#aghht srtuc posts

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@ranarenee just had to post this in reply to your tags here xD (featuring our boy Usagi and an Usagi I made up lol)

the tags in question (under cut)

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so I'm browsing more of the tvtropes page and after seeing that and what I see ini both tumblr and twt tags, apparently I am the only one who reads any of the interviews with both Stan Sakai and the other crew and creators of this show. sdfsdfs why is that. i haven't caught up with all of the of comics but when it comes to what this show seems to be referencing and what the show is Actually referencing, apparently I know more than the average viewer or tvtropes user

for one thing, the series is based on the ideas and concepts established in Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo: Senso (at least two interviews reference this: Comicbook Couples Counceling podcast interview with Sakai and Popverse interview ) but if you watch the show, the references will be pretty obvious. it's like a professional fanfic. it's all really interesting to see as a story-writing artist myself. and there's reasons why it's a spinoff and not a direct adaptation. The crew did their best to include Sakai's original Miyamoto Usagi as much as they could as well, who they fave an interesting storyline to for the series.

sorta sad this show doesn't seem to have a fandom of it's own (enough to do the same thing ppl in other fandoms do - archive and collect info) but I suppose in the next 5-10 years as it usually goes for tv cartoons, we will see more fans scour the internet for info on the show and add things they find to wiki like sites like tvtropes.

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Samurai Rabbit anniversary posts on instagram by Stan Sakai and Khang Le!

(Creator of Usagi Yojimbo, Exec Producer/Cultural Consultant on Samurai Rabbit and Art Director of Samurai Rabbit respectively)

I like that Stan and Khang (and the rest of the crew) remember this show fondly and occasionally post about it, including for the anniversary on 28.04! It's cool seeing Khang's surface render of Gen as well (for texturing) and learning that little tid-bit about his being first designs that was approved by Netflix :D

Links below!

Stan: https://www.instagram.com/p/Crlt1MzvLlW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Khang: https://www.instagram.com/p/CropNdeyIFD/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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"Are there rhino horns in every store where you're from?" "Where I'm from, there are barely even any stores." "Eep!"

Some more screenshots from "Run Rabbit, Run" bc it has a lot of fun interactions hehe x3

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lol I love how excited but also smug Usagi looks in many episodes

the 2nd ep has this and it's the funniest set of poses ever

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Yuichi Usagi - what's in a name?

I read "Senso" over the end of March and the last week and reviewed a bunch of interviews again and man i dunno how to post abt it but it seems that Yuichi Usagi is actually intentional as naming? And yes, Yuichi can be a last name also, but is still mainly read as a first name.

Like specifically it seems that it’s a reference to the ending of “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” in a similar way to how the rest of the show is also intentionally an homage to that story as it’s main source of inspiration.

“Yuichi” commonly has the meaning "heroic first (son)" (雄一) and in the japanese subtitles, Yuichi is spelled as both 雄一 and ユウイチ - Yūichi. So let's take the japanese subtitling as additional canon as that’s how the character’s introduce themselves. (I'll link this Japanese-Names website as an online source for now since I'm not fluent in it myself.) The subtitles are based on the english dub of course, but it seems the japanese dub is similar on the name introductions for the most part (not a native speaker myself so I can only guess).

Spoilers for Senso if you haven't read it. I recommend you do, if really nothing else. It’s a really nice mashup of sci fi in Usagi Yojimbo, in a very “War of the Worlds” type clash. I really loved the foreword comic and the illustrations before the story. It's a really good story. Here’s a nice spoilerless review of it.

So from interviews we know that the Samurai Rabbit crew was inspired by and drew influences from six-issue book Usagi Yojimbo: Senso - you can see it in how the Makkine were designed and episode references (S2, ep 9 "Eggs!" - the falling martian ships are called eggs in “Senso”) and mainly the story outline of aliens invading edo-period japan.

So why give Yuichi Usagi a first name as a last name?

We see this backstory in "Willow Branch" in season 2.

The sword was lost. That is a storyline they included to make an interesting story out of it but to also connect the show and og comic in a different way. A "passing of the torch" in some sense, but also literally what the comic tells us about og Usagi and his swords. In Senso: "They are my soul. Pass them down to your firstborn… then to his [...] then down the line…” And in the show we see that Willow Branch is found and recovered by Yuichi and the sword accepts him as the next in line. The firstborn son.

So from this we can make the fan-theory that perhaps in the show canon, Miyamoto Usagi’s family maybe named their next firstborn in line Yuichi, to honor their forebear Miyamoto Usagi's last wish, again if we're going by the thought that this was inspired by "Senso". (Jotaro being his last surviving member in this verse possibly, we don't know here bc it's intentionally left vague to not spoil series-only viewers + keep the mystery open for anyone who decides to read the comic after the series for the first time). It could even be a possibility that they just kept that as a surname for sentimental reasons, because the family had women as first-born children for so long (if we assume based on Usagi's auntie and missing parents), but they wanted to keep that memory going for as long as possible, since the sword was lost shortly after Miyamoto saved Edo from Kagehito’s plan a 1000 years before Yuichi’s time. But that’s already just speculation from me as a fan of the cartoon.

And before die-hard comic readers swoop in, yes, in Senso the swords are not lost, but again, it’s an alternative universe story situation for the people making the show, and I find what they did was interesting.

The comic’s ending is tied into the world of “Space Usagi” as well, without spoiling it too much, which is a storyline Stan did in a space opera setting. The connection between being inspired by Senso which is tied to this story may also be why so many interviews and articles call Usagi Chronicles as inspired by Space Usagi directly, since both are spin-offs that take place in a distant future.

Or you know, it could also just be that they wanted an easy-sounding name for their main character to call that wasn't only Usagi, since they have two in the series: their own and the original.

But all in all, whether the name comes as a reference to the original comic, or from simple use of a common name, it can’t be ignored that this is just how the show calls it’s main character.

But you can still call him Yuichi, as that is what both the crew (his creators) and Stan Sakai call him when talking of both tbe Usagis. (Or, in the case of Stan, "my Usagi" and "Their/Samurai Rabbit/the show's Usagi") It could be that out of respect for the work the crew put into his series, Stan didn’t suggest more naming conventions for the character because he already liked the work and story the crew did. It could be that they put a pin in it at first and then got used to it as pre-production continued. Could even just be that he loled it right away. But I don’t find it that useful to speculate on that as much, because the cartoon we have is already made and finished how it is and well, we don’t know the exact authorial reasonings from the show crew side much, so Yuichi Usagi it is.

Though also, the way that his names are used in the show (Auntie mainly calls him Usagi and family usually adress via 1st name, Yuichi is never used mich beyond introductions) and how it's used in the interviews when talking about Miyamoto Usagi as well, it feels like they meant to give him two first names, and couldn’t decide on a surname-sounding last name so, Yuichi Usagi was left in the final script. But that's just my guess as a fan and viewer again.

Maybe other fans have had similar or better discussions about it? It would be interesting to know if the show has more japanese fans and how they find this, for example. What they think about how the show introduces him as Surname-Given Name, but then every other character switches to just calling him Usagi right away. In japan, people usually use last name+ honorifics when they have just met. But both Usagi's new friends and Usagi himself switch to first-name basis after their first day meeting each other and going through a few fights. Is it just because the show has a mostly western audience(my assumption), and we're meant to use his given name as an audience to be more familiar with him... or is it only because he's a rabbit and some of the characters (like Lord Kogane) don't really care more? Perhaps a 1000 years into the future, they've partially lost the use of some traditions?

In any case, it doesn’t feel like the show made that big of a faux pas naming Yuichi the way they did. Ould be that my guess is wrong and it wasn't as deliberate a reference to Senso. It seems a much higher possibility that they thought of that, thought it sounded nice and then kept it because it was an easy way to call him differently from comics-Usagi during production itself, but still getting to call him Usagi in the show-proper.

This is just me basing this on official interviews and the Senso book, but this just seems more likely than them picking a random name with no meaning to it. Of course, I could also be wrong, but based on interviews along, the showrunners and creative team seem so genuine in wanting to give the comic a good show that it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't research it. Or at the very least, ask about it from Stan himself or even just get a note from him about it, since he reviewed everything else. Candie and Doug (showrunners) even mention (in Comic Book Couple's Counceling podcast interview) how they really wanted to go deeper with research this time and art director Khang Le mentioned how they took a lot of cues from modern japan as well, from their research trips there.

I know this probably won't put any future discussions/rambling about this to rest among other fans, but well, just some thoughts on this. While I think it's probably kind of silly of me to be writing long essays abt a cartoon show I like, I do think it sort of warrants more discussion abt how we talk about characters and how we refer to them. For another show i'm a fan of for example, the character has an official name and a nickname, but the show itself consistently only used the nickname to let the reader be familiar with her. While characters like teachers and enemies might refer to them with their given name, even her full name, their family and friends mainly use the easier nickname. But it seemed that the reverse happened with that show's fandom, as the more unique given name became more used than the nickname the show itself gave us. And this was sorta the same thoughtprocess I had here with Usagi Chronicles.

