Will Usagi ever meet the Lone Wolf and Cub?
(UY Vol 1, #10) Usagi will definitely not meet the Lone Wolf and Cub, but he will run into the Lone Goat and Kid [Lone Goat and Kid]. (UY Vol 1, #38) “Lone Goat and Kid” is, of course, a homage to Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s epic manga series Lone Wolf and Cub, which featured a wandering samurai, Itto Ogami, and his son, Daigoro. I based the characters of Yagi and Gorogoro on my recollections of the movie series I had seen almost 15 years ago. The cub has always been the more appealing of the two characters. The fact that he could be replaced by a brick and not change any of the storylines is, possibly, what gives him his charm. However, I did deviate from their established characters by allowing them to exhibit emotions and actually giving the Kid a speaking part (something a brick cannot do unless under great duress).
