Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Usagi Yojimbo Crossover Review

Hey guys, Raphael here at the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles! Did you say podcast? Dudes! Dudes!

You're listening to a podcast on the Gatecast

Radio Network! Cowabunga! Hi, this is Bobby Kernow,

Chief Turtle Editor at IDW Publishing, and you

are going to have a shell of a good time inside

the pull bag. Check it out! That little dude's

facing off against those humongous hogs! Now,

Ronin, you will pay for disobeying the Shogun!

Be warned, you are no match for me. Three against

one, we shall see. Well, talking pigs and rabbits,

I find that a little hard to swallow. Not like

talking turtles, right? Are they mutants like

us? I don't think so. This must be some kind

of alternate earth where animals, not humans,

became the dominant species. I suppose the Shogun's

cowardly son, Lord Bisen, sent you. Mellow out,

bud. me this slapstick. My name is Usagi Yojimbo.

That means rabbit bodyguard. I am Aronin, a masterless

samurai. He's not only from medieval Japan, but

also from an alternate universe. So naturally,

he speaks English. What strange castle is this?

Well, it's not exactly a castle. It's more like

a sewer. It is quite, uh, picturesque. We must

return Usagi to his own world. He does not belong

here. But Sensei, tuning into his dimension was

a zillion to one fluke. I could never find its

coordinates again. You mean he's, like, stuck

here? I have no master, no home. Take me with

you. Let me learn of your strange new world.

Do you think we ought to, Sensei? To turn him

away. Would mean his certain demise. Put her

there, little ace! Put what where? Hmm, most

curious. Welcome to the group, dude! Usagi's

going to need a disguise! Hello and welcome to

episode 154 .5 of The Pull Bag. This is the Sewer's

Surfing September finale. I am, of course, TFG1Mike.

Joining me is Mr. Joe Reed. Hello, sir. Hello,

sir. Yes, and we have Radical Ronin Rabbits this

week. Nicely done, sir. I almost said Radical

Ronin Ragdoll Rabbits, but that would be a little

too... That's a different kickstarter. Talk about

drawing blood over here. But yes, this is the

Sewer Surfin' September TMNT finale. Obviously,

Joe and I will be doing more of the TMNT stuff,

we always do, but this is the closer of the month.

It is the TMNT Usagi Yojimbo one -shot crossover

thing that they put out. This episode was gonna

be multiple things. I thought we could get on

with the Trial of Krang after we did Dimension

X last week, but sadly the Trial of Krang...

Was not all going to be released by the time

this episode would have to air so We will come

back to the trial of Krang at some point. I don't

know when but some point Soon as we came. Yeah

Soon as the damn comic gets released I think

issue 73 is out, so part one of the Trial of

Krang is out. I have not read that yet, but anyway.