Anyway, this has been a post x3 I meant to make this shorter and just about Senso, but I sorta started rambling more after the auntie and generations of female Usagi descendants theory x3

edit 5.05: fixed some grammar and sentence logic mistakes! added clarifications where ref was missing (CCBC podcast)

edit 13.06: I looked up the spellings for Yuichi as a last name and while it's similar, based on how it's written in the show, this supports my previous reading still. It still seems like it's meant more as a title almost, the same way naming would have been in old norse for example "Ivan's son" would become "Ivanson" or in english-language names, "Miller's son" would become "Millerson" (patronymic). So again, maybe Yuichi is meant as "first son" as the first name, but Usagi is his namesake because the family still wanted to honor their common ancestor, Miyamoto Usagi. That's the possible in-world reasoning, but with how much this crew put into the show, I wouldn't be surprised that they thought the same thing, that it's a nice way to reference the book Senso they were insired by, but also Miyamoto Usagi the character, who they were inspired by.

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rewatched the 1st episode a bit for some new things I noticed and while Usagi is great at having reflexes and noticing things in a fight... not so much in big-city traffic! sdfsdfsf this cartoon would have ended a lot sooner without Spot there

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I saw your tags in my post!!!! AND I'M SO SURE YUI PARENTS ARE DEAD!!! But they died when he was still really young so he doesn't really remember them. I'm so curious on what other people think about his childhood. In my mind he was a chaotic child who performed tricks for his Aunty.

Oh! I'm glad to hear that bc I had a similar thought over the series ^^

The way Auntie says it in the first episode, it really does sound like... she promised his parents a long time ago, and it is something much-mentioned between the two.

I actually have a theory based on Auntie's appearances and what she says, that she decided to make a kind of larger white lie about herself to Usagi, and that she is actually his grandma and for some reason has asked to be called auntie. So many if us assume that she is literally, his aunt, but the way I understand it as a non-native speaker, auntie in english can mean an elderly woman as well, regardless of actual familial connection.

there's also how the japanese dub has translated her as obaa-chan, grandma, which can be used for any older grandma-age lady too. then also how Stan Sakai calls her Usagi's grandma in interviews.

so where I'm getting to with this is that maybe it's a painful topic for her, whether it was her sibling or her own child who died, but it seems she's gone through a lot and maybe omits details about what happened to Yuichi's parents. In any case, she had made a promise to Usagi's parents and we don't know much beyond that. If we go more into headcanon than theory territory, we could expand on what's implied in the show. What if besides looking after the boy, they also asked her to promise to look after him as her own? And so she became Auntie, instead of only Grandma.

Or it could even just be a personal preference! I have an aunt thru marriage who right-off-the-bat requested to be called by name instead of "aunt" or "auntie" because those monikers felt old to her.

Perhaps for Usagi's auntie, it was similar and she felt that because he couldn't experience having parents, at least he could experience having an auntie, and that's what she asked for him to call. Not an older grandma, but an experienced auntie. Altho that's not what those words have to mean, it is just speculation from me based on how she's written. Also, because she seems to be a war veteran (the prosthetics and experienced skill despite her old age), she might have things to hide. so perhaps she prefers something familial and close what a family member would call her, but not her full or real name, as perhaps the boy's parenrs would have called her.

Just some thoughts!

My theories on what actually happened to his parents range depending on what I take as a jumping-off point for the theory. Easiest and most extreme example; Perhaps the wars were recent and they died there? Maybe they even had more kids before Usagi? Because Usagi's name also includes Yuichi tho, with the meaning of "first-born brave son", perhaps not. Another theory I had earlier in s1, is that they went to the city, related to their farm, perhaps they needed investors or were doing business of some kind. What happens next branches off - it could have been a simple mugging or other crime that left them vulnerable or hurt enough that they couldn't get help anymore.

One of the theories I have is that it is related to some gang wars that took place over 10 years before the events of the series and Usagi's 16th birthday in ep 1. I'm going to use this one in my Neo Edo Idol fanstory because it seems to fit the best there ^^ It's implied by how the three main gangs in the series basically exist in a corrupt way where they can both tell the Shogun what to so, but are also sequestered off into their of territories, that probably things weren't so great before, but under the semi-corrupt Lord Kogane, they exist in a standstill. So maybe Usagi's parents found their ends in whatever went on with the gangs 10+ years ago.

If we tie it with the fact that a big criminal was alao going around the city causing problems, mentioned in Gen and Toshiko's flashbacks about their mom's praxis, we can get another interesting connection. Maybe Usagi's parents were victims of this black wolf. There's even the theory that maybe... this could be related to Jei, known from the comics and that this character is a nod to him. Whether a descendant or a random black wolf possessed by Jei, it is an interesting nod. So 2 things could have happened. Or any number of things really! Mainly I am thinking, maybe Usagi's parents got hurt by Okami, and died then and there; Possibly, they could have been hurt by either Okami or anyone or anything else, but then couldn't get help because the city's only working hospital was closed because of him. It's interesting to think about! I hope someone else makes these connections in their Usagi Chronicles fanstories as well :)

Anyway, this became a whole big tangent answrr lol ^^; but thanks for talking about this! lolol I love talking about this sjow and Usagi's parents and what happened to them, any details about them... they are like one of the biggest unknown mysteries to me haha and it would be really cool to get something like a FAQ or some companion piece/comic where we get more fleshed-out lore for them too ^^

Of course, since the series was made inspired by Senso and Space Usagi, it's likely we'll never find out, but it's fun to think that maybe the writers, storyboarders and showrunners all hax some small ideas about his parents, and that these ideas simply weren't used for time reasons...

Thanks and feel free to ask/talk more!

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Chizu x Kitsune and why it's gay

lol i don't have a lot of energy to post but wanted to make a short fandom post anyway? I'll just briefly talk about the more memorable and emotionally important moments between these two :3

Spoilers for the entire series, but if you didn't notice stuff, might be good reminds on several things! This isn't really like a full analysis and it's not a full summary either. I just like this ship and although it seems unanimous that this is seen as a sapphic ship, I also think it's a bit underappreciated? Or perhaps it's just the show itself that needs more regard? I'm not here to defend the show or ship, just to detangle my thoughts on how their scenes together look like to my mind as a storyteller but also what the possible crew intentions could have been. This became kinda long.

So in the series, we as viewers see a lot of moments between Chizu and Kitsune that are about honesty. Or they just talk to each other and create meaningful connections with each other through these interactions. Even with smaller stuff, there's moments in each ep where they either look at each other, or to each other.

in ep 3, "Posessions" we see Usagi asking Kitsune had stolen things and Kitsune denying this about her. Then in a following scene, when she finds Chizu and asks her where she learned to fight if she just works at the temple, she admonishes Chizu for making up a bad lie for that. "You don't have to tell me the truth. But don't tell me a lie." This sounds like a very earnest moment. Like i don't have the brainspace to analyze it more right now but basically, "oh wow, there's something interesting there."

As an episode closing scene, we see Chizu exit the Murakami house/museum to go to a dark alleyway. There she meets the leader of the Neko Ninja crew (only mentioned in the 1st ep), Lady Fuwa. I love this scene for how creepy and scary it makes Fuwa ar first with her mask, but then sort of silly and laughable with her huge pom-pom head. I'm not sure if I'm reading it right, but it seems the intention was to make a dangerous but laughable villain/antagonist, almost like a Bond villain who looks ridiculous but could still kill you. Like it's obvious from this interaction that Fuwa only thinks about herself and her own goals and thinks in shallow goals (taking over Neo Edo via "controlling" the Ki-stone). Her ideas look silly from some distant point, but she still commands respect and fear with voice and demeanor.

There's the friendship candy moment/scene in ep 4, "Run Rabbit Run" and then Chizu's flashback of her trauma being raised in the Neko Ninja crew and losing her friend Kayo. Her friend gave her this same friendship candy to cheer her up, "Things will get better Chizu". I'll leave the Chizu PTSD analysis for another time bc I feel like I could probably do with reading up on the comic to also see what the inspiration for this all could have been (+ I'm just not up to write that much tonight). The point of the scene overall is to establish a stronger connection between the two main characters as well as show us the viewer a more fleshed-out reason for Chizu's background as a Neko Ninja. Someone who's high-ranking enough to go on a stealth mission into the temple housing the Ki-Stone which provides the entirety of Neo Edo its power. But also someone who really does not enjoy being a ninja or being dishonest. Someone who's a little unsure and incredibly lonely among her ninja kin.

