History YMMV / UsagiYojimbo

** Katsushige no Kyogoku was a vain and petty artist who, bitter over his inability to achieve anything but mediocrity, [[DealWithTheDevil sold his soul]] to the ''kami'' for the power to best his rivals. Granted demonic strength but cursed into the form of a paint set, Katsushige's soul [[DemonicPossession possesses]] whomever is unfortunate enough to take the set, wearing them until their deaths. Katsushige can only produce ink for his set through an especially vile process: the [[WouldHurtAChild murder of children]] to use their blood to produce paint, leading to droves of children vanishing throughout the region, all so Katsushige can slake his {{narcissist}}ic desire to be recognized.

** Noriko, known as the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Blood Princess]] has had homicidal tendencies since childhood, where she would always beat her cousin Tomoe in spars to inflict as much pain as she could. In the present day, Noriko runs a mine, using slaves that have been press-ganged into service and worked to the point of death. Should any slave falter, Noriko promptly beheads the nearest one to serve as a morale-booster for the others. When she captures Tomoe, Noriko delights in treating her as a slave and when Tomoe refuses to perform the labor, Noriko furiously cuts down a random slave woman. When Tomoe immediately obeys to stop more death, Noriko sneers at her for caring about those of low birth. To conceal the mines, Noriko plans to blow it up, with every slave inside after all its resources are gone. She also reveals that she and Tomoe are actually [[CainAndAbel ''sisters'']] and when their father refused to acknowledge Noriko as his daughter, she murdered him, just as she had the man who raised her for [[SelfMadeOrphan for being weak]]. She reveals this while savagely beating Tomoe, taunting her that it's ''Tomoe's'' fault that he died.
** General Fujii was the head of a gang that took over a village. They reduced the workers to slaves, and ordered them to farm and cultivate for long hours. They would continue to do this until the tax collector came, at which point they would just kill all the villagers and go to another town. When Usagi infiltrates them, he's discovered and tortured, with Fujii taking his swords. When the peasants revolt, they slaughter their way through them, and Fujii abandons most of his men to die or face the police. He and his loyal [[TheDragon Dragon]] take over another gang and launch raids on a village, where he almost murders the elderly headsman for refusing them. When the heroes attack the gang to take him down, [[DirtyCoward he abandons his dragon to run]]. He is ''such'' a bastard that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even the aforementioned gang becomes repulsed by him]]. Usagi actually repeatedly [[YouMonster calls him a "monster"]].
---> '''Fujii:''' "Yes, I suppose I am."

** The fact that there's a character named "[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure Jotaro]]" [[Manga/StardustCrusaders who is of a]] HeroicLineage.

* MorePopularSpinoff: Originally the comic debuted as a one-issue story in ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' when it was previously an anthology of many furry comics during the 80s. While ''Usagi Yojimbo'' became a worldwide hit, ''Albedo Erma Felna EDF'' became a footnote in the story of comic books, though a CultClassic to the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom.[[note]]This is partly because Albedo's author, Steven Gallacci, decided to keep very strict control over the comic, apparently in order to prevent it [[FollowTheLeader being filled with]] ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' copies, who were popular in the 80s and 90s, [[AnimationAgeGhetto at expense of the quality of the comic or any other adaptation outside of it]]. This helped sour the relationship between Sakai and Gallacci and neither seems to want to talk about it.[[/note]]

** Parts of the first story arc in ''Space Usagi'' (1992-1994) are similar to ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' (1999; references to the original ''StarWars'' trilogy are pretty much mandatory): both feature [[spoiler: a princess trading places with her bodyguard for safety (in ''Phantom Menace'' the (future) hero falls for the bodyguard/handmaiden who'd really the princess while in ''Space Usagi'' the "princess" is actually the bodyguard) and the hero dueling the Big Bad's Dragon which ends with the bad guy getting sliced in half and falling from a high place]]. The third story arc has our hero discovering [[spoiler: that a man he thought of as closely as a relative has become corrupt]].

** General Fujii was the head of a gang that took over a village. They reduced the workers to slaves, and ordered them to farm and cultivate for long hours. They would continue to do this until the tax collector came, at which point they would just kill all the villagers and go to another town. When Usagi infiltrates them, he's discovered and tortured, with Fujii taking his swords. When the peasants revolt, the slaughter their way through them, and Fujii abandons most of his men to die or face the police. He and his loyal [[TheDragon Dragon]] take over another gang and launch raids on a village, where he almost murders the elderly headsman for refusing them. When the heroes attack the gang to take him down, [[DirtyCoward he abandons his dragon to run]]. He is ''such'' a bastard that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even the aforementioned gang becomes repulsed by him]]. Usagi actually repeatedly [[YouMonster calls him a "monster"]].

