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143-479: Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema; it has included references to the work of Akira Kurosawa (the title of the series is derived from Kurosawa's 1961 film Yojimbo ), as well as to icons of popular Japanese cinema, such as Lone Wolf and Cub , Zatoichi , and Godzilla . The series is also influenced somewhat by Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragonés (Sakai is the letterer for that series), but

286-514: A Japanese context. Kurosawa instructed his leading actress, Isuzu Yamada , to regard the work as if it were a cinematic version of a Japanese rather than a European literary classic. Given Kurosawa's appreciation of traditional Japanese stage acting, the acting of the players, particularly Yamada, draws heavily on the stylized techniques of the Noh theater. It was filmed in 1956 and released in January 1957 to

429-427: A big hit, quickly making back the money invested in it and providing the studio with a product that they could, and did, market internationally—though with extensive edits. Over time—and with the theatrical and home video releases of the uncut version—its reputation has steadily grown. It is now regarded by some commentators as the greatest Japanese film ever made, and in 1999, a poll of Japanese film critics also voted it

572-447: A boom period of high-speed growth and rising standards of living. Out of step with the prevailing mood of the era, Kurosawa's films questioned the possibility of redemption through personal responsibility, particularly in Throne of Blood and The Lower Depths . He recognized this, and deliberately aimed for a more light-hearted and entertaining film for his next production while switching to

715-524: A call to take the follow-up exams, and director Kajirō Yamamoto , who was among the examiners, took a liking to Kurosawa and insisted that the studio hire him. The 25-year-old Kurosawa joined P.C.L. in February 1936. During his five years as an assistant director, Kurosawa worked under numerous directors, but by far the most important figure in his development was Yamamoto. Of his 24 films as A.D. , he worked on 17 under Yamamoto, many of them comedies featuring

858-552: A career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema . Kurosawa displayed a bold, dynamic style , strongly influenced by Western cinema yet distinct from it; he was involved with all aspects of film production . Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as

1001-613: A comic adaptation as a three-issue series, beginning in August 2002. With low pre-orders, Adams personally pushed the comic with the distributor and major comic book stores. Soon the title's back issues were hot and were followed up with Wood's Popbot . In 2007, IDT Corporation purchased a 53% majority interest in IDW from the company's founders, removing Garner & Oprisko, while reducing Adams & Robbins to minority owners collectively at 47%. Then, in 2009, IDT proceeded to increase its interest to

1144-595: A comic strip format in the tabloid -size promotional publication Dark Horse Extra . Usagi Yojimbo stories have also been created as both single-page "gag" stories and as multi-issue epic adventures. Usagi has also appeared several times in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the comic, three of the animated series , and their respective toy lines), and the Turtles have appeared in Usagi Yojimbo as well. In

1287-508: A confrontation with Leonardo , although the focus was mainly on Gen. Usagi and Gen also attended the wedding of April O'Neil and Casey Jones in episode 13 of season 7 ( Back to the Sewer ) titled "Wedding Bells and Bytes". He becomes one of their greatest inter-dimensional allies and especially closest to Leonardo. In September 2016, an appearance of Usagi was also announced for the 2012 CGI series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . He appears in

1430-554: A contemporary play by Kazuo Kikuta and, together with Taniguchi, adapted it for the screen. The Quiet Duel starred Toshiro Mifune as an idealistic young doctor struggling with syphilis , a deliberate attempt by Kurosawa to break the actor away from being typecast as gangsters. Released in March 1949, it was a box office success, but is generally considered one of the director's lesser achievements. His second film of 1949, also produced by Film Art Association and released by Shintoho ,

1573-477: A costume designer. Shortly before his marriage, Kurosawa was pressured by the studio against his will to direct a sequel to his debut film. The often blatantly propagandistic Sanshiro Sugata Part II , which premiered in May 1945, is generally considered one of his weakest pictures. Kurosawa decided to write the script for a film that would be both censor-friendly and less expensive to produce. The Men Who Tread on

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1716-478: A critical and commercial success. Nevertheless, the censorship office would later decide to cut out some 18 minutes of footage, much of which is now considered lost. He next turned to the subject of wartime female factory workers in The Most Beautiful , a propaganda film which he shot in a semi-documentary style in early 1944. To elicit realistic performances from his actresses, the director had them live in

1859-484: A descendant of Miyamoto Usagi, but set in a futuristic setting that also emulated feudal Japan in political and stylistic ways. Four mini-series of three issues each and two short stories featuring the characters were produced. Sakai has announced tentative plans to produce a fourth Space Usagi miniseries, but nothing has been announced yet. A one-shot crossover between the contemporary Usagi Yojimbo (Volume 4) series and Space Usagi , titled Space Usagi: Yokai Hunter ,

2002-551: A director during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (1943). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast the then little-known actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another fifteen films. Rashomon (1950), which premiered in Tokyo, became

2145-776: A faithfulness to period style. 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 . Those efforts have been successful enough for the series to be awarded a Parents' Choice Award in 1990 for its educational value through Sakai's "skillful weaving of facts and legends into his work." Usagi Yojimbo first appeared in Albedo Anthropomorphics #2, published by Thoughts and Images in November 1984. Early positive reviews and an advertisement in Bud Plant 's Spring Catalog in 1985 helped propel

2288-595: A gangster ( yakuza ) with tuberculosis , it was also the first time that Kurosawa directed Mifune, who went on to play major roles in all but one of the director's next 16 films (the exception being Ikiru ). While Mifune was not cast as the protagonist in Drunken Angel , his explosive performance as the gangster so dominates the drama that he shifted the focus from the title character, the alcoholic doctor played by Takashi Shimura , who had already appeared in several Kurosawa movies. However, Kurosawa did not want to smother

2431-454: A lucrative sideline lasting well into the 1960s, long after he became famous. In the two years following the release of Horse in 1941, Kurosawa searched for a story he could use to launch his directing career. Towards the end of 1942, about a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , novelist Tsuneo Tomita published his Musashi Miyamoto -inspired judo novel, Sanshiro Sugata , the advertisements for which intrigued Kurosawa. He bought

2574-416: A name for himself. Akira, who at this point planned to become a painter, moved in with him, and the two brothers became inseparable. With Heigo's guidance, Akira devoured not only films but also theater and circus performances, while exhibiting his paintings and working for the left-wing Proletarian Artists' League. However, he was never able to make a living with his art, and, as he began to perceive most of

2717-415: A new imprint named Syzygy Publishing, but he is still editor of future Locke & Key projects. Jerry Bennington was promoted to President, Nachie Marsham was promoted to Publisher, and Rebekah Cahalin was promoted to General Manager and Executive Vice President of Operations covering IDW Publishing, and Veronica Brooks was promoted to Vice President of Creative Affairs. Around 2021, IDW announced that