The flashback is a reminder for Chizu that friendship is a luxury. I also feel we're meant to take it from here that both of them value friendships in similar but different ways. Or that friendship is something lacking for both but they see it slightly differently. Neither has had many friends before, or any at all (we find out later that Kitsune only had a "ghost friend" and presumably her puppets) but they express valuing their team members in different ways. Kitsune gives friendship candy to everyone, even Spot, while Chizu just tags along in the service of her own motives/plot while pretending she's too aloof and doesn't care enough to do anything more than fight yokai. But here when Kitsune says "aren't you gonna eat that" after Chizu leaves her startled PTSD flashback she just says, "Maybe one day" with a smile. So here we see a setup by the writers that this friendship candy is important for Chizu and that she wants to continue being a real friend of Kitsune, or at the least, have any real friends at all.

Chizu goes back to the dojo to exchange info and receive more instructions from Lady Fuwa. We have a small scene where after this, she shares a moment with a random Neko Ninja kid training in the dojo in the background. She takes her mask off, tired from the training and is immediately admonished by Lady Fuwa. This kid slightly resembles Kayo, Chizu's childhood friend. Same outfit, different cat fur pattern but similar colorscheme. A kindred spirit. (I actually have a little theory about this, but that's for later, maybe a short fanfic). We can see that unlike the other adults at the dojo, Chizu still has some compassion left despite her training.

We have a moment in "Run Rabbit Run" where it's subtly established that although we haven't seen much threat or action from the ninja, they're considered "bad actors" in the city. So much so that every other gang in the city is afraid of just Chizu on her own (without her friends knowing she's apart of this crew). To us the viewers they are a little unknown but it's implied that the entirety of the city fears them.

Then there's the big reveal scene at the end of ep 5, "Common Sensei"

Chizu's betrayal, the surprise from all her new friends, and a genuine expression of disbelief from Kitsune (the "no...")

And then at the start of the next episode, "Nobody Likes a Ninja" the focus is immediately on Kitsune, on the other end of Chizu pointing a hand-crossbow at her.

And you can see the hurt in Kitsune's eyes.

So here as viewers we can make the basic connection that this betrayal hurt more than anything else that night. And the entire one half a plot of the episode we spend with the two of them as Chizu tries to apologize or make up to Kitsune somehow.

The rest of the season is spent focusing on other characters and relationships and setting up season 2. A really important part of this is the rescue of Hana, one of the only kids who Chizu saw training in the Neko Ninja dojo who didn't really take to all the fighting and training to be spies and assassins. Hana essentially becomes like a little sister to both Chizu and Usagi through the handful of episodes she's in and is taken under the wing of Usagi's auntie, sent to safety at her farm away from the city.

Then in s2 we see how much time the crew spends together after the "world has been saved" from the big butterfly hand in the sky. We see Chizu and Kitsune acting like longer-time friends already as well as Kitsune raising a "little sister" now - Kiyoko. Basically the rest of the team finds confusing and weird at first but gets used to Kiyoko quickly. Chizu mainly expresses worry but goes along with this as slowly this "little sister" (to avoid too many spoilers) is treated more and more like the other smaller kids in their home. By season 2, Usagi and the other characters see Gen and Toshiko's house as a home and treat each other as basically family. Mostly they're all still close friends, but to Kitsune especially, this has now become family. While Chizu had an abusive childhood living and training under the Neko Ninja crew, Kitsune is portrayed as having been homeless and a street performer. So to her, having new friends she can not only trust her life with but also just spend nice peaceful times with, is mega-important. So in "The Fuzzy Pony" (s2, ep 3) we have the kids playing and Chizu and Kitsune talking about it, the latter commenting, "We have a nice little family going here."

In this same episode, while playing with Kiyoko, Usagi realizes that him and her share a birthday (bc of the happenings in the series' first ep) and how they could celebrate those together ("Joint birthday parties!!") Kitsune responds with how Kiyoko would like that and how she wants to give Kiyoko everything she never had, including birthdays. Gen and Usagi are surprised about this but Kitsune is completely non-chalant about it. ("Nah, I dunno when I was born. No birthday, no party, no biggie.") This sends Gen and Usagi on a big side-plot to organize a surprise birthday party for Kitsune.

After seeing Hana play with the other "kids" of the household, Chizu thinks about the rest of the Neko Ninja children and decides to save them as well, alone this time (Usagi was along the first time). Kitsune secretly comes along to this to support her (and also to see Chizu fight, to see some action in general). There's a really fun scene between them which I can't really summarize perfectly enough, you'd have to see it yourself. But the point is, Kitsune willingly came along on her own. "Hey. I'm an orphan and orphans help orphans. I'm not asking for your permission." And there's an understanding between them that they're going to do this together. and oh man it's so sweet, I wish someone posted this scene up on youtube cuz it's just so ougghghghhh it's so sweet!!!! aaa!!

When before in "Run Rabbit Run", Kitsune was more careful with fighting crowds of regular citizens or gang members with an impulsive and untrained Usagi, here with Chizu she feels confident and is also willing to tag along, even if the potential enemies are trained ninja. To cut the summary shorter. the kids don't believe them and think it's a loyalty-test from Fuwa.

In this episode, as a last-ditch effort to save the ninja kids, Chizu challenges Fuwa to a death match duel, for the leadership of the crew. Although Kitsune is threatened and captured here, to make her watch the match, she frees herself and gleefully cheers Chizu on, demanding a complete smackdown for Fuwa. I thought this was cute. Kitsune is so violent about this duel as an "audience member" but even before during Truly Chizu would be like the 85 % of Kitsune's impulse control (this is an old meme, look it up). Chizu wins in the end and Kitsune is elated, like in a "great, lets go home, we have so much to tell the others" kind of way, but Chizu stops her. Now that she's won and become Lady Chizu, she has to stay with the Neko Ninja crew. And Kitsune is devastated, what do you mean you won but can't come home??

"But that.... that would break up our family- I mean, our team" and ouuuhhhhh, this was heartbreaking to watch. I really love this ep for the character moments between these two, ouhghhh /sob

They say their goodbyes and hug. The quiet "come home when you can" is so bittersweet it made me want to cry. She goes to the birthday party, with a note saying she's supposed to meet her friends there, still pent up. Not so much from the dojo fight, but from fact that she's not going to see Chizu anymore. So much so that she attacks the birthday balloons almost cuts the surprise party guests with her fans. It's shown as really sad. Like you can see from Toshiko, Usagi and the staff member's faces that they weren't expecting this kind of reaction from this birthday girl.

But guess what? Chizu showed up at the party as "Ohayou Pony" as a surprise party gift for Kitsune's new birthday party! this was another sillier but also nice moment because you get to see the characters really happy despite the circumstances.

So after this episode, I definitely felt, "there's no way these two aren't at least girlfriends" and also, it genuinely felt like the status quo of the show was going to legitimately change. in the following episodes we actually do see Chizu a bit less, unless it's a life-threatening situation or we see her more with the Neko Ninja.

There are some smaller moments inbetween eps which you can see yourself if you watch the series cuz this psot is long enough already ^^; For example, in ep 15, Kitsune goes to tell Chizu of the whole invaders situations to get the ninja crew on their side and I find the way they look at each other or how Chizu huffs a laugh at Kitsune trying to lighten the mood really sweet if tiny moments altogether.

in ep 17 "Willow Branch" they get to use their new kaikishi weapons more and fight against ghosts. Chizu mis-calculates and accidentally almost takes a shot at Kitsune. For "levity" it only hits her eyelash, but Chizu is worried and embarrased all the same.

then in s2, ep 8 "The Chizu Stands Alone", where the ninja crew basically turns on Chizu, there's another interesting moment where there is one last ninja ("Fumiko") who is left with Chizu against all the turncoats, but then leaves (another thing to leave to my theory posts), only to return with an ally in turn. Kitsune with the newly-built mech that Tetsujin built. How did this ninja know to get Kitsune specifically? Yeah, okay, she is the only one who can pilot it, but still! This was nice too because we're shown how the two of them are walking home via the mech and talking about what happened. How Chizu felt like maybe she was making a difference but now feels like she didn't change anything about the ninja crew at all, but Kitsune reminds her that the kids are safe and that's actually a big thing. It's still about the orphans with these two and the ninja crew storyline.

There's also a nice moment in the finale ("Invasion!") where Chizu goes to help Kitsune out of her mech after it's damaged in the big fight. The rest of the scenes with them together are mostly focused on their little family team of 5 afterwards.

So yeah, just a little view at some of the moments I remember in the series that cemented the relationship as a pairing for me! You can comment and reblog with tags or comments if you noticed anything else as well :] A lot of these moments are really sold by some of the solid writing and the excellent acting by Shelby Rabara and Mallory Low as Kitsune and Chizu respectively.

Also, this is just something I saw on twitter, but one of the main writers, Jeffrey Reddick (who also wrote the series finale) also quote-retweetd some of the promo tweets about Usagi Chronicles. He has mainly been a horror writer so far, but the important thing for me that I noticed on his profile, is that Reddick is openly gay. Although there are probably always going to be queer members in cartoon crews, we don't ever actually know that for sure usually and speculating on stranger's identities is pointless beacause well, it's just a fun cartoon, I can sense queer vibes from it whether the crew themselves are queer or not. But I also feel like some of them being seen as openly queer makes it easier to see that some parts of a show could be intentionally written with queerness in mind.

