Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

I was just working on my Japanese (very slow progress), and as a side-effect of an enquiry I made to an online dictionary, it suddenly occured to me that "Jei" is a REALLY funny construction for Japanese, given that "j(vowel)" things are constructed "ji" + "ya","yu", or "yo". The only "Jei" my dictionary would admit to is a transliteration of Jay, as in bird. Now I'm all riddled with curiosity-- given our earlier speculations on Jei's origins, I'm wondering if anyone knows where his name comes from?

Idle speculation, if properly labelled, is also welcome

Stan intended Jei's name and certain character traits to parody everyone's favorite horror villain who could never be killed, Jason from the Friday the 13th movies... hence why he is also referred to as Jei-san... get it? Jei-san... Jason... ha ha. In the several stories featuring Jei, Usagi seemingly killed him, only to find that Jei did not die, and would seemingly come back from the dead, even from being struck point blank by a lightening bolt... funny coincidence he should be replaced by Inazuma...

Todd Shogun wrote: funny coincidence he should be replaced by Inazuma...

Ha ha. That irony never occurred to me when I had Inazuma take over Jei's role. "Inazuma" (lighning bolt) referred to her speed with the sword.

wow, i never caught the friday the 13th reference until you just pointed it out... that is pure brilliance... i see jei in a whole new light now... and now when hes on the page, i can go "ch ch ch ah ah ah"

Stan Sakai wrote: "Inazuma" (lighning bolt) referred to her speed with the sword.

Not to mention the shine in her hair which is the design of a lightning bolt

Stan intended Jei's name and certain character traits to parody everyone's favorite horror villain who could never be killed, Jason from the Friday the 13th movies... hence why he is also referred to as Jei-san

Mmmmm... Tasty enlightenment! Arigato Gozaimasu, Go-Shogun. I should know better, but there's still the "them books is fer kids" part of my brain that occasionally interfers with picking up on subtlty like that in the B&W Fuzzy format.

Of course, an adjacent part of my brain has now started an advertising campaign for "Jei-San vs. Furby"-- time to get out the Q-tips.

Stan, not sure if you've got the plotline developed for the Jei origin story, but I had a small suggestion about how it actually takes place. I noticed that for background stories, you will usually start off in UY's present day time and then refer back to the past either through a story or a flashback. For Jei's origin, I'd suggest having Inazuma "dream" about what happened in the past, maybe with the real Inazuma almost confronting the demon that possessed her... convincing her that Usagi is evil and that he must be killed... and then go into how it all began. Not sure if the demon has completely taken over... Inazuma has a strong warrior spirit and could potentially fight the demon from within...

Todd Shogun wrote:Stan, not sure if you've got the plotline developed for the Jei origin story, but I had a small suggestion about how it actually takes place. I noticed that for background stories, you will usually start off in UY's present day time and then refer back to the past either through a story or a flashback. For Jei's origin, I'd suggest having Inazuma "dream" about what happened in the past, maybe with the real Inazuma almost confronting the demon that possessed her... convincing her that Usagi is evil and that he must be killed... and then go into how it all began. Not sure if the demon has completely taken over... Inazuma has a strong warrior spirit and could potentially fight the demon from within...

Actually, Todd, that sounds very much like the short story teaser that I'm working on now. It should be published around issue 80.

(This is Stan, by the way. For some reason, I'm not being automatically signed in anymore.)

The Inazuma confronting Jei in her dream is an interesting idea... Maybe try developin' it?

The Inazuma confronting Jei in her dream is an interesting idea... Maybe try developin' it?

Stan has parodied Friday the 13th... it seems only fitting that he should take a stab at Nightmare on Elm Street

Stan has parodied Friday the 13th... it seems only fitting that he should take a stab at Nightmare on Elm Street

Nah, he should parody The Ring. Imagine Inazuma watching a videotape with some random stuff in it and then receiving a phone call... Oops, time lapsus .

Nah, he should parody The Ring. Imagine Inazuma watching a videotape with some random stuff in it and then receiving a phone call... Oops, time lapsus .

Is there, perhaps, a Noh theatre somewhere near The Tangled Skein? Replace the modern tech with an otherworldly acting troupe, and there's some potential.... Inazuma stalked by that creepy bugger from Throne of Blood, perhaps. brrrrrrr

does jay really mean bird in japanese?

does jay really mean bird in japanese?

Not really. That bit I wrote above was talking about the Japanese figuring out how to write the English word "Jay" using their own Katakana writing system, which has <vowel-only> and <consonant-vowel> characters, so "jaybird" would be written <Jee><eh><ee><bu><ru><do>. Roughly. There's a couple of others here more adept with Japanese than I, and I have more experience with the way Koreans say things in English than Japanese.

The SHORT answer is "No, 'Kakesu' means 'jay'," but that's a bit blunt.