#sr chizu

[wtf-a-psychoanalysis]

Chizune redraw

[drawnaghht]

Lineups and outfit ideas for my TMNT x USAGI mega-crossover! Pt 1!

Heyo! so this was done a while ago (summer and a bit of autumn) but I wasn't in the mood to post it yet as I was very busy this past year.

Here we have: Gen, Chizu, Kitsune and Usagi in undercover outfit ideas for when they find themselves in New York city in 2023, where they're found out by a few strange older turtles... and some of the 2003 cast from 2023! Don't worry, I have another sheet for Mikey and Donnie, they are not absent from this crossover :)

Hope you enjoy! These were very fun to draw and put together :) I'm particularly proud of that Gen and Kitsune!

[drawnaghht]

oh no problem!! I didn't mean to come off as this mean, I was just genuinely confused bc i thought I missed some new behind the scenes or concept art that came out recently xD

which I honestly... sorta wish it did, just because there aren't any new episodes anymore so it'd fun to see more BTS boards or sketches or anything haha. I think if ppl only google for heights they're gonna get a lot of vague answers and fanblogs etc, so take those with a grain of salt, nothing is canon unless shown in the actual canon (show/comic/series) or behind the scenes production stuff (like with the rottmnt height chart, we can sorta take that as canon)

but also that sorta doesn't matter in fan-stories as much anyway, so it's kinda whatever.

I do think this is a funny idea tho! and it would be funny to see the characters side-by-side in any case lol but cartoon heights are always so all-over-the-place unless someone goes and analyses it more x3

Anyway, I started thinking abt it while replying, and I accidentally wrote this into a longer reply than i meant to so, brace yourself! commentary and thoughts below. Take it with a grain of salt bc it's pretty vague at this time of the day and it doesn't really go that in-depth, just some vague theorizing x3

going by the older concept art we see publicly, by Irineo Maramba (when the show seemingly still had Space Usagi influences) and by Andry Rajoelina, it actually seems that Usagi should be between Chizu and Kitsune's heights, but in the show's final designs it appears he is roughly around the same height as Chizu, if a bit shorter (but their eyes are at different levels). With respect to Chizu, I have a hard time believing he is just as short as Kitsune x3 ...but then again, it would be interesting to know where they decided that in the production process! cuz he does feel like he should be a shorter teen x3

like in these concept arts show on Irineo Maramba's portfolio, you can see that Usagi is a lot shorter than in the final show. Usagi in this screenshot below, even appears a teensy bit shorter than Chizu, and neither of them are wearing flats with heels either, so they're "roughly" the same height. Because of the whole eye-level difference, I've always thought that was the reason Usagi seemed so much shorter to me as well, even though he's clearly not actually as short as Kitsune haha xD Middle of ep 7 for ref:

But then in the same episode, at the start when Chizu pulls Usagi over, she appears slightly shorter, possibly because she is a little bit hunched here while trying to talk to Usagi about something secretive. Is the shot like this just because the camera is tilted slightly upwards, or is Chizu also bending her knees slightly to be more at Usagi's eye-level?

here too, Usagi appears slightly taller when Chizu goes to agree with him to lead him to the Neko Ninja dojo. Chizu is not hunched or leaning towards Usagi anymore, but instead appears to be standing.

But then in the next few shots with them standing together, they appear sligthly reversed, so now Usagi appears shorter while Chizu appears a bit taller. Is it just because one of them is closer to the camera (from Gen's POV) than the other, or is it an accident?

So going by those moments/shots and how much Usagi's 3D keyshapes change during episodes, what probably happened here is that the animators went according to the board (possibly) or animatic, but so much that their heights are also followed, just to fit the poses given in the boards more perfectly. LOL, just one possible explanation for small differences like this, I won't go more into it here, but it's something I thought possible because of how animation works in a TV production with two studios.

also, if I went to compare the two Usagi's in the show and then took the comic as a reference point, I would still be at a certain loss. Because the heights of the characters are different slightly, depending on which issue/story I read - what remains mostly constant though is the heights between the characters. So if I put all the UY characters into a roster/lineup in a character sheet, I might get something specific, but I'd have to refer to the newest publications then. But then there's the whole issue of which Usagi do I compare?

