The architecture, clothes, weapons, and other objects are drawn with a faithfulness to the period's style. The stories include many references to Japanese history and Japanese folklore, and sometimes include mythical creatures. The books consist of short stories, and occasionally novel-length stories, with underlying larger plot-lines which culminate in 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 typically less comedic. 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) or to icons of popular Japanese cinema such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi, and Godzilla. Usagi wanders the land on a musha shugyō (warrior's pilgrimage) occasionally selling his services as a bodyguard ( 用心棒/ようじんぼう yōjinbō is Japanese for "bodyguard"). Set primarily at the beginning of Edo period of Japan (early 17th century), with anthropomorphic animals replacing humans, it features a rabbit rōnin, Miyamoto Usagi, who is partially based on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.
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