So I do believe the slightly 90s style* queer-coding was no accident :D

*(or whatever we wanna call it - it feels a little older - "show don't tell")

Overall, this ship just feels really sapphic in an old pre-Steven Universe kind of way... like I would have totally un-knowingly shipped this as a kid before really knowing anything about myself or others or even words to use about it. Basically, they are a pair. do not separate. And I think it's sweet that it exists at all, bc it really is subtle. I know in online fandoms it can feel like we don't need this kind of storytelling since we have more openly queer cartoons too, but I think for the sake of even just variety alone, it's good to have this kind of lightly queercoded story-telling wrapped inside an action cartoon too next to everything else in the mix of both cartoon and general other media we have today. I also find that this way it is easier for future queer kids to realize this about their old favourite cartoon Usagi Chronicles that it was queer. .... In a kind of roundabout way? I'm thinking about situations where more openly queer cartoons like Steven Universe or Owl House would be banned in more conservative households. I knew a little cousin for example whose parents were very particular about the cartoons they let their kids watch and so more "high-energy" cartoons like cartoon network stuff was banned entirely. So I don't know if this would actually happen in real life, but this is just one scenario i'm thinking of.

Of course you can still interpret it as *only* friends too I suppose but you can't deny that they're important to each other in more ways. Like if this was a straight ship, we would be getting ship manifestos left and right. Or maybe fanfic. They'd be called the mom and dad of the family, etc. and although that's a simple way to put it, that also shows feels like proof of intention. The soundtrack also becomes beautiful and on-point whenever there are important scenes with them together, which just adds to the "it's queer" picture.

I'm sure I'll find a better way to write about this but right now I just wanted to list everything I remembered off the top of my head. They have so many of these sweet and everyday moments as well as heavier or more serious and plot-driven moments, it's so nice to see. Usagi Chronicles in general is a very character driven show and these two are the strongest characters in the cast. I only wish we had gotten more moments or flashbacks even with Kitsune, but I suppose she is the kind of character who wouldn't even need flashbacks. But that means she just stays mysterious until we find out more info about her (again, I know she's based on the ideas we have from the character Kitsune in the Usagi Yojimbo comic, but still. At least to me, she feels like a flesjed-out character in the cartoon show, so it would have been cool to see more of her and some other characters like Gen too. On the other side, looking at these episode summaries here, it does feel like the cast balances each other out nicely.

Anyway, leave me a comment if u liked this! Maybe I will do other analysis abt other parts of the series later when I feel like it :) I've been a bit sick the past two weeks so I haven't been in the mood to draw but I will probably still have a bit of energy to write some simpler things so who knows, might write on other Usagi Chronicles topics!

Happy Friend Day and Happy Valentines!

[drawnaghht]

redoing some old drafts a bit for later posting and seeing old screenshots of the show and

ugh, why i sthis show so good!!!

[drawnaghht]

remembered that the anniversary is this friday! and i had made posts for that! but also sdfsdf i am fashionably late as always and have not started on my own redraw.

anyway, Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles has it's first anniversary on April 28th!! Gonna do a redraw and call it #UsagiChroniclesDay and hope people will join :3

No strict rules, but easiest thing to do is to have a screenshot from the show and redraw it in your own style! :D

And if you prefer to draw something new, it would be nice if it was mainly the cast from Samurai Rabbit. Maybe even the crew will see it if it trends on twitter or something. I think that'd be cool!

might finish my Usagi Chronicles reanimate who knows! here's a WIP of it as a promo post:

I've been working on this one since february, but it can just be something simple too! Like a screenshot in the Chibi Usagi style or world for example, or adding more characters in with a new sketch! Lets make this fancollab happen! haven't seen what tag people prefer so I'm gonna stick with #UsagiChroniclesday for now!

[drawnaghht]

tag guide anyone? + differentiating between usagis (thinkpiece)

I'm really just curious now if something like a "tagging guide" would help? If you would like this, or know if anyone else has posted something like this, sound off in the comments or like/reblog to agree ^^ 

I posted a poll about this on twt and it looks like 13 so far really want one, so I’m putting a lil test post around here too. I also found while researching for this post that apparently on tumblr, the first 20 tags show up in search! so I guess they changed that from 5 to 20 at some point. huh. that’s a bit more helpful than just 5 tags!

I’ve noticed sometimes people have no idea what to tag with a show like Usagi Chronicles that is less than 2 years old and is based on existing IP, but also that ppl use a lot of tags in general, perhaps confused about what is the “main tag” or most used tag for a character in rottmnt for example. So I started writing a little tag guide, which I’ll post the draft of at the bottom this thinkpiece. The main issue around tumblr seems to be excessive mis-tagging or multi-tagging i.e when a character isn’t there. I think I’ve seen this in some other fandoms too (primarily bigger fandmos), but I’m not gonna get too deep into it. You can skip to “tagging guide” via CTRL+F to search it on the page. I’ve also included a little character “separator” part with graphics, cuz it seems some are having trouble seeing the characters differently from fanart alone. I thought it would help to post more of the “source” materials ^^

Also if you have problems differentiating between the two in general…aside from both being white long-eared rabbits they are almost as different as night and day, at least on the surface ^^;; Here is a helpful post by Freakova, about how to tell the difference between Miyamoto Usagi and Yuichi Usagi, ancestor and descendant respectively: 

https://freakova.tumblr.com/post/707461151549702144/i-made-this-for-my-besties-to-help-explain-the

But I kinda get it! Especially if characters are intentionally obfuscated a bit (e.g. there are characters in the show who can’t tell between Miyamoto and Yuichi Usagi, but it is mostly used as plot hook/humor). But they have different names and characteristics and slightly differing fanbases on a site like tumblr, so separating them in tags is helpful. I think part of it also comes from the name confusion, but I already wrote a post about that. Imo, if you have your own design already and it looks like neither of the two characters, you can just use “Rise Usagi” or “rottmnt Usagi” or other variations as tags, those are popular and used enough already that you don’t need to use the main character tags ^^

Personally, I would only like to see Yuichi Usagi in his own tags when it applies (he’s in the pic/fic), but if he’s not, well, what are you doing tagging him there?

I also get that some newer/younger TMNT fans apparently didn’t know the Usagi characters are from their own franchise for a short while last year (but ppl probably learned, right? I’ve literally only seen posts/tweets asking what the series is abt and unrelated posts exasperated that ppl don’t know) but visually they’re quite distinct, even if they are all white rabbits. I’ll post these comparisons just so I can use the tags properly and not piss off anyone else.

We have the original Usagi and his 1000-years later descendant.

Stan Sakai based Miyamoto Usagi largely on his childhood inspiration of samurai films, mainly “Samurai Trilogy” starring Mifune Toshiro playing Miyamoto Musashi, a real-life samurai who inspired many other films and adaptations. You can hear more about how Stan created Usagi here in this Portland Art Museum video where he explains and draws his Usagi. The story usually goes that he drew a rabbit with a chonmage (the edo-period top-knot) and suddenly, Usagi was born.

In the show he has a slightly older-looking design? but in the comics his look varies slightly because the series has been going for 40 years and the character has developed over the pages. so he can look slightly different cover to cover, page to page, but mostly it’s all him, the same character, just different situations, life periods and emotions. So he can look different in official material depending which publication period you start reading from, but mostly the same. 

Then we have both the Miyamoto Usagi’s in different animated mediums,

And Yuichi in different media (show itself in 3D and 2D and merch by Stan)

And then there’s also Jotaro (very important Usagi Yojimbo character introduced early on/vol 1) and Yamamoto Yukichi(introduced in later stories/vol 4), who I think people aren’t mixing up with any of the previous rabbits yet, but who knows, i don’t look through absolutely all the tags myself after all and tumblr seems to have a problem of not showing much older posts in the public tag search anymore, so I can’t find older posts I used to see anymore ^^;

More thoughts on tagging + being a fan under cut. 

This … is not really a vent or analysis post, I can't get that upset about it myself. with real life worries etc - fandom is supposed to be a fun outlet for creativity, at least for me. So I try not to feel anything about it. But tagging has always seemed fairly straight-forward to me and it’s mostly to organize a blog/find other people with similar interests. Writing non-structured non-essays is basically how I interact with a piece of media when I feel like fanart is not enough. And because tumblr posts now apparently Do Not HAve Limits, this is a better alternative to tag rambles.

