcan story has Usagi encounter an evil skunk who used his tail as a weapon, but the canon-status of the adventure is undetermined.
258* InnocentlyInsensitive: After ''The Mother of the Mountains'', Noriyuki is convinced by one of his retainers that his personal bodyguard Tomoe should be married to another noble. Noriyuki, who is a rather young child and genuinely cares for Tomoe, agrees thinking that it would be a good gift for such a loyal guard as Tomoe. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that this is the last thing she wants as she is happy in her current position, and beyond that she is in love with Usagi. However, she feels she cannot turn down such a "gift" from her master and resigns herself to be married.
259* InstantExpert: Inazuma had an "instant affinity" with swords after she was forced to become a performer and soon surpassed her samurai husband's skill.
260* IntercontinuityCrossover: Usagi meeting the Ninja Turtles in comics (as opposed to the cartoons, since he has yet to have his own). Most recently, he's set for a crossover with the [[Creator/IDWPublishing IDW]] [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIDW Turtles]], where they don't know him but he remembers their [[AlternateContinuity original]] Creator/MirageStudios versions.
261* InternalHomage
262** The cover for ''Albedo #2'', with Usagi standing outside of a door with his hand on his sheathed katana, has been homaged a few times, and outright remade when the issue was remade with the 6th issue of the IDW run.
263** The 20th issue of the IDW series, introducing Usagi's cousin, had variant covers homageing both ''Albedo 2'' and the very first Fantagraphics issue.
264** ''Ice and Snow #1'', the first issue in the series' return to Dark Horse, had a remake of the first cover for the initial run.
265* UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian: There is a multi-issue storyline involving a group of Japanese Christians trying to smuggle a bible while being chased by the Shogunate as being a Christian is a crime punishable by death at this point in Japan. The story ends with the reveal that [[spoiler:Usagi's friend Ishida, the Inspector, is a Christian himself who managed to stop the bible from being destroyed.]]
266* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
267** Gen, which Usagi amusedly calls him out on.
268** Inukai, who [[spoiler:regularly donates large part of his earned money to an orphanage and seems to genuinely enjoy it.]]
269* JustLikeRobinHood: Nezumi the thief steals from wealthy merchants and gives some to the peasants, making him a local hero, who back him up whenever he is at risk of being arrested.
270* KarmicDeath: In ''The Fiend'', after murdering his author wife for being more famous than him (and blaming it on bandits), her husband's daimyo congratulates him on the success of his late wife's final book, and notes that her name will likely live on long after either of them are forgotten. He commits seppuku minutes later out of despair.
271** Rodriguez, the Spanish ambassador who had the daimyo he was in the court of force a tea ceremony master to commit seppuku for a minor slight, duels Usagi later in the issue. Usagi kills him with a wakizashi slash to the belly.
272* KatanasAreJustBetter: Downplayed. While Usagi obviously favors his personal daisho for fighting, he is the first to concede that it is not suited to weapons with superior reach, like spears. That is part of what makes Jei so dangerous considering he is a master of that weapon.
273** Subverted in issue #150 of the Dark Horse run with Rodriguez, who outdoes several skilled samurai, including Usagi, with his rapier [[spoiler:...until Usagi [[DualWielding uses his wakizashi in his off hand]] [[DoubleSubverted to deliver a killing blow]].]]
274* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Noriko to Tomoe (twice), Noriko to the laborers. As Noriko's a sadist and a psychopath, that's pretty much her hat.
275* KidSamurai: Usagi during the flashbacks, Jotaro, Gorogoro, [[spoiler:Motokazu]].
276* KillerRabbit: HAW! (though, only when necessary)
277* KnightErrant: Usagi travels the ''musha shugyo'' -- the warrior's path.
278* LackOfEmpathy: Kiyoko, Kitsune's apprentice, seems to have become a [[Series/{{Leverage}} Parker]] expy (it's also possible she's just screwing with Usagi).
279-->'''Kiyoko''': I overheard a plot to kill Merchant Motooka.\
280'''Usagi: ''WHAT?!'''''\
281'''Kiyoko:''' I bet we can sell this information to him.\
282'''Usagi:''' A person's life is in peril. We can't make a profit from that!\
283'''Kiyoko:''' Why not?
284* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Creator/SergioAragones' ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer and characters from Mark Crilley's ''Akiko'' have appeared as background characters from time to time-- the former may in fact count as a YuppieCouple. Also [[ComicBook/TheSandman1989 Morpheus]] shows up in line for noodles in the short story 'Noodles.' (As do Jei and Keiko.)
285* ALessonInDefeat: A young Usagi is given a lesson by his master. He's ordered to grow some carrots from some seeds. Usagi cannot make them grow at all, and considers stealing some carrots from a neighboring farmer, but his honesty gets the better of him and he reports his failure, expecting to be thrown out. His master was [[SecretTestOfCharacter testing Usagi's honesty]]; the seeds had been boiled and would never have sprouted.
286* LetThemDieHappy: A fellow samurai under Lord Mifune has been biding his time to kill Lord Hikiji. Usagi has some doubts at first, but eventually joins him and his second in an ambush. However, the samurai attacks too soon and is mortally wounded. Usagi tells him he avenged Mifune rather than let him know that he only killed a BodyDouble.
287* LetsYouAndHimFight: Averted in "Shades of Green"; Usagi and Gen joined with an old wizard to fight off an army of ninjas. The wizard reasoned that they need ninjas of their own, so he conjured four ninjas to aid them. Specifically, [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael.]] Finding themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, they thought this was a trap set by Shredder and were set to attack Gen and Usagi, until Leonardo (who had met Usagi before) recognized him. The two exchanged pleasantries and Leo's brothers decided that if Leo trusted Usagi, they would trust him as well.
288* LoveTriangle: Usagi, Mariko, and Keniichi.
289** Katsuichi, the rival dojo's sensei's daughter, and the rival dojo's second-in-command.
290* LukeYouAreMyFather: Averted [[spoiler:Jotaro shouts this to Usagi, but he's too far away to hear]]
291** [[spoiler:And they both know of Jotaro's true paternity, but they don't know that the other knows.]]
292* LowFantasy: For the most part, the series presents itself as a fairly down-to-earth pseudo-HistoricalFantasy setting, once you get past the fact it's populated by {{Funny Animal}}s instead of humans. However, the setting also has {{yokai}} as a reality of the setting, not just myths, with Usagi repeatedly encountering and often slaying ghosts and monsters across his various stories.