2860-815: A new independent publisher founded by Ted Adams (cofounder and former CEO of IDW) and Robbie Robbins (cofounder, executive vice president, and art director at IDW). In July 2019, it was announced that IDW Publishing had acquired the classic Sunday strip publisher Sunday Press Books . Between April and May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , IDW was forced to furlough and then lay off several employees, including Managing Editor Denton Tipton, Associate Publisher David Hedgecock, Senior Graphic Artist Gilberto Lazcano, Senior Graphic Designer Christa Miesner, and Brand & Marketing Manager Spencer Reeve. In July 2020, Chris Ryall announced that he would step down from his position of President, Publisher, and Chief Creative Officer to launch

3003-505: A one-shot comic titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo . In April 2023, publication was started on the five-issue miniseries Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo: WhereWhen , which is an immediate prelude to Senso and once again co-stars the Ninja Turtles. Usagi first appeared in episodes 32 and 34 in the third season of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. He next appeared in episodes 23–26 in

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3146-468: A play by Maxim Gorky , taking place in May and June 1957. In contrast to the Shakespearean sweep of Throne of Blood , The Lower Depths was shot on only two confined sets, in order to emphasize the restricted nature of the characters' lives. Though faithful to the play, this adaptation of Russian material to a completely Japanese setting—in this case, the late Edo period —unlike his earlier The Idiot ,

3289-566: A plot bridge to the previously published Space Usagi . In May 2015, Sakai returned to Usagi Yojimbo with the release of the 145th issue. On February 22, 2019, The New York Times reported that IDW Publishing would present a new monthly Usagi Yojimbo series, in color (provided by Tom Luth for the first time). The new series opens up with a short story arc about the Japanese puppetry art of bunraku . Additionally, new full-color collections of earlier issues are planned. IDW published volume 4 of

3432-511: A poor farming village in Sengoku period Japan that hires a group of samurai to defend it against an impending attack by bandits, was given a full epic treatment, with a huge cast (largely consisting of veterans of previous Kurosawa productions) and meticulously detailed action, stretching out to almost three-and-a-half hours of screen time. Three months were spent in pre-production and a month in rehearsals. Shooting took up 148 days spread over almost

3575-507: A protagonist.) His friend Tomoe Ame, a feline samurai, is inspired by the female samurai Tomoe Gozen . The storyline "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" includes elements reminiscent of the classic Akira Kurosawa films The Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress , particularly the way that Usagi collects various allies to raid an evil lord's fortress. While Usagi Yojimbo draws most heavily upon samurai and chanbara films, it has also been influenced by Japanese films from other genres. For example,

3718-418: A real factory during the shoot, eat the factory food and call each other by their character names. He would use similar methods with his performers throughout his career. During production, the actress playing the leader of the factory workers, Yōko Yaguchi , was chosen by her colleagues to present their demands to the director. She and Kurosawa were constantly at odds, and it was through these arguments that

3861-544: A result, began to win festival prizes and commercial release in the West were Kenji Mizoguchi ( The Life of Oharu , Ugetsu , Sansho the Bailiff ) and, somewhat later, Yasujirō Ozu ( Tokyo Story , An Autumn Afternoon )—artists highly respected in Japan but, before this period, almost totally unknown in the West. Kurosawa's growing reputation among Western audiences in the 1950s would make Western audiences more sympathetic to

4004-415: A retreat from the artist's previous commitment to social and political change. The film marked something of an end of an era for its creator. The director himself recognized this at the time of its release, telling critic Donald Richie that a cycle of some kind had just come to an end and that his future films and production methods would be different. His prediction proved quite accurate. Beginning in

4147-482: A samurai clan is portrayed with strongly comic undertones. The film opened on January 1, 1962, quickly surpassing Yojimbo ' s box office success and garnering positive reviews. Kurosawa had meanwhile instructed Toho to purchase the film rights to King's Ransom , a novel about a kidnapping written by American author and screenwriter Evan Hunter , under his pseudonym of Ed McBain, as one of his 87th Precinct series of crime books. The director intended to create

4290-413: A script by Kurosawa's nephew Mike Inoue, is a revenge drama about a young man who is able to infiltrate the hierarchy of a corrupt Japanese company with the intention of exposing the men responsible for his father's death. Its theme proved topical: while the film was in production, the massive Anpo protests were held against the new U.S.–Japan Security treaty , which was seen by many Japanese, particularly

4433-541: A selection of unpublished drawings, convention sketches, and other miscellaneous Usagi Yojimbo artwork (including an original short story in the first issue). Because Usagi Yojimbo is a creator-owned comic and Sakai has complete and sole ownership of the character, Miyamoto Usagi has been able to appear in occasional short stories published by companies other than the one currently publishing his series. Usagi has appeared in stories published by Cartoon Books , Oni Press , Sky Dog Press, Wizard Press , and most recently in

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4576-411: A sequel. Kurosawa turned to a script he had written before Yojimbo , reworking it to include the hero of his previous film. Sanjuro was the first of three Kurosawa films to be adapted from the work of the writer Shūgorō Yamamoto (the others would be Red Beard and Dodeskaden ). It is lighter in tone and closer to a conventional period film than Yojimbo , though its story of a power struggle within

4719-560: A series of monthly one-shot , self-contained stories. July 2009 saw the beginning of Doctor Who , an ongoing series featuring the Tenth Doctor , written by Tony Lee and illustrated by a rotating art team. IDW Publishing acquired the G.I. Joe comics license in May 2008 (previously held by Devil's Due Publishing ) and released three new series under editor Andy Schmidt , from writers such as Chuck Dixon , Larry Hama , and Christos Gage . Other comics were released in time to tie-in with

4862-406: A slightly less negative domestic response than had been the case with the director's previous film. Abroad, Throne of Blood , regardless of the liberties it takes with its source material, quickly earned a place among the most celebrated Shakespeare adaptations. Another adaptation of a classic European theatrical work followed almost immediately, with production of The Lower Depths , based on

5005-715: A subtitled print of the film in Los Angeles, RKO purchased distribution rights to Rashomon in the United States. The company was taking a considerable gamble. It had put out only one prior subtitled film in the American market, and the only previous Japanese talkie commercially released in New York had been Mikio Naruse's comedy, Wife! Be Like a Rose! , in 1937: a critical and box-office flop. However, Rashomon ' s commercial run, greatly helped by strong reviews from critics and even

5148-521: A unique look he thought could attract readers. Usagi first appeared in the anthology Albedo Anthropomorphics in 1984, and later in the Fantagraphics Books anthropomorphic anthology Critters , before appearing in his own series in 1987. The Usagi Yojimbo series has been published by four different companies. The first publisher was Fantagraphics (volume one; 38 regular issues, plus one Summer Special and three Color Specials ). The second