-------------------

So when I saw the post about the Miyamoto Usagi tag I remembered that this was why I didn’t use the “follow tag” feature + the “your tags” tab as much myself (aside from not having it before and not being used to it on tumblr). Because usually with bigger fandoms, people do mis-tag or tag their other shows/fandoms into it without including the main character, this happens on occasion because there are a lot of people using the tag. I also don’t follow the Leosagi tag anymore for the same reason, that people can’t seem to differentiate between the characters and it becomes hard to tell what they want to post or which character they are talking about/drawing ^^;

As pointed out by Tamalinvonpineapple's post about it, people mis-tag Yuichi Usagi and Miyamoto Usagi and that’s a problem for people who would like to see just one of those characters but not mis-tagged as the other. I’m not gonna assume these are made in bad faith e.g. intentionally to piss off other fans, cuz there can be so many different reasons for people doing this. This post is also not gonna get into ship tags much because that is a contentious topic and tbh, left for a separate thinkpiece (I also already wrote smth abt tags for myself).

I tried to find out more possible reasons for mistagging in general or what the general consensus on tumblr is about tagging but it seems (or we can assume) it is a “bad practice” from how social media sites have given a slightly different use for tags tiktok/instagram/twitter - “tag for reach” - so like those social media accounts for companies that spam other tags. I do see this in anime/manga fandoms occasionally. Not just for the different spellings of characters (e.g, when a dub would give the character a new name; japanese vs western way of writing names) but specifically when 1 character is the only one there and the tags then have 30 other characters listed as well so the post/media would show up in search. But I wonder where this habit is from? Aren’t people curious to see what other tags their character/show have? I remember that on sites like blogger, we only tagged so that we could find things later, so people often made their own custom tags, i.e. "my work on the show" or "midnight doodlies". if a show got tagged, for example TMNT or Usagi, it would probably get 1-word/1-phrase tag (i.e. “turtles” “turtlies” “mutant turtles”) or just the series title tag - either the abbreviation or full name of a series/comic/cartoon depending on content. When it comes to tumblr tags, I remember getting annoyed at NOTPs permeating the tags as well. Or just posts about other seriesM multi-crossovers where your blorbo is only there to die, but then is still tagged after that; edits that have no relation to the character but they share a name or tag for whatever reason and you keep seeing these unrelated posts in the tags. I’ve seen more than enough from almost any of the fandom tags I’ve visited on tumblr. So I get how annoying mistagging itself can be.

But basically in regards to tags on tumblr itself, it seems people misuse them mainly because they don't know or don't like the tags for the other shows. Folks also like to see their posts get to as many people as possible, which I understand, I do the same on instagram, cuz that’s what I’ve learned by other artists example. Seems to make sense that more tags = more views. On tumblr, this sort of doesn’t always work this way. I could post a drawing from a popular cartoon and get maybe 5 notes total in 12 years, while a scribble I deemed too ugly to tag properly might get 54 notes on it’s first day. It’s almost like a Murphy’s Law of Tumblr that what you expect to do well, doesn’t. It’s just how it is here and I’m so used to it, it feels weird to complain about it, even on other sites with actual algorhitms and working apps etc.

Well, as a fan of the Usagi Chronicles show, perhaps what makes me more sad is that this has had the adverse effect of older TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo fans being so angry that they can’t stand the show/character itself now, even if they already disliked it before seeing other fans post about it. Which is just plain sad because some people even make up stuff about it just to discredit it as a show that Stan Sakai worked on. I understand that people have different reasons to dislike the show, most probably valid, but they also assume many things about it, to the point of stating them as fact when the opposite is true. I have… a different post about it. In general, we can say that being online seems to be the common thread between fans annoyed at fans.

In some ways, what’s even sadder however is an empty or unactive tag. Imagine that the last post you saw in that tag is still the one from 2013 you made yourself. It’s a bit annoying seeing people mistag or post unrelated fanart in it but hey, maybe this means they also read the tag? A chance to educate or get more views on your own fandom? Just a chance for communication? I know that doesn’t seem very appealing when those same fans are the ones mis-using the tag, but it just seems better than something completely empty. Of course, this is not a problem for TMNT fandoms perhaps, but from my experience in smaller fandoms, or being a fan of smaller/less popular media. And with how much there is mainly ship-related posts in almost all the Usagi Chronicles tags, this seems to be a matching experience I’ve been having so far in the Usagi tags. The comic series tag itself is also often full of other things, or only ship things, or sometimes only TMNT things for a short bit, but overall, I guess at least people use it?? But I would still like it that Samurai Rabbit, SRTUC, etc stuff gets tagged with those tags so I can actually find it instead of combing through multiple tags at a time just to see something new. While the newer “Your tags” feature on tumblr makes this a bit easier, I can see the easy annoyance at when people tag a character but then don’t include the character. and to add insult to injury, they tag a different character, but without acknowleding the first character at all.

But this is now like a joint fandom for a crossover for two franchises which have had crossovers before and now… there’s sort of a joint fandom? Sort of? So because it’s a bit bigger, it feels nice when other fans are considerate of small things like tagging. Now, on the whole, while many do still mistag and the leosagi tag is still mainly yuichi x leo for many, I’ve also seen in my own tagscrambles that not as many do this as much anymore, or going through a tag in time, the newer stuff seems to do this less. So like I’ve written in previous posts, my honest hope is just that fandom will adapt and grow into healthier online habits. Still, there are a few other things in the tags that I just can’t help but notice each time. it’s also why I don’t bother too much with repeat-viewing tags unless I’m looking for something specific.

It often feels like people just make up their own versions of any Usagi and/or write off the show as “too bad to watch”. And. idk, this just makes me feel sad about it because as mentioned above, I’ve seen it before in other smaller fandoms I’m in. In transformative works, it’s fairly normal that people make their own versions of a show or it’s characters, because that’s something fun to do with fanart and fic. But to openly hate a character? idk man, just feels weird to me personally. Like I don’t have the energy for hatedom. I know my little sibling really gets into hating one series that really disappointed her as a viewer, but even she now says that it’s an odd way to spend time, when she could be making fanart of something she likes instead. And I get that. I also spent my earlier non-internet days being more hateful of new media I disliked at the start, and while expressing that isn’t always bad (it’s just an iopinion), it became weirdly detrimental to me actually enjoying stuff in my tweens. Everything me and my friends and their friends ever talked about, was related to somehow being more above others or knowing better than others, being hateful of anything new or popular. And without quite realizing it right away, that was really tiring. Even if I spent time on things I did like, hobbies I enjoyed, that hate and childhood snobbishness sorta simmered there. I remember that for me it mainly came from “oh, I want to be a real animator one day, I should act like a real profesional adult and always be critical of the media I view, because that’s how I see adults treat real serious film.” Fast-forward 15 years, I’ve been through making comics as a tween, making fanart as a teen, I’ve been making a lot of different kinds of “cartoon art” in general as well as some actual art education, thinking, maybe I want to have some more general art schooling too. Later in my mid-twenties, I met someone with this similar mindset to my childhood self, who at first I got along with. We laughed at cartoons we didn’t like and made fun of the bad endings of those we did. At some point, I listened to them talking about getting to visit a big animation festival. And how they completely unironically expressed their hate directly at a leading crew member of a cartoon they didn’t like. And then I realized like. Wait a fucking minute. I don’t wanna act like this to other people! And this is why I don’t really “shoot the shit” about cartoons I don’t like as publicly anymore as I maybe once would have online on tumblr etc. Like I just don’t get it anymore. At most I’ll write down my thoughts somewhere private or to friends and try to understand why I don’t like the thing. And if it’s a very simple dislike, I just don’t spend time on it.

So like, I don’t get the hate the show (SRTUC) and character(Yuichi Usagi) get. Like I can understand sort of where people are coming from. but I don’t get why they gotta publicly tag it, announce it, or put it in the reblogged tags sometimes. the og poster sees that after all? so that’s like a bigger thought for me when it comes to tags.

I believe people can learn to be nice about a show they don’t like, but if they start to feel annoyed at fandom parts of the web they see online, they also start to feel hate toward a specific show, even if the show or thing itself might not be as bad. Example - I have this toward Star Wars for example, it’s a big fandom. I feel indifferent now, but in my youth, I found it annoying that everyone was talking about it as if it was the best thing ever, when it was spoiled for most of my childhood for me, and also felt like a generic movie series after all that. Something growing in popularity, or being really popular in a niche fandom can make ppl dislike it in general and that’s fairly ordinary as fandoms go. Often, people just don’t like a popular thing. Just think of series of like GoT/ASoIaF or HP. But then again those go down the cultural road so easily, I suppose in countries where western-media is really popular/common, it becomes like a cultural osmosis and fans can assume *everyone* likes it, even if not everyone does. I’m thinking about the fresh 30+ dads from 10 years ago I read about who only interacted with their kids through their own nerd interests. Pokemon is such a culturally permeated thing, it’s everywhere and everyone seems to assume everyone has played it or at least knows about it, even if at some point, some of us were big fans of Digimon instead, or some don’t like it at all. At some point, my dad gifted me a Harry Potter book, even though I (non-vocally) disliked it, but it was in the cultural osmosis here so strongly that it was everywhere and he just assumed I was into it (bless his heart, he genuinely didn’t know). HP was something that I initially disliked because it was so popular, but the idea of a “basic magic premise, but extended” seemed interesting, and it was required reading in my middle school, so at 11, I went to see the movie and thought, alright, maybe I’ll give it a chance. But reading the book I found things that didn’t make sense to me, that didn’t match what seemed like the themes of the book (the whole slave freedom plot for example) so I always sort of kept it at arms-length - not quite getting into it, but also not turning it away if I found anything, not saying anything upsetting to people who were fans of it. Everyone at my school read it though to varying degrees, or at least everyone knew things about it even if they weren’t fans or weren’t invested at all. (This was all before we knew JKR is a vocal TERF, so now I feel a bit validated in my dislike, even if I feel sad for the fans who got something positive out of the series).

