#srtuc interview

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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!

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Usagi Chronicles and reviews

I'm watching Usagi Chronicles reviews and there seems to be this general misconception around the internet that netflix somehow took the idea of a usagi TV show and muddled up the possibility of a direct adaptation? Or are people just mad that it's not their idea of a Usagi series? Like of course youtube reviews are going to be full of strange outrage and misplaced cricicisms over cartoons so I can't take those seriously, but even just fandom chatter sometimes has this idea going around that it's somehow a bad series for not adhering to the comic 100%. Or sometimes I’ll see other viewers’ comments like “it had so much potential but it could have been better”. I thought I’d collect my thoughts on this using references I’ve seen around before, such as interviews and articles with Stan Sakai and others. I don’t really agree with this view that the show has to be bad for not getting a “perfect” vision or adaptation and I don’t really believe that it squandered any “potential” either.

Like I think this show is super interesting to look at from a “how it was made” kind of perspective. The story and art are actually pretty good imo and the music really feels like it ties it all together by adding to the mood and setting + for carrying a lot of the series from an emotional POV. Yeah, it falls a bit short on some aspects but overall it’s a pretty fun series. Whatever you might personally know about animation or tv series making, it looks like a lot of care was put into this Samurai Rabbit cartoon.

EDIT(10.02.2023+27.03.2023): under a readmore bc this got way too long, but u should definitely check out these interviews if u still think the show didn’t respect Sakai’s original world and vision, or if u wanna write your own review one day but don’t know anything abt how the show was made.

Interviews/articles:

Filmschool Rejects (article), April 2022 The Popverse (interview), May 2022 Stan Sakai and the Usagi Chronicles | Comic-Con@Home 2021 Comic Book Couples Counseling (podcast interview), May 2022 Traversing the Stars (video interview), Jul 2022

Stan Sakai has said in at least 2 interviews that what got him on board was the view of Neo Edo painted by Khang Le (art director on series, check his work out on his website) - when no other idea suggested so far appealed to him. So this means he was on board with the show and approved of it. even if the concept is essentially a spinoff/alternate universe to older fans (it started off as based on or taking ideas from Sakai's Senso miniseries). What I like most about the series is that it seems to be respectful about both old and new japanese culture albeit being set in a semi-futuristic Edo-style re-imagining of the feudal japan that Sakai writes in Usagi Yojimbo. Stan Sakai was involved in the making of it so it cannot be in any other way. I've seen some american animated shows in the past which have approached this "culture inspiration" differently, sometimes even in ways where it feels weird or disrespectful. This show even has an all-asian english main cast, and japanese-american composer Aiko Fukushima has made the soundtrack for it, which I feel is a little rare to see. But hey, I'm european asian, not US asian so maybe I'm seeing all that in a different way here.

Like it kinda feels like ppl got stuck on previous animated versions and their own idea of what an adaptation/series should be. I know many were probably looking forward to a faithful animated adaptation but things are what they are and feels a bit unfair to say that what we got somehow took away from that chance. Like it is just one show.

yeah ok, it's aimed at children and it sorta pulls its punches on the tone and seriousness. but that doesn't have to be a bad thing? Having a "media tent" for younger viewers can mean that there'll be new readers introduced to the original comic series through this cartoon. It's also obvious to see that the people working on this are also fans of Sakai's work and wanted to make something fun, despite any tv animation limits, so I sorta wish people saw that more.

Or even more down the line is people saying it mucks up Sakai's vision about the comic series. Like. He is listed as "executive producer" and every design, script and decision went through him first. From interviews it sounds like he had a lot of trust in the team, to make something he would also like. It's ok to dislike the show for various reasons, as we do with all shows but at least respect that the comic author himself has approved of the series.

like im not saying people are saying all this directly, just various sentiments I've seen in reviews, boards and social media etc, but I feel like this misunderstaning is behing the reason why ppl dunk on the show and characters so easily? Of course, as someone who is still reading the comic series (have read a few comics, but not enough to know everything about it), maybe I just have a very limited view on this as someone who happens to like the tv show itself too. I love the art and storytelling in the comic but I also really like the animated series just for what it is.

Maybe it's also that we as internet-goers have become even moreso accustomed to seeing, reviewing and thinking about our media in such a superficial critical way that we can't really share honest opinions without feeling the need to add "real criticisms" to what we say. I feel like that's a bit connected to the "outrage culture" mentioned at the beginning too but honestly this has been a problem abt cartoon/media reviews for a longer time already. Like it's valid to not like stuff but at least don't make stuff up about them

man... I should try writing my own review faster but I really want to see other reviews first (they are a slog to get thru bc I have trouble watching video reviews)

anyway.... lol just some semi-collected thoughts.

at the end of the day, for me personally, I just genuinely like this series and it brings me joy to see that the crew and cast and Sakai himself seemed to really enjoy making it too. It’s nice to see both from interviews and the show itself. maybe it just makes me a bit sad that I keep finding shows where I see that there’s goodness in it and then the majority of viewers I come across online find it different.... like yeah, it had potential for “more” but also what we got was good. I’m happy the show got made.

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re-listening to "Samurai Rabbit with Stan Sakai & The Usagi Chronicles Creative Team"

This week I have been re-listening to one of the longer interviews with Stan Sakai, Khang Le and Candie and Doug Langdale and I found a youtube version of it with official subtitles!! I can finally understand what some of the parts actually were about compared to before x3

Should I post a link to this? or links to others? reblog or comment! you can probably find it yourself if you're curious.

Or would anyone be interested in like, a summary of those interviews?

I've posted links to that and other interviews before, but this is one of the most extensive ones imo, so I thought it would be nice to post the link that here separately.

One thing I see the collective fandom voice out is how they don't like that it's about a young rabbit and not a direct adaptation (it wasn't up to the crew, they were brought on after the decision) and this interview actually gives answer to that and many other questions I've seen fans talk about publicly both on here and on twitter. (Like why there aren't phones or screens for example.) There's a nice intro about this aspect as well, how two fans of the og comic feel about this show when about to interview the author himself and how the main creative leads are also big nerds about the Usagi Yojimbo comicbook series. Stan Sakai and Khang Le mainly talk about the art and adaptation, as well as story of the show, while Candie and Doug talk about the creative writing parts of the show. They even talk about the music a bit! Reccomended listening if you like the show! This was also recorded before the final 10 episodes aired so it's fun hearing them tease the 2nd season again.

What's nice is that the interviewers themselves (the Comicbook Couples Counseling podcast), are fans of Usagi Yojimbo as well so they are very well-versed in the comic series, so the questions they ask are also very relevant... but also respectful to both the creators and the comic and cartoon! So it's a nice interview to listen to, from a very creative and mature perspective imo.

Seeing fans from different sides of both the TMNT and Usagi fandoms voice different opinions based on assumptions of the show has been a bit frustrating to see (maybe much less so if I only look at fanart, but it's been both "older" and younger fans), so this has been refreshing to re-listen to because it really only looks at the show from creative and collaborative viewpoints vs what people seem to assume that Netflix shows are all about - money and profit and keeping up only some sort of live-wire.

I personally really think the show probably could have had a bigger "impact" with the story if it took some bigger risks, but at the same time, they did their best with what they were given in terms of budget, which I'm remembering again after listening to the creative ways they had to avoid some shots or how some storylines got cut. It's a very creative and easy-going show to me, even if it's not "the best" in terms of what people have come to expect from cartoon shows for kids now.