Yeah, TMNT, Usagi Ujimbo, Stan Saki and Tom Luth

are on this. Stan Saki, the creator of Usagi

Ujimbo, obviously. It's Sakai. I'm sorry. I'm

sorry, Sakai. I'm sorry. Good lord. Just helping

out there. Yeah, Sakai. I'm a massive Usagi fan,

and I think like everybody, I've come to Usagi

through Ninja Turtles, but once I got there,

I realized that, oh my gosh, Stan Sakai has been

doing Usagi Yojimbo as long as Eastman and Laird

have been doing the Ninja Turtles, only he never

stopped. The dude... Pencils inks and letters

pencils inks writes and letters his own comic

and Tom Bluth only does the cover of the color

Yeah on the cover. Yeah, or sometimes there's

interior colors on special issues But according

to this for this specific issue story are the

letters whole story art and letters by Stan and

the colors are also done by Tom Yeah, cuz it

is it's a color book I flipped inside Usagi has

been black and white for forever and and Stan

thanks Eastman and Laird for the black and white

revival that happened because because of the

Ninja Turtles. But I'm just, I'm such a huge

fan of what Stan does in his cartooning skill

and in his remarkably consistent lettering that

he's won Eisner awards for, for like 30 years

running. But it's spectacular stuff. It would

look cartoony, finger quotes, but everything

is done with sincerity, love, and homage to Japanese

culture. yeah that's just wonderful yeah it is

yeah like my only exposure to usagi is when he

appeared in the 87 cartoon series and his action

figure obviously like as a kid as a kid ah god

i love the usagi action figure from playmates

as a kid from the from from the 88 toy line one

of the reasons is as a child I had not a lot

but I after the whole we when I was two years

old we had to have my dog Smokey put down because

he was just getting old and he was getting kind

of violent a little bit not towards me but you

know he would start biting people more and more

so he had to be put down because of that The

next type of pet that my mom let me have was

a rabbit, so... So yeah, I really dig Usagi,

and plus, I mean... I know it's more, and we'll

talk about this as we go along here, but, you

know, I know it's more of the Japanese culture

and everything else with Usagi and all that,

but... He's a samurai bug's bunny. I mean, come

on! What if Bugs Bunny had a samurai sword instead

of a piano? I mean, come on. Only Usagi would

never cross -dress as a woman to trick anybody

into... That's true. Out of sheer honesty, don't

you have anything to say? Out of sheer honesty?

Yes, I would just love a duck dinner. Bang! Obviously,

yeah, Usagi's not gonna dress like a woman, but

you get what I'm saying, though. So we open up

this little one -shot here, where Usagi seems

to be fighting off all these other animals. They're

crappy Ronin. lazy, unkempt, dirty ronin. So

the story behind Usagi, for those who maybe haven't

read the old series, is that he's a ronin. He's

a masterless samurai. He used to be a retainer

for a lord over all this land, and when his master

died in a battle, he just started becoming the

wandering samurai, the one that we see in all

of the old Japanese films, where they're looking

for somebody to hire them for a quick job, and

otherwise they're just kind of... wandering around

and Usagi is the pinnacle of the wandering samurai.

He's the honorable one. He's the reliable one.

And so there's lots of very dirty drunk samurai

walking around. This is the period of Japanese

history where the samurai were waning, where

they were kind of on their way out and where

people were trying to delegitimize them. So,

yeah, these these guys here are thugs trying

to take him down. And what we see in this series,

because it's Stan Sakai and he's That way, it's

as cute and furry as these characters look. He's

cutting these people down. They are dying. They

are bleeding and dying. Yeah. Yeah, they are.

Yeah. So the name of the story is Namazu, I assume.

That is correct. Yay. Or the big fish story.

So that's another thing what stansakai does is

he pulls from actual Japanese legends the this

legend of the big fish that we'll hear about

in this story is it's a real myth that that exists

over there and and this is kind of how it came

to be and what they deal with and So we get to

learn a little bit of Japanese ancient history

Absolutely So Usagi starts more fighting with

these characters and, you know, get him! He's

only one guy! Kill him! He starts basically screaming

at them, scaring them, and they throw their swords

up and run away and... Thank you, Sagisan. And

they're like, you know, uh, no, we don't know

who, you know, we don't know who you are, but

we knew you'd rescue us. This, uh... the section

of the road is infested with bandits and they

talk about the old one and that he's expecting

Usagi and Usagi ends up going to this this cave

-like area and this earthquake happens and and

we see he finally comes to the cave and that

must be the cave you're late who It's master

Sarah sensei who is indeed. Yes a lot like master

slinter It's a this guy's showed up in the old

Usagi series a long time ago during a different

crossover with four Turtles it is the same guy

Usagi knows this guy he's happened to him. He's

they've come across each other before And and

and this guy brought the ninja turtles to Usagi's

world for for some help at a point uh... i love

that i love the panel of the uh... i did not

know i was expected uh... i just love the way

comics all as he does that they basically turn

on the guided view they turn it all white the

background of it and you know just have a soggy

in the center i'd just i'd love that that is

so cool So yeah, yeah the whole time I thought

this was like an ancestor of Master Splinter

or something because like I said it Kind of looked

just like the guy Kind of sort of. He's a mystic.