293** Usagi's very first story, "The Goblin of Adachigahara", involves him battling a horrific man-eating goblin. Although possibly subverted in that it turns out to be [[spoiler:General Buichi Toda, a traitor from the Battle of Adachigahara who was banished and had gone insane.]] It's only [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane possibly]] subverted since it's not clear if [[spoiler:the "goblin", who is said to have gradually lost his humanity and never returned home one night, was in fact undead or had just gone mad.]] The 35th anniversary issue remade the story and [[spoiler:since the comic is now in color instead of black-and-white, the "goblin" has sickly greenish skin, which may lean toward the former]].
294** In "Village of Fear", Usagi fights a real bakeneko -- a shapeshifting, man-eating cat-demon.
295** "The Bridge" revolves around Usagi battling a bridge-haunting Hannya, an oni-like she-demon.
296** "Yurei" is an odd one, in that Usagi himself thinks his encounter with the vengeful ghost of the innkeeper's murdered wife is AllADream throughout the short story.
297** "Broken Ritual" involves the ghost of General Tadaoka who served Usagi's former lord Mifune. Tadaoka, whose spirit was in torment because he was slain in the middle of his attempt to commit {{Seppuku}} by a nameless Hikiji soldier, would recreate the botched ritual every night when the moon was full. Usagi set things right by confronting the general's ghost, introducing himself, and acting as the spirit's ''kaishakunin'' (second), finishing the ritual and restoring the general's honor, allowing his spirit to finally be at peace.
298** "The Wrath of the Tangled Skein", one of several stories revolving around the genuinely haunted forest known as the Tangled Skein, sees Usagi battle and slay both a Nue, a sort of Japanese chimera, and a malevolent {{tanuki}}-bozo, a tanuki disguised as a priest.
299** "The Obakeneko of the Geishu Clan" has Usagi, Tomoe and Gen battle an obakeneko.
300** "Kumo" revolves around Usagi battling a spider-goblin and her army of spiders. This is the story that introduces Usagi's ally Sasuké the Demon Queller, a ronin and sorcerer who specialises in tracking down and dispatching obakemono, to the series.
301** "The Ghost Warriors" features a subversion, where Usagi fakes the haunting of a forest where the cruel lord Tobu led a platoon of samurai to a fatal ambush years ago, when he himself was a humble ashigaru, in order to make Tobu change his way. Then, ironically, it turns out the forest really was haunted when Tobu strays inside and [[spoiler:is turned into a tree by the ghosts]].
302** "Nocturnal" is a Sanshobo-centric story where Usagi doesn't even appear. It revolves around the stoic priest doing battle with a Hannya to protect one of his acolytes, the she-demon being the acolyte's former fiancee whom he abandoned to take up the priesthood.
303** In "The Doors", whilst serving as bodyguards for Lord Noriyuki, Usagi and Tomoe must rescue their lord when a gift of triptych-painted doors depicting the legendary scene of Minamoto no Yorimitsu and his four lieutenants battling the tsuchigumo turns out to be enchanted, with the tsuchigumo springing to life each night and trying to assassinate Lord Noriyuiki. This story itself uses a magical ink set first featured in Book 18, Travels With Jotaro.
304** "Kitsunegari" revolves around Usagi and Gen taking a shortcut through a wood populated by kitsune. Unfortunately for Gen, it turns out that they had encountered two kitsune on the way there, and he had offended them both with his arrogance and miserly nature, leading to them seperating him from Usagi and terrorizing him as punishment.
305** "Nukekubi" is an odd little tale where, after meeting a chatterbox of an old woman whose garden is infested with tokage, Usagi travels into the mountains and nearly falls afoul of a starving male nukekubi -- a yokai whose head detaches freely from its body. Feeling merciful, Usagi brings the nukekubi back to the old woman, ending its need to prey on travelers by giving it an endless supply of lizard meat to feed upon and allowing both to end their loneliness.
306** "Teru Teru Bozu" features a boy and his family, alongside Usagi, being attacked in the night by a monster that kills the boy's parents and Usagi. [[spoiler:It turns out to be AllJustADream, a nightmare that the boy had from gorging on sweets after dinner. But then, in the final page, Jei ends up coming to the family's hut...]]
307** Perhaps the weirdest case of this so far is the (admittedly non-canon) "Senso" storyline, where [[spoiler:Japan is invaded by aliens]].
308* MagicKnight: Sasuke the Demon Queller.
309* MacGuffin:
310** "The Green Persimmon". A veritable army of mooks try to kill Usagi when he is handed a porcelain sculpture of a persimmon, which was supposed to be a gift to Lord Hikiji. While he recovers in Lord Noriyuki's castle, Noriyuki explains that the persimmon would somehow lead Lord Hikiji to a cache of matchlock rifles that he could use to overthrow the shogun. Looking at the persimmon once more, Usagi realizes that the seemingly slipshod design of the ceramic glaze is actually a map of a nearby coastline, and a small blemish on one side represents the upcoming full moon. By heading for that part of the coast on the night of the full moon, Noriyuki's men are able to intercept the delivery of the rifles, and keep them out of Hikiji's hands.
311** In "Contraband" Usagi gets semi-unwillingly drafted into escorting a chain of people and the small package they are trying to deliver while being hunted by large numbers of samurai. The package-barers keep dying, and when Usagi finally dutifully gets the package to its destination, he stomps off saying he never wants to see the thing again after all the pain it's caused, not waiting to see that it contains a [[spoiler:crucifix.]]
312* MatureAnimalStory: Deftly splits the difference between this and the more kid-friendly side of the FunnyAnimal genre.
313* MauveShirt: Kimi is the only named Neko ninja who isn't a leader or dead. She was part of the band of ninja attempting to retrieve the Grasscutter sword, most were killed, but she survived with a broken arm. [[spoiler:She's also one of the very few, if only ninja still loyal to Chizu, she discovered a poisoned Chizu, and prevented the other ninja from finding her.]]
314* MeaningfulEcho: For a while, Usagi has a pet tokage he calls "Spot". Later, Jotaro befriends a tokage and names it "Spot", without prior knowledge of Usagi's. In the ''SpaceUsagi'' spin-off, Kiyoshi also names a tokage "Spot".
315* MeaningfulName: Usagi means "rabbit" in Japanese. Kitsune, of course, is "fox", even if hers is a nickname given by her mentor in the art of thieving.
316-->'''Kitsune''': 'Kitsune'? The trickster fox? I like it!
317** Several examples of this trope. For example Inushiro's name means "White Dog."