It's also really interesting to listen to the interview again with subtitles and getting some of the context better (like how the makkine and spaceships, there was a certain inspiration they we're looking at outside of comics - "Robot Carnival" - an animated film I was only vaguely aware of before).

I also found the artist who did the layouts and special poses for the 2D sequences, which was so cool to find! I'm so glad that the Samurai Rabbit crew and artists have been proud to post their work on the series so far as I found a few artists' portfolios/galleries and blogs last month as well. Not gonna repost those (that's obviously just rude without permission and no one wants to get in trouble for that) but it would be cool to share links to those too if people were interested x3

anyway, it's amazing this show exists at all, whatever anyone else thinks.

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oooh, I found a 2022 article on Looper about Usagi Yojimbo and related interesting tid-bits, and this part stuck out to me under "Stan Sakai has plenty of other Usagi descendants in mind" 👀

I had no idea Stan had more ideas for Usagi descendants besides Space Usagi! So this is really cool to read. A 1930s pulp hero, a 21st century investigative reporter... To quote Stan, "Yes, there's a whole bunch." Now I can't stop imagining what these Usagi descendants could look like.

So the article they cite here is actually on Stranger Worlds, which was published (in 2015) after UY: Senso came out. it's an interesting read! they mainly talk about Space Usagi and Stan's sci-fi influences and creative process. When talking of how Usagi as his own IP, he can do stories in any genre really, Stan also mentions "one more Space Usagi, that [he] would love to do." And I wonder if this was related to the WhereWhen crossover story that is coming out now, or maybe even Samurai Rabbit? One more Space Usagi book? Of course, I'm more out of the loop on news of the UY comics so maybe I just don't know what this was meant to be in present day, but it's still interesting to read about now, with Samurai Rabbit out as a collab production.

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Samurai Rabbit trivia refs (+ name reminder)

just short post to say: Usagi is meant as his given name.

We don't know the lore or backstory for why Yuichi was picked as a surname

update from 6.01.2024: Candie Langdale, one of the showrunners for SR, confirmed that it is indeed Yuichi Usagi [surname][given name] and that they asked about Yuichi as a surname from both their japanese consultant and Stan.

the backstory is that they wanted to name him Usagi, but wanted to differentiate him from Miyamoto Usagi as well. They also wanted to honor the guy working at the karaoke bar they had been frequenting the past 12 years. Yuichi was considered based on these as a surname.

(read the reply in this post post by Freakova here: https://www.tumblr.com/freakova/738803294989860864/the-writers-of-samurai-rabbit-have-confirmed-that)

the show follows the same naming conventions as the comic, so [surname][given name] as in real-world japan, Gen introduces himself as Murakami Gennosuke in ep 4.

However, it mostly drops honorifics in the EN language original (but the honorifics are back for some characters in the JP dub)

You can use/do whatever you want in your own fanfic/versions but it's just good to know where the show is coming from

You can also use them in the same way as Stan and the show's crew do - Usagi when it's just about him, Yuichi when they also bring Miyamoto Usagi into the convo, or "our Usagi"/Yuichi and "Stan's Usagi/Miyamoto when talking about them both.

Whether Yuichi is meant as a namesake, a title, or just a very rare surname, the show itself has all the younger/ally characters call each other by first name, while older/enemy characters get called by their title+surname (w/ the exception of Lady Fuwa and Chizu, bc of the story arc there)

his own aunt calls him Usagi

both names are probably meant to be used in general, but in-world, everyone who becomes friends with him starts calling him Usagi, which is the name he prefers to introduce himself (see episode 1)

(lol this next part is a lil debunked now after the news from 6.01.2024 haha)

I have a suspicion that maybe that's what the name was for, like a consideration for the old fans and new viewers. Maybe it was intentional because the showrunners were aware how naming is tricky for this franchise (re: that 1987 TMNT re-named Miyamoto Usagi "Usagi Yojimbo" and most 87 fans still know him as that? the showrunners are old enough to have been in that audience) so maybe they intentionally looked for something that would sound good as both surname and given name (just another thought)

Anyway, since there's still confusion by fans abt it, here's some good general sources also just for those interested in learning more random trivia abt the show. But these are the sources I've used to refute for myself what older posts/tags claim: that there was no research and no respect in the show for Stan's original work or for Japanese culture. From these it seems like the opposite is true.

"Samurai Rabbit Facts" - this is a "# facts" video but provides a lot of interesting trivia from both the show and crew, as well as about Stan's involvement in the show. Fun stuff in general, like how Usagi's sandal features Stan's signature as a fun easter egg to characters they wanted to include but didn't have time to.

The Comicbook Couples Councelling podcast with Stan and Samurai Rabbit crew (youtube vers) - This interview features Stan and art director Khang Le talking about the characters and the art, while showrunners Candie and Doug Langdale answer burning questions about the storylines and writing the show as well as learning new things during pre-production and research. Both sides talk a bit about the challenges of adapting something as prolific as Usagi Yojimbo for a younger audience.

The 2021 SDCC @Home panel with Stan, crew and cast - LOTS of fun visuals and very informative on how the crew worked on the show when the first COVID lockdown happened.

The POPverse interview with Stan Sakai - This is a great interview about many of these same things in the other interviews, if you prefer reading rather than listening to interviews.

I have my old post abt Usagi's names and the connection to Senso (one of the main inspirations for the series) and i'm writing a new one, but I thought this shorter post might be useful. Plus, while writing longer essay-like things can be fun for me personally, the ultimate goal there is to provide some food-for-thought for other fans while being informative abt the show itself. Hope this helps!

(update 16.01: both of these are now slightly disproven I suppose since we know the real reason from co-showrunner Candie Langdale now since january 6th haha xD but - still keeping these as the theory is still interesting).

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just for the peeps who are tired of long interviews, here's the start of the answer where Stan says "I'm so happy with this series"

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aghht srtuc posts masterlist

a post with all my longer Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles posts! not quite a masterlist, but I wanted to put them all under one list so I can find them later for referencing sake :D 

Yuichi Usagi - what’s in a name? (a lil bit of theory)

keikogi for reference - for Yuichi Usagi’s outfit

random Usagi Chronicles tid-bits

Samurai Rabbit trivia refs

Neo Edo Idol tag (fanart+fanfic combo, about a posessed Usagi, based on a background detail from the show)

Samurai Rabbit w/ Stan Sakai & The Usagi Chronicles Creative Team (interview links)

re-listening to “Samurai Rabbit with Stan Sakai & The Usagi Chronicles Creative Team” (this one is a longer analysis post)

Chizu x Kitsune and why it’s gay

Usagi refs I drew fir myself

Neo Edo and batteries

Usagi Chronicles and reviews

I’ll keep updating this as I go along! Thanks for reading! :)

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sdfsdfs I'm rewatching this CBCC interview from last year again and

"Kitsune, the thief, has their own backstory as well"

SOBS WE'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT SR KITSUNE'S BACKSTORY IS

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btw, if you liked my post analysing just the magnet "holsters" in Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, I'm eventually gonna post more outfit description/analysis! just cuz I've already been writing some longer descriptions for a while now - that's one of my fave things to research and write about, since it can be good art reference for my own drawings, and especially since I can go through the episodes looking for anything new to write down or connect :)

Also, thank you so much for the replies on my post! LOVING the reactions I'm seeing on it, I didn't expect this to do numbers at all but I'm pleased people enjoy reading me ramble about details in a show I like haha xD I don't usually get replies on my other fandom posts, so this is very surprising, even here. I'm touched!