He's just a monk guy who has magic powers But

he has something that people need and he needs

a bodyguard and so Usagi's escorting him To where

he needs to go and he says, you know what? Hey,

I need I need you to find You're not enough Usagi

we need some help go get four turtles out of

the river over there and so he brings back four

Turtles and this is the same spell that he did

in the old series kukachi suifu and Gets crazy,

but then boom. It's the four turtles. They're

here Now at this point we're on page one of this

oh ten yeah It's a one -issue story. It's 40

pages. I think thereabouts 42 Yeah, about yeah

about 40. I'm flipping ahead, but it's it goes

very quickly Yeah, there's there's there's some

pace here. But if the turtles are here and they

need them The the the modified speech balloons

here. We have little brackets in front and then

back. Where are we? What's going on? Well, it's

a giant ready looks like take a look at that

body. The turtles are freaking out but they're

Obviously not speaking Japanese like Usagi and

this rat are they're they're speaking English

So nobody can understand what they're saying

just yet except for probably Mikey Yeah, probably

They don't address it but no, they don't it would

have been funny if they did but Yeah, no, and

is it just me or did Stan draw these guys is

almost like the 87 counterparts. I mean, obviously

there's not letters on the belts but like they

like you know well the best defense is a strong

offense raf says that panel right there where

leo's like raf wait like i really kind of see

a little bit in the facial features almost of

the four of them that it could be the eighty

seven design and i'm probably wrong but you know

It's all up for interpretation, I assume. Yeah,

Stan's got his own style thing, and I've seen

art where he worked on it, and one of the notes

that the IDW staff gave him was that our turtles

don't have tails. The first sketches he sent

over, the turtles had tails like they did in

Mirage. No, ours don't, because it looks like

a penis. Don't do that. But yeah, I think these

are, they are ever so slightly different and

they kind of address it later. Yeah. That's something

Usagi says. Yeah. Well, here it is. Yeah. So

the turtles are some of these guys and they started

attacking and get the rat. I'll take the rabbit,

says Leo and Usagi in Japanese. So we can understand

him as saying, Leo, don't you recognize me? It's

Usagi. It's because Usagi. I've seen these guys

before but they were the all red bandana wearing

mirage turtles. So it's the same Usagi Getting

visited by these turtles from a different dimension.

Yeah, but they've always Leo and Usagi have always

had this thing they've been the two because they're

both swordsmen and they're both dual swordsmen

and yeah, and there's always the competition

does I want to train with you and so we get a

pretty A pretty elaborate battle. Yeah Very,

very cool. I like Stan's storytelling. I like

his art. I think his art is cool. You know, it's

his art style and that's fine. Because like we

said, this is and is not in continuity. You know,

so, there is that, you know, as the story goes,

you know, along, you know, you said you called

us, why? And we must return the rock. to the

I love the panel where where he's like no I can

show it to you behold gasp gasp gasp gasp gasp

wait a minute it's a rock and he starts explaining

the big fish story catfish name namazu so yeah

Strange strange story, but hey it works So this

catfish lives under the Japanese islands and

it caused earthquakes and is kind of a pain in

the neck and How did this happen here I'm reviewing

there was Either way the fish gets pinned under

the Japanese islands by this giant rock and this

rock exists in Japan it's as it sticks out of

the ground and It's the the the story is that

it's holding the fish down and when there's an

earthquake It's because the fish is flopping

around a little bit, but that rock holds the

fish down keeping him from destroying all of

Japan and in this story a lightning hit the rock

and a chip fell off and it weakened the magic

of the stone that holds him down and so these

earthquakes are getting worse and worse and worse

and Master Splinter clone Person mystic here

has the part of the stone. They need to put it

back. Yeah And that's pretty much the the the

story. I mean it that's you know That's pretty

much what it is, is that they have to put the

stone back to get the fish to stop, you know,

flopping around and yada yada yada, increase

the magic. He goes on to say the fragment has

passed through many, many hands. One of those

hands... Is that Chi Yu? Where? Top left in that

panel. The old guy with the sword flame thing?