In the show, our two Usagi appear almost the same height. But we only have the one situation to compare from, when they meet in the spirit-realm, lets call it.

It appears that our elder Usagi here is slightly taller than his descendant. So for an Edo-period man, maybe that would make him "taller than average". Which sort of makes sense if we take the movie and real-world versions of Miyamoto Musashi as the inspirations for Miyamoto Usagi. Musashi was a tall man (by many online sources, sometimes even around 5'11'' but most times a whole 6 feet).

If we take this self-portrait as evidence and compare it with the average katana length of 60-80 cm, we would see that he slightly taller than 2 katana. So maybe around 180cm, so roughly around 5'9" maybe. If we take the self-portrait as accurate (I know I definitely don't know how to portray myself as accurately as possible so that's still vague lol). But that still leaves him as taller than the average japanese person around that time, (150-160cm) at least according to general research. (Like I found this interesting graph, "Body height of Japanese man and women, born since 1870" borrowed from the Anthropological Society of Nippon)

But Usagi is an anthropomorphic rabbit. And he is not the actual Musashi, even if based on him. It would make sense that in his first appearances in the early comics, he appears as a shorter humanoid rabbit, because hey, that's a bit funnier if not, and it just fits. In other animated appearances, he appears shorter than the turtles. Personally, I see this mostly as a result of the production teams taking his then-current comic appearances and translating them into their shows, where the turtles are already shorter than many of the other human characters.

and so we get the idea that Miyamoto Usagi is short or shorter than average.

But then in this appearance in the SR show, he appears as "slightly taller than a teen descendant 1000 years from his time". If we ignore that he can change his height and appearance on this spiritual plane, lets say that he is around that same height or slightly below it, so "slightly taller than average". so maybe something like 176cm/5'8''? (once again, feet and inches are so confusing for me lol). Even if people get taller by each generation, that would put our futuristic Usagi at around "average".

So what is Miyamoto Usagi's height in the comic?

Now, if I tried to get the info from any user-made wiki, I cannot take that quite as seriously. As a wiki mod on a different fandom wikia, I know users can just change that sort of info willy-nilly haha so unless I use the UY wiki for example, for just the publication info or things that are otherwise publically available, even that is a bit unreliable for other stuff like age, height etc unless they refer to specific interviews with Stan himself or any reference he has made to their height in any pubblication. So I'd have to go into the books myself to confirm if the wikis don't give me the correct source x3

like for example, if I go into google to search, the first results mine shows are from various TMNT wikis, which... I don't know where they get their info from, but it seems they don't properly link/reference where they get their "character data" x3 which is understandable tbh!! things like character heights or ages are usually never listed anywhere unless it's manga/anime, where we have character books but it's something nice to know sometimes, so it's hard to leave it empty if the info is there somewhere.

And going through the other 1st-page results, it's mostly fan-pages, wikipedia and a tabletop fan-game which lists Miyamoto Usagi as "average height, if shorter than most"

So this is something that is hard to get info on and it's perfectly acceptable to have headcanons about it since there's nothing else to go on but the comic and show x3

I do think it's a choice though, to have made him "that tall" in the SR show. To me it seems that because he had more creative control over his own Usagi's depiction, Stan wanted to give his Usagi in the show, the same impression that we get in the comics. Calm, composed... a little bit intimidating maybe. And by the showrunners' admission, they also wanted to copy Stan's Usagi verbatim from to comics, or as close as possible, because they are also big UY comic fans and wanted him represented in the show. Personally I also think that he just.... "sounds" like a tall man. His VA here, Yuki Matsuzaki, is also relatively tall, at least according to google search? (again, unreliable) But maybe it's something that influenced the show's depiction of comic-Usagi. Now with most voiceover work, it doesn't matter really, because you can be whatever height while the character is a different height altogether. But it just seems from that scene with the Usagis together, that the show crew liked seeing Miyamoto as on the taller side vs the shorter side of the previous animated versions.

in the visdev art figuring out the look of the 2D sequences, he also "seems" relatively tall

While in the actual 2D sequences (we can take these as the Ki-Stone's memories) we really only see that he is around the same height or slightly shorter than the various guards, and that the fake tiger shogun is much much taller than him. So "around 6, or shorter" could be a plausible height.