Replies below! :)

@ranarenee - I already replied to you on the original post, but I genuinely just wanted to feature this comment cuz I'm glad ppl are having a positive reaction to this post xD

I also think it was probably a bit easier to animate them! in addition, because it provides an interesting change of technology in the world of Usagi Chronicles, it means that it might have become more interesting to design this hypothetical descendant-world. I'm sure they might have also just thought it was an interesting and unique element of what they were making, but from Art Director Khang Le and Stan Sakai's CBCC interview, and the SDCC@ Home 2021 panel I remember it was mentioned a few times how many clever things they found to make the production spending smaller on the more trivial things.... so the magnetic holsters feels like a thing that might have hit many birds with one stone, so-to-speak. You have the easier drawing of boards and maybe a few things made lighter for the 3D crew (no extra models or rope to animate, for example), but you also have a pleasing design element to give the main fighters in the cast - Usagi, Gen and Chizu - as well as other characters who would happen to wear weapons on their person aside from Karasu-Tengu. Like mentioned in the post, Kitsune is an interesting exception here, because of course, she's based on UY Kitsune who is also not a direct fighter or anything, but also, the world of SR appears to be at peace of some sort, and it's mentioned several times that there were wars at some point, so not many ordinary citizens of Neo would even have these unless they wanted to use or carry weapons every day. Kitsune wants to blend in with this ordinary citizenry and does so quite well.

I just thought of this today and I guess my post sort of mentioned it, but this existence of the magnets also seems to imply some hierarchy of income or money flow. Kitsune doesn't have any because she doesn't need them and she wouldn't spend money she doesn't have on them anyway. Chizu is Lady Fuwa's favourite student despite how she treats her - and gets the best undercover gear, so like Gen and Usagi, custom magnets. I suspect also that Chizu deliberately somehow got herself assigned to the temple-job (headcanon for now), or perhaps hoped it would be something like that, because she didn't want to get any of the more victim-heavy missions the Neko Ninja do. Gen obviously has spent his own money on the holsters and they are there out of pure practicality - can't be a bounty-hunter without wepons, can you? So the magnets seem more like they're ordinary but custom for the outfit. And Usagi, as discussed before, possibly inherited them because of the clan mon adorning the inlay of the magnet.

@kinokothere - thank you!! I will probably continue making posts like this even if I have no audience! why I made this blog at first was to collect my SRTUC fandom theories and drawings under a more organized platform compared to twitter, where this specific fan-account started. I now write almost explusively about SRTUC so you can bet I have way fewer notes than if I wrote about shipping or something else popular for example xD

Thank you @0yasumi-0-ya-su-mi! it's a fun little world-building detail that I really liked when I started wtaching and I hope other fans also include it more in their work x3

@umhuhwellthen x3 thank you!! i love seeing reactiong tags like this one!

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Yuichi Usagi + SRTUC reflist + overview

ok, so, REPOST, because the og post won't let me edit it..... (deleting the other post later) I've noticed some common ideas online abt Usagi and his show/world and thought I'd make a list of references for folks who haven't seen the show, but would maybe like to know more. Mostly this is like a small rundown of what happens in the series, but maybe this'll help also with writing/drawing the characters. lol this accidentally became too long again with over 3K words >___>;;

(you can visit my srtuc posts masterlist for other references and fun tidbits, observations, interview links etc)

More under the cut!

Yuichi Usagi is obsessed with becoming a samurai. He is shown reading a comic about his own ancestor, Miyamoto Usagi (the protagonist of the Usagi Yojimbo comic irl, which is what the show is loosely based on). We can assume there are more comics about his ancestor and other family lore.

He is a bit reckless and prone to accidents and distraction. He also fantasizes a lot about fighting and being a cool samurai.

Like his ancestor, he has a pet lizard, Spot! Spot looks a bit like a weird cross between a tiny dinosaur and a regular green lizard (like in the comics), but is basically Usagi's only friend to confide in at the farm. Spot acts a lot like a pet or dog would. Tokage (lit. lizards) are very common in this world.

Before his 16th birthday, Usagi lives with his auntie on their family farm, but after messing up a farmbotto and getting into an argument with her, he decides it's better to leave to Neo Edo, to become a real samurai.

He plans to do this by riding on his Ki-cycle, an energy-powered tri-wheeled motorbike (it has a battery-pack)

His auntie agrees, because even tho she has trained him in sword-fighting and combat, that's all she had and Usagi needs a real swordmaster, a true sensei who will teach him when to not use a sword. (boy is a little bit sword-happy)

Usagi's auntie has a missing left ear-half and left leg (from some unknown wars only mentioned in passing)

His auntie gives him her own sword, Edgewing, which she made with her own grandfather. It has a red scabbard and a purple pommel - a crystal with a butterfly inside it. She calls this the Omurasaki, a "family heirloom" from Miyamoto Usagi himself (this will become important later), citing that it has brough her good luck despite the missing ear and leg.

Arriving in the city, Usagi is completely awe-struck and foregoes all caution, showing us how distracted he gets and has to be saved by Spot from on-coming traffic. This is his first time seeing Ki-stone powered cars, trolleys or streets.

Usagi decides to visit the Ki-Stone temple, a place where he fantasizes the Ki-Stone will give him some sort sort of power (he is 16). This is a show-only element, but seems to be based on elements in Senso, a stand-alone book in UY, which predates the WhereWhen crossover with the IDW turtles, but happens after WhereWhen. No spoilers but the show lifts a few crucial ideas from this stand-alone comic.

Usagi is not a yokai, but he is obsessed with yokai, who in his world have been a myth and children's tales for 1000 years. Usagi is well-versed in many yokai myths because of his obsession with his "yokai hunter samurai ancestor" and can tell at a glance who or what a type of yokai is.

in truth, yokai were locked away by his ancestor from the Edo era, Miyamoto Usagi, who is a well-known traitor because of this incident, which involved. Usagi does not know this at first and the 1st season deals with him uncovering the reasons why his ancestor was branded a traitor.

Because of this, Usagi is immediately looked at with disdain or avoided, because he is the only white rabbit to appear in Neo Edo in a long time and that makes him stick out.

On his way to the Ki-Stone temple, he accidentally bothers and angers 3 people: Gen, Kitsune and Chizu. They all wanna beat him up for his transgressions but over the first 4 episodes, they bond over hi-jinks and become close friends after Usagi is arrested when exiting the Ki-Stone temple.

Him, Gen and Kitsune also anger the Mogura gang, styles to look sorta like 1970s yakuza, but also like 1950s greasers (they will show up in the series for a few more key moments). This is when Usagi shows his quick thinking by jamming Edgewing's end-cap into a crumbling ceiling and saving the group from the gang.

After this tunnel fight, Kitsune discovers a shiny green egg with metal scales and decides to keep it in hopes of earning some money with it (her puppet has been destroyed in the tunnel-slide caused by Usagi) This egg will come up again later.

Dropping the last name Usagi introduces himself as Usagi to Kitsune, but Gen is still mad at him and they give chase.

Somehow the three of them arrive at the Ki-Stone temple thru the tunnel network, angering Chizu, and the three newer characters gang up on Usagi until they're stopped by Tetsujin, guardian of the Ki-Stone, a Kaikishi warrior. (This will become an oft-used term in the show - we can assume, it's basically meant for all who become a guardian warrior of the Ki-Stone)

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Usagi gets distracted and even while Tetsujin is warning him, touches the Ki-Stone, showing us some foreshadowing for the next 19 episodes.