318* MilesGloriosus: In the short story, "Silk Fair", Usagi is instantly suspicious of Matsutaro, an overweight, braggadocious ''ronin'' who has hired his services to the miserly silk merchant Kaiko for only one ''ryo'', plus room and board, which even Kaiko admits is hefty. Sure enough, when the bandits that Matsutaro was hired to protect the village from are spotted, Matsutaro takes off running, telling Usagi to give his regrets to his employer.
319* MilkyWhiteEyes / UhOhEyes: Jei-san [[spoiler:and anyone he/it possesses]], and ''technically'' all other supernatural beings since it's a black & white comic.
320** Except the Mirage issues and Color Specials.
321* MoodWhiplash: Not only does the story itself do this, but the art style is very suited to quick, seamless transitions from detailed dramatic images to humorous cartoonish ones.
322* MoralityPet: Subverted with Keiko, Jei's "innocent". He protects her whenever she's in danger but does nothing to stop him slaughtering people (her CheerfulChild personality appears unaffected by what she's seen).
323* MultitaskedConversation: When Inspector Ishida meets Kitsune, he realizes that there's a lot more to this simple street performer. Since he has no evidence of wrongdoing, he can't do anything about it; and they're out in public, so he doesn't want to make a spectacle. When he talks to her, he compliments her on her talents and asks if she's staying long, but to Kitsune the message is very clear: "I know you're a thief, now get out of my town!"
324* MurderInc: The Koroshi (assassin's guild), as well as the Komori and Neko (ninja clans).
325* MyMasterRightOrWrong:
326** Captain Torame from "The Dragon Bellows Conspiracy." It's upheld as a tenet of 'righteous' samurai.
327** And to some extent, Kenichi. After Hikiji killed the old village headman (Usagi's father), he appointed Kenichi in his place. Initially taking the assignment out of fear, Kenichi now serves out of duty (though Hikiji probably doesn't pay much attention to the town). Usagi sometimes feels guilt that Kenichi has shouldered burdens Usagi felt honor-bound to walk away from.
328* NeverFoundTheBody:
329** Jei's first and second appearances [[spoiler:in his last appearance no one actually saw him disintegrate, and he's a spirit anyway]]; teased for the ex-Neko Ninja ''chunin'' [[spoiler:unfortunately the giant explosion from the gunpowder he was sitting on probably rules this out.]]
330** Tomoe has a nightmare where Noriko [[spoiler:escaped the explosion/cave-in at the end of "Mother of Mountains"]], but Usagi assures her that even if they don't find a body she probably didn't survive.
331* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the story "Kaiso", Usagi befriends a kaiso (seaweed) farmer who suspects a farmer from a neighboring village of poaching his seaweed and selling it to a kaiso-broker, while the other farmer accused the first farmer of poaching his seaweed. In the end, Usagi uncovers the truth; the broker was poaching seaweed from both farmers, in order to sow mistrust between the two villages. He feared that if the two farmers formed a partnership they could sell their seaweed without his assistance and drive him out of business. By the end of the story, the two farmers decide to form a partnership, and even make a point of thanking the broker for giving them the idea in the first place.
332* {{Ninja}}: The Neko (cat), Komori (bat), and Mogura (mole) clans of ninja. Chizu of the Neko clan is an important secondary character.
333* NominalVillain: Usagi once had to fight a daimyo's chief bodyguard despite the daimyo being involved in a traitorous plot (and the bodyguard fully aware of the treachery, and the daimyo being a BadBoss entirely undeserving of the bodyguard's loyalty), because a samurai's duty is loyalty to his lord in all circumstances.
334* NoodleIncident: "Usagi and the Tengu" provides two back to back. The titular tengu of the story has only one hand, and seeks revenge towards Katsuichi-sensei for some past transgression that is never elaborated on - when Usagi asks about the missing hand, Katsuichi feigns ignorance. At the very end as he finishes telling this story to Jotaro, Usagi hints that he faced the tengu a second time in the future, but refuses to elaborate.
335* NoPlaceForAWarrior: After many, many bloody battles, a single warlord - presumably Tokugawa Ieyasu, as in real life - cements his authority over the others as shogun, allowing Japan to finally experience peace after over a century of warfare. Unfortunately, peace means that the lords dramatically cut down on the number of samurai they retain for their armies, leaving most samurai out-of-work, masterless ''ronin''. This also provides an inexhaustible supply of bandits and yakuza who terrorize the countryside, as many of those samurai promptly [[FromCamouflageToCriminal went into illegal endeavors]] to try to support themselves.
336* NotQuiteSavedEnough: [[spoiler:Usagi is on the verge of rescuing Lady Maple when she rushes to rescue her son and gets fatally slashed from behind. Usagi is too late to warn her that her "son" is actually a doll and was elsewhere the whole time.]]
337* {{Obake}}: Many Japanese creatures appear in ''UY'', from kappas to obakenekos, nues, onis and so on.
338* ObliviouslyEvil:
339-->'''Jei''': It is a nigh impossible task... to eradicate sin.
340** Somewhat explained in the backstory for Jei: [[spoiler:the priest to the 'dark gods' points out to Buddhist priest Jizonobu that while they both work to fight "evil," their respective definitions for evil are not necessarily the same. The evil and sin that Jei is fighting is defined for him by the demonic gods he serves]]
341* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:A mother kills her evil money-lender son; an artist's father sends assassins after his own son when he returns with foreign techniques that he fears will "infect" the traditional way of life.]]
342* OhCrap: Gen has this reaction when he's fighting Zato-Ino and [[spoiler:Zato-Ino ''cuts off his horn.'' He realizes that Zato-Ino may actually be better than him, but is prepared to fight to the death anyway.]]
343* OldMaster: Katsuichi-sensei.
344* OlderThanTheyLook: The Lord of Owls kills a man 40 years after killing his companions, a remarkable feat in an era when a 40-year-old person would probably be past his prime or dead even without being a wandering swordsman.
345* OpenSecret: Just about everyone seems to know that Jotaro is Usagi's son, and yet Usagi still tries to keep it a secret. Ironically Jotaro knows the truth as well but doesn't think Usagi knows. They both refuse to tell the other because they believe it'll ruin their happiness.
346* OperationJealousy: [[spoiler:Kitsune tells Tomoe that she and Usagi have "shared so many adventures and... other things" but she's just trying to get rid of the heroes while she's running a con.]]
347* OutsideContextProblem: In the possible future of ''Senso'' - who could have foreseen[[spoiler:an ''alien invasion?'']]
