Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hi, a colleague and I (we're teen librarians) were talking about this site here -> http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.htm

The author is a cultural anthropologist who talks about racial and ethnic markers that we use in simple drawings to denote the race or ethnicity of the figure drawn - an obvious example is slanted lines to denote "Asian-ness". Check out the site, since I'm over-simplifying his ideas.

So my colleague and I are wondering if Stan Sakai figured that when he drew all of his UY characters he could subvert these markers by making them all animals - no ethnicity (even though it obviously takes place in feudal Japan).

Any thoughts? Stan, are you out there? Thanks!

It was the simple case of coming up with the visuals for Usagi, and then deciding on whether to put him in as a funny animal in an all human world or a funny animal in an all anthropomorphic world. The latter made more sense to me.

Thanks, Stan, for your reply. I must say I really enjoy the UY series and stories, and I find it easier to relate to the characters as animals, than I would if they were drawn to look more human.

Sad thing is; there are people out there who are actually put off by the fact that the cast are 99.9% animals rather than humans. Sigh...

I know. For me, it was one of the thing that drew me to it! I've always liked that sort of thing. Dunno why.

hakucho wrote:Sad thing is; there are people out there who are actually put off by the fact that the cast are 99.9% animals rather than humans. Sigh...

Hikiji is the only human character in the whole UY series, right?

Yes, Hikiji is human....but I always had the impression that "Ocho" from the "Village of Fear" was human too, as she didn't have any obvious animal traits. But then she was a spirit and no doubt would assume the form of anything she wants.