Because of his relation to Miyamoto Usagi, Usagi releases the yokai who have been trapped for 10 decades.

Unlike Tetsujin, Usagi does not become a ghost-like person, but he does sputter out for a moment while he sees his own ancestor and a bunch of other images ghost over his mind.

Usagi basically starts to have visions of Miyamoto Usagi each time he touches the Ki-Stone. Each time he comes in contact becomes gradually more painful.

Tetsujin "is transmuted into another state of being" - so he's basically a ghost, but science-reasons that he's just on another plane of existence now (which... is sorta what ghosts are lol)

The last to be released is Kagehito (lit. "shadow person"), who immediately clocks Usagi as his ancestor Miyamoto Usagi (this will become a common occurence in his life now) and proceeds to threaten him for the 1000-year imprisonment.

Realizing this is in-fact, some random rabbit and not the guy who trapped him, he throws Usagi from 3 stories or so and flies away through the hole on top of the Ki-Stone temple. Usagi survives this drop and calls the incident awesome.

Basically, this guy is really excited to fight yokai.

Over the next 3+ episodes, he learns that actually, yokai are not all bad and most of them are sorta benign, if not outwardly friendly. Over the show you will see the friend-crew and other citizens get used to these friendlier yokai.

The Ki-Stone gives Usagi a change at having a mystical weapon, only given to Kaikishi warriors like Tetsujin was.

Because he is distracted again, he picks a yoyo as it sticks out to him on the big shelf. No take-backsies from the Ki-Stone, she seals the shelf and he is left with this yoyo. Quickly recovering from this shock of not getting a sword, Usagi gets used to having a different weapon.

The yoyo is magnetic, and also glows and hovers a bit when near yokai. It can be used to capture or lead yokai.

Exiting to outside commotion, this group of 5 find that the shogun of Neo Edo, Lord Kogane, has come to arrest the trouble-maker (remember how the citizens looked all disappointed when he arrived in Neo Edo?)

Lord Kogane arrests him after Usagi proudly names himself the descendant of Miyamoto Usagi. Here Usagi also finds out his ancestor is a historically well-known traitor, even a 1000 years later.

These 3 strangers who wanted to clobber him, take pity and go to covertly save him from the jailhouse. Both Gen and Chizu surprised that the other 2 are also there. there's a lot of fun banter between them.

Meanwhile, Usagi gets told the tale about how his ancestor is not the hero he thought he was and killed the shogun from 1000 years ago. Usagi gets depressed and thinks he's gonna live in that jail in-definitely. Until he notices, the yoyo is magnetic, decides he's gonna clear his ancestors name (biggest Miyamoto Usagi defender alive lol) and escapes the jail through hi-jinks and beating up the cop.

Gen and Kitsune have located his cell, Gen breaks the wall as Usagi's just made his cell-escape and he immediately offers friendship and hugs.

Usagi finds more uses for the kaikishi yoyo, when fighting Karasu-Tengu (based on real myth yokai, the crow-headed demi-gods who sometimes trained samurai...) who also at first thinks he's Miyamoto Usagi. He survives the fight due to his auntie's teachings, some skill and sheer dumb luck, capturing her sword and releasing his new friends. She backs off because she has no beef with this new random rabbit.

The Shogun still wants to arrest them after saving his life from Karasu-Tengu, but they somehow extort him to become his Yokai fighters instead (he needed clean-up in his personal museum)

Chizu has an interesting backstory which is already apparent from her first appearance and is slowly uncovered and dissected over episodes 2-6. It's further expanded upon in season 2 as she becomes the leader of the Neko Ninja gang.

Lady Fuwa is the leader of the Neko Ninja crew, and also the person who kidnapped Chizu from an orphanage (although, it's only implied, so she could have also been kidnapped from a real home)

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From episode 3 onwards, we get glimpses of Gen's backstory as well. We also meet Gen's twin little sister, Toshiko, who left to join the circus after their family home was taken by the shogun to be city property, turned into a "museum". A subplot of this is Toshiko buying the mansion back from Lord Kogane, and the Murakami estate becomes home for their group.

In the process of fighting yokai at the museum, Gen's horn gets cut off.

In episode 4, Usagi and Kitsune leave the mansion to find a replacement horn for Gen. Outside they discover a bounty has been put on Usagi's head and Usagi and Kitsune get knocked out by the Mogura gang thanks to Usagi's recklessness.

Chizu also arrives there, to scare off the Mogura.

However, another gang, The Bat Squadron, has also come to collect the bounty and the leader of the Mogura, Chikabuma, leaves his knife with Usagi, who fights the admiral of the bat squadron. (Chikabuma will feature again later on...)

Overwhelmed by the fight (there's only him and Kitsune, with Chizu flying around in a stolen hovercraft), they're saved by Gen busting the fight with some common sense (the bat squadron would also get arrested by the city police...)

Re-arrested by Lord Kogane, Usagi uncovers that the Shogun's hat was posessed, posessing the Lord in return, and makes a deal with the hat-yokai and the shogun and earns enough trust for people to believe that there are yokai out again.

Obsessed with not being a third-rate crew next to the other two, Chikabuma makes a deal with Kagehito, to help him uncover some lost craft or ship. Over the season, because they were chased away by the Bat Squadron the Mogura crew helps Kagehito.

Kitsune does not really have a backstory-proper like Gen and Chizu, so you can sort of give her your own version or headcanons. What we do know:

She's highly adept at puppeteering (she's introduced as a scammer-puppet-actor, with a dancing O-dokuro puppet)

She is very good at stealing (but still gets caught by Usagi twice)

She mostly uses her fans for self-defense

her S2 fans can disappear and re-appear at will.

Assuming it's more than a reference to comics-Kitsune, she probably can actually dance herself too

Before meeting the other three, she slept on the streets and is used to making traps to help her avoid capture.

Her and Chizu are both orphans. Gen and Usagi had parents, but lost them at some point before the series began.

She hates being alone, which can be seen how much she wants to be friends with Usagi, Chizu and Gen, but also has trust issues, with how she reacts to Chizu's betrayal.

She has some sort of queer undertones going on with Chizu, and seeing how there's an openly gay writer on the show team, it's not out of the question that these undertones and subtext are intentional. Go wild with this info!

—-----------------

In episode 5, Usagi has located Karasu-Tengu and challenged her to a spar because he wants the best sensei. Karasu-Tengu agrees to teach him if he captures 3 urban yokai. This has a really cool plot-line over the next 3-4 episodes which leads to Chizu and Usagi basically adopting a little sister, Hana ("flower").

Over the next 2-3 episodes, Usagi succeeds in capturing 2 of the urban yokai, Destruction and Distraction (also overcoming some of his own bad tendencies haha)

Gen and Kitsune take Usagi to the game arcade for the first time

Somehow they encounter Hakai, the desctruction yokai, posessing a construction-botto. Usagi has been trying to discourage the others from helping so far, so sure he could capture them on his own, but after getting battered and captured, agrees to their help.

Chizu tries to keep the crew away from the Ki-Stone temple to no avail (with an addition of, I'm sorry, but frankly hilarious haunting of Lady Fuwa as the full moon)

Usagi receives another vision, confirming that Miyamoto Usagi did kill the shogun then.

