Sunday, June 20, 2010

Top Ten Most Adorable Tokage

Now that I've become a fan of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, I've really taken a shine to his tokage. The tokage are lizards who serve as a sort-of all-purpose animal in Usagi Yojimbo stories. There are other animals seen throughout the series, but the tokage have a particular usefulness as a stand-in for pets. Their behavior is usually modeled after dogs, and just like dogs, sometimes this means they have an unpleasant personality.

But usually, tokage appear in the background, not impacting the story. There are only a few who make a genuine presence in the stories, but they're always delightful to see. Here's my ten favorite tokage appearances so far:

#10: Tokage as load-bearer

#9: Tokage running for his life

#8: Tokage eating rice

#7: Tokage frightened

#6: Tokage as shower

#5: Tokage shivering

#4: Tokage stealing food

#3: Tokage yawning

#2: Tokage flying a kite

#1: Tokage being hugged by Jotaro

If you don't get what makes these tokage cute...you must not be an animal person.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They remind of Dino from the Flintstones!

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if you've run across "Spot" just yet in your reading...but if not...be prepared to add a new favorite tokage to your list.

Great post MH, and glad you're enjoying Usagi (and the tokage) as much!

Michael Hoskin said...

I have met Spot - both of them in fact! The introduction of the 2nd Spot was a good ol' fashioned tear-jerker.

I'll have some more to say about Usagi shortly.