348* OutOfFocus: Lord Hikiji, Kenichi, and Mariko were prominent in the early years, but rarely enter the story anymore (in the latter two's case, they asked Usagi to leave).
349* PaintingTheMedium: Odd speech balloons and/or text usually mark a supernatural being. Jei and certain haunts/monsters have jagged word balloons and mixed upper- and lower-case font. Ryoko, the witch from the ''Grasscutter'' arc, spoke in italics.
350* PetTheDog: Jei-san and Keiko, Gen and Stray Dog's acts of kindness.
351* PragmaticAdaptation: Since Gen's taste for sake couldn't be adapted to the second TMNT cartoon, he was made a gambler instead.
352* PragmaticVillainy: Many of Usagi's opponents are simply mercenaries looking for a payday. In some stories, the thing they are fighting with him over becomes irrelevant in some way (often due to being destroyed), at which point the mercenaries tend to call it quits. After all, the fight wasn't personal and they gain nothing by continuing to risk their lives.
353* PrecisionFStrike:
354** The comic rarely uses swears, aside from the occasional "damn" or "hell," but when a peasant girl who romanticizes Usagi's Ronin lifestyle gets very enamored with him, she gets in a shouting match with her disapproving fiancé who ends up calling her a slut.
355** Also, a fox demon calls Tomoe a bitch after taking a hit from her. In the Dark Horse reprinting in Volume 22: Tomoe's Story, it was changed so that she snarls at her instead.
356** And the word "bastard" was used in the first chapter of Space Usagi.
357* ProductDeliveryOrdeal: One of Usagi's many adventures has him accompany a pair of ice carriers down from the mountains to the capital before it melts (as their lord's rival has sent goons to interrupt them and disgrace their master).
358* PublicDomainArtifact: Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, one of Japan's imperial regalia (which is nearly as important to Japanese legend as Excalibur is in England), is the center of a whole story arc.
359* PunchClockVillain: There are multiple instances where Usagi will be fighting bounty hunters or mercenaries over a person or object, only for said person or object to be killed/destroyed. At this point, the fighting will stop and his opponents will simply go on their way. After all, there's no point risking your life when there is no chance of getting paid.
360* PunnyName: Some throwaway secondary characters have names that are somewhat funny when translated from Japanese.
361* PutOnABus: Ino, once he succeeded in his IJustWantToBeNormal quest.
362** After the Chanoyu chapter, pretty much the entire Geishu clan, including Tomoe Ame was put on a bus as well. In ''Senso'', TheBusCameBack, but in the main series, it still has yet to.
363** Mariko, Kenichi and Usagi's birth village wound up as this after ''Circles'', but TheBusCameBack in issue 11, "The Return", of the IDW run, when Usagi, lying in a boat injured and unconscious, winds up back in his birth village where he is found by none other than Mariko.
364* RecurringExtra: The omnipresent woodcutters. Groo, on occasion.
365* RecycledINSPACE: ''Space Usagi'' features descendants of the main characters and puts them in a SpaceOpera setting.
366* RedHerring: In the Sparrows storyline, there is a subplot about a temple of monks that was the temple where Jei's first host lived. Run now by Hama, an at the time junior monk who was wounded and nearly killed by Jei all those years ago, it hosts the wandering monk Sanshobo and his fellow monk Senzo. Senzo was recently attacked by Jei and is having frequent nightmares of becoming Jei. When another ill guest at the temple is murdered in the night, everyone at the temple assumes Senzo must have gone crazy and done it. Senzo himself isn't even sure he didn't do it with all the nightmares of Jei he has been having. [[spoiler:It turns out it was Hama, who has had the seed of Jei inside him all those years since he was nearly killed by the entity. And since Jei's current host has been mortally wounded and is slowly bleeding out, he has been switching between her and Hama as she fades in and out of consciousness before completely possessing Hama and killing Senzo.]]
367* RedOniBlueOni: Gen and Usagi; Noriko and Tomoe.
368* TheReliableOne: Mariko chooses Kenichi over Usagi because while Usagi was off serving lords, becoming a ronin, and having wild adventures, Kenichi was raising Jotaro.
369* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Lord Hebi is a giant snake; Orochimaru appears in the "Grasscutter" prologue; ''tokage'' may fill the role of dogs and cats but if they're hungry enough they won't hesitate to eat people (they're also eaten but only as a last resort).
370* TheResenter: Kenichi.
371* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: In the very first Usagi story in ''Albedo'' #2, Usagi tells of the death of Lord Mifune. He was battling Hikiji's forces and winning until he was betrayed by General Toda. The woman Usagi is telling this to then reveals that she is Toda's widow, and that the rewards from Hikiji they expected never came. Hikiji had Toda beaten and banished instead.
372* {{Ronin}}: Usagi and many secondary characters.
373* {{Samurai}}: Usagi, Tomoe, and ''so many extras besides''.
374* ScareEmStraight: Usagi, either first or second hand, to several young people who think the life a wanderer is glamorous.
375* ScarsAreForever: Usagi is consistently drawn with his scar from the battle at Adachi Plain (even if other such scarring he acquires eventually heals). Katsuichi loses his eye and wears an eyepatch ([[RuleOfCool made from a sword guard]]) from that point on.
376* ScoobyDooHoax: "The Inn on Moon Shadow Hill".
377* SecretTestOfCharacter: Katsuichi-sensei is prone to do this.
378* {{Seppuku}}: Appears periodically, usually when a character needs to atone for an earlier shame.
379** A unique case is Usagi coming across a village haunted by the ghost of a general who was killed before he could complete the ceremony. Waiting for the ghost to appear, Usagi respectfully says the two served the same lord and "I would be honored to be your second." As the general makes the cuts, Usagi uses his sword (blessed in holy water) to make the final cut and let the general's spirit be at peace.
380* SeriousBusiness: Swordsmanship schools and their respect are taken ''very'' seriously. It is rare that one shows up in a story without a lot of drama attached. Often students of the school will engage in very underhanded behavior to make sure a skilled swordsman (such as Usagi) is unable to challenge the school publicly, whether or not the target actually has any intention of doing so. As one such student says in a storyline where he and others attempt to kill Usagi, who cares about honor when they have their reputation to consider?
381* SexyDiscretionShot: Usagi's picnic with Mariko goes in an [[TheirFirstTime unexpectedly]] sexy direction [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C5rt8KH6-6c/VJmDNy1320I/AAAAAAAAWJg/errmUKiu0ww/s1600/Image00004.jpg with very little warning]]. [[spoiler:It seems [[DidTheyOrDidntThey ambiguous]] until it's revealed that [[YourSonAllAlong Jotaro]] was conceived at that moment.]]