Chizu is revelead as a Neko Ninja spy, but betrays her ninja crew

Chizu has become really attached to Kitsune, Usagi and Gen, so she sees them as her true family now

She has a lot to make up for, especially to Kitsune, but they basically make up while Gen and Usagi are capturing Sakuran, the deception yokai.

He does not succeed capturing the 3rd urban yokai "Deception", but instead find one of the Neko Ninja dojo trainees, Hana. Hana tells them that her friend Kana pretends to be her so she can avoid doing all the assassination and fighting training.

The 3rd yokai has befriended Hana and after hearing Hana's please, Usagi decides it is wrong to capture this one. They visit the Ki-Stone temple instead to show the kids the Ki-Stone and so that Usagi can say his goodbyes to Tetsujin.

The Murakami siblings discover that one of the yokai who has stayed behind, has posessed their old Ashi-basha, a fancier kind of car, which they associate with the better times with their family.

Chikabuma and his gang have helped Kagehito uncover his space-ship and he reveals his plan to wipe out all life

—---------------------------

Usagi takes Hana to live with his Auntie and having given up his samurai dream, asks to live there too. But wait!

Hana's friend Kana was actually Karasu-Tengu in disguise, tesing Usagi on his earnestness to learn, because the skills she teaches can become more than lethal (basically, Usagi would eventually have supernatural abilities in the sword, if he continues)

Because of the promise of everything being destroyed, Chikabuma goes to warn Usagi and his friends, who go looking for Usagi at his farm with the Ashi-basha.

Usagi receives his training and spends 2 seasons on a magical mountain where time passes weirdly and not at all. When he arrives back in Neo Edo, it's night-time, instead of evening.

His family and friends are fighting O-Dokuro, who's been spying for Usagi to leave (his mystic yoyo being the only thing able to stop O-Dokuro), and came to the farm looking for a fight because of his pride as a yokai warrior.

Because of this training Usagi now defeats the Bat Squadron with ease, with help from Chikabuma.

The rest of the orphan crew + auntie have arrived at the Ki-Stone temple, they fight the Neko Ninja, with Lady Fuwa gaining the upper hand with numbers.

Usagi arrives and defeats the Neko Ninja forces (ngl, I personally thought this fight scene could have been better, but, it also gets the point across pretty clearly that Usagi has become a cut above the rest now)

all the while, Kagehito and Tetsujin (juiced up by the Ki-Stone), have been having an all-out battle at the temple

Usagi and crew chase after Kagehito at the bottom of the temple stairs, letting Usagi take the reigns in capturing him, but Kagehito breaks Usagi's yoyo. Usagi gets sad about this and so...

Kagehito succeeds in his plan to attach the "Clavis" device onto the Ki-Stone and she opens up a big portal in the sky.

Kagehito is freed and reveals that he was under the control of the Makkine, which the sky butterfly is a harbinger of. When the portal opens, a big monster will first arrive, with hundrends of warbotto.

Usagi leaps at the Clavis, trying to remove it from the Ki-Stone and has another vision, of what really happened 1000 years ago.

Everyone else sees this vision too this time! Miyamoto Usagi's name is cleared.

Usagi notes that she must have shown this for a reason and needs a missing piece, which has been lost for a thousand years.

Usagi realizes that Omurasaki is actually the missing piece of the Ki-Stone, attached to Edgewing, which he gave to his auntie earlier after the Neko Ninja fight.

At Gen's mansion, Lady Fuwa has been stalking after Hana and auntie as well and when Usagi arrives, threatens Hana's life, but the yokai save her.

They stop the Clavis from further infecting the Ki-Stone and the big hole in the sky closes up, replaced by a bright energy-butterfly.

Usagi's yoyo is repaired by the Ki-Stone as thanks for saving her and he puts the dying Kagehito back in her in the hopes of saving him.

In the 2nd season, Gen, Chizu and Kitsune also get their own personal Kaikishi weapons!

A big butterfly looms over the temple for the rest of the 2nd season and everyone mostly hand-waves it as "solved problem"

The Ki-Stone is silent in S2 and doesn't speak to Tetsujin anymore.

The 2nd season it's mentioned a few times that the Ki-Stone always being "on" makes it really really bright in both day and night in N-E.

Usagi being as self-important as he sees himself after the season 1 finale, feels jealous of his friends getting cooler kaikishi weapons and decides, "he'll be their sensei". Hilarity ensues.

The Bat Squadron kidnaps the shogun, because they want him to shut down the Ki-Stone Usagi trusts his friends to fight properly with their new weapons.

After going to eat, Kitsune discovers that the small green egg she discovered in the mogura tunnels after meeting Usagi, is actually alive. she names it Kiyoko.

this egg becomes like an adopted sister and will feature a lot in this season (by namesake, she's basically a reference to comics-Kitsune's adopted sister, a young girl also trained as a thief by UY Kitsune)

It's revealed in ep 2 that Usagi's ears are at least partially prehensile??? (he can lift and move them separately to grasp and throw Kiyoko) I just thought this was a funny detail, but must have been fun to board for the pre-production crew.

The orphan crew take some time off playing at the arcade again, but are attacked again by O-dokuro, who wants to get rid of yokai fighters once and for all (lot of fun fights in this ep, Usagi's yoyo gets stuck in a gacha machine because of O-Dokuro)

After the fight and collecting all of O-Dokuro's bones besides his head, Usagi allows him to live with them

They basically domesticate him in skull-form 😂 he befriends the kids visiting at the Murakami residence and Kitsune starts to feel like it's a real family.

Chizu and Kitsune save the other Neko Ninja kids. (ep 3)

Chizu challenges Lady Fuwa to a duel, defeating her fair and square and becoming the next Lady of the dojo.

As a result of this, she shares her time between the dojo and Kaikishi warrior duties, so the team's attention is sorta split between no yokai to fight and some looming danger they don't know yet.

The makkine warbotto are back. They keep 3D-printing themselves at the Sakura part where Usagi and Karasu-Tengu sparred in S1.

The crew retrieve the orb where Kagehito's people are trapped in some form of forced stasis.

They find out the Clavis (the creepy red thing) is so attached to the Ki-Stone, they might as well be one

cutting the Clavis would cut the connection to the other dimension

The only thing that can cut the Ki-Stone is Miyamoto Usagi's own sword, which cut the piece (Omurasaki) 1000 years prior.

They retrieve Miyamoto Usagi's sword, Willow Branch (with no sign of Young Willow, his wakizashi). We're given a backstory about the sword being lost with a family servant, who went on to search for it his whole life after losing it in the midst of some battle.

The whole episode about retrieving the sowrd is fun, I rec it.

Kitsune gets to pilot a big mecha built by Tetsujin (a defensebotto)

Cutting the Clavis off would also mean losing the connection to Kagehito's people, so Usagi bides his time.

He meditates on the sword and meets his ancestor face-to-face, getting to actually speak to Miyamoto Usagi and learn from him (it's funny, plz watch it)

The Neko Ninja crew betrays Chizu, save for one (Fumiko), the rest joining back with Lady Fuwa

Fumiko also escapes the situation, and Chizu is left alone to fight Fuwa, but Fumiko returns with Kitsune and her giant botto, scaring away Fuwa and her ninja

Kiyoko is revealed to be a makkine warmachine, but as she puts it, she's a "learning machine" and learned so much from Kitsune and the others, she doesn't want to forma a super mega biomech with the other biomechs around Neo Edo.

roll out-on-town sibling sequence as Kitsune and Kiyoko go around town doing fun stuff and scaring the city folk (lol)

the makkine warbotto find the other warmachine eggs and we're shown that they can reset them (one of them had learned from Chikabuma's personality), Kiyoko gets upset at after accidentally hurting Kitsune and escapes the mansion crying, seeing how the others are afraid of her

She's caught by the warbotto and after a big fight, she is connected with the other biomechs, over-riding her personality

More makkine warbotto and wawrmachines start coming through because the bat-squadron decided to sap the Ki-Stone from energy…… the last 2 eps deal with Usagi and the orphan crew + the Bat Squadron and Mogura crew dealing with this outfall!