Yeah, because that's a Chinese sword. Yeah, it

could be. Who knows? I'm not sure. That'd be

a nice little homage. yeah anybody else know

you recognize uh... kind of sort of a not really

brownskeeper willy from the simpsons this leprechaun

so yeah at this point is like i said this is

pretty much what the story is they have to go

return the rock they have to face off against

jay Gee Jay is yeah, Jay. It's one of One of

Usagi's long -running villains. This is also

the same villain that showed up in the Nick series

Which was way way cool to see But Jay is he's

he thinks he's been sent from the gods to destroy

all the evil of the real of the actual world

and he has some magic powers and so he saw the

The removal of this stone and then the fish eventually

destroying Japan is a good thing So he's out

to kind of hire all these dirty Ronin to stop

the stone from getting back and put in the rock

Yeah, I almost thought and obviously like I said,

this is not really in continuity this entire

one shot here I almost thought he was going to

be a version of kitsune. Mm -hmm. That's what

I almost thought it was gonna be There's a lot

of similarities, only this guy's definitely more

overtly evil right away in your face. Yep. Yep,

and somebody tries to leave Jay's little tribe

here, and of course he kills that Ronin. Yeah,

anybody else If you will not follow me through

greed you will follow me through fear Yikes Yeah,

so they're gonna go get the rock and stop them

and we have a nice little battle scene with everybody

here and What I kind of like about Stan's style

is I mean we see them attacking Even when Jay

killed the guy that that mentioned or said that

he wasn't the reason he was leaving We get the

reaction of the guy of him getting killed but

Stan does okay. Yeah, Stan kind of shows the

thing being like if you look if you go back and

you look at that panel obviously it shows you

know hi yeah and it shows the thing through his

chest but there's no real blood in that panel

and there's like uh like a drop on the next panel

where he pulls the thing out you know where it's

where the guy's dropping his sword Uh, you know,

but there's other than his facial reaction. There

really is no blood in this whatsoever. And the

same thing with the turtles fighting the evil

Ronin here later. Uh, once they, you know, catch

up to them at this, at the rock place here, um,

which I don't looks like Leo's using his swords

to kill people here. Yeah, I'm not saying he

is. I'm not saying they aren't killing people.

I'm not saying that they're not killing these

people. I'm saying that the way it is... Yes,

you're right, they are. They're killing people.

But it's not showing any... Like, this isn't

the Marvel Max series or the Blood, Guts, and

Gore... That's my point here. They're killing

people, but they're doing it in a way where it's

not going to make everyone hurl all over their

devices as they're doing it. You know, there's

not, you know. Usagi has been that way since

the beginning. He's been just this weird kind

of, I mean, well, the cartooniness of it, the

cuteness of the way that he draws, it's completely...

Odds with the fact that yet this this samurai

rabbit kills people every single issue Sometimes

cold -bloodedly. I've never dishonorably but

always, you know Yeah, people are dying left

and right in these panels but it because it stands

Sakai it looks cute and innocent and I went back

and started the series over once a year or two

ago and I remember After having been into volumes

2027, I don't know how many went but going back

to one I realized how much more violent and more

overt the blood and gore was but that it just

kind of tapered away and you never really noticed

but here's um Here on page 26 somebody's getting

stabbed in the throat by a spear then he just

looks kind of like a simpson gherk kind of yeah

bugged out eyes So we get to the point in the

story here where master splintered dude uh...

