Does anybody know the historical validity of the tokage in UY? Did dog-sized lizards really rome around feudal Japan?
If so, does anybody know where I can learn more? I have yet to find anything in my (admittedly brief) reseach on the subject.
If not, does anybody know why Stan took creative liberties here?
Tokage
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http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/forum/viewt ... ght=tokage
http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/forum/viewt ... ght=tokageStan Sakai wrote:The tokage occupy a particular niche in the ecosystem of Usagi's world. Dogs, cats, rats, weasels, etc--animals that are pets or scavengers in our world--are people in Usagi's world. The tokage fill the role of pets and scavengers. As you said, even Usagi had one as a pet. Often when there is a dead body lying around, you'll often see one or more of them attacking the corpse.
But more importantly, they're just so fun to draw.
Todd Shogun wrote:Tokage are used in UY for two reasons:
1) To replace all of the mammalian wildlife and pets in Usagi's world because it is an anthropomorphic world. The only exception to this was Noriyuki's dog Koro... but we haven't seen him in awhile. Notice how there are no bird or horse people in Usagi's world either. These are because these appear as animals. There have been some reptilian characters though. Usagi had a pet tokage once -- Spot -- who went on to become Zato Ino's pet.
2) Stan likes drawing dinosaurs -- see Space Usagi for some wild varieties of tokage.
Stan Sakai wrote:"Tokage" in Japanese literally means "lizard".