Kiyoko is revealed to have over-ridden the big bio-mechs personality herself, bc Kitsune's personality is basically too big to be over-ridden and she learned from her.

Dividing the teams into three, they defeat the aliens, save Kagehito's people and Usagi finally cuts the Clavis off the Ki-Stone for good. Fuwa and the Neko Ninja help a little too.

(Gen with Nochi and Kagehito going after the supreme commander through the dimension portal, Kitsune, Kiyoko, O-Dokuro and Karasu-Tengu defending the city from the warbotto and mega-biomechs and Usagi and Tetsujin + later Fuwa and Chizu at the temple)

they seemingly destroy the makkine for good (as evidenced by Kiyoko also dropping dead with the rest of the warmachines and warbotto + the big explosion in the sky)

they get to keep Kiyoko alive via Ki-Stone battery.

Although the Bats take the credit, the shogun agrees to shut down the city's lights for the night, revealing the night sky for the first time since the Ki-Stone was almost shut down by the Clavis in S1. Usagi spies on this ceremony, reacting to Admiral Nochi being awarded.

Despite this, he sits happily with his friends at the end of the episode, saying they've earned this and that this sky and his friends are all he needs. (leaving the series at a nice open but conclusive ending)

Hope this helps! Happy writing and drawing!

[drawnaghht]

replies @elenorasweet @umhuhwellthen about this post...

Those are both really nice things!!

i also feel like the characters that SR added next to Usagi, Gen, Kitsune and Chizu, to build more on the family element of the show, were all really interesting. I'm a super slow writer myself but it would be cool to see more of that family element, and those other characters from other fans in general. I feel like this is a constant with SRTUC fans I've seen online who mention the other characters at least once haha x3

@umhuhwellthen those neko ninja designs are cool to see so I'm looking forward to the draw the squads you wanna make for them!

The Neko Ninja crew are ones I also have theories about, but I feel like people will start to write more about thme eventually, so in future fanworks, I would maybe like to just have some extra scenes at the farm, or the Neo Edo crew resting their legs a bit after a tough fight and seeing Auntie, Hana and the other kids again. almost like a vacation even :D

Something else I would also like to explore is how to write Gen and Toshiko, because I thought their sibling dynamic of "elder hypochondriac brother with abandonment issues* who became a bounty hunter" and "younger sister who ran away to the circus and other odd jobs" is interesting for me as an older sibling myself.

*lol that is just what I read into it, but the way his story is framed, with him staying with the Shiba Inu doctors after his family was run out of town, the way he felt emotional after Tetsujin and Chizu gave him a prosthetic horn, sorta makes it feel like it would fit...

I would also maybe like to see more of the Neo Edo crews? Or maybe just more of the 3 crews we see in the show, besides the neko ninja. Like the Mogura have a whole town underground and the Bat Squadron seems to have some sort of recent history with the city, with how they don't have a fleet but their leader is called an admiral... an admiral of what? That's something I'm trying to expand on in "Neo Edo Idol" x3

I'd heard in an interview that the show's crew also had other gangs designed so that seems something fun to tackle with the aesthetic the show has established and how different the three crew's shown are :3

[drawnaghht]

Usagi is a given name (part 2)

I had a confusion abt a recent(ish) post in the Samurai Rabbit tags, but then after writing a reply, realized, it was about an AU they were writing and not the series itself directly. So I scrapped my reply and revised it a bit to put it here separately. (general spoilers for Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles and minor spoilers for Usagi Yojimbo) Also posting bc I keep seeing old info circulate that keeps confusing the name thing further so lol. general reference for u fans who haven't read the UY comics or watched the SRTUC series. Even if you change things in your own fic, even if u dislike the SR show, it’s good to keep in mind what the original work might mean.

Summary:

Miyamoto Usagi is based on historical samurai Miyamoto Musashi, so Usagi is always his given name. In japan, names are written [surname][given name]. Usagi Yojimbo is Stan Sakai’s life work, inspired in the early 80s by samurai films, namely Samurai trilogy about the real life Miyamoto Musashi.

Based on how the Samurai Rabbit show treats it, Usagi is the given name of Yuichi Usagi as well - it's more familiar, what you would call any other characters in western shows - their first name. We do not know the in-world or our-world reasoning for it (yet). But safe to say that the SRTUC crew were big fans of UY or else the show would not have been made.

Although UY predates it in the US, Usagi is usually considered a given name thanks to the popularity of Sailor Moon, so it is not used as a surname. Maybe it's more of a Kira Kira name in real-world japan. Cute but harmless.

Usagi means "rabbit" so it makes sense as a fictional name because all these characters mentioned are rabbits or rabbit-themed. In the Usagi Yojimbo book, many characters have names based on what species of animal they are (Inukai (Stray Dog), Nezumi, Zato-Ino) so there are just a lot of name puns.

but you can use Yuichi when wanting to differentiate while speaking of both of the Usagi's (Stan himself switches between using Usagi/Yuichi and "My Usagi"/Miyamoto Usagi when he starts talking of both of them in the same answer in this CBCC podcast interview). Usagi is still a given name for both.

So you can use both names when talking about him as a character, but in-story people would probably address him as Usagi regardless of if they've just met him or known him for a long time.

Yes, it makes things confusing, but it’s like having two people in the same class with the same name. You don’t rename the classmates, you give them nicknames.

Since he is so friendly, he would probably let people use Usagi from the first time they meet (and we see this in the show itself too haha) but in other contexts, maybe he would let people address him as Yuichi-san, for example, but we never really see anyone refer to him in this way. And to all strangers he meets, he is just “Rabbit” - the friendly farmboy descended from samurai.

edit (14.06.23): after writing this I realised, even more likely that both Yuichi and Usagi are meant as given names and the family doesn't have a surname anymore... lets think about it more below! ^^

= Intro =

So I thought that maybe making a long reply would be rude, so I’m making a separate post about it. This post was confusing to me at first, bc I thought, “ahh, more confusion abt the names” then “but wait they’re not Father and Son…” and then realized omg, this post and poll is for  OPs AU! (lolol sorry for misreading it, i’m still sick and very slow on the uptake for a lot of stuff this week ^^;)

I had a bit of trouble at first too with a new Usagi and his names. Yuichi is very commonly known as a given name in japan. After seeing the series, I even tried to rationalize that maybe his friends are using Usagi respectfully as a family name after they get to know him... but in the show itself, his aunt calls him "Usagi" so even tho Yuichi is a common first name, it is intended in the show that he is called Usagi, whatever way "Yuichi" is meant to be used.