5291-407: A work condemning kidnapping, which he considered one of the very worst crimes. The suspense film, titled High and Low , was shot during the latter half of 1962 and released in March 1963. It broke Kurosawa's box office record (the third film in a row to do so), became the highest grossing Japanese film of the year, and won glowing reviews. However, his triumph was somewhat tarnished when, ironically,

5434-720: A year (after five months of pre-production), and wrapped in spring 1965, leaving the director, his crew and his actors exhausted. Red Beard premiered in April 1965, becoming the year's highest-grossing Japanese production and the third (and last) Kurosawa film to top the prestigious Kinema Jumpo yearly critics poll. It remains one of Kurosawa's best-known and most-loved works in his native country. Outside Japan, critics have been much more divided. Most commentators concede its technical merits and some praise it as among Kurosawa's best, while others insist that it lacks complexity and genuine narrative power, with still others claiming that it represents

5577-429: A year, interrupted by production and financing troubles and Kurosawa's health problems. The film finally opened in April 1954, half a year behind its original release date and about three times over budget, making it at the time the most expensive Japanese film ever made. (However, by Hollywood standards, it was a quite modestly budgeted production, even for that time.) The film received positive critical reaction and became

5720-461: Is a period film, set in a mid-nineteenth century clinic for the poor, in which Kurosawa's humanist themes receive perhaps their fullest statement. A conceited and materialistic, foreign-trained young doctor, Yasumoto, is forced to become an intern at the clinic under the stern tutelage of Doctor Niide, known as "Akahige" ("Red Beard"), played by Mifune. Although he resists Red Beard initially, Yasumoto comes to admire his wisdom and courage and to perceive

5863-554: Is also forthcoming. In 2004, 2005, and 2006 IDW Publishing was named Publisher of the Year by Diamond Comic Distributors . In 2010, IDW Publishing released the sequel to Michael San Giacomo's "Phantom Jack" Image Comics series with "Phantom Jack: The Nowhere Man Agenda." The graphic novel is notable because it features the death of the main character, a reporter who can turn invisible. IDW Publishing formed an imprint with EA Games in late 2009, called EA Comics, to focus on adaptations of

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6006-471: Is closest to Leonardo , both sharing the same ideals and code of ethics. The comics version also makes several pun references to Sergio Aragonés ' Groo the Wanderer , in whose publication Sakai was also involved. In addition, Sakai created a limited spin off series called Space Usagi, who first appeared in Amazing Heroes 187. It featured characters similar to those in the original series, including

6149-504: Is the basis of two video games: the 1988 game Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo and the 2013 game Usagi Yojimbo: Way of the Ronin . Both are side-scrolling hack-and-slash action games. Usagi returned to the Turtles franchise in the 2022 beat 'em up game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge , being based on his incarnation from the 1987 cartoon from which the rest of

6292-573: Is the safety of a farm in Brazil. Production went much more smoothly than the director's previous film, but a few days before shooting ended, Kurosawa's composer, collaborator, and close friend Fumio Hayasaka died (of tuberculosis) at the age of 41. The film's score was finished by Hayasaka's student, Masaru Sato , who would go on to score all of Kurosawa's next eight films. I Live in Fear opened in November 1955 to mixed reviews and muted audience reaction, becoming

6435-401: Is widely considered to be one of the director's least successful works and the original full-length version no longer exists. Contemporary reviews of the much shortened edited version were very negative, but the film was a moderate success at the box office, largely because of the popularity of one of its stars, Setsuko Hara. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Kurosawa, Rashomon had been entered in

6578-520: The Dimension Shellshock downloadable content for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge , released on August 31, 2023. The Usagi Yojimbo Origins series collects color reprints of stories originally published in black and white. A project for an animated television series, Space Usagi , was cancelled following the failure of Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars . However, Space Usagi

6721-559: The Hasbro Reconstruction initiative to present a shared universe of Hasbro brands, which was later known as the Hasbro Comic Book Universe . The first event was Revolution , followed by First Strike on 2017. In April 2017, IDW Publishing acquired a license from Lucasfilm to produce a range of all-ages Star Wars comics. In July 2017, Sega announced a partnership with IDW to publish comics based on Sonic

6864-650: The New York Stock Exchange ; the company also restructured its C-suite and experienced an almost 50% drop in its share price. On October 16, 2024, IDW announced a rebranding with a new logo. IDW has several imprints that they have developed or acquired: Konami acquired the video game rights, and minority ownership, in IDW Publishing's CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations . A 2007 film adaptation based on Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith 's 30 Days of Night starred Josh Hartnett and Melissa George ,

7007-582: The Venice Film Festival , due to the efforts of Giuliana Stramigioli , a Japan-based representative of an Italian film company, who had seen and admired the movie and convinced Daiei to submit it. On September 10, 1951, Rashomon was awarded the festival's highest prize, the Golden Lion , shocking not only Daiei but the international film world, which at the time was largely unaware of Japan's decades-old cinematic tradition. After Daiei briefly exhibited

7150-570: The Western , while at the same time offering an unprecedentedly (for the Japanese screen) graphic portrayal of violence. Some commentators have seen the Sanjuro character in this film as a fantasy figure who magically reverses the historical triumph of the corrupt merchant class over the samurai class. Featuring Tatsuya Nakadai in his first major role in a Kurosawa movie, and with innovative photography by Kazuo Miyagawa (who shot Rashomon ) and Takao Saito ,

7293-494: The fifth season (which is titled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ) in the episodes "Yojimbo" , "Osoroshi no Tabi", and "Kagayake! Kintaro", where the Turtles are hurled into his dimension, and teamed up to save a child he protects from ancient evil. On February 8, 2018, it was announced that a CGI adaptation of the comics is in the works from Gaumont Animation . On July 15, 2020, Gaumont announced that

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7436-436: The second season of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series for an interdimensional tournament against the Turtles (along with Gen). He and Gen showed up again in episodes 1 and 22–23 of season 3 for a Christmas party and a continuation of the second-season storyline (which prominently featured his world and characters), respectively. Usagi again appeared in episode 13 of season 4 ("Samurai Tourist") for

7579-434: The summer 2009 G.I. Joe film . In March 2009, IDW Publishing forged an agreement with Mike Gold's Comicmix.com to publish print versions of Comicmix's online comic books. The agreement stipulates Comicmix must provide two comic books a month to IDW Publishing to publish, as well as graphic novels and trade paperbacks as demanded by the market. The books are published with both the IDW Publishing and Comicmix.com logos on

7722-519: The 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including two of his final films, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to receive great acclaim. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement . Posthumously, he was named " Asian of the Century " in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN , cited there as being among