* HilariousInHindsight: In one issue Usagi is forced to wash dishes at an inn he can't pay for his meal at due to being pick pocketed. When some ruffians break into the inn after he's finished they even call him the Dishwasher. Usagi was the first [[VideoGame/TheDishwasher Dishwasher Samurai.]]

* {{Mondegreen}}: "You Suckey Your Jimbo", thanks to WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic.

* NightmareFuel: Jei's introductory issue. The atmosphere was very haunting. What really set it was seeing Jei go from kind-enough to give Usagi a place to stay in the rain to a ravaging madman in the blink of an eye. When Usagi first fought him, [[spoiler: he was close to death, had the bolt of lightning not interfered]]. While Jei was originally meant to be a one-shot villain, [[NeverFoundTheBody the ending left the reader wondering if he were really dead]].

** One of the "Travels With Jotoro" anthology revolves around Usagi and Jotoro trying to help a village opressed by a greedy and corrupt magistrate who gained his position by betraying the former lord of the area, being rewarded with his current job as a result. However, the magistrate is terrified of the nearby woods, where the betrayal took place, beliving that it's haunted by the spirits of the men who died because of him. Usagi enacts a ScoobyDooHoax (a CallBack to an earlier story where Usagi exposed one himself), which almost works, but fails at the last second. Chasing Usagi into the woods, the Magistrate becomes separated from his men, and suddenly turns around and notices that he's somehow found himself deep in the woods, despite only going a few feet. Soon, hours have passed, with him only getting more and more lost, the trees themselves seem to block his path. Suddenly, something spooks his horse, and someone calls his name... iIt then cuts to a few days later, with Usagi commenting on them beating the magistrates men, but that there was no sign of the magistrate himself, who seems to have disappeared without a trace. Jotaro wonders what happened to him... [[spoiler: The final panel of the story reveals the agonized face of the magistrate trapped inside the bark of a tree]]

** Kitsunes whole life has been one long string of these, almost making her carefree attitude a case of StepfordSnarker. Aside from the death of Noodles, the worst blow was arguably the loss of her adoptive "sister" who taught her how to steal and survive on the street. One day she tried pickpocketing the wrong person, a samurai who had been present when they pulled an earlier scam, and Kitsune found her dead in the street.

---> '''Katsuichi/Usagi:''' "The best souls are those which are kept in their scabbards."

* The conclusion to the "Red Scorpion" multiparter. The sensei of a sword school fallen on hard time kidnaps the son of the local magistrate while pretending to be the leader of the Red Scorpion gang in the hopes of extorting enough money to keep the school going. This fails completely as [[spoiler: the real gang leader had been the magistrate the whole time]] and while the sensei and his students manages to defeat the real gang, he realizes his desperation drove him to complete dishonor, and ultimatly for nothing. He tells his students that he can only teach them one final thing, how a samurai dies, and asks Usagi to be his second for the ''seppukku'' ritual. Usagi accepts, and the final panel shows his remaining students weeping over his body.
** The death of the tea master from ''#150'', who commits ''seppukku'' to spare his lord from dishonor because the sadistic spaniard Rodriguez had demanded to witness a seppukku death as the reward he was promised for defeating the lords men in a duel, and he wanted the person who dies to be signifigant so demanded the life of the near-universally beloved tea master. The Tea Master complies with his lords request without complaint, much to USagi's sorrow and rage.

* MorePopularSpinoff: Originally the comic debuted as a one-issue story in ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' when it was previously an anthology of many furry comics during the 80s. While ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'' became a worldwide hit, on the other hand ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' became a footnote in the story of comic books, though a CultClassic to the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom.[[note]]This is partly because Albedo's author, Steven Gallacci, decided to keep very strict control over the comic, apparently in order to prevent it [[FollowTheLeader being filled with]] ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' copies, who were popular in the 80s and 90s, [[AnimationAgeGhetto at expense of the quality of the comic or any other adaptation outside of it]]. This helped sour the relationship between Sakai and Gallacci and neither seems to want to talk about it.[[/note]]

** Kitsunes whole life has been one long string of these, almost making her carefree attitude a case of StepfordSnarker. Aside from the death of Noodles, the worst blow was arguably the loss of her adoptive "sister" who taught her how to steal and survive on the street. One day she tried pickpocketing the wrong person, and Kitsune found her dead on the street.