(Usagi and his Auntie. Shot from the 1st episode. "The Big City" )

Usually an aunt who raises you, does not use your second/family names. I'm not Japanese or Japanese-American myself (I am mixed Asian-European) so I deferred to the show to give me info. This show seemed a bit better to me than other american shows based on asian cultures. So the naming kept confusing me but I guessed that maybe I just don't know enough info and it must be some pun or simpler nickname like many characters in the comic (like general Oyaneko, Lord Hebi, or Zato-Ino)

(Yuichi Usagi and Miyamoto Usagi. screenshot from the 18th episode. "The Chizu Stands Alone" )

So I tried to consider some time ago, that maybe the team who named him, just decided on it based on something else (maybe the meaning "heroic first-born (son)" (via Japanese-Names.org)) and that Stan went with it as the one overseeing everything for the show because the name stuck. It's a fairly catchy name. 

I’ve also heard from other fans that they kept calling him Yuichi during production and then added Usagi for the connection to the original Usagi and vice versa, that he was always called Usagi, but then needed and secondary name to differentiate him among both the crew and in the text.

We don't really know as fans. Maybe there's a long story behind it that the crew didn't have time to include as they tried to finish the 20-episode order... but I digress. His first name is Usagi. Lets say that it's a namesake to his ancestor.

Miyamoto Usagi from Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo comics is well-known to be based on Miyamoto Musashi, a real-life samurai. The fact that his first name is Usagi, is sorta like Stan making a joke about how he's a rabbit also. It's a fun juxtaposition of serious and funny, because it's a very well-researched comic about Edo-period samurai, but everyone is animals. So that's why the comic is also titled Usagi Yojimbo, because, Rabbit Bodyguard. It's just a good title that makes sense when you start reading the first story.

Usagi Yojimbo is the TITLE of the comicbook series. The folks who made the 1987 series made a mistake naming him (and there's prob history there but I won't go into it). In the comic, Mr. Sakai uses the japanese naming convention of [FAMILY NAME] [given name]. This is consistent in the cartoon as well. Usagi itself is a common given name in manga/comics since Sailor Moon.

Yuichi Usagi in this way, sounds like two first names then. But...

Yuichi can actually be a last name too irl, it is just much less common.

There's also name-explaining sites. I can’t quite take sites like these (Forebears) at face value, but it has some vague statistics on Yuichi as a surname around the world. Again, vague for me personally, bc how do they collect this info.. but they’ve been active since 2012 and some of the info on other names is correct so maybe it’s correct here too.

And of similar names:

Lets take sites like these witha grain of salt though, since they don’t have concrete sources.

Another fan (@/vagabond-pinky) asked about this name confusion 3 months ago in march and got some interesting replies in the notes so I'll leave that here too: "we found 2 historical people with the last name Yuichi, case closed. his first name is Usagi"

= Usagi Yojimbo: Senso connection =

I already made a longer post looking into the name some time ago, trying to analyze a possible reason for why the crew named him Yuichi Usagi and not something else. I went and read Usagi Yojimbo: Senso, which, in addition to the main comic, is what the crew based the concept of the show on, in large parts. I also found after writing this bigger post that Miyamoto Yuichi is a really common name. So maybe they also didn't want to name him something that wouldn't be as memorable or show up in an internet search. But that's my speculation as a fan as is what I wrote before. There is an article in the Pachific Citizen that actually calls him Miyamoto Yuichi by accident and it does have a nice ring to it.

Maybe it’s an issue of how the name was researched. When looking up the name and any historical base like with Stan’s Usagi and Musashi, I found that many EN language wikipedia redirects/directory lists had JP names either first-name–last-name (western) or last-name–first name (japanese), without consistency across the site. Maybe the crew researched a name, but it was listed wrong. Maybe they based the name also on something historical, mimicking Stan in their admiration of his work, but ran out of time to actually reference these isnpirations in the work itself because of time restraints? I do not know yet, because we have not had any interviews from anyone in the crew about this. Usually animation productions, especially for TV series are on an incredibly tight schedule. The actual production of the show started in 2020 (Comic Con 2021 interview with Stan, crew and cast - this is where I first heard abt the show if I remember right) and the show premiered its first season on March 28th 2022. They might have even been finishing up some details on the second season between this and the 2nd season airing on September 1st. So logistically, it's possible they couldn't include more lore and explanations except what was deemed important e.g. the yokai storyline, Chizu's story arcs, Miyamoto Usagi's Ki-stone flashbacks and storyline, the alien storyline. So basically maybe they just ran out of time for us to see Yuichi's backstory, as the show tries to be a bit different in this regard. We even see Gen's backstory a bit throughout s1, but miss out on Kitsune and the younger Usagi. Going by the Comic Con interview with Stan however, Stan is really proud of the series and pre-production had already been going on for a year or so before this interview, so they must have worked out something between pre-production and post-production.

= The japanese dub =

In the japanese dub, his name is spelled ユウイチ (雄一) うさぎ - Yūichi Usagi, so by naming conventions, again things are fairly correct. Usagi is the given name to call him by, but then by the spelling both are technically given names? When you search this name in japanese, you will get children's books listed in both the site results and the image results.If I really wanted to infer meaning from this, I could say that “hey, maybe this is a common children’s nickname for an old book series or fairytale, or something!” Except I do not actually know that. That would be my assumption to make based on a surface-level detail.

Now, since I'm not japanese or japanese-american myself (and probably neither are many of the online TMNT and Usagi fans), I can only learn from others about this culture. While I am european-asian, that is kind of totally different no matter how many living relatives I might have in japan or not. I might know slightly more about some japanese culture and history than say, the average northern or eastern-european here? But I am still quite clueless about many things about the language and history itself. So whatever I try to search in japanese will have some human error in it because I am not fluent in japanese. So, if we try to expand beyond the show, unless we are actually close to these communities, we will not know about japanese culture unless we've learned about it beforehand. So we can only refer to the comicbook series and the show itself to give us more info, or more context, to look up and research. But if I find anything else, I can really only use it as a point to sort of expand my existing theories on, but not quite “hard canon” as what the show itself and the comic are.

One other thing I find of note to mention: both the original EN language cast and crew had actual Asian-American members in important roles. The art director is Vietnamese-American. Yuki Matsuzaki reprising his role as Miyamoto Usagi and Darren Barnet, who is half-japanese, playing Yuichi Usagi. Darren is fluent in japanese btw, so that's why you might hear a slight "accent" when he speaks japanese as Usagi - he is actually pronouncing the japanese words correctly. And that was so nice to hear. You have no idea how many cartoons and other media I've seen where the asian language pronunciations are completely butchered. Sometimes it is intentional from a production i.e. game localization from a chinese game to english - because english pronounciation of names has different rules from other languages, so some names and words have to follow those rules more closeuly so people know what word is being said and recognize it. But it's still grating to hear. So the fact that names and food or other terms are pronounced in a way that seems correct (again, not fluent, but it's better than I hear in non-researched productions), is very nice to hear.

Additionally, it seems from just the way the crew talks about it that they put a lot of care into making sure they don't mess things up regarding the culture and the comic. So I refuse to believe that research was not done on the show, including the names. It comes down to the quality of research, but also their time restraints, what was actually left in the show and what was deemed viable to keep, what would have added more time crunch or work on top of existing work. Again, blame netflix, not the crew, not the producers (all supportive of the show, bc who knows what netflix upstairs things about cartoons anymore.

= Conclusions =

Thinking of all this, the most likely reasons for Usagi’s names like that that they had considerations for other names and more lore behind it, but focused more on getting the show finished and done in a way that the most important plot and info got into it. So a lot of things might have been cut for time reasons, including a consideration for a different surname, because again, for time and quality reasons, this was not as important as the rest of the show.