7865-438: The 1987 series, "Usagi Yojimbo" is incorrectly used as his actual name, but in the 2003 series, where he appeared far more frequently, he was referred to correctly as Miyamoto Usagi. He was even joined by Gen and other characters from his stories in his guest appearances in the 2003 series. Usagi's first appearance in the 2012 series was the fifth-season episode, "Yojimbo", which was written by Sakai. In his guest appearances, he

8008-454: The 26th century and centers on rabbit teenager Yuichi Usagi (voiced by Darren Barnet ), who is the descendant of Miyamoto Usagi. The show premiered on April 28, 2022 and concluded on September 1, 2022. A Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo video game was released for the Commodore 64 , ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC in 1988 by Firebird . Usagi appears as a playable character in

8151-455: The D&;D 5th Edition core setting . A sixth five-issue mini-series, Infernal Tide , is set to be published in November 2019. In April 2011, IDW Publishing acquired the license to publish new collections of older Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics , as well as a new ongoing series beginning in August of that year. In August 2017 issue #73 of the main ongoing series was published, making it

8294-598: The Hedgehog beginning in 2018, following the conclusion/cancellation of the previous series by Archie Comics . IDW has also launched new imprint called Black Crown, handling creator-owned comics. In April 2018, publishers IDW Publishing and Oni Press announced a crossover between the Rick and Morty comic book and Dungeons & Dragons co-written by Jim Zub and Patrick Rothfuss with art by Troy Little . The four issue mini-series, Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons ,

8437-547: The Pacific were causing radioactive rainstorms in Japan and one particular incident in March had exposed a Japanese fishing boat to nuclear fallout , with disastrous results. It is in this anxious atmosphere that Kurosawa's next film, I Live in Fear , was conceived. The story concerned an elderly factory owner (Toshiro Mifune) so terrified of the prospect of a nuclear attack that he becomes determined to move his entire extended family (both legal and extra-marital) to what he imagines

8580-709: The TV franchises Star Trek and CSI . The company's other licensed comics include Topps ' Mars Attacks , Sony 's Underworld , FX 's The Shield , Fox 's 24 and Angel ; Universal ’s Land of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead ; and Konami ’s Silent Hill , Castlevania , Metal Gear Solid , and Speed Racer . The company has also had success with comic license from toy company Hasbro brands: The Transformers (with Takara ), G.I. Joe , My Little Pony , and Jem . Transformers has had as many as five different titles running concurrently. Beginning in 2008,

8723-549: The Tiger's Tail , based on the Kabuki play Kanjinchō and starring the comedian Enoken, with whom Kurosawa had often worked during his assistant director days, was completed in September 1945. By this time, Japan had surrendered and the occupation of Japan had begun. The new American censors interpreted the values allegedly promoted in the picture as overly "feudal" and banned the work. It

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8866-611: The benefit book Drawing the Line , the proceeds of which went to Princess Margaret Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children , both in Toronto , for cancer research. Sakai has experimented with formats for Usagi Yojimbo , such as when he published the color story "Green Persimmon" first as twelve separate 2-page chapters serialized in Diamond Comic Distributor's monthly catalog Previews . He has also serialized two short stories in

9009-453: The best Japanese film ever made. In the most recent (2022) version of the widely respected British Film Institute (BFI) Sight & Sound "Greatest Films of All Time" poll, Seven Samurai placed 20th among all films from all countries in the critics' and tied at 14th in the directors' polls, receiving a place in the Top Ten lists of 48 critics and 22 directors. In 1954, nuclear tests in

9152-557: The book on its publication day, devoured it in one sitting, and immediately asked Toho to secure the film rights. Kurosawa's initial instinct proved correct as, within a few days, three other major Japanese studios also offered to buy the rights. Toho prevailed, and Kurosawa began pre-production on his debut work as director. Shooting of Sanshiro Sugata began on location in Yokohama in December 1942. Production proceeded smoothly, but getting

9295-511: The bureaucratic world of its hero and the U.S. cultural colonization of Japan. (American pop songs figure prominently in the film.) Because of this strategy, the filmmakers are usually credited with saving the picture from the kind of sentimentality common to dramas about characters with terminal illnesses. Ikiru opened in October 1952 to rave reviews—it won Kurosawa his second Kinema Junpo "Best Film" award—and enormous box office success. It remains

9438-489: The chapter of Something Like an Autobiography that describes it—written nearly half a century after the event—is titled, "A Story I Don't Want to Tell". Only four months later, Kurosawa's eldest brother also died, leaving Akira, at age 23, the only one of the Kurosawa brothers still living, together with his three surviving sisters. In 1935, the new film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories, known as P.C.L. (which later became

9581-541: The character's popularity. 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 . 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 ongoing series with issue #1 being published in July 1987. Usagi

9724-530: The characters in Usagi's world are inspired by or make reference to samurai movies. Usagi's former lord is named Mifune, which is a nod to Toshiro Mifune , an actor who starred in countless classic Samurai films. Gen , the rhino bounty hunter, was inspired by the characters made famous by Toshiro Mifune in the samurai films Yojimbo and Sanjuro . Zato-Ino , the Blind Swordspig, is a reference and tribute to

9867-464: The closeness of the two men on the set, "Mr. Kurosawa's heart was in Mr. Mifune's body." Donald Richie has described the rapport between them as a unique "symbiosis". When Kurosawa's exclusive contract with Toho came to an end in 1966, the 56-year-old director was seriously contemplating change. Observing the troubled state of the domestic film industry, and having already received dozens of offers from abroad,

10010-487: The columnist Ed Sullivan , earned $ 35,000 in its first three weeks at a single New York theatre, an almost unheard-of sum at the time. This success in turn led to a vogue in America and the West for Japanese movies throughout the 1950s, replacing the enthusiasm for Italian neorealist cinema. By the end of 1952 Rashomon was released in Japan, the United States, and most of Europe. Among the Japanese film-makers whose work, as

10153-513: The comic book license for Disney properties would pass to Marvel Comics , while the license for Lucasfilm's Star Wars passed back to Dark Horse Comics . In September 2021, IDW announced that its partnership with Diamond Comic Distributors would switch to Penguin Random House . In December 2021, The Library of American Comics announced that they would be moving to Clover Press. That same month, John Barber announced that he would step away from

10296-454: The company has published its first crossover series Infestation . In March 2012 IDW Publishing announced it would release new comics based on Judge Dredd and The Crow . Also in 2012, Hasbro licensed the use of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic for an IDW comic book series . The company also published Infestation 2 . In February 2013, IDW Publishing announced a partnership with Cartoon Network to publish comics based on