382* ShamuFu: At one point, Usagi defends a fish merchant from an armed gang attempting a protection racket with nothing more than that day's catch.
383* SheathStrike:
384** Part of Gen's style of swordsmanship. Gen usually carries his sword over his shoulder, rather than in his belt, and holds the scabbard in his left hand when fighting. It gets him into trouble in one story because it means he doesn't have one hand free.
385** Usagi uses the style after meeting Gen, usually when heavily outnumbered or not willing to kill his opponent.
386** Zato-ino holds his scabbard while fighting, because it's also his cane, but never uses it.
387* ShipTease: Until the ''Mother of Mountains'' arc, this was the only thing Stan did with the romantic tension between Tomoe and Usagi.
388* ShootTheShaggyDog: "The Outlaw". Hilariously [[spoiler:the "shot" is done by Stray Dog]].
389* ShortCutsMakeLongDelays: Gen is prone to offer this to Usagi when they're travelling together, and Usagi follows. They end up in a predicament. Every single time, Usagi yells at Gen during or afterwards: "You and your shortcuts!"
390* ShoutOut:
391** Usagi is likely named after UsefulNotes/MiyamotoMusashi.
392** Many characters are [[ShoutOut shout outs]] to [[JidaiGeki Chanbara]] heroes -- the Lone Goat and Kid is a nod to the Manga/LoneWolfAndCub, Zato-Ino the blind masseur pig is a thinly-veiled version of Franchise/{{Zatoichi}}, Lord Mifune references the actor Creator/ToshiroMifune, and so on.
393** Jei's name is a shout out to the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' film series ("Jei-san")
394** In addition to a ton of ''Franchise/StarWars'' shout-outs in ''Space Usagi'', the Bugg Planet is a shout-out to ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''.
395** Not to mention that one swordfight of Usagi is an almost exact adaptation of the first-bokken-then-swords duel from ''Film/SevenSamurai''.
396** Tomoe Ame is named after a brand of candy. This is why her name is kept in Western order, surname last, while everyone else's names are in Japanese order, surname first.
397** "Are you a [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} god, Zilla]]?" Usagi later creates a fully-grown "Zilla" to battle some his {{kaiju}} enemies created by a cursed ink set for [[MilestoneCelebration the real "Zilla's" 50th anniversary]].
398** At one point Usagi gets doused in [[ComicBook/BuckyOHareAndTheToadWars green dye]]; Gen thought he was dead and tells Usagi to get out of the dye vat and "stop grinning like some [[ComicBook/TheJoker joker]]".
399** "Wings of Blood" -- "Holy flying furballs, it's ''[[Franchise/{{Batman}} bats, man]]''!"
400*** That story also has a character make a point of saying what a [[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns "dark night"]] it is.
401** [[Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains"]] (though the plot is more similar to a previous story, "Slavers").
402** The last chapter of the "Grasscutter II" arc is called "Film/InTheRealmOfTheSenses" because the rest of the chapters have a five senses theme, not because of any [[spoiler:sex, strangling, and penis chopping]].
403** Inazuma, possessed by Jei, assures Keiko that her injury is [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "just a flesh wound"]] (it actually isn't, she's not as durable as Jei).
404** Kitsune's three accomplices in "Toad Oil" are modeled after Film/TheThreeStooges (as pointed out in the authors' notes); they prove their foolishness when they don't realize [[Film/OceansEleven you never do the same gag twice]] -- especially not the next day and in front of the same people you just ripped-off.
405** ''Senso'' is a WholePlotReference and prequel to (believe us, this one's worth spoiler-protecting...) [[spoiler:''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'']].
406** Another ''Space Usagi'' shout out has Usagi apologizing to a ship captain, "I am sorry, I thought it was some sort of ninja trick." To which the captain responds "[[Advertising/TrixRabbit Silly Rabbit, tricks are for kids!]]"
407* ShownTheirWork: Stan Sakai may research some aspect of ancient Japanese life, from pottery to seaweed farming or geishas, and render it lovingly on the page or describe it in detail in the afterwords. In fact, Sakai's research and presentation of this stuff is so on the money that he won a Parent's Choice Award for the comic's educational value.
408* SickeninglySweethearts: Gen falls for Kitsune ''hard'', leaving Usagi to roll his eyes and feel like puking on seeing his "best friend" so lovey-dovey.
409* SingleStrokeBattle: In general, any sort of duel between characters of different skill levels is going to be resolved in one stroke, with the loser taking around three panels to collapse.
410* SkewedPriorities: In "Frost and Fire", Usagi is asked by Lord Noriyuki to do a favor for a local samurai woman. The woman explains that her husband was recently killed in a neighboring village. Usagi assumes that she is asking him to escort the body home for burial, and is stunned when the wife says that the body can rot in the sun for the crows for all she cares, what she wants is her husband's swords, to pass as an heirloom to their son.
411** In the village, Usagi is less surprised than he might have been to learn that the samurai and a peasant girl fell in love, though this complicates his task since she refuses to give up the swords, as they are her one keepsake of him.
412* SnakeOilSalesman: One of Kitsune's cons involves selling jars of toad oil (the Japanese equivalent to snake oil) as a miraculous balm. Her three accomplices (who pretend to disbelieve her and get violent, requiring a "demonstration" of the oil's properties) decide they want more than their share.
413* TheSoCalledCoward: Usagi is polite and does not seek fights needlessly, so this trope comes across him often.
414* SpaceWhale: [[InSPACE Giant space]] turtles! (in ''Space Usagi'')
415** Whose corpses get turned into [[CoolShip giant space ships!]]
416* SpeciesSurname: Well, clan name, but close enough for jazz. The Neko, Komori and Mogura ninja clans are portrayed as cats, bats and moles, respectively. "Neko", "komori" and "mogura" mean "cat", "bat" and "mole".
417* SpeechBubbles: There is a speech bubble for ''death'', with a skull in it.
418* SpotTheImposter: While fleeing from a Kitsune, Gen runs into Usagi, but a second Usagi shows up, each claiming to be the real deal. [[spoiler:He quickly figures out there's ''two'' kitsune.]]
419* StabTheSalad: Jei's spear proves to be a bad weapon to use in a thunderstorm, as he ends up a pile of cinders. [[spoiler:The demon possessing him, however, just needs a new host.]]
420* StarCrossedLovers / AnchoredShip: Usagi has rotten luck with women.