So point being, fandom can have different types of people in it. A type of media will often accrue a specific type of fan and sometimes it won’t match what the show itself puts out. E.g. fans acting in ways that go squarely against what the media talks about (Steven Universe is a popular show with many fans that comes to mind), or a show having an unexpected viewership next to it’s intended demographic (us 90s kids still being cartoon fans in our late 20s/30s/early 40s). It’s slightly unpredictable in a general way. 

Of course, TMNT fandom is a bit different from those bigger properties because it was an indie comic made in the 80s that was so different and off-the-wall indie for a comicbook, it sold out and gave its creators Eastman and Laird a hefty legacy, lasting careers and actual money. Good for them! Personally I think it’s thanks to how genuinely creative and collaborative their work was then. Like Usagi Yojimbo, it’s an old comicbook/franchise now, so the “fandom” as such differs from generation to generation, from childhood to childhood. I met the turtles for the first time with the 87 series in the early 90s, then the next time w the 2003 series, which i initially hated as that angry, cartoon-critical tween, but was surprised at how much it seemed to take from the comics. I think I was initially angry about it for different reasons, mainly, “why is it so serious? why are the jokes so lame?” and also because I had invested so much emotionally into the idea of seeing something as good as the 80s cartoon again... but then found that it grew on me and now 20 years later I can look at it with nostalgia. As a result, my reaction to the 2012 series was mostly “wow another TMNT cartoon?” and “huh it looks interesting” and “oh I’ve seen this person work on another cartoon before”. My little sibling on the other hand only saw the 2003 cartoon and their reaction the the 2012 adaptation was “Wow, THEY’RE FINALLY TEENS” because as kids, we thought the 2003 TMNT looked and sounded “too much like boring adults”. But from many online fanspaces back then a lot of the more vocal reactions was around “THE 3D IS SO UGLY” and “WHY ARE THEY SO YOUNG”. You’ve probably heard similar sentiments of various degrees if you’ve been a fan or viewer of any TMNT cartoon. 

Usagi Yojimbo is unique in this sense because Stan Sakai has been the only one drawing and writing the comicbook for 40 years. Some of the visual style and writing tone change from book to book, but it’s gradual because Stan has changed as an artist and writer too. If you look at any comic series like this, it’s actually a natural part of many comics i.e. webcomics used to be a prominent example of this, as the creators were often complete novices at the beginning and graduated to a more consistent style. But even from a surface level view, lets say, reading other people’s reviews, you can see that people really enjoy Usagi Yojimbo for how consistent it is with it’s treatment of its characters, story and Edo-period culture. Stan Sakai really does his research and puts respect back into fiction inspired by samurai. Even though guides will often tell you that you can jump into the series from any point in the series, there’s just something really consistent about it as a whole. Sakai gets to do whatver he wants with his books and what he does seems to be thought-out usually. Even if the early animated adaptations were a bit incorrect, comic readers in general have a lot of respect for Stan and his work. My favourite part about this all is how Usagi Yojimbo is actually used to teach about japanese culture in a college course in the US.

Because both TMNT and UY are originally creator-owned comics (still so with UY regardless of publisher or adaptations but not so much TMNT as Viacom bought the rights in 2009), perhaps the general fan experience is more similar to original comics fandoms in Japan. Although whether a series is creator-owned varies from series to series, the manga and magazines culture in Japan seems wholly different from what US comicbooks were in the 80s and even what they still are now in that regard. Because a series will more often be written and illustrated by the same creator/artist/team, there are less variations and book-to-book differences both visually and tonally. In the US, a comicbook series can start with an artist-writer team, but then switch if the editorial decides some change is needed. This is something that often affects consistency and a story or character’s canon eventually and in a convoluted way, it’s the reason why we got “alternate earths” and “multiverse crossovers”. Which, while fun, make american comicbooks hard to read for some newer readers. Even with TMNT, once Eastman and Laird started having less time to make the comics and their other problems, it led into breaking off their creative partnership and never speaking again. But they had to continue the comic. If before the feud, they would just have fun passing the pages between each other, now they actually  so they wrote it he series became different based on who was writing it. One more sci-fi leaning and one more martial-arts and mysticism leaning. You can see this difference in the TMNT animated adaptations as well. The 2003 series namely is more based on Laird’s storylines in the comics and he was also consultant on the series. After the 2009 sale of Mirage to Viacom, we get the 2012 series, where Eastman acts as consultant, so it’s more heavy on his ideas of what the TMNT are. In 2019, the documentary series “Toys that made us” brought them together for the first time in almost 2 decades. And then we fans got to have The Last Ronin, a collaboration between the two again.

(What I’ve paraphrased here is mostly based on this video overview of how the comic became a franchise “How did a violent indie comic become a $15,000,000,000 franchise?” by matttt if you’re interested in seeing and hearing a more picturesque summary of this)

So getting back to fandom, because it’s mostly been one comicbook series, both the more avid and casual UY comics fans might not be used to there being adaptations of Stan’s Usagi. Yes, even with the visual examples I brought up above, perhaps some simply haven’t seen the animated adaptations because these are still marketed “for kids”. This is like the only reason I can think of that people who are 30+ adults, go online to complain about the Chronicles series online, even though it’s obviously for kids, meaning they probably didn’t even watch it. Folks are “surprised” Stan “let Netflix ruin his series” etc - even if it’s explicitly in a new futuristic setting to avoid affecting the comics canon. It will be interesting to know how people react when or if Sakai puts out his “Kagemusha” anthology, where the idea is about different creators telling different Usagi stories.

Even TMNT fans, many of whom don’t know Usagi beyond the animated adaptations, might jump in with this similar mindset of “different = bad”. Maybe there’s a manga/anime adaptation out there with the fans having similar concerns about their adaptations. Sailor Moon comes to mind, but as always, people’s grievances with an adaptation may have good reasons underneath. But also I’ve personally never seen an avid Sailor Moon fans be as annoying as the casual Star Wars fan. It might also depend on the age and lifestyle of the fan. Someone who is a teacher or parent, maybe they’ve met more people, put more thought into it, might feel milder about new or different things vs someone who is used to going online to see people angry and enjoys getting into arguments.

If I start to think about it, I can get a similar reaction out of myself. It was hard to look at mid-00s fanart of Usagi because it always felt a bit “extreme” like fans changed things about Usagi to suit their own understanding or image of samurai, which was always more based on popular movies or anime rather than the comic. I think this is just a general thing about fanart over the times. I still balk at some fanart, either UY or SRTUC, if for example the sides of the clothes are opposite - right over left, for burials vs left over right, like the letter ‘y’ - because it just means the fanartist didn’t bother to look up even references. Most times people just don’t know about this sort of stuff, they might be anime fans or they might even be part of a different asian culture, but it it’s not something that’s taught, of course it won’t reflect in something like fanart. But then, it’ll just be something new to learn. To me it also speaks of a wider annoyance of people liking things only for the surface-level appeal.

Usagi Yojimbo I’ve noticed has much more of a fanbase than fandom. I know fanbase doesn’t get used much as a term these days as more and more media gets an active fandom rather than staying at a fanbasem but it’s a term I’d like to use in this case. “The Wilkes Beacon” in 2014 defines the difference so: “Not everything with a fanbase has a fandom, because a fandom is a group of committed fans who are always vocally interested in their “thing,” usually expressing that on a social website such as Tumblr. Just because you’re a fan doesn’t mean the fandom will accept you.” Indeed sometimes fandom feels almost like being in a separate part of the club, only for people in the know about it. The origin for fanbase is attributed to early 20th century baseball fans. The origin of fandom, most well-known as a portmanteau of fan + kingdom, is often attributed to the original Sherlock Holmes fans who actually gathered to mourn the character when Arthur Conan Doyle decided to kill him off (bless your hearts and souls, sometimes it feels like fandom has never changed) but also from early 20th century sports fans and 60s Trekkies, who saved their show. A lot of different sources give different origins and histories for these words and many will also equate them as synonymous.