10439-773: The company licensed the Doctor Who series from the BBC, launching two concurrent titles: Doctor Who Classics , which reprints colorized comic strips featuring the past Doctors such as the Fourth Doctor and Fifth Doctor originally published in the late 1970s-early 1980s by Doctor Who Magazine , and Doctor Who: Agent Provocateur , an original six-part limited series featuring the Tenth Doctor and overseen and written by TV series script editor Gary Russell . An additional six-part limited series titled Doctor Who: The Forgotten started in mid-2008 by Tony Lee and Pia Guerra , as well as

10582-407: The completed film past the censors was an entirely different matter. The censorship office considered the work to be objectionably "British-American" by the standards of wartime Japan, and it was only through the intervention of director Yasujirō Ozu , who championed the film, that Sanshiro Sugata was finally accepted for release on March 25, 1943. (Kurosawa had just turned 33.) The movie became both

10725-493: The completion of Drunken Angel , Toho became embroiled in a months-long labor strike , in which the Toho union occupied the grounds of the studio. When Toho management ceased paying workers' salaries, Kurosawa formed a touring acting troupe to raise funds, directing Anton Chekhov 's The Proposal , and an adaptation of Drunken Angel starring Mifune and Shimura. Disillusioned by the division and violence between employees at Toho,

10868-460: The conventional Kurosawan hero to combat a social evil that cannot be resolved through the actions of individuals, however courageous or cunning. Yojimbo ( The Bodyguard ), Kurosawa Production's second film, centers on a masterless samurai, Sanjuro, who strolls into a 19th-century town ruled by two opposing violent factions and provokes them into destroying each other. The director used this work to play with many genre conventions, particularly

11011-546: The covers. As of the end of 2009, the agreement has produced print versions of the Grimjack series The Manx Cat ; the Jon Sable series Ashes of Eden ; Mark Wheatley and Robert Tinnell 's pulp hero series Lone Justice ; the graphic novel Demons of Sherwood by Tinnell and Bo Hampton ; and a graphic novel collecting Trevor Von Eeden 's The Original Johnson . A collection of Munden's Bar stories original to Comicmix's website

11154-427: The current 76%, reducing Adams & Robbins's interest once again to the current 24%. Then, shortly afterwards, IDT created CTM Media Holdings via a tax-free spin-off. This new company consisted of the majority interest in IDW and CTM Media Group. Eight years later, on April 3, 2015, CTM Media Holdings announced it would continue operations under a new name, becoming IDW Media Holdings, which would continue to consist of

11297-546: The director of the Army's Physical Education Institute's lower secondary school , while his mother Shima (1870–1952) came from a merchant's family living in Osaka . Akira was the eighth and youngest child of the moderately wealthy family, with two of his siblings already grown up at the time of his birth and one deceased, leaving Kurosawa to grow up with three sisters and a brother. In addition to promoting physical exercise, Isamu Kurosawa

11440-432: The director was seldom hesitant to confront unpleasant truths in his work. Heigo was academically gifted, but soon after failing to secure a place in Tokyo's foremost high school , he began to detach himself from the rest of the family, preferring to concentrate on his interest in foreign literature. In the late 1920s, Heigo became a benshi (silent film narrator) for Tokyo theaters showing foreign films and quickly made

11583-408: The distribution of the series internationally. The series debuted on Netflix on January 23, 2020, and was canceled after one season. Netflix announced a television adaptation of the comic series created by William Laurin and Glenn Davis, on April 16, 2018, with 10 episodes produced by High Park Entertainment in association with IDW Entertainment, who would also be involved in the distribution of

11726-563: The film character of Zatoichi . The story arc "Lone Goat and Kid" features an assassin who wanders with his son in a babycart, referring to the film / manga series Lone Wolf and Cub . Most significantly, the main character's name, Miyamoto Usagi , is a play on " Miyamoto Musashi ", Japan's most famous historical samurai and the author of The Book of Five Rings , and Usagi the Japanese language word for " rabbit " (The story notes for one volume also cite as an influence Hiroshi Inagaki 's Samurai Trilogy , which features Miyamoto Musashi as

11869-399: The film industry (which includes his five years as assistant director), he had directed twenty-three films, while during the remaining twenty-eight years, for many complex reasons, he would complete only seven more. Also, for reasons never adequately explained, Red Beard would be his final film starring Toshiro Mifune. Yū Fujiki , an actor who worked on The Lower Depths , observed, regarding

12012-442: The film is considered one of Kurosawa's most lightweight efforts, though it remains popular, not least because it is one of several major influences on George Lucas 's 1977 space opera , Star Wars . Starting with Rashomon , Kurosawa's productions had become increasingly large in scope and so had the director's budgets. Toho, concerned about this development, suggested that he might help finance his own works, therefore making

12155-465: The film premiered in April 1961 and was a critically and commercially successful venture, earning more than any previous Kurosawa film. The movie and its blackly comic tone were also widely imitated abroad. Sergio Leone 's A Fistful of Dollars was a virtual (unauthorized) scene-by-scene remake with Toho filing a lawsuit on Kurosawa's behalf and prevailing. Following the success of Yojimbo , Kurosawa found himself under pressure from Toho to create

12298-466: The film was blamed for a wave of kidnappings which occurred in Japan about this time (he himself received kidnapping threats directed at his young daughter, Kazuko). High and Low is considered by many commentators to be among the director's strongest works. Kurosawa quickly moved on to his next project, Red Beard . Based on a short story collection by Shūgorō Yamamoto and incorporating elements from Dostoevsky's novel The Insulted and Injured , it

12441-417: The film's title into a postwar catchphrase . His next film, One Wonderful Sunday , premiered in July 1947 to mixed reviews. It is a relatively uncomplicated and sentimental love story dealing with an impoverished postwar couple trying to enjoy, within the devastation of postwar Tokyo, their one weekly day off. The movie bears the influence of Frank Capra , D. W. Griffith and F. W. Murnau , each of whom

12584-494: The finished product as dramatically unfocused and unsatisfactory, and almost all critics agree. However, it would be Kurosawa's second film of 1950 that would ultimately win him, and Japanese cinema, a whole new international audience. After finishing Scandal , Kurosawa was approached by Daiei studios to make another film for them. Kurosawa picked a script by an aspiring young screenwriter, Shinobu Hashimoto , who would eventually work on nine of his films. Their first joint effort

12727-451: The firm decided to fund a new venture every year. In 2000, IDW developed a TV show concept, getting as far as a pilot episode. For the 2001's project, Adams's Ashley Wood talked to them about publishing an art book, thus starting up IDW Publishing. Una Fanta was published in March 2002. Woods had Steve Niles send Adams some of his rejected screenplays. Adams selected one, 30 Days of Night , and paired him with artist Ben Templesmith for