* AdaptationDisplacement- MarthDebutedInSmashBros: Most people know the characters through their appearances in ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.''

* ValuesDissonance: 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.
** 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).
** 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.

** Rodriguez, a Spanish swordsman, and the first foreigner to ever appear on-panel. He appears as a guest of a local lord who has promised to grant him anything he wants if he can defeat his best samurai in duels. Ramirez, being an expert fencer who's exotic style takes them all off guard, wins with ease, so what does he want as a reward? He wants to witness a ''seppukku'' ritual, just out of sheer sadistic glee. And not any of the defeated samurai, he demands the life of the local tea-master, who is also Usagi's friend, again seemingly just out of sadism and cruelty. The tea-master complies to spare his lord from dishonour, and what is Ramirez response to the heartbreaking and gruesome display? ''He loved it so much he wants to see another!'' At this point, Usagi is understandably furious, and guts Ramirez in a duel, saying that if he enjoys seppukku so damn much, [[AssholeVictim he can experience his own]].

** Ramirez, a Spanish swordsman, and the first foreigner to ever appear on-panel. He appears as a guest of a local lord who has promised to grant him anything he wants if he can defeat his best samurai in duels. Ramirez, being an expert fencer who's exotic style takes them all off guard, wins with ease, so what does he want as a reward? He wants to witness a ''seppukku'' ritual, just out of sheer sadistic glee. And not any of the defeated samurai, he demands the life of the local tea-master, who is also Usagi's friend, again seemingly just out of sadism and cruelty. The tea-master complies to spare his lord from dishonour, and what is Ramirez response to the heartbreaking and gruesome display? ''He loved it so much he wants to see another!'' At this point, Usagi is understandably furious, and guts Ramirez in a duel, saying that if he enjoys seppukku so damn much, [[AssholeVictim he can experience his own]].

** Ramirez was already portrayed as an arrogant jerk, but demanding to see a seppukku ritual like itäs entertainment AND demanding a completely innocent victim for it is one of the worst things any of the villains in the series have done.

** As tolerant as Usagi can be, he's still amazed in "The Hidden" upon learning that the Christians worship an executed criminal.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Jei-san. Much like [[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles the Shredder]] and ComicBook/TheJoker, he started off as just a one-shot villain, but was popular enough to be brought back and promoted to the hero's ArchNemesis, a position that used to belong to Lord Hikiji.

** Parts of the first story arc in ''Space Usagi'' (1992-1994) are similar to ''ThePhantomMenace'' (1999; references to the original ''StarWars'' trilogy are pretty much mandatory): both feature [[spoiler: a princess trading places with her bodyguard for safety (in ''Phantom Menace'' the (future) hero falls for the bodyguard/handmaiden who'd really the princess while in ''Space Usagi'' the "princess" is actually the bodyguard) and the hero dueling the Big Bad's Dragon which ends with the bad guy getting sliced in half and falling from a high place]]. The third story arc has our hero discovering [[spoiler: that a man he thought of as closely as a relative has become corrupt]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Jei-san. Much like [[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles the Shredder]] and TheJoker, he started off as just a one-shot villain, but was popular enough to be brought back and promoted to the hero's ArchNemesis, a position that used to belong to Lord Hikiji.

** Jei and Keiko's relationship eerily mirrors [[Manga/InuYasha Sesshomaru and Kagura's]].

** Noriko's epilogue [[spoiler: actually just Tomoe's nightmare... ''or was it?'']] sounds a lot like whatever happened to Loki between ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' (which, according to the answers Creator/JossWhedon and TomHiddleston gave to Rhea AKA [[WesternAnimation/XMen Mystique]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IQgLBaSV4#t=42m04s here]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLX-tdqEjUg#t=27m17s here]] respectively, is [[FateWorseThanDeath a horrible journey through some very rough parts of space]]... [[TeasingCreator and that's as far as the writer got]]): Both practically run into hells [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard of their own making]] by going through a portal (cave entrance and [[OurWormholesAreDifferent a rift in space]], respectively), [[EverythingTryingToKillYou fight to survive]], and end up with desire to live and [[RevengeBeforeReason destroy their siblings for the pain they've caused them]] [[spoiler: Loki returns while Noriko was killed very soon after running into a cave full of dynamite... probably]].