![]() Sakai originally planned for Usagi and other characters to be human in stories explicitly modeled after the life of Miyamoto Musashi. Usagi was named the thirty-first greatest comic book character by Empire Magazine and was ranked 92nd in the top 100 comic books heroes by IGN. Those efforts have been successful enough for the series to be awarded a Parents' Choice Award in 1990 for its educational value through Stan's "skillful weaving of facts and legends into his work." The series follows the standard traditional Japanese naming-convention for all featured characters: their family names followed by their given names. ![]() ![]() There are often stories whose purpose is to illustrate various elements of Japanese arts and crafts, such as the fashioning of kites, swords, and pottery. The architecture, clothes, weapons, and other objects are drawn with a faithfulness to period style. The stories include many references to Japanese history and Japanese folklore, and sometimes include mythical creatures. The books are primarily episodic, with some novel-length narratives, with underlying larger plots which create long extended story lines. The series is also influenced somewhat by Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragonés (Sakai is the letterer for that series), but the overall tone of Usagi Yojimbo is more serious and reflective. Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema and has included references to the work of Akira Kurosawa (the title of the series is derived from Kurosawa's 1960 film Yojimbo) and to icons of popular Japanese cinema such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi, and Godzilla. Usagi wanders the land on a musha shugyo (warrior's pilgrimage) occasionally selling his services as a bodyguard. Set primarily at the beginning of Edo period of Japan, with anthropomorphic animals replacing humans, the series features a rabbit ronin, Miyamoto Usagi, whom Stan Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. In 2011, IGN ranked Miyamoto Usagi 92nd in the top 100 comic books heroes. Usagi's popularity influenced Fantagraphics to then release the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special in October 1986 and then to give the ronin rabbit his own on-going series with issue #1 being published in July 1987. Stan Sakai accepted an offer to move his warrior rabbit to Fantagraphics Books where he appeared in several issues of the new anthropomorphic anthology series Critters. " rabbit bodyguard") is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai that first appeared in Albedo Anthropomorphics #2 published by Thoughts and Images in November 1984. Usagi Yojimbo ( 兎用心棒, Usagi Yōjinbō ?, lit.
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