12870-536: The first Kurosawa film to lose money during its original theatrical run. Today, it is considered by many to be among the finest films dealing with the psychological effects of the global nuclear stalemate. Kurosawa's next project, Throne of Blood , an adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Macbeth —set, like Seven Samurai , in the Sengoku Era—represented an ambitious transposition of the English work into

13013-429: The five people who most prominently contributed to the improvement of Asia in the 20th century. His career has been honored by many retrospectives, critical studies and biographies in both print and video, and by releases in many consumer media. Kurosawa was born on March 23, 1910, in Ōimachi in the Ōmori district of Tokyo. His father Isamu (1864–1948), a member of a samurai family from Akita Prefecture , worked as

13156-454: The future director of Godzilla . The film is considered a precursor to the contemporary police procedural and buddy cop film genres. Scandal , released by Shochiku in April 1950, was inspired by the director's personal experiences with, and anger towards, Japanese yellow journalism . The work is an ambitious mixture of courtroom drama and social problem film about free speech and personal responsibility, but even Kurosawa regarded

13299-535: The game is based on. He become available as downloadable content in 2023. The series has been awarded 10 Eisner Awards and over 20 nominations. The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles 's Little Tokyo presented an exhibit entitled "Year of the Rabbit: Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo from July 9 through October 30, 2011. Usagi was rated No. 92 on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes. Several of

13442-412: The heroic central character is a woman, Yukie ( Setsuko Hara ), who, born into upper-middle-class privilege, comes to question her values in a time of political crisis. The original script had to be extensively rewritten and, because of its controversial theme and gender of its protagonist, the completed work divided critics. Nevertheless, it managed to win the approval of audiences, who turned variations on

13585-412: The idea of working outside Japan appealed to him as never before. For his first foreign project, Kurosawa chose a story based on a Life magazine article. The Embassy Pictures action thriller, to be filmed in English and called simply Runaway Train , would have been his first in color. But the language barrier proved a major problem, and the English version of the screenplay was not even finished by

13728-639: The last of Kurosawa's films as an assistant director for Yamamoto, Horse (1941), Kurosawa took over most of the production, as his mentor was occupied with the shooting of another film. Yamamoto advised Kurosawa that a good director needed to master screenwriting. Kurosawa soon realized that the potential earnings from his scripts were much higher than what he was paid as an assistant director. He later wrote or co-wrote all his films, and frequently penned screenplays for other directors such as Satsuo Yamamoto 's film, A Triumph of Wings ( Tsubasa no gaika , 1942). This outside scriptwriting would serve Kurosawa as

13871-403: The late 1950s, television began increasingly to dominate the leisure time of the formerly large and loyal Japanese cinema audience. And as film company revenues dropped, so did their appetite for risk—particularly the risk represented by Kurosawa's costly production methods. Red Beard also marked the midway point, chronologically, in the artist's career. During his previous twenty-nine years in

14014-647: The latter's video games, with initial titles including Army of Two and Dragon Age . In January 2011, IDW Publishing announced a new Dungeons & Dragons comic series , under license from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast . Set in the D&;D 4th Edition core setting , the new ongoing series Dungeons & Dragons (Fell's Five) ran for 16 issues. Several mini-series were also published including The Legend of Drizzt: Neverwinter Tales written by R.A. Salvatore . Since 2014, five five-issue mini-series have been published in

14157-560: The longest running comic series in the franchise's history. September 6, 2011, for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 , IDW Publishing teamed up Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment and released the graphic novel Code Word: Geronimo , written by retired Marine Corps Captain Dale Dye and Julia Dye, drawn by Gerry Kissell with inker Amin Amat. Code Word: Geronimo reached #22 on Diamond Comics top 100 list its first month after release. During that same year,

14300-419: The major studio Toho ), advertised for assistant directors. Although he had demonstrated no previous interest in film as a profession, Kurosawa submitted the required essay, which asked applicants to discuss the fundamental deficiencies of Japanese films and find ways to overcome them. His half-mocking view was that if the deficiencies were fundamental, there was no way to correct them. Kurosawa's essay earned him

14443-446: The majority interest in IDW and CTM Media Group. The company's first traditional comic series, 30 Days of Night , created by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith started a seven-figure bidding war between DreamWorks , MGM , and Senator International , with Senator winning and Sam Raimi attached to produce. IDW Publishing's second title, Popbot , won two Gold Spectrum Awards . IDW Publishing also publishes comics based on

14586-420: The most acclaimed of all the artist's films set in the modern era. In December 1952, Kurosawa took his Ikiru screenwriters, Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni, for a forty-five-day secluded residence at an inn to create the screenplay for his next movie, Seven Samurai . The ensemble work was Kurosawa's first proper samurai film , the genre for which he would become most famous. The simple story, about

14729-455: The movie stars Takashi Shimura as a cancer-ridden Tokyo bureaucrat, Watanabe, on a final quest for meaning before his death. For the screenplay, Kurosawa brought in Hashimoto as well as writer Hideo Oguni , who would go on to co-write twelve Kurosawa films. Despite the work's grim subject matter, the screenwriters took a satirical approach, which some have compared to the work of Brecht , to both

14872-516: The movie) is included in the Transformers DVD. Syfy announced a television adaptation to be developed by Emily Andras of Beau Smith 's Wynonna Earp , which premiered on April 1, 2016, and ended on April 9, 2021. Netflix announced a television adaptation on September 28, 2018 of the comic series created by Steve Niles to be produced by High Park Entertainment in association with IDW Entertainment, who would also be involved in

15015-425: The network's television series and reprint older Cartoon Network comics. On January 6, 2015, IDW Publishing announced it had acquired Top Shelf Productions . In February 2015, it was announced that IDW Publishing made a deal with Disney to continue the publication of the following comic books: Uncle Scrooge , Donald Duck , Mickey Mouse , and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories . In 2016, IDW launched

15158-458: The new widescreen format that had been gaining popularity in Japan. The resulting film, The Hidden Fortress , is an action-adventure comedy-drama about a medieval princess, her loyal general, and two peasants who all need to travel through enemy lines in order to reach their home region. Released in December 1958, The Hidden Fortress became an enormous box-office success in Japan and was warmly received by critics both in Japan and abroad. Today,

15301-570: The overall tone of Usagi Yojimbo is more serious and reflective. The series follows the standard traditional Japanese naming-convention for all featured characters: their family names followed by their given names . The books are primarily episodic , with underlying larger plots which create long extended storylines—though there are some novel-length narratives. The stories include many references to Japanese history and Japanese folklore , and sometimes include mythical creatures . The architecture , clothes, weapons and other objects are drawn with