It might be that my theory linking Senso to the creation of the show could turn out to be true - that the name Yuichi is more a title than a traditional surname. 

Extrapolating on this Senso theory, since the show borrows just as heavily from Edo time aesthetics, history and ideas, it’s possible the crew also built on the idea of a samurai family losing their surname and becoming farmers over time... Something we also see in Usagi Yojimbo, with a general in hiding who has become a farmer and having a new family... it’s interesting to consider then that perhaps the whole line after the Ki-stone incident with the shogun, lose their name over time as history changes. So Usagi and his auntie perhaps don’t really have a real surname, but his parents wanted him to have an honorable family name anyway, so they think of the name Yuichi, because of it’s meaning. That’s my fanon idea over all this speculation, but hey, it’s a possibility.

Regardless, we don't know exact reasons for the naming without asking a crew member directly, and that's usually a bit rude out of an interview I suppose?  Neither can we ask about the naming of the show, that's usually a long process for shows in general. I do wonder what alternative names they had for both Usagi and the show, but, I’m not really up for asking directly myself. Like the crew seem like nice people so I would not ask any of them abt this randomly. So what I’ve done instead, is to try and speculate in my earlier post about it in general, based on what Samurai Rabbit is based on (the UY: Senso book), some of the interviews and context clues within the show (Usagi’s auntie calling him by his given name, and his friends keeping the nickname Usagi once they get to know each other more, we can assume).

Because we don't know exactly, we mostly just have the show itself + those other aforementioned sources to go on, and there might be more possible reasons than I could speculate in the future. So we'll probably never find out.

In your own fanfic, theories etc, u can do whatever, but it’s just good to know abt some stuff abt these series as a reference point, even if u change things. If you love TMNT as a series/concept, maybe you can learn to respect UY/SRTUC as series too. I know it’s just silly fandom stuff most times, but it’s good to be mindful about this if it’s your interest or something you like even a bit.

So to summarize:

Miyamoto Usagi is based on historical samurai Miyamoto Musashi, so Usagi is always his given name.

Based on how the show treats it, you can use Usagi for Yuichi Usagi - it's more familiar, what you would call any other characters in western shows - their first name.

his aunt who RAISED HIM, calls him Usagi. Even if it’s only at the request of him (like say, it’s a namesake he got and not his birth name), that’s still the name his family calls him

If his pursuers/new friends really were calling him Usagi (family name) out of respect at first, then they would have to do the same to each other too. Maybe even switch to given names later. But they all call each other by given names right away. This seems to be a generational difference (Nochi and Fuwa, adults but also enemies/adversaries to the main cast, are adressed via family name throughout)

Although UY predates it in the US, Usagi is usually a given name in Japan thanks to the popularity of Sailor Moon, so it is not used as a surname. Maybe it's a Kira Kira name just like we have it in real-world japan.

Usagi means "rabbit" so it makes sense as a fictional character name because all these characters mentioned are rabbits or rabbit-themed. In the Usagi Yojimbo book, many characters have names based on what species of animal they are (Inukai (Stray Dog), Lord Hebi, Nezumi, Zato-Ino) so there are just a lot of name puns.

it’s possible it would have been confusing to switch the names around during the production of the show - losing the connection with his ancestor, his namesake + the idea of every character meeting him and then mistaking him for Miyamoto Usagi, but also, the idea of everyone just calling him “Rabbit” in comical anger.

While the show follows the same conventions as the comic re: [surname][given name], it also wants it's viewers to feel more familiar with the characters, so same as Stan's original work. Similar to the comic, the show is written with a western/US audience in mind. In an old interview from 2010, Stan says it better himself: "Usagi might be about Japanese history and culture, but it's told from a distinctly western perspective". 

but you can use Yuichi when wanting to differentiate while speaking of both of the Usagi's (Stan himself switches between using Usagi/Yuichi and "My Usagi"/Miyamoto Usagi when he starts talking of both of them in the same answer in this CBCC podcast interview).

So you can use both names when talking about him as a character, but in-story people would probably adress him as Usagi regardless of if they've just met him or known him for a long time.

Whatever the reasons, Usagi is meant as a given name for both.

Since he is so friendly, he would probably let people use Usagi from the first time they meet (and we see this in the show itself too haha) but in other contexts, maybe he would let people address him as Yuichi-san, for example, but we never really see anyone refer to him in this way, he is just “Rabbit” - the friendly farmboy descended from samurai. 

[drawnaghht]

hmm so last week i was trying to think of why it might be that ppl suddenly started shipping Rise Leo and Yuichi Usagi (a "never met" crossover ship) when the Usagi Chronicles series was teased in 2021* and I think it might just be because it's so easy to change this iteration of both the ship and characters - a lot of the appeal of fanworks these days is full bespoke fan AUs and redesigns.

so I think this Usagi was just easier to sorta project new ideas onto, since he doesn't come with 35+ years of comics history. He's like a clean slate. especially if folks don't watch/don't care to look into the series.

which I kinda get, from an artistic perspective, creative endevours are always more fun if they're new and something you can make your own, right? or at least that's one possible aspect (of both this and fanworks in general)

but from a fannish perspective, my brain is also going like, "oh noo, my blorbo..." xD

and it's also a bit sad that folks ignore the og comic completely in some cases or just, don't look into it out of interest at all lol. I guess I kinda get that too, sometimes in some areas of the world, comics are really hard to get by and maybe some are like me, who want to read them on paper. It might also just be that older comics are unappealing to younger fans (?) but that would wholly be an assumption, since we don't really know all the reasons other people don't get interested in things like comics. I doubt many Rise fans have read the og TMNT comics either (it's fine, cuz again, younger audience + that's sorta the point various animated series sometimes - to get the new audience into the old comics - and sometimes it doesn't go like that)

the other thing is also that technically, Yuichi Usagi seems to be like the Gaumont/Netflix crew's way of making like a fun fanwork in the form of Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles. Many of the project leads were fans of Usagi Yojimbo and even some of the voice actors had read the comics as kids or had seen Usagi in the old TMNT series (from the SDCC interview with Stan and crew). Boy even has the Stan Sakai signature under his shoes, lol x3 So he is in some way already a fan-character and has a lot of those "new character" features that might be appealing to some (the hair and clothes are very "generic modern boy") and appealing to change drastically as well.

but anyway, yeah like... I've been around fandoms for a long while so I don't mind much that people are gonna have different tastes abt fanworks and how to write characters, etc. Everybody ships their niche ships differently. it's just interesting to think about, cuz there's so many ways to make fanworks in general and so many ways to define fandom or fandom ships and so on. like it's just something interesting I realized while having a bus ride.

*you can correct me on when the leochi/leochi ship became popular and when people started properly watching the SRTUC series, at least going by tumblr tags (more reliable than twitter, for tags at least) and I'll make any corrections about the timeline of tags here on tumblr xD Going back through the tumblr tag for "leosagi" and "leoichi" you can see a sort of a sharp drop in old leosagi "content" (fanart, fic, posts etc) and then the new stuff, mixed in with various fan designs for a Rise!version of Miyamoto Usagi and other designs and ideas. but I think there needs to be some sorta archive blog for this cuz honestly, going through the tumblr tags without a pages system is... so annoying xD Like I am not in university anymore so I don't feel like doing this sorta stuff (archiving by screenshots or by reblogs) but dang.... sorta feels like this would be nice to have lol