My own experiences tell me that a fanbase is more general - any fans of a thing, whether they attend conventions, buy the media or no (i.e. Sherlock Holmes readers, sports fans) and will comprise the “base” of any activity - the larger number of fans that exist for a piece of media/sport/celebrity. A fandom will be the more “active” part, more interested in being connected with each other within that fanbase. Of course, to any other person outside of fans, both of these will be synonymous and a fan will look weird and fanatical regardless of how little they invest themselves into a media. But I’’m making this distinction to describe what I see as more casual and more active “fanbase as a whole”. Fanbase as a word feels more general, while Fandom sounds more specific. So as an example, the One Piece “fanbase” might feel large and more everywhere, like with pokemon or Sherlock Holmes the book, but the OP fandom can feel more active and particitative, like the .It’ll depend entirely on what way each person interacts with the media. Do you have friends who are also fans of the series? it’s like a fandom. You just watch it but don’t participate as much? You’re in the fanbase, but you might partake in fandom activities if you feel like it. You might be a more casual fan, but you might have more avid feelings about the series as well, but you’re not that interested in making fanworks or posts or reacting to other fans at all. A fandom might be big, but more ubiquitous, more silent and conversely, some fandoms may be small, but still very active and vocal. I’ve often theorized that this is because So UY online fandom sorta feels like the latter, but more under-the-radar. Small and active but also more silent and appreciative. With the previous “big fandoms” example, it’s also the juxtaposition between Old and New that comes into play. An old Spidey fan from the 70s might have become an official Spiderman fanartist, but they might not partake in all the fan stuff they used to anymore. Still a fan, but maybe the newer and younger “fandom” as such is just not appealing to them in the same way.

The larger or more advertised a TV series or book is, the larger and more annoying its fanbase in general. If a piece of media has less popularity, it will ergo have a smaller fanbase and sometimes no “active fandom” at all. So now with the Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles TV show as an animated spinoff-adaptation, we have a similar problem that TMNT fans have been familiar with over the decades. Thanks to the show, there’s a more active, slightly younger fandom who want to connect over the series and maybe even read the comicbook, know more about the source and origins, they might want to even know how the show was made, make fanart or fic. So fans like any other, but just that the media they’re a fan of now, is still relatively new. Maybe these newer fans act or write differently online from how older fans are used to. Maybe they even treat the original source comic differently or just don’t know anything about it. In any case, new series and new fans will generally seem annoying because culturally that’s what we’ve started to associate some of fandom with. Otaku culture etc. So it and it’s fans might get the “new thing” treatment as mentioned above with the TMNT animated adaptations.

The difference here is that Stan Sakai has been wanting his own animated adaptation for a long time (just look at the Space Usagi pilot for proof) and while many suggested projects to him before, this one actually piqued his interest bc they did something new with the characters. You could say that what people don't like abt this series are some decisions resulting from this being a netflix cartoon for kids. the decision to set it in a near-future with a new younger for example, was made in the beginning by netflix and I haven’t found any articles yet that’s found a legit reason for why it stayed this way. My guess based on interviews with Stan and crew is that Stan found it interesting as a possible new way to get more readers to the comic. Something for the younger generation. Although many readers and even parents will attest that the comic is child-appropriate (and really, it is), the TV-Y7 ratings and so on exist for a reason. And while I would love for more western studios to get funding for more adult animation in general (I’m not from the US myself and animation such a large medium, the way that genres are explored or what gets made for adults vs kids feeks so different elsewhere), I think it’s good that the first full series based on UY is this “non-violent” (your mileage may vary). Because a lot of the more vocal adult fans of UY seem more focused on the violence vs what kids might get out of it. A popular quote from Sakai is “Once, a mother asked me, 'What is Usagi Yojimbo about?' and before I could answer, her son said, 'It’s about honor.'"   (Komai for JANM, 2011). Sometimes it seems like the “older adults” or the “more casual” fans of UY sort of don’t get it.

Even the naming of the series and character has reasons, which I’ve seen some Rise Leosagi shippers make their own reasons for. So the various hate from “older fans” I see about it is strange because all evidence points to the show having Sakai’s approval and his full involvement. Of course, I could also be wrong, but watching the series, it doesn’t feel to me like an “empty cashgrab” as one angry TMNT fan put it. It feels more like something made by other UY fans, those more familiar than I was at the time, with both Usagi Yojimbo lore as well as the culture and lore behind it. In their quest to properly honor the comic series they loved, crew put a lot research hours into making sure both edo and post-edo periods got to be part of their show. Like “trips to japan during a pandemic” type of research. The show is an interesting fusion of old and modern in futuristic setting and feels wholly unique as an experiment.

Another aspect of course is also the shipping parts of fandom. I can never quite get my head behind this “arguing about ships” because it just reminds me of my Grandma and her older sister fighting over their soap operas and who should get together with who. And alright, maybe this was fun for them...? I’ve never been that invested in this myself but it can be fun to have a pairing you root for in a show, when it’s just a bunch of connected ideas over the story, there really seems like a real genuine connection between the characters or if there’s a chance to connect with other fans over it. That’s kind of what fandom is for me in general, but with crossover ships, it’s like a strange and interesting combination of “oooh what interesting similarities and differences” and “lets find out” with fanworks. 

This is the main way I enjoy making crossovers in general work, even if I’ve never finished an actual fic (I’m more of an artist) and even if the works sometimes don’t go together (it’s like a fun challenge). I wonder sometimes if the SRTUC crew also imagined crossovers with TMNT? As in this fanart post on facebook by Samurai Rabbit character designer Andry R, I wonder what that could have been like. After all, if many of the crew are fans too, it just makes sense to think about that? it’s fun to think of crossovers after all! And since it’s fanwork, I personally don’t feel as obligated to make some of the quality as insanely good as I would have in my younger days. I want to enjoy the art making process too, so putting research and sketches into a piece is sometimes my own “enough”. So I don’t really care about views either because I know even now, tastes might still just be not geared toward something sketchier that I make.

Even so, despite the experience with online sites and social media people have in general, or other artists/fans encouraging to feel a bit less worried about socmedia algorhitms, it might be frustrating that posts are not as popular even if your idea feels great.

So connecting all of that fandom talk, I can only assume people mistag between a popular and non-popular series for similar reasons. As said earlier, fans might assume everyone prefers the popular thing and that it’s better to tag that popular/bigger/older thing. Because at least that So in our case, I’ve noticed more that ppl tag Yuichi Usagi with the Miyamoto Usagi tag. From the surface, it seems like people don’t know about the Yuichi tags/show or they just don’t like it for some other reason. Now Tumblr is more a “home of fandoms” than casual fans, as most of the user-generated content is entirely by people who get much more invested in a series than a casual fan. Similarly I’ll see people tag their TMNT 2012 inspired fandesigns as ROTTMNT as well, because that is simply seen as the popular fandom at the time ergo, more attention on your post.

Maybe a solution for the mis-tagging could be smth as simple as fandom outreach, something active to unite the different types of fans into using tags correctly, but of course, something more active and social might feel more unnatural, as most of us are more wall-flower than social butterfly - working off the assumption here that most fans are shy. I used to be pretty shy as a fan and now I’m more active and out-going in general in my adult years, but at the same time, doing something socially more active is still a scary thought in my brain so I can understand that it’s easier to just tag and hope it’s correct. Or easier to make ticked off posts vs something with a different kind of effort. But then again, as brought up in my examples of other fandoms, being a fan can make people very active in taking part in similar fan activities. As we all enjoy the same thing in different ways or different media in similar ways, we are all still fans at the end of the day. Whether casual or more involved, that’s a unique experience that should unite us. So I’ll have my peace with the older cartoon-hating fans who only view Usagi Chronicles as an empty children’s cartoon etc etc. 

So, because I’m an adult, but also an artist and animation fan, this is how I’ve been approaching TV cartoons for the past 5-10 years. Against my first reaction of “oh, this is too slow for me” the way I chose to view the series once I saw more of it was “I’m an adult, and this is a cartoon made my other older adults, for kids - let me see what it’s about”. It’s more about curiosity and seeing what other creatives have done to put connective tissue between one idea to another.

Personally when it comes to tagging I try to keep to a general amount of “minimum amount of tags possible” bc I’m a bit lazy but also, I will never find anything on my own blog later if I used more than 20 tags about a simpler fanart post. So maybe like 1-2 tags for show/series, 1-2 tags for characters and my own art tags. I am lazy but I also like being considerate with other people. But also because of my previous experience with blogging, I like to keep tags I re-use as consistent as possible so I have the same experience. Of course, sometimes I forget what I’ve actually used if there are many tags i.e. many characters. so keeping the tags short is a boon for that end.

Here is the draft version for the UY and Usagi Chronicles tag guide, i'm gonna change this more but this is mostly how I've been tagging stuff (or have tried to so far) and I wrote a small guide back in march before all this, but have been coming back to it now with more general and character tags in mind. 