15444-407: The patients at the clinic, whom he at first despised, as worthy of compassion and dignity. Yūzō Kayama , who plays Yasumoto, was an extremely popular film and music star at the time, particularly for his "Young Guy" ( Wakadaishō ) series of musical comedies, so signing him to appear in the film virtually guaranteed Kurosawa strong box-office. The shoot, the filmmaker's longest ever, lasted well over

15587-416: The popular actor Ken'ichi Enomoto , known as "Enoken". Yamamoto nurtured Kurosawa's talent, promoting him directly from third assistant director to chief assistant director after a year. Kurosawa's responsibilities increased, and he worked at tasks ranging from stage construction and film development to location scouting, script polishing, rehearsals, lighting, dubbing, editing, and second-unit directing. In

15730-452: The primeval forest of Nara , wrapped on August 17. Just one week was spent in hurried post-production, hampered by a studio fire, and the finished film premiered at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre on August 25, expanding nationwide the following day. The movie was met by lukewarm reviews, with many critics puzzled by its unique theme and treatment, but it was nevertheless a moderate financial success for Daiei. Kurosawa's next film, for Shochiku,

15873-418: The proletarian movement as "putting unfulfilled political ideals directly onto the canvas", he lost his enthusiasm for painting. With the increasing production of talking pictures in the early 1930s, film narrators like Heigo began to lose work, and Akira moved back in with his parents. In July 1933, Heigo died by suicide. Kurosawa has commented on the lasting sense of loss he felt at his brother's death and

16016-465: The reception of later generations of Japanese film-makers ranging from Kon Ichikawa , Masaki Kobayashi , Nagisa Oshima and Shohei Imamura to Juzo Itami , Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike . His career boosted by his sudden international fame, Kurosawa, now reunited with his original film studio, Toho (which would go on to produce his next 11 films), set to work on his next project, Ikiru . Based on Leo Tolstoy 's The Death of Ivan Ilyich ,

16159-404: The role of Editor-in-Chief. In January 2022, IDW announced that they would lose the comic book licenses for Hasbro's Transformers and G.I. Joe by the end of the year, but would continue publishing other Hasbro licenses, including My Little Pony and Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons . On April 27, 2023, IDW cut 39% of their staff and became privately-held by delisting from

16302-448: The series up until issue 31, published in 2022. Sakai returned the series to Dark Horse under his own new imprint, Dogu Publishing. The series was relaunched at Dark Horse with Usagi Yojimbo: Ice and Snow #1, the first in a five issue mini-series. In July 2017, the traditional crossovers between Usagi Yojimbo and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise - at that time part also part of IDW's publishing program - were resumed with

16445-527: The series would be released worldwide exclusively on Netflix under the title Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, in partnership with Netflix Animation . Production companies Atomic Monster and Dark Horse Entertainment are also partnering with Gaumont, with Mumbai -based studio 88 Pictures handling the CGI animation. Doug and Candie Langdale serve as show-runners on the series. The series takes place in Neo Edo in

16588-492: The studio's potential losses smaller, while in turn allowing himself more artistic freedom as co-producer. Kurosawa agreed, and the Kurosawa Production Company was established in April 1959, with Toho as the majority shareholder. Despite risking his own money, Kurosawa chose a story that was more directly critical of the Japanese business and political elites than any previous work. The Bad Sleep Well , based on

16731-488: The style of a favorite writer of his, Georges Simenon , it was the director's first collaboration with screenwriter Ryuzo Kikushima , who would later help to script eight other Kurosawa films. A famous, virtually wordless sequence, lasting over eight minutes, shows the detective, disguised as an impoverished veteran, wandering the streets in search of the gun thief; it employed actual documentary footage of war-ravaged Tokyo neighborhoods shot by Kurosawa's friend, Ishirō Honda ,

16874-646: The surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival . The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers. Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, including Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), Throne of Blood (1957), The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), High and Low (1963) and Red Beard (1965). After

17017-471: The three-part story "Sumi-E" (included in Vol. 18. Travels with Jotaro ) features monsters resembling Godzilla (identified as "Zylla", who was first introduced in Vol. 2. Samurai ), Gamera , Ghidorah , Mothra , and Daimajin . Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa ( 黒澤 明 or 黒沢 明 , Kurosawa Akira , March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 30 films in

17160-522: The time filming was to begin in autumn 1966. The shoot, which required snow, was moved to autumn 1967, then canceled in 1968. Almost two decades later, another foreign director working in Hollywood, Andrei Konchalovsky , finally made Runaway Train (1985), though from a new script loosely based on Kurosawa's. IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books , graphic novels , art books , and comic strip collections. It

17303-419: The two paradoxically became close. They married on May 21, 1945, with Yaguchi two months pregnant (she never resumed her acting career), and the couple would remain together until her death in 1985. They had two children, both surviving Kurosawa as of 2018 : a son, Hisao, born December 20, 1945, who served as producer on some of his father's last projects, and Kazuko , a daughter, born April 29, 1954, who became

17446-564: The underhanded tactics of Toho leadership, and the breaking of the occupation by police and military standoff , Kurosawa left Toho, later recalling "I had come to understand that the studio I had thought was my home actually belonged to strangers". Kurosawa, with producer Sōjirō Motoki and fellow directors and friends Kajiro Yamamoto, Mikio Naruse and Senkichi Taniguchi, formed a new independent production unit called Film Art Association (Eiga Geijutsu Kyōkai). For this organization's debut work, and first film for Daiei studios , Kurosawa turned to

17589-514: The war, Kurosawa, influenced by the democratic ideals of the Occupation, sought to make films that would establish a new respect towards the individual and the self . The first such film, No Regrets for Our Youth (1946), inspired by both the 1933 Takigawa incident and the Hotsumi Ozaki wartime spy case, criticized Japan's prewar regime for its political oppression. Atypically for the director,

17732-420: The young actor's immense vitality, and Mifune's rebellious character electrified audiences in much the way that Marlon Brando 's defiant stance would startle American film audiences a few years later. The film premiered in Tokyo in April 1948 to rave reviews and was chosen by the prestigious Kinema Junpo critics poll as the best film of its year, the first of three Kurosawa movies to be so honored. After

17875-423: The young man greatly impressed Kurosawa, but managed to alienate most of the other judges. Drunken Angel is often considered the director's first major work. Although the script, like all of Kurosawa's occupation-era works, had to go through rewrites due to American censorship, Kurosawa felt that this was the first film in which he was able to express himself freely. A gritty story of a doctor who tries to save

18018-480: The young, as threatening the country's democracy by giving too much power to corporations and politicians. The film opened in September 1960 to positive critical reaction and modest box office success. The 25-minute opening sequence depicting a corporate wedding reception is widely regarded as one of Kurosawa's most skillfully executed set pieces, but the remainder of the film is often perceived as disappointing by comparison. The movie has also been criticized for employing

