Usagi Yojimbo
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Usagi Yojimbo (Japanese: 兎用心棒 "rabbit bodyguard",) is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai.
Set primarily at the beginning of Edo period Japan (early 17th century), with anthropomorphic animals replacing humans, it features a rabbit ronin, Miyamoto Usagi, who wanders the land on a musha shugyo (warrior's pilgrimage) occasionally selling his services as a bodyguard. The character of Usagi has been inspired by the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi while the tone and inspirations of the stories are heavily influenced by Groo the Wanderer, Lone Wolf and Cub and the films of the acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa.
The books consist of short stories, and occasionally novel-length stories, with underlying larger plotlines which culminate in long extended story lines. The stories include many references to Japanese history and Japanese folklore, and sometimes include mythical creatures. The architecture, clothes, weapons, and other objects are drawn with a faithfulness to the period's style. There are often stories whose purpose is to illustrate various elements of Japanese arts and crafts, such as the fashioning of kites, swords, and pottery. Those efforts have been successful enough for the series to be awarded a Parent's Choice Award for its educational value. The series also follows the standard Japanese naming convention for all featured characters: their surname followed by their given name.
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[edit] Publishing history
Originally, Usagi and other characters in the series were going to be human in stories explicitly modeled after the life of Miyamoto Musashi. However when Sakai was idly doodling, he drew rabbit ears tied in a topknot on his proposed hero and was inspired by the distinctive image it gave him. Sakai quickly expanded on the idea and his story world quickly took on an anthropomorphized cartoonish nature which created a fantasy setting he decided suited his dramatic needs well with a unique look he thought could attract readers.
Usagi first appeared in the anthology Albedo Anthropomorphics, and later in the Fantagraphics Books anthropomorphic anthology Critters, before appearing in his own series. The Usagi Yojimbo series has been published by three different companies. The first publisher was Fantagraphics (volume one; 38 regular issues, plus one Summer Special and three Color Specials). The second was Mirage Comics (volume two; 16 issues). The third is Dark Horse Comics, at which Usagi Yojimbo is still being published (as volume three, over 100 issues), and who also released a fourth Color Special. A fourth publisher, Radio Comix, has published two issues of The Art of Usagi Yojimbo which contained a selection of unpublished drawings, convention sketches, and other miscellaneous Usagi Yojimbo artwork. The first issue also included an original Usagi Yojimbo short story. To confuse things, in 2004 Dark Horse Comics published a Twentieth Anniversary hardcover volume also entitled The Art of Usagi Yojimbo.
Because Usagi Yojimbo is a creator-owned comic and Stan Sakai has complete and sole ownership of the character, Miyamoto Usagi has been able to appear in occasional short stories published by companies other than the one currently publishing his series. Usagi has appeared in stories published by Cartoon Books, Oni Press, Sky Dog Press, Wizard Press, and most recently in the benefit book Drawing the Line, the proceeds of which went to Princess Margaret Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children, for cancer research.
Stan Sakai has also been able to experiment with formats for Usagi Yojimbo, such as when he published the color story "Green Persimmon" originally as twelve separate 2-page chapters serialized in Diamond Comic Distributor's monthly catalog "Previews". He has also serialized two short stories in a comic strip format in the tabloid size promotional publication "Dark Horse Extra". With Usagi Yojimbo stories ranging in length from single page "gag" stories to multi-issue "epic" adventures, Stan Sakai has proven himself a master of sequential story-telling.
Usagi has also appeared several times in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the comic, both of the animated series, and the toy line), and the Turtles have appeared in Usagi Yojimbo as well.
In addition, Sakai created a limited spin off series called Space Usagi which featured similar characters to those in the original series, including a descendant of Miyamoto Usagi, but set in a futuristic setting that also emulated Feudal Japan in political and stylistic ways. Three mini-series of three issues each were produced, as well as a couple short stories featuring the characters. There was also an abortive project for a Space Usagi animated series before the failure of Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars discouraged further development.
Two editions of an Usagi role-playing game have been made, a 1998 version from Gold Rush Games and a 2005 version from Sanguine Productions.
There was also a computer game called Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms in 1988, by the now defunct computer game label Firebird.
[edit] Film References
Several of the characters in Usagi's world are inspired by or make reference to samurai movies. Usagi's former lord is named Mifune, which is a nod to Toshiro Mifune, an actor who starred in countless classic Samurai films. Gen, the Rhino bounty hunter, was inspired by the characters made famous by Toshiro Mifune in the samurai films Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Zato-Ino, the Blind Swordspig, is a reference and tribute to the film character of Zatoichi. The story arc Lone Goat and Kid features an assassin who wanders with his son in a babycart, referring to the film/manga series, Lone Wolf and Cub. Most significantly, the main character's name, Miyamoto Usagi, is a play on "Miyamoto Musashi", Japan's most famous historical samurai and the author of The Book of Five Rings ("Usagi" is the Japanese language word for "rabbit").
[edit] Collections
- The Ronin (Collects appearances in Albedo 2-4; The Doomsday Squad 3; Critters 1, 3, 6-7, 10-11, 14; and the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special)
- Samurai (Collects Fantagraphics issues 1-6)
- Wanderer's Road (Collects Fantagraphics issues 7-12 and “Turtle Soup”)
- Dragon Bellow Conspiracy (Collects Fantagraphics issues 13-18)
- Lone Goat and Kid (Collects Fantagraphics issues 19-24)
- Circles (Collects Fantagraphics issues 25-31, and story from Critters #50)
- Gen's Story (Collects Fantagraphics issues 32-38 and story from Critters #38)
- Shades of Death (Collects Mirage issues 1-6 and backup stories from 7-8)
- Daisho (Collects Mirage issues 7-14)
- The Brink of Life and Death (Collects Mirage issues 13, 15-16 and Dark Horse issues 1-6)
- Seasons (Collects Dark Horse issues 7-12, and "Green Persimmon" from Diamond Previews)
- Grasscutter (Collects Dark Horse issues 13-22)
- Grey Shadows (Collects Dark Horse issues 23-30)
- Demon Mask (Collects Dark Horse issues 31-38, and stories from Dark Horse Presents 140 & Annual 1999; Wizard 97; Oni Double Feature 10; and Dark Horse Extra 20-23)
- Grasscutter II: Journey To Atsuta Shrine (Collects Dark Horse issues 39-45)
- The Shrouded Moon (Collects Dark Horse issues 46-52)
- Duel at Kitanoji (Collects Dark Horse issues 53-60)
- Travels with Jotaro (Collects Dark Horse issues 61-68)
- Fathers and Sons (Collects Dark Horse issues 69-75)
- Glimpses of Death (Collects Dark Horse issues 76-82)
- The Mother of Mountains (Collects Dark Horse issues 83-89)
(Release date: July 25, 2007)
- Space Usagi (Collects the Space Usagi 3-issue miniseries "Warrior", "Death & Honor", and "White Star Rising"; and stories from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 47 and Usagi Color Special 1)
- The Art of Usagi Yojimbo: 20th Anniversary Edition, published 2004
The hardcover versions of the Dark Horse collections (8-up) often include exclusive extras; some of this material was included in the 2004 artbook.
[edit] See also
- Usagi Yojimbo Characters
- List of minor Usagi Yojimbo characters
- Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo (Video Game)
[edit] Awards
The Grasscutter storyline from issues 13 through 22 of the Dark Horse published series was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Story for 1999. The trade paperback collection of this story was a top votegetter for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 2000.
