Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I have a question about some of the "animal types" in the Usagi world. I might not know the answer due to not having all the issues (I am still missing a few of the Fantagraphic collections), but I thought someone here might be able to answer my questions.

Has there ever been a "bat" character who was not a Komori Ninja? Similarly, has there ever been a "mole" who was not a Mogura Ninja? Heck, now that I think of it, Lord Hebi is the only snake character I recall. Are they primarily there to fill the role of "bad guys?"

Sometime I have too much time and work and my mind wanders onto things like this

No bat characters, but there may have been a few moles in the backgrounds of stories over the years. In the past (i.e. in the 80's), Stan was more varied in the types of animals he used. Occasionally we would see monkeys, reptilians, and even humans, among others. I don't think there've been any bird characters yet.

I know I'd like to see a non-evil (or just non-villainous, depending on what you think of ninja morality) bat sometime. Bats are actually very beneficial creatures... they just have a bad rep.

Bats are actually very beneficial creatures...

As well as being iconic of longevity in Chinese art,
AND cute as buttons. Well... some of them.
You decide.

You sure do have a narrow opinion of "cute"...

I liked that one book 7 of mirage's line where one of the soldiers says, "Holy Cow!! It's a Bat, man!"

Coe to think of it, there was a snake nun in "Seasons" and her slain (but normal-sized) snake husband...

And there was an "Owl lord" in Seasons, too...but if i remember, Hikiji is the only human.

But yeah, we need to see a COOL Bat-guy. Especially since Stan draws less cartoony now.

Batman! BATMAN!!

I always thought that snake in the "Hebi" story was a monster of some kind. I could be mistaken though.

Hijiki is the only human? What about a certain cheese-dip loving barbarian?

The reason I asked this question originally is that I am preparing to run the Usagi RPG, and I was thinking about how common certain animal characters might be. Thanks for the answers everyone! I may have to put in a non-ninja bat NPC, just to shake things up...

I also run UY rpg as Master, and i try to use chracters as commonly as they apear at comics, so snakes, bats, moles.... kinds like those dont apear canstantly cause they are strange. If you want to exchange material this is my email pamisamigoss@hotmail.com.
Most comon race are cats and dogs, at least it is my impresion whyle reading the comics (the best source for creatind adventures)
Wath i do when my players ask what race npc´s are i usually answer generic peasants of aleatory race or something like that.

Yea I would like to see a wider variety of animals.. Maybe a zebra or something? I don't know just make it more diverse.. That would be really cool...

Hikiji was not the only human. Some have appeared in backgrounds in early stories (Albedo and Critters). Also, Ocho from Village of Fear was a human, at least some of the time.

To me Hebi symbolizes Lord Hikiji. As his servant, he is sneaky and works from the shadows, just like his master. He is cunning and obviously very dangerous. Perghaps there is aome more background on Hebi that we don't know about yet....

Issue #76 has another human of a sort, towards the end.

As for cameo appearances like Groo and Calvin and Hobbes, I figured they were more like figments of the viewer's imagination rather than legitimate continuity: "And then, Usagi passed Groo and thought he was filthy." But, y'know, your mileage may vary.

The reason I asked this question originally is that I am preparing to run the Usagi RPG, and I was thinking about how common certain animal characters might be.

I've run adventures in a few systems (mainly 1st ed. AD&D and Call of Cthulhu), and with the ones that have a basis in a pre-existing canon of work, I assume that where something isn't specifically denied in the original material, it is allowed to the game master. For example, I'd never allow someone to challenge Cthulhu to a chess match in a bid for freedom, because the works of Lovecraft indicate Big C is unlikely to go for that. In this case, since (as far as I know) Sakai-sensei has never written anything specifically against it, you're free to have a band of players stumble into a village of hard-working peasants who happen to be mainly bats and moles. Now, if the characters have previously encountered the Komori and Mogura clans, there may be some... misunderstandings . Remember, the GM is a small god, and has great power in the shaping of the world the PC's live in.

Yea in earlier issues of Critters and Albedo there were several humans.. Don't forget the woodcutters...

The woodcutters are monkeys.

They are? Heh.. my bad.. I never noticed there tails though.. Hmm I'll have to look for them I guess...

Focus on the faces-- I don't recall a lot of tails hanging out the back of the Neko clan's ninjagi.

I will of course renew my objection to the separation of monkeys/apes from humans in this context-- humans are just VERY DULL primates