== Tagging Guide ==

Hello Rise of the TMNT and Usagi Chronicles joint fandom! Here’s a guide on how to tag Usagi Chronicles/Samurai Rabbit stuff! Mostly it’s my own view on how to tag things based on how I interact w the fandom stuff posted here but also from my experience of using tumblr and older blogging platforms - how I see the most common/make-sensical ways to tag characters/shows. But maybe you will find this useful too, fellow fan!

Usagi Yojimbo - the name of the original comicbook series - I decidedly reserve this for posts and reblogs ONLY about the Usagi Yojimbo comic (pages covers,, screenshots, memes), or general fanart of the comic or its characters. This helps me keep it separate so I can find posts about it later.

Usagi Chronicles - personally I use this for all content for the show, but especially the crossover stuff and my own art posts. This seems to be the most commonly used unique tag about this show.

SRTUC - acronym, good for short posts, for quick tagging. but I also use this to tag general reblogged posts about the show

Samurai Rabbit - I only try to use this if it is about the official stuff, like interviews and GIF/screenshots in bulk (more than 2). This tag gets used a lot for both the series but before that it was also used for posting general UY comics content and alternate covers by other artists, as well as for original samurai rabbits unaffiliated by UY. It is too general for me to use it on my own posts outside of text posts maybe.

Samurai Rabbit the Usagi Chronicles - mostly I use this tag for more general posts, but also reblogs if someone else has made something directly related to the series.

SamuraiRabbitNetflix - lol I only use this one on twitter, bc I saw someone from the crew use it and it has stuck for most of my more finished posts I guess ^^ Literally nobody else on tumblr uses it which is fine, but I think it’s a good way to separate the series and the more general posts people make about the comic or guest art of it (or sometimes original art unrelated to UY)

Characters:

Miyamoto Usagi - I try to mainly use it for just comic Usagi and fanart, but occasionally I will use it for fanart depicting

Rise Miyamoto Usagi - Any Rise!versions of comics Usagi. Usually these are fandesigns, but sometimes fans will adapt it wholesale (usually adapting him from his younger years). Sometimes it is unclear which version it is based on or it is a completely original version so I simply tag these as Rise Usagi.

Yuichi Usagi - pretty self-explanatory! I only use this for posts/fanart including Yuichi Usagi (but not when he is only mentioned in passing). Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between these versions however, 

Usagi fandesign/Yuichi Usagi fandesign/Miyamoto Usagi fandesign - I use all these tags to organize the fandesigns ppl make of all these characters, reserving “Usagi fandesign” when it’s really an original design based on various canon Usagi concepts or more of a “general” Usagi than a specific one i.e. meant for the Rise or 2012 TMNT crossover AUs. This counts for me in reblogs also when the OP hasn’t really decided what the character is and has tagged both characters. Lol there is a lot of different fanart of these characters and for my own sake, I tag these separately where possible so I can find the fanart easier later (especially if the posts themselves have text which doesn’t use these names, or if tumblr search is not working on blogs)

UY character - I use “UY” as the common acronym before characters from UY, but I also generally tag their names in reblogs. idk, this just makes it easier for me to find them later in my own blog and that’s all (Kenichi and Mariko for example are quite common Japanese names)

Tomoe Ame - This character just deserves her own tag, but also, I think the 03 version, while quite different, can fit in the same tag because people don’t post about them as much ^^;;

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And now for the TMNT tags!

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the official name! long, but good if you are tagging official stuff i.e. screenshots, gifs, concept art, tweets from crew etc

ROTTMNT - good short catch-all tag, lots of ppl use this to tag their reblogs quickly, but shorter posts can also go under here

Rise of the TMNT - Slightly longer tag than the full acronym, but more descriptive, if you wanna make sure people know it’s a TMNT show

Rise TMNT - I’ve seen a few ppl use this as a tag and it’s a valid way to tag (short and unique) but it’s not as popular as the others

2018 TMNT - again, general tag for the series. Common way to make a tag for a TMNT series - adding the year of airing before the TMNT acronym. Same with TMNT 2018. Same for the comics! I’ll use IDW TMNT as a tag for example, bc it seems widely used and understood.

TMNT18 - same as the previous one, but shorter! There are a lot of TMNT media besides the comics, (movies, animated series, etc) so it’s a general easier practice to tag via year. Ppl also sometimes use the variation 18TMNT. Anything is basically fair game with these general tags as long as the author of a blog finds stuff later.

Characters![I’m not sure about the characters yet bc I use the tags differently than other people apparently. my blog my rules i guess!]

rottmnt [character] - reserved for when i tag this character in crossovers, eg rottmnt April, rottmnt donnie. I generally use nicknames for the rottmnt boys cuz I am lazy.

Rise [character] e.g. Rise Leo, Rise April - I try and use this just for 

April O Neil (full name) - for when I’m tagging them in general and just want to see them in this tag with the other versions

12 April or 12April - for the 2012 TMNT versions of the characters. I often write the tags together bc I am just lazy but in the case of numbers, I can also forget. On tumblr I try to remember to use spaces cuz that is allowed here lol.

----

And that’s it! I have more in the list, but that is the gist of the style of it. Basically hust explaining what I’ve seen and if/how I use it on my own blog. Let me know if you have more thoughts about this. I’m curious to know what other fans of both series think!

[drawnaghht]

Psst! They must be plotting something...

Progress + Sketches:

[drawnaghht]

lord kogane doesn't know how to carry a blade

lol i never noticed it before but Lord Kogane apparently carries Usagi's sword the wrong way? like in ep 2 where the keisatsu are taking Usagi away to the station

Like earlier in the "funny photoshoot" sequence, he is carrying it the right way ("hanging" pose for the sword and scabbard, the blade pointed up, so it's possible to turn it over, unsheathe it and slash it in the same movement) but then when they're taking Usagi away, its the wrong way again ("up" but blade edge pointed down)

and again later when Usagi is arrested together with the others a second time.

which just leads me to believe he does not actually know how to properly hold and carry a sword - which honestly just makes sense cuz well, corrupt politician + self-centered prick so why would this character bother to learn the art of the sword x3

The tech in Neo Edo allows for swords and other kinds of weapons to be carried differently with specialized magnets, which I suspect are some kind of super-industrial grade derived from the alien tech they adapted after Miyamoto Usagi's time when the fake shogun was defeated. You can also see character designer Irineo Maramba's note on the magnets here, showing the idea behind the magnet tech. So I wonder also if he just put it on the wrong side + wrong way bc 1) he doesn't care 2) he doesn't know 3) for some reason, he just thinks this is whatever? like he feels comfortable enough with his keisatsu entourage, that he is not threatened by the existence of 1 criminal element. lol it's funny to think abt for how much of a bad ruler/politician he seems, he also does not really care about history unless it's about himself directly.

and here's how Usagi carries it, for comparison, at the end of the ep:

Even if samurai didn't really last into the Neo Edo future (something Gen mentions in ep 1), I can only guess that the show creators wanted to make sure the sword is handled properly despite the fantastical setting. so it's interesting to see this kind of detail in the show. Although it's also a possibility that because Kogane wasn't using the sword, he simply attached it to the right side, to make it harder to draw. All samurai were trained to handle the sword with their right hand and the only time they would wear it on the right side was when talking to another samurai, to show non-hostility. So maybe that was the case intead? lol in any case, to my un-trained eyes (been to one kendo demo), it looked incorrect for a moment.

interesting sources to read on this!:

Samurai Fashion Guide: Blade-up or Blade-down?

Tenshinryu Hyouho Battojutsu - art of drawing the sword

Proper way to wear a samurai sword

[drawnaghht]

sdfsdf I need someone to gif this sequence because the timing is perfect here in this scene xD

Like one moment we see Tetsujin explain the Ki-stone problems, the next Usagi is already having a connection with it and it's so funny how he doesn't consider to stop x3

Like...

Usagi. Usagi where are u going x3 (he just has that "it's calling out to me" kind of face here sdfsdfsd)

[drawnaghht]

Samurai Rabbit with Stan Sakai & The Usagi Chronicles Creative Team (links)

Another interesting thing I remembered from re-listening the CBCC podcast interviews is the production and story reasons for why phones/screens/tvs etc don't exist in Samurai Rabbit. The showrunners (Langdales) wanted to explore how a feudal japan would look like without european and western influence (because of the alien invasion giving them tech). Basically, it gave them as a crew an interesting opportunity to try and design a feudal and modern fusion japan like an alternate universe a 1000 years in the future. But with animals.

The answer from Doug and Candie in the interview itself is a lot more nuanced and detailed than I can paraphrase here, so please have a listen to it!

Besides Candie and Doug Langdale, CBCC also interview Stan Sakai and art director Khang Le, who give a very insightful look into the show and how it was trying to bridge the world of the comic with something new.

You can listen to the interview on the Comic Book Couples Counseling website: https://www.comicbookcouplescounseling.com/post/stan-sakai-samurai-rabbit-interview

Or have a listen on youtube, this version has subtitles!