goes to put the rock in a new soggy kinda has

to save him from jay and uh... you know it was

soggy i've got your back and it's leo coming

after jay and it's leo and you know leo versus

jay and stan You gotta, I know he's trying to

simulate sword noises with tang, tang, tang,

tang, tang. Alls I can think of is it's stupid

orange soda now. Like seriously, stop it Stan,

stop it. You know, so we get Splinter, wannabe

dude, gonna put the rock in, but you know. Jay's

almost gonna get him and your soggy comes in

and save him and He says the magic words and

puts the the piece of rock back in and the rock

disappears with a giant explosion and a swish

and Yeah, Leo and her soggy are laying down on

the job because they got the fuck out Cuz he's

soggy wakes up because there's a spider on his

age spiders. Yeah So they all thank each other

and talk and and The sensei is like your hand

don't worry it'll heal I hope his poor hand Wow,

that's yeah, he kind of did a Humboldt thing,

you know with the rotten hand Yeah You know so

it kind of You know he says now there's no need

for the four of you to remain and Leo's like

I don't know I'd like to explore this land a

bit that will be for another time You you're

you're right Usagi. I hope we meet again As do

I I would like to test my skills against yours

looking forward to it buddy and and you know

he says the magic words and sends them back and

they put the baby turtles back in the in the

pond and uh thank you for saving my country farewell

and farewell and until i need you again and that's

how it kind of ends and yeah i i thought this

was really fun This is my first exposure to Stan's,

like, I've never read any of the Usagi stuff.

Like I said, I know of Usagi from the old cartoon

series, but I've never actually read any of the

Usagi or Jimbo stuff before, and this was really

fun. I thought this was really cool, really interesting.

It didn't need to be super deep or anything like

that, which it was and it wasn't. It, you know,

talked about, you know, the culture and things

like that, which is great because that's what

Usagi is supposed to be. He's... And we learned

something about this fish that I didn't know

about until I read it, but that's a real thing.

And Usagi has always been great for that. The

format follows like a lot of the... Am I saying

this right? The manga books. that are out there

but Sakai grew up in Hawaii and in the United

States and so he's got a very American design

and art sensibility and So you have these very,

very traditional Japanese stories that aren't

culturally difficult for me to get into. Like

I don't, I don't do the anime. I don't do the

manga because a lot of it is just too big eyed

children and screamy emotional teardrop from

the eye. And I can't, I can't do that stuff,

but this allows me into. The cool parts of the

Japanese culture that I really jive with it makes

it palatable for me with my Narrow American sensibilities,

but yeah Stan's a great guy. I've met him several

times There was a group, well, in the old days

of the internet forums, before we had Facebook,

and I started chatting and meeting people on

there, and got invited to Motor City Comic Con,

where Stan was going to be, and this Usago Jimbo

Dojo group had me out to dinner, and I sat three

feet from Stan Sakai and had dinner and had sushi

with him and these... 15 or 20 other who saw

you Jimbo Dojo people and I have one of his drawings

in my sketchbook He said hey, I need a piece

of paper somebody I'm like here you go, Stan

And so I have I've chatted with them. It's he's

a really really awesome down -to -earth guy totally

worth spending money to get a scribble a sketchbook

something in one of the trade paperbacks that

he's got but A fan for life. And the part that

makes me very sad about Usagi and his comics

and Stan's comics is that he deserves to be just

equally as popular as the Ninja Turtles. I think

there's no reason that he couldn't do it. I'm

hoping someday we get a movie. I'm hoping that

the Nickelodeon series, the three episode arc,

have you seen that? Oh my god, like I bought

them on I bought them on Amazon because I don't

have Nickelodeon I don't have that as a part

of me my cable package It is absolutely brilliant

Stan wrote the first episode and then the other

two episodes were coming Hearked the thing but

it's abs. It's the best issue the best episodes

of Ninja Turtles And watching that made me say,

like, dog, dang it, I need a new Sagi Yojimbo

movie. If you're a fan of old Japanese cinema

and have a passing knowledge of some of the weird

little demons that are in Japanese folklore,

that show is brilliant. Those three episodes.