18161-413: Was Stray Dog . It is a detective movie (perhaps the first important Japanese film in that genre) that explores the mood of Japan during its painful postwar recovery through the story of a young detective, played by Mifune, and his fixation on the recovery of his handgun, which was stolen by a penniless war veteran who proceeds to use it to rob and murder. Adapted from an unpublished novel by Kurosawa in

18304-452: Was The Idiot , an adaptation of the novel by the director's favorite writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky . The story is relocated from Russia to Hokkaido , but otherwise adheres closely to the original, a fact seen by many critics as detrimental to the work. A studio-mandated edit shortened it from Kurosawa's original cut of 265 minutes to just 166 minutes, making the resulting narrative exceedingly difficult to follow. The severely edited film version

18447-810: Was Mirage Comics (volume two; 16 issues). The third was Dark Horse Comics (volume three, 172 regular issues and two Color Specials ), which also published the Senso miniseries (2015), The Art of Usagi Yojimbo: 20th Anniversary Edition (2004), and Usagi Yojimbo: 35 Years of Covers (2018) , as well as republishing the Fantagraphics and Mirage series. The fourth is IDW Publishing , (volume four, 31 issues), which also republished select Fantagraphics story portions as Usagi Yojimbo Color Classics . Usagi returned to Dark Horse in September 2023, collaborating with Dogu Limited. Another publisher, Radio Comix , published two issues of The Art of Usagi Yojimbo (1997–1998) which contained

18590-577: Was Heigo Kurosawa (1906–1933), Akira's older brother by four years. In the aftermath of the Great Kantō earthquake and the subsequent Kantō Massacre of 1923, Heigo took the thirteen-year-old Akira to view the devastation. When Akira wanted to look away from the corpses of humans and animals scattered everywhere, Heigo forbade him to do so, encouraging Akira instead to face his fears by confronting them directly. Some commentators have suggested that this incident would influence Kurosawa's later artistic career, as

18733-400: Was among Kurosawa's favorite directors. Another film released in 1947 with Kurosawa's involvement was the action-adventure thriller, Snow Trail , directed by Senkichi Taniguchi from Kurosawa's screenplay. It marked the debut of the intense young actor Toshiro Mifune . It was Kurosawa who, with his mentor Yamamoto, had intervened to persuade Toho to sign Mifune, during an audition in which

18876-469: Was based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 's experimental short story " In a Grove ", which recounts the murder of a samurai and the rape of his wife from various different and conflicting points of view. Kurosawa saw potential in the script, and with Hashimoto's help, polished and expanded it and then pitched it to Daiei, who were happy to accept the project due to its low budget. The shooting of Rashomon began on July 7, 1950, and, after extensive location work in

19019-531: Was directed by David Slade , produced by 2002 Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and distributed by Columbia Pictures . Dimension Films has an option on two Steve Niles/IDW Publishing properties: Wake the Dead , with X2 screenwriter Michael Dougherty attached to write, and Hyde , with Mike Fleiss ( The Bachelor , The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ) attached to produce. The motion comic version of Transformers: Movie Prequel titled Transformers: Beginnings (albeit excluding characters not present in

19162-481: Was first published in August 2018. In May 2019, a sequel mini-series was announced: Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons: Chapter II: Painscape. It will be written by Jim Zub and Sarah Stern with art by Troy Little. In 2019, the company went under financial difficulties and got help from JPMorgan Chase evaluating strategies to be profitable. In May 2019, IDW offered itself as an investor in Clover Press ,

19305-446: Was formed in 1999 by a group of comic book managers and artists (Ted Adams, Robbie Robbins, Alex Garner, and Kris Oprisko ) that first met while working at Wildstorm Productions . Each of the four was equal partners, owning 25%. When Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC Comics in 1999, Lee turned that company's creative service department, previously run by Adams, over to IDW, allowing IDW to be profitable in its first year. With these profits,

19448-537: Was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC ( IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic book publisher in the United States , behind Marvel , DC , Dark Horse , and Image Comics , ahead of other comic book publishers such as Archie , Boom! , Dynamite , Valiant , and Oni Press . The company is known for its licensed comic book adaptations of films, television shows, video games, and cartoons. Idea and Design Works (IDW)

19591-503: Was idly doodling, he drew rabbit ears tied in a topknot on his proposed hero and was pleased by the distinctive image. Usagi was first conceived as a supporting character in The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy , a brief series that predates Usagi Yojimbo . Sakai expanded on the idea of a rabbit samurai and his world took on an anthropomorphized cartoon nature, creating a fantasy setting which suited his dramatic needs with

19734-446: Was named the 31st-greatest comic book character by Empire magazine and was ranked 92nd in IGN 's list of the top 100 comic book heroes. Rolling Stone named Usagi Yojimbo no. 43 in their '50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels'. Sakai originally planned for Usagi and other characters to be human in stories explicitly modeled after the life of Miyamoto Musashi . However, once as Sakai

19877-409: Was not released until 1952, the year another Kurosawa film, Ikiru , was also released. Ironically, while in production, the film had already been savaged by Japanese wartime censors as too Western and "democratic" (they particularly disliked the comic porter played by Enoken), so the movie most probably would not have seen the light of day even if the war had continued beyond its completion. After

20020-513: Was one of the action figures produced under the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line . Two editions of an Usagi role-playing game have been made, a 1998 version, Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game , from Gold Rush Games and a 2005 version from Sanguine Productions. A second edition of the 2005 version was successfully Kickstarted in 2019. A Hero Pack of Miyamoto Usagi, Gennosuke and Kitsune will be added to Arcadia Quest. The comic

20163-538: Was open to Western traditions and considered theatre and motion pictures to have educational merit. He encouraged his children to watch films; young Akira viewed his first movies at the age of six. An important formative influence was his elementary school teacher Mr. Tachikawa, whose progressive educational practices ignited in his young pupil first a love of drawing and then an interest in education in general. During this time, Akira also studied calligraphy and Kendo swordsmanship. Another major childhood influence

20306-456: Was regarded as artistically successful. The film premiered in September 1957, receiving a mixed response similar to that of Throne of Blood . However, some critics rank it among the director's most underrated works. Kurosawa's three next movies after Seven Samurai had not managed to capture Japanese audiences in the way that that film had. The mood of the director's work had been growing increasingly pessimistic and dark even as Japan entered

20449-472: Was released on October 11, 2023. In the summer of 2014, Sakai, after a two-year hiatus, returned with a six-issue mini-series entitled Usagi Yojimbo: Senso . Senso , Japanese for "war", refers to The War of the Worlds , H. G. Wells 's novel about Martians invading Earth. Senso tells the story of Martians invading Japan roughly twenty years after the events of the main series of Usagi Yojimbo , and also forms

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