USAGI YOJIMBO

01PLOT

After the Turtles fail to return a rented video before the video store closes, General Traag suddenly appears in the street and attacks them... but they find themselves unable to touch him, and he vanishes into thin air.

It turns out that Shredder is using a Dimensional Teleporter to materialize things from other dimensions. He's also searching for something in Little Tokyo Town.

Curious about what Krang is messing around with, Donatello reveals that he's been making a dimensional portal of his own. But Shredder uses the teleporter just as Donatello switches it on, causing it to tune into an alternate dimension of sentient animals - and the Turtles see the rabbit samurai Usagi Yojimbo facing off against three pig warriors. During the fight, Usagi leaps through the portal.

The Turtles find that his skills are too much for them to handle until Michelangelo throws a pizza at him (a fighting style Splinter acerbically calls "Slapstick"). But Donatello doesn't believe he can find Usagi's home dimension again because it was a "zillion to one fluke." So the Turtles introduce Usagi to their world, including to April and Irma at Channel 6.

Power begins fluctuating wildly in Midtown, and the teleporter deposits several Foot Soldiers on the street. Usagi successfully destroys them all, but wanders off. As the city is flooded with Foot Soldiers, Usagi finds himself at a rabbit-themed restaurant where he's mistaken for one of the waiters. When he gets the idea that his "brothers" are slaves, he attacks the restaurant's manager, and Michelangelo has to extract him from the place.

Meanwhile, Donatello figures out where the Foot Soldiers are converging: a museum in Little Tokyo Town, where there is a massive egg - referred to as Baby-San - guarded by a man named Obento. The egg is dropped into a massive smokestack, and hatches into a dragon.

The Turtles manage to distract the dragon with a grain elevator, but the food causes the dragon to grow further. Donatello, Splinter and Usagi manage to rescue Obento before the Foot Solders can drown him.

Obento retrieves a strange blue candle from his home, declaring that it's the only thing that can save the dragon from the city. Meanwhile, the military is gearing up to attack Baby-San, who has now learned to breathe fire. Obento says that someone needs to throw the candle in the dragon's mouth, and Usagi volunteers. The dragon immediately shrinks back down to an egg.

Checking on his attackers, Shredder is shocked to see Usagi among them, and Krang mocks him for blaming his defeat on a bunny.

Baby-san is put back in the museum, and Obento agrees to care for Usagi until Donatello can find a way to send him home.

02CAST & APPEARANCES

03OBJECTS, VEHICLES & PLACES

04SCREEN GRABS

9 frames. Screencaps via Turtlepedia (CC BY-SA).

05NOTES & GOOFS

• When the Foot Soldier knocked Usagi to the ground, he was carrying both swords but when we cut to the next shot, only one sword is drawn.
• When Usagi and Leonardo fight, Usagi cuts one of Leonardo's blades. Yet when Usagi is complimenting their battle techniques (and the pizza), Leo has both blades intact.
• When Raphael compliments Michelangelo for the grain elevator idea to feed the dragon, his bandana is pink.
• The episode's title character is actually called Miyamoto Usagi in all other media.

06TRIVIA

• This is the very first animated crossover between TMNT and Stan Sakai's Usagi.
• Following the fight between Usagi and the Foot Soldiers. Donatello calls Michelangelo "Mikey". This is the only instance in the 1987 TV series where one of the ninja turtles is acknowledged by their nicknames.
• The 2012 TV series made an _Usagi Yojimbo_ episode of their own, simply titled "Yojimbo".

07HOME MEDIA

08FAN REVIEW

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