421** Usagi and Mariko: They're both separated by duty and honor - she to her husband, he first to his lord and later to the warrior's road.
422** Usagi and Kiku: She was about to enter an ArrangedMarriage, plus they're different social classes.
423** Usagi and Tomoe: He'll never serve another lord, even one as nice as Tomoe's; she's been marked for an Arranged Marriage to an older lord -- in the tea ceremony chapter there's even a stone marker that means "path forbidden". (Though Sakai has advised concerned readers that a bad or tragic ending is not a ForegoneConclusion.)
424*** In ''Senso'', [[spoiler:Tomoe was forced into an arranged marriage, but her husband dies during the war. Usagi broaches the idea of a relationship in the future and Tomoe leaves it open. Usagi's death saving Edo puts paid to them getting together, though. In Usagi's final moments, he asks only to hold her hand one last time, telling her he loves her.]]
425** Usagi and Chizu: Originally, it wouldn't work out because she was working for Hikiji. Now there's a different problem - she's a ''nukenin,'' almost every other Neko ninja is out to kill her, and ''she'' would endanger ''Usagi'' if they had a relationship. This is an IronicEcho of the problem Usagi has with his other potential love interests.
426** ''Space Usagi'' and Tomoeh (who's a rabbit like Mariko and a samurai like Tomoe) do hook up [[spoiler:unfortunately she's killed in the next story arc. By the coda of ''Senso'', we get to see he does eventually find love again, married, and is about to become a father, though whether that story will ever be told is unrevealed]].
427** Katsuichi and his girlfriend whose father was a rival dojo's sensei, and the rival dojo's heir who [[spoiler:lied to his sensei that Katsuichi only wanted to marry his daughter to take over the dojo and later tried to ambush Katsuichi at night. Unfortunately, he accidentally killed the girlfriend (and promptly blamed Katsuichi because if she hadn't in love with him she wouldn't have been there), and then Katsuichi killed him]].
428* StepServant: Kitsune's backstory. After her mom [[ManBehindTheMan who really ran the family business]] died, her "jellyfish" of a father married a mean and shrewish woman (note: not an actual [[FunnyAnimal shrew]]) who spent all their money and eventually convinced him to sell their daughter to an inn.
429* StillWearingTheOldColors: Even years after the downfall of Lord Mifune, Usagi continues to wear the Mifune ''mon'' on his kimono, as he did while in his lord's service.
430* StoryWithinAStory: Usagi's told two: "My Lord's Daughter" where he battles an army of ''oni'' to rescue his lord's daughter ([[spoiler:his Lord Mifune didn't have a daughter]]), and [[Literature/{{Momotaro}} "Momo-Usagi-taro"]] with himself as the legendary hero and ([[FurryConfusion interestingly]]) PartiallyCivilizedAnimal sidekicks, not anthropomorphic ones like himself (maybe because one of them's a pheasant and there aren't any bird-people). The ''Senso'' stand-alone also turned out to be one.
431* SuicideByCop:
432** Watanabe Ken, a destitute ronin who'd rather die in battle than live with his merchant son-in-law.
433** Magistrate Oyaneko is living a good life running a town, but he has cancer and feels this is a dishonorable way for a samurai to die. He challenges Usagi to a duel; Usagi assumes he intends to die, but Oyaneko insists he intends to really fight, and if Usagi dies instead of him, so be it. [[spoiler:They charge each other, but Usagi stops his attack at the last moment... and Oyaneko does the same. He really had intended to die, but Usagi convinces him that the honorable thing to do is continue to serve the people of his town for as long as he can. Oyaneko dies several months later, just after completing a new irrigation system that will allow the town to grow more food.]]
434* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
435** Tomoe, while dealing with a mysogynistic retainer named Horikawa who works for her lord Noriyuki, happens to have a supernatural experience, taking her back to a major battle that had happened 200 years prior. In said battle, the ancestor of Horikawa betrayed Noriyuki's ancestor, causing their clan to be defeated in that battle. Later, after the vision ended, Tomoe gets into an argument with Horikawa and in anger states that she knows that Horikawa's family is the reason that their clan lost the major battle in the past and then walks away as the issue ends. Feels like a rather cathartic moment for Tomoe, who constantly deals with mysogeny for being Noriyuki's personal body guard while also being a woman. However, next time we see her, Horikawa is demanding an apology for Tomoe's accusation that she can't actually prove is true (due to learning it in a vision). Tomoe is forced to apologize to him for the "baseless" accusation, and this ends up giving Horikawa enough sway with Noriyuki to convince him that Tomoe should be married to another Geishu lord, something Tomoe is against on multiple levels but lacks the power to outright deny.
436* SwipeYourBladeOff: After every blood-drawing battle. Usagi is regularly depicted as cleaning his swords, however, so perhaps it's to minimize how much he has to clean later.
437* TeruTeruBozu: In the "Teru Teru Bozu" issue, Usagi shelters from a storm with a family of charcoal gatherers and makes one for their son.
438* ThatManIsDead:
439** In "Vendetta" a young samurai is looking for [[YouKilledMyFather his father's killers]] and has official permission to [[PrepareToDie execute them]]. Three of them became bandits and lost duels to him in the first part while the [[FourIsDeath fourth]] [[spoiler:was genuinely sorry for what he did, renounced his samurai status, and became an altruistic monk. When he's confronted by the son of the man he murdered, he acknowledges that his accuser has the right to kill him, and he will not resist. Usagi persuades the young samurai to accept the former samurai's topknot instead of his head.]].
440** Orphan-maker, Noriko's brutal enforcer, [[spoiler:is blinded by Usagi. A few stories later he meets Usagi again (though he doesn't recognize his voice) and tells him that getting blinded made him a better person and he's grateful for it.]]
441** General Ikeda originally took the guise of a farmer ''purely'' to bide his time until he could launch a bloody revolution, but sacrificed so much in order to succeed as a farmer that, when the time came for a potentially successful rebellion, he turns his back on his old life. When his wife asks what his former co-conspirator wanted, he says, "He was looking for someone no longer alive."
442** In one story, Usagi encounters a young samurai who turns out to be the son of one of his old comrades, who was killed during the battle of Adachi Plain, with the young man using the memory and history of his father as inspiration for his own path. After they part ways, the samurai is attacked by a group of bandits, and knocked out before Usagi can reach him, only to be saved by a half-blind, one-armed beggar the two had briefly seen earlier. The beggar turns out to be Usagi's former comrade, who had actually survived the battle, albeit barely, losing an arm, an eye and getting trampled by enemy horses. He asks Usagi not to reveal to his son that he's still alive, prefering to be remembered as the warrior he had been rather than the shadow of himself he was now. Usagi reluctantly agrees.
443* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The Assassin's Guild, professional killers who prefer operating incognito disguised as monks, performers, beggars and other such "invisible" people. Ironically, this makes them by far more like the actual historical ninja than the Ninja Clans of the comic. They have begun to consider Usagi an active threat as he has inadvertently interfered with a few of their missions, with him being none the wiser since the assassins don't identify themselves.
444* ToBeLawfulOrGood: The comic focuses on honor and morality a lot, so there have been many examples.
445** "A Mother's Love" deals with an old woman whom Usagi befriends. He learns later that her son is a ruthless crime boss, and she is grief-stricken that her child not only neglects and disrespects her, but extorts her neighbors and regularly murders people. She begs Usagi to ''kill her son,'' and when the horrified ronin protests, she poisons her son. Then she confesses her crime to Usagi, and begs for a MercyKill. Grieving, he complies.
446** In "The Death of Lord Hikiji", Usagi comes across a plot by some former comrades to kill [[BigBad Lord Hikiji]] and has to decide between his duty to his lord and the undeniable fact that his comrades will die in the attempt. He agrees to join them, but at the last instant discovers that the opportunity his companions were exploiting was, in fact, a trap.
447** In "The Treasure of the Mother of Mountains", Tomoe has to decide between leaving Usagi to be tortured and killed to report to her master a scheme against the Shogunate that the villain is carrying out or saving Usagi but letting herself be captured in the process. She ultimately does the latter, but multiple times voices that she should have left Usagi to his fate, especially as the details of the villain's plot become clearer. She later states that if she manages to escape, she plans to leave the other prisoners to die to report back to her master, but once freed she ultimately works with Usagi to stop the plan and save the prisoners.
448** In "Senso" we find out that Tomoe was married off to another clan in order to seal an alliance. Neither she nor Usagi contested it, but it's obvious it poisoned both of their lives (and her husband was aware of the fact, since before his HeroicSacrifice he regrets that he was unable to make Tomoe happy).
449* TooDumbToLive: Jizonobu. In his defense, he was desperate and trying to heal a sick child, but [[DealWithTheDevil sealing your soul to the dark gods you oppose]] is still an awful decision [[spoiler:[[DemonicPossession that somehow ends]] [[BloodbathVillainOrigin even worse than you'd expect]].]]
450* TreacherousAdvisor:
451** [[spoiler:Usagi's teacher and his lord's uncle]] in "Space Usagi". His disappearance was actually his leaving to make allies to support his coup d'état.
452** Subverted with Horikawa, one of Noriyuki's advisors. He opposes Tomoe on gender-based grounds, but he still serves Noriyuki faithfully in the future of "Senso".
453* TrickDialogue: In trying to get out of the rain, Usagi came across the swordswoman Inazuma telling her life's story to some of her friends. By the time she is finished, the rain has let up, so Inazuma bids them farewell and heads out. Usagi makes an aside about the story to one of the "friends"... only to discover that all four of them are dead -- bounty hunters who had been trying unsuccessfully to kill Inazuma.
454** Usagi goes to return a small trinket to a fellow member of Lord Mifune's army. [[spoiler:The trinket was a good-luck charm; Usagi tells the man he is sorry he was unable to return it previously, then leaves it on the top of the man's gravestone and walks away.]]
455* TsuchigumoAndJorogumo: Two stories deal with such Yokai: one, titled "Gumo", has a village besieged by monstrous giant spiders lead by a [[SpiderPeople Kumo Onna]], forcing Usagi and Sasuke to join forces. Another one quotes the famous story of Minamoto-no-Yoritomo and has lord Noriyuki threatened by a Tsuchigumo living in a screendoor animated by a cursed ink set.
456* UnexplainedRecovery: Jei-san somehow recovers after being vaporized by lightning (he was originally a one-off character) and being impaled by his own spear and chucked off a cliff. [[spoiler:Getting run through by {{Kusanagi}} destroyed his body for good, unfortunately he's a disembodied spirit. He doesn't recover as well in Inazuma's body, maybe his current one will be tougher]].
457** The second time he meets Usagi, Usagi actually comments on his survival. Jei claims he actually did die but the gods sent him back because his work wasn't finished.
458* TheUnfavorite / BastardBastard: [[spoiler:Noriko. She's shunted to her aunt's after her mom dies because her uncle is actually her biological father (mom and aunt are sisters). Aunty doesn't like her very much and then bio-dad straight-up tells her he'll never accept her as his daughter, so she kills him and poisons her "step" father for being weak. She reveals all of this to her The Favorite cousin Tomoe while beating her to the ground (on top of having worked a day in Noriko's mine). For Noriko, it's a ''very satisfying'' beating.]]
459* UngratefulBastard: Averted in "Ice Runners." During a bet Lord Ito has a few of his loyalists retrieve ice from the mountains to present to Lord Hikiji and a rival lord tries to have those servants killed. Usagi manages to intervene, save one and deliver the ice before it melts. In-spite of the petty nature of the challenge and Ito being allied with the BigBad, he shows nothing but gratitude to Usagi and his servants for accomplishing such a difficult task. In the Shogunate-era when Lordships rise and fall based on their allies, Ito being able to impress a powerful Lord like Hikiji was important in the game of politics even if the action itself seemed silly. As such, Ito was proud of the faith he could place in his servants and the aid of kind strangers.
460* UniqueProtagonistAsset: Only major/recurring characters get to have distinct species. Pretty much everyone else is just a cat or dog.
461* UnknownRival: Usagi has somewhat become this to the Koroshi, the league of assassins. They are perfectly aware of who he is and have hired killers to assassinate him. But he never meant to become a thorn in their side. He just always happens to be at the right place at the right time and unwilling to let someone be murdered.
462* TheUnseen: The Shogun is talked about a lot in stories involving Lord Hikiji and the Geishu, but he never actually appears onscreen.
463** Outside of his early appearances and his appearance in ''Senso'', Hikiji never appears onscreen, with Hebi generally serving as his right-hand man and voice. A large part of this no doubt is the fact that Stan Sakai regretted making Hikiji the only human in the setting (that we see at least) early on.
464* UpdatedRerelease: The first color special was this when it came time to print it in a trade paperback. As the originals didn't exist anymore, Sakai redrew the entire story.