But then... that would leave our tv Usagi as "shorter than 6', taller than 5 feet" and knowing that's around 180cm something... that is something scary to imagine lol x3 It would also leave Gen a towering 8' or something, which I guess would make sense, since rhinos are on the larger side of mammals when you look at IRL rhinos, but still. Kinda scary? But then again, Gen is big and means to look scary so maybe that's intentional. They're from the future too, so even tho they're all animal-people, it'd make sense some of them are kinda more than 2 meters (extremely tall to an mid-size european like me).

In ROTTMNT, the heights between the characters are kept mostly consistent, Mikey and Raph are always the shortest and tallest, April is almost always a bit taller than Mikey, and then Leo and Donnie are close to each others heights, but Leo is a bit taller, while the goggles add to Donnie's height in a visual sense.

But like with Chizu and Usagi, I've seen a lot of people disagree on their heights, "taller Donnie supremacy!!" "Leo is the taller twin!!!" etc. It's a bit funny to me that it seems to be a similar issue - that Donnie just has such a different body type (long limbs but short torso/body) vs Leo (shorter limbs, but "longer" torso/body), that he appears taller than Leo, even in shots with them together. it's hard to tell, just like with Chizu and Usagi haha x3

In this old graph, it sets early season 1 main cast from 3' to 6' (and Draxum at 6'8") so these sorta make sense with how the characters are drawn and seen in the early episodes. Excluding the 2 adults, the main 5 are teens and it makes sense that their heights would change later on a bit since they start at ages 13-16 (from Mikey, the youngest, to April, the oldest respectively).

In the movie, their heights appear to be "slightly taller", since two years have passed between the series' first episode and the the movie's start, but the differences between the cast are still roughly the same. Maybe the exact numbers sorta don't matter, it seems it could be much easier to have consistent heights if you can imagine the characters next to each other and maintain the consistency through that.

Both in the finale and movie, you can see the characters have changed in some significant ways (at least 1 year has passed by the finale of the Rise series), but their heights still remain relatively consistent.

So maybe to quote SR Miyamoto Usagi... "it's a matter of perspective" haha. It doesn't matter much in the end cuz in fanart and fanfic, we can do whatever, especially if we don't have canon heights x3

also.... all that being said, now I think it would be fun to try and compare all the different Miyamoto Usagi heights and just sorta compare that to the different TMNT iterations too. think i might do this just for fun but also this might help my Usagi crossover in the future :P

If there would ever be a Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles and ROTTMNT crossover, I hope they keep each show's official character heights.

EDIT: Yuichi Usagi is officially equal of height with Mikey, and Kitsune is at Usagi's shoulder level. (Usagi with his ears tied in a top knot is 4'6"-4'7" while Mikey is 4'7").

Usagi and Kitsune meeting Raph is gonna look like this:

[lowkey-loki245]

More The Usagi Chronicles headcanons cause it deserves it.

Yuichi is hella insecure. Evidence? That one speech from the yokai in episode 3, season 1.

Yuichi feels like it's his fault the city is constantly in danger.

Yuichi's still a little confident in himself, but he really cares what others think of him.

(Just for funsies) Kitsune loves The Crane Wives and Mother Mother. Her number one fav songs of each group is "Take Me to War" and "Wrecking Ball".

Chizu listens to Girl in Red religiously.

Yuichi is a Cavetown fan. No else needs to be said, you know what that means.

Gen's playlist is mostly classical music.

Gen's the nurse of the team. Chizu takes over if someone's sick though. He doesn't wanna get germs on him.

Yuichi meet Spot when he was 6. He was just playing in the woods and found him. He begged Auntie to let him keep Spot and the rest is history.

Thanks to how accident prone Yuichi is, he has high pain tolerance.

(Quick rottmnt related headcanon so I can use the tag and actually get some attention for this show.) Gen and Raph would be best friends. Kitsune would be besties with Casey Sr. (Cassandra). Chizu might bond with Casey Jr.

Now give this show attention. (Also, why are there no tags for characters other than