racial/ethnic markers in UY

[bookman]

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!

[Stan Sakai]

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.

[bookman]

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.

[hakucho]

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...

[tayocham]

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.

[Robweiller]

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?

[estee]

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.