Just absolutely brilliant. Awesome. I'll have

to check those out eventually. Yeah, I've been...

hold it off on the turtle series kind of finishing

off is that the last thing i saw was like the

first five episodes of season three i haven't

seen all of season three or season four yet all

my gosh man and you know i'm behind well when

you want to review the usagi crossover episodes

let me know i'd love to have you know absolutely

uh... alright that's going to do it for us uh...

as a where uh... Uh, like I said, I'll probably

give this a four and a half. I really enjoyed

it. I thought it was a fun little thing. What

about you for this one? I would say four and

a half too, because I just think it was, it was

a little rushed. It was like, Hey, Stan, we're

going to give you 40 pages go. And, and I'd have

liked to see this be a three issue art much like

the TV show was. Just give it a little more time.

Yep. Absolutely. All right, folks, uh, next month

continuing on with our theme months this year

in 2017 is almost over folks. I mean we're next

month is October for crap sake We're gonna do

out of time October. We're gonna talk about the

back to the future comics from IDW So we're gonna

talk volumes one two and three on each on one

podcast so 155 56 and 57 158 is gonna be citizen

Brown and then 159 is gonna be back to the future

biff to the future which is an alternate it's

basically stuck in the alternate eighty five

what if this actually stayed in charge kind of

thing uh... it's actually base it's in line with

the film with the second film completely it's

is that the second film did not exist it's a

good time it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be

fun i'm not sure who's gonna be joining me for

those just yet but it'll obviously be another

Back to the Future fan like I am as well. So

that's what's going on in October of 2017. After

that, I'm not sure. I've been looking at the

numbers on where we upload our episodes and we're

not getting a lot of listens. It's not good,

folks. Like, I think in the last seven days...

Maybe 12 listens per episode. Come on guys. I

mean, you know, we're putting out some good content

here, aren't we? Come on your friends Yeah, exactly

your friends and and we're hungry for interactions

So if you're listening if you're one of those

12 people who's listening to this show, please

drop us a line Let us know what you think What

you wait maybe what you'd like to hear and ask

us questions because I'm a teacher. I love answering

questions. So I'll do the research for you. If

there's something you want to know about Ninja

Turtles, Usagi, anything like that, I will go

find you the answer. Yep, absolutely. Make your

great escape into comics and join us in the DeLorean

next month with Out of Time October here inside

the pull bag. Make your great escape into comics.

Thank you a thousandfold Turtles. Had it not

been for your help, my precious dragon would

have been destroyed. Now, Bento, there is another

who needs your protection, Usagi Ujimbo, a stranger

from another dimension stranded in our world.

I will gladly care for him until you can find

a way of getting him home. It's that blasted

rabbit again! Watching reruns of your old failure,

Shredder? Far from it, Crane. I am plotting future

victories, and this furry little samurai warrior

will help me achieve it. Exactly how do you intend

doing that? By turning him into an ally against

the turtles. You will be in charge while I go

to the store for some supplies. Hi, Obento -san.

I will defend the museum with my life. I doubt

if that will be necessary. There. That's the

man we want. A man? But, boys, I thought we were

gonna grab that bunny. You zeros wouldn't stand

a chance against that samurai rabbit. On the

other hand, if we capture... After his sensei,

he will come to us. Bird seed, squeak toys, catnip,

and 20 pounds of carrots for a soggy. I hope

this will last us all for a week. Hey, Pop, did

you have a nice trip? Insolent young man, who

are you? Or rather, what are you? Don't try nothing

funny, geezer. Take him to the warehouse, then

meet me at the Far East Animal Society. Take

a break, dude. It's pizza time. Not for me. I'm

working. Too busy for pizza? Now the boy is definitely

out of it. I'm too busy to eat. I'm trying to

zero in on that dimension Usagi came from. Hey,

no problemo. Just find a dimension where everyone

looks like an animal. Only don't tune in a wrestling

match by mistake. Here you are, my little friends.

These breadcrumbs will have to do until Master

Obento returns with the supplies. That must be

him now. I will open it, Master. You! Are you

not the one they call... if I assure you. the

latest episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's comic

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