Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Was there ever an Usagi tribute to Kurosawa's Samurai? I could totally see Usagi in the role of Kambei Shimada's character, and Gen as Shiciroji! Maybe that's just me though... Anyways, if there was one and I missed it (by chance, haha) someone post to me yes.

If not, that's something I'd totally do some of that "fan fiction" stuff for. It strikes me that Shimada and Usagi are both quiet and graceful Ronin, and that Usagi would take up a noble cause for 3 bowls of rice a day too.

Maybe not Gen so much.

Mr. Horrible wrote:Was there ever an Usagi tribute to Kurosawa's Samurai?

I don't think there was ever a full-on retelling of the story in the Usagi comics, but Stan has drawn on some story elements from it. However, I'm fighting with my memory at the moment (34 years will do that to you) because I vaguely remember Stan saying a certain storyline was inspired by Seven Samurai. I just can't remember which one. Shades of Green comes to mind, but I don't think it was that....I even did a search on the boards and turned up nothing. Ah well...

Shades of Green was kind of inspired by Seven Samurai--two samurai, four turtles, and a big rat protect a helpless village from invaders.

Okay so my memory is still somewhat intact....whew. Let's see what happens after the big 3-5......

There are a few stories involves villagers fighting bandits that remind me a little of Seven Samurai (I can't recall any many titles at the moment, but "Patience of the Spider" is one that comes to mind).

There are also a few stories that seem to draw upon Kurosawa's Yojimbo, but all of them put a different twist on the basic model of a ronin arriving in a town with two warring factions of yakuza/gamblers/whatever else.

With all of the Kurosawa influence on UY, it's kind of interesting that there's never been a Rashomon-like story.

Shades of green, I'll have to check that out! Thanks~

I would love to see an out and out retelling of Seven Samurai in Usagi.

Though if I had my pick I'd rather see Ran or something within that vein. We haven't really seen anything in that sort of scale except for the flashbacks when Usagi was a retainer.

I think that a UY story arc that was similar to Kurosawa's Ran would be interesting. However, we've yet to see anything in UY with the same dark, apocalyptic tone as Ran (it's a movie that's as much about the devastation and mass slaughter of the 20th century as it is about feudal Japan), so I think that would be a difficult thing to pull off. UY does get dark sometimes, but I think that it would be rather jarring to see it go that dark.

Also, I think that UY might be set a little bit too late historically to really have large scale battles like the ones in Ran or Kagemusha (of course, it may be possible to have something like that in a flashback story).

My favorite film of all time!

Yeah...Ran is pretty dark. I didn't mean the tone so much as the plot. You could certainly adapt a lot of it without venturing into really dark territory. Though you are probably right on both counts - I think Usagi's time period would be a bit late to have those size battles....though I would LOVE to see Stan do some version of it. (the size and scope that is)

Waaay back, I saw Ran at the old Cinerama theater in Honolulu, and cried at the end. My girlfriend was pretty shocked/amused. The theater (and the girlfriend) are long gone

I have this film also on DVD. But, my favorites will always be "Yojimbo" and "Sanjuro" I dig Toshiro Mifune and his portrayl of this scruffy ronin. I also have the two "spaghetti westerns" starring Clint Eastwood based upon these two movies. I do LOVE a good samurai flick!!