Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

Hey, everybody. Newbie here, with an appropriately stupid question.

I have a silly question that came up in a recent discussion about humans in UY's predominantly anthropomorphic world... specifically, whether or not the Woodcutters are homely humans or monkeys. I say humans; my friend says monkeys, and that this was specifically stated somewhere by Stan Sakai himself, but that they (the friend) couldn't say where. Having only a partial library of UY books myself, I'm not sure where to begin looking, so...


... which are they? Man? Monkey? Other? Any insights are appreciated.

which are they? Man? Monkey?

Whussa difference?

I have nothing to go on other than Sakai-sensei's statements (somewhere on this site) that the only human character he ever put in the series was Lord Hikiji.

Monkeys...
Stan has stated that they are monkeys at some point... I'll look through the various interviews and find where he said it sometime this weekend.
Abayo

[quote="Avylin"]


I have a silly question that came up in a recent discussion about humans in UY's predominantly anthropomorphic world... specifically, whether or not the Woodcutters are homely humans or monkeys. I say humans; my friend says monkeys,

quote]


You're both right. They started off as humans (in the pencil drawing), but before they first saw print (in Horse Thief), I changed them to monkeys. It wasn't very hard--I gave them a snout, and bigger ears.

There has been at least one human in UY besides Hikiji: Ocho, the shapechanger in "Village of Fear" (if I recall, it was on Book 1). Well, at least she looks like a human when she's not an obakémono. I also think that the woodcutters were originally human, but were slowly becoming monkeys, and nowadays are 100% monkey (which means that their DNA has changed something like 0.2% or something like that ).

Whoops, I didn't see Sensei's post.

Next time, I'll be faster... No one will be faster than me... And I'll be the fastest in the world! Faster that lightning!! Mwahahaha!!!... I guess I'll go back to study now.

Aha! From the man himself. Thanks for clearing that up.

and nowadays are 100% monkey (which means that their DNA has changed something like 0.2% or something like that ).

According to the latest Discover Magazine, not less than 2%, but in the same article it's posited that the real difference lies in how the remainer gets expressed. I still maintain the differences are vanishlingly small-- funny blunt muzzle, thumbs, binocular vision, able to walk upright with some effort; which one am I describing?

Stan's been pretty strict about keeping humans out of Usagi. Even when Groo made a guest appearance (see UY Book 1), Stan had made him appear as a pig instead of a human. Just my opinion, I think humans fit better into Usagi's world than, say Lord hebi or the Ninja Bats...

Todd Shogun wrote:Stan's been pretty strict about keeping humans out of Usagi.

Hey Todd,
What about when Calvin & Hobbes put in an appearance?

Yes but in the next panel you'll notice they changed back to regular characters... right? It was just our imaginations....

Calvin and Hobbes made a guest appearance on UY?! Where?! Please, please PLEASE send me a link to the picture! At this point, I have only two UY TPB--Seasons and GrassCutter--but I've read just about all of the Dark Horse TPBs and cannot find these two anywhere (of course, yo'd think that a little kid and a tiger would stick right out in anthropomorphic Japan...

But I have a question. With the recent issue of Usagi's parentage out of the way (for now), are we going to see any further machinations of Lord Hikiji? He seems to have been pretty quiet of late (but I could just be missing out on back issues...there's a big gap between Duel @ Kitanoji and my Father & Sons Usagi story, which are the first "real" issues I've picked up), and it would be nice to see Usagi take on Hikiji--or his stooges.

C&H made a BRIEF cameo (one panel, crowd shot) a LONG time ago in Fantagraphics TPB #3(?) in the story where Usagi first meets Spot. Is it "The Tower"?

I just read this book for the first time, last night. It's TPB #3, yep, in The Tower. Page 14. Fifth panel. On the left.