< Usagi Yojimbo

Usagi Yojimbo/Characters


Main Good Guys

Miyamoto Usagi
It's not a fair fight. Those guys are doomed.


Our hero, a young samurai whose liege lord died in battle not long after Usagi entered his service. Now masterless, he walks the earth, occasionally hiring himself out as a bodyguard (hence the title), honing his skill as a warrior and meeting lots of interesting people. Usagi is kind and honorable almost to a fault, but has a trickster streak as well.

Tomoe Ame

Chief retainer to the young Lord Noriyuki; a controversial position for a woman, but one she's earned several times over. She and Usagi become friends early in the series after he helps her foil an assassination attempt on her master, and they gradually develop feelings for one another.

  • Action Girl
  • Cain and Abel (she and Noriko)
  • Lady of War
  • Samurai
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue Oni to Noriko's Red Oni.
  • Ship Tease (with Usagi. By the time of "The Mother of Mountains", they became actual lovers, though Usagi's travels and Tomoe's upcoming arranged marriage have made the future of such a relationship iffy. )
  • You Go, Girl! (she's had to prove more than once that she's capable despite being female)
Murakami Gennosuké

Usagi's less morally upright friend, a bounty hunter who cheats Usagi out of money the first few times they meet (which later becomes a running joke between them). He's more interested in preserving his gruff image than his samurai honor, but is not as callous as he pretends.

Kitsune

A street performer/thief/con woman who remains friends with Usagi despite the fact that his purse tends to go missing when they meet.

Jotaro

Usagi's son by his childhood sweetheart Mariko, raised in the belief that her husband Kenichi is his father but later learns the truth.

  • Kid Samurai (he's determined to be the coolest samurai ever and considering he has defeated foes literally twice his size and with only a bokken, he is well on his way.)
  • Wooden Katanas Are Even Better
  • Luke, You Are My Father: Doesn't say it to Usagi's face, but shouts it after he leaves. Usagi hears something, but thinks he just imagined it.
Katsuichi-sensei

The old hermit who taught Usagi more or less everything he knows: humility, compassion, thinking before he acted, and not least importantly his unusual style of swordsmanship. He's currently teaching Jotaro the same things.


Occasional Allies

Iké the farmer/General Ikeda

A general who joined an uprising against Lord Noriyuki's father, Lord Mataichi. When it failed, he and some of his soldiers went into hiding disguised as commoners, intending to take up arms again at a politically opportune moment; but when Mataichi died a few years later, Ikeda had become too attached to his farm and his peasant wife and children and decided to stay with them. He became an ally of Noriyuki after the latter saved his son Motokazu's life.


Ikeda Motokazu
Inazuma

A wandering swordswoman of unparalleled skill, constantly pursued by bounty hunters since there's a hefty price on her head - she killed the Yakuza boss who murdered her husband, and now his people want revenge. She saved Usagi's life once (if only because he'd paid for her drink earlier), but since she kills people so coldly he doesn't much like her.

Inspector Ishida

A middle-aged detective, highly competent but sometimes hampered by corrupt superiors. He and Usagi have solved several murder mysteries together.

Inukai/Stray Dog

A Bounty Hunter who sometimes works with Gen. He's a ruthless, double-crossing Jerkass who claims he only looks out for himself (which isn't entirely true).

Yagi and Gorogoro/Lone Goat and Kid

Yagi is a grim but honorable Samurai who turned assassin after being framed for treason. He travels with his young son Gorogoro in a baby cart.

Lord Noriyuki
Priest Sanshobo
Sasuké the Demon Queller

A skilled fox ronin, Sasuke is a Demon Slayer and has devoted his life to hunting them.

Zato-Ino

The Neko Ninja

Shingen
Chizu

Bad Guys

Lord Hikiji

Enemy of Usagi's Lord Mifune, personally killed Usagi's defiant father and made Keniichi village leader, and employer of the rival Neko and Komori ninja clans.

  • Big Bad
  • Evil Overlord
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: As a Japanese lord he doesn't need to be seen to be influential. He's the only human character in a world that's been retconned into "only mammals (except horses and one dog) are 'people'". When he's shown in Usagi's village, he's wearing a battle mask.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters
  • Tin Tyrant: He appears like this in the flashbacks to his killing of Usagi's father and the battle of Adachi Plain.
Lord Hebi

A giant snake who's Lord Hikiji's second-in-command.

Jei-san the Blade of the Gods

One of Usagi's deadliest enemies. In his first appearance he is showed as a crazy killer who think himself as an emissary of the gods in a mission to clean the world from the evil...by any means needed but with each appearance, although it's never confirmed that he is the blade of the gods it's made more clearly that he isn't just a normal person, neither.

Keiko

Jei-San's "niece", who he spared after killing the thieves who killed her grandpa because she was "innocent". Having nowhere else to go, she started following him. She was originally supposed to become Jei's new host, but the author felt uncomfortable so he created Inazuma.

General Fujii
  • Bad Boss: He has no concern for the lives of his own men and at one point destroy a bridge to make a getaway while leaving several of his men on the other side.
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows
  • Card-Carrying Villain: He doesn't eactly flaunt his evilness, but when Usagi calls him a "monster", Fujii just calmly responds: "Yes, I suppose I am."
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy
  • It's Personal: He makes things personal between himself and Usagi by stealing Usagi's swords.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Made the villagers build a wall around their village, supposedly to protect them from bandits, and then locked them up inside and forced them to work for him.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: He has a low opinion of his lackeys.
  • Villainous Breakdown: He has one when Usagi finally catches up with him after he steals his swords.
  • They Call Me Mister Tibbs: Insists on being called "General".
Kagemaru

Koroshi, the League of Assassins

The Komori Ninja

The Mogura Ninja


Others

Lord Mifune

Usagi's beloved lord, defeated by Lord Hikiji's forces. The war was caused by Hikiji sending the Neko Ninja to murder his wife and child. Usagi personally decapitates his lord to ensure his head isn't used as a trophy.

The Woodcutters
The Snitch

A hooded figure who first appeared in Space Usagi, he sells information to anyone with enough money.

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