465** Volume 4, #6 is an expanded, redrawn and colored version of "The Goblin of Adachigahara", the very first published Usagi story. This was done to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the comic. Remarkably, it's also the first outright {{Retcon}} in the storyline, in the sense that the current story supersedes the first one as an account of the same event.
466** Early in 2020, IDW started releasing Color Classics, which have colored in the original black and white Fantagraphics issues, and add some behind the scenes material. Surprisingly, the coloring is NOT done by long-time colorist Tom Luth, likely due to him being on the now-color main title.
467* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In ''Lone Rabbit and Child'', the second published story, the peasants at the very beginning are far too busy planting rice to notice Tomoe and Lord Noriyuki running from assassins.
468* UpperclassTwit: One appears in "Murder at the Inn"; he insults everyone then dares to compare his very poor poetry to a master's (amazingly he's not the one who's murdered).
469* VirtueIsWeakness: "What fools, who mistake honor for weakness." Usagi usually gets called a coward when he [[ReluctantWarrior refuses to fight]].
470* TheVoiceless: [[spoiler:Noriyuki's body double. He couldn't imitate his voice so he didn't speak, even after being fatally wounded.]]
471* VoiceOfTheLegion: Jei-san [[spoiler:and anyone possessed by him/it]].
472* WalkingTheEarth: Gen, and several others. Usagi falls more into KnightErrant: Chizu into FlyingDutchman.
473* WarIsHell: in the serial ''Battlefield'': born into the samurai class, Usagi grew up with romantic notions of martial honor and glorious battle; these were burned out of him early in his tutelage with Katsuichi, who harbored a [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatized]] ''ashigaru'' (foot soldier) fleeing from the slaughter of his army, then showed the young Usagi the battlefield in its aftermath.
474* TheWatson: Inspector Nii serves as one to Ishida, respecting him, and not being as corrupt as his superiors.
475* WaxOnWaxOff: Usagi's old master Katsuichi, pretended to be a MoochingMaster, making Usagi do all manner of chores for over a year before he even let Usagi touch a bokken. Turns out he was actually testing Usagi's patience and resolve to become a swordsman.
476** Katsuichi also started hitting Usagi with a bamboo stick at random times, day and night. Although the rabbit kitten feared his teacher had gone mad, he only later noticed that it helped develop the lifesaving habit of being constantly alert for danger.
477* WeirdnessMagnet: Usagi has an amazing tendency to attract all the weird and dangerous things in any area he is passing through. He will accidentally bump into an ancient, mystic sword and get himself in the middle of an anti-shogun conspiracy or become number one on a local psychopath’s “to kill” list. No matter how much he tries to avoid it, he always ends up in a fight. If it's not {{Youkai}} he has to kill, then a village needs to be saved from a {{Yakuza}}. Most of his friends are not ordinary people, either. This happy bunch includes: a bounty hunter, a powerful daimyo, said daimyo’s ActionGirl bodyguard, the former head of a ninja clan who would love to get rid of Usagi, a OldMaster, a ClassyCatBurglar, and a professional demon hunter.
478** Although many of Usagi's less honorable friends have pointed out that he gets into a lot of scrapes because [[ChronicHeroSyndrome he can't stay uninvolved]] when he witnesses people being attacked, bullied, repressed, and the like, so this is at least partially his own fault.
479** This leads to him being made an enemy of a guild of assassins, who think that Usagi is trying to take them down- he isn't, he just happens to be in an area where they're trying to kill someone, and stops them. It's just that, well, this ''keeps happening,'' and they're not chalking it up to coincidence.
480* WhamEpisode: The biggest is still probably Usagi's return to his home village in Book 6, seeking an end to his wanderings. Mariko tearfully explains that he cannot stay: his mere presence would break up her family.
481* WhamLine: '''Gen''': [[spoiler:(Sakura) doesn't have a brother.]]
482** In #25 of the IDW run, when Usagi's cousin Yukichi asks Keiko where her uncle is and why he left her alone in the forest:
483--->'''Keiko''': He did not abandon me, silly. [[OhCrap He's right]] ''[[OhCrap behind]]'' [[OhCrap you]].
484* WhamShot: At the end of The Hidden: [[spoiler:Inspector Ishida enters a room with several other people and reveals that the Bible wasn't destroyed as the Shogun's men thought, and that he is also a secret Christian convert.]]
485* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In ''Space Usagi'', [[spoiler:Ch'yoko]] just sort of disappears from the plot after serving a purpose for the villains, but there's nothing to suggest she was killed. [[spoiler:It's possible she was captured by the good guys after the battle.]]
486* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Both Usagi and his friend Gunichi are faced with this during a crucial moment in the Battle of Adachigahara, after General Toda has betrayed Lord Mifune. As Mifune's army has been caught in a pincer by Hikiji and Toda's forces, the two bodyguards are temporarily separated from their lord, and have a chance to break through the enemy lines and escape. Usagi refuses to abandon his lord and remains at his side to the end, while Gunichi reveals his cowardice and flees.
487* WholePlotReference: ''Senso'' is basically "WhatIf ''Literature/WarOfTheWorlds'' happened in 16th-century Japan?" [[spoiler:The Japanese build a HumongousMecha to fight them, obviously]].
488* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: One of the most famous and popular examples this side of Carl Barks.
489* WorthyOpponent: Captain Torame in "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy". He's so [[MyMasterRightOrWrong loyal]], he'll stay with his lord even though he knows his plans are evil.
490-->'''Torame''', trading ''Bushido'' sayings with Usagi: "Is there ever a circumstance when ''rebellion'' against one's lord can be justified?"\
491'''Usagi''': '''''"Never!"'''''\
492'''Torame''': Ah, but it can be justified, ''if the rebellion '''succeeds'''!''
493* {{Yakuza}}: Many antagonists.
494* {{Youkai}}: Usagi regularly encounters spirits, ghosts, and demons.
495* YouKilledMyFather: A samurai gets permission to kill the four bad guys who killed his father [[spoiler:the last one had repented and become a priest, so the samurai takes his SamuraiTopknot as a trophy instead]]; Usagi in ''Space Usagi'' for both his lord and himself.
496** I Killed Your Father: [[spoiler:Noriko killed Tomoe's father, who was also her biological father, and her own "adoptive" father besides.]]
497* YouMonster: Usagi calls Fujii a monster. Fujii agrees.
498* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: Normally played straight, but subverted at least once, where the bounty hunter slashes his hostage, but only cuts her bonds, and allows her to go free. He does kill her when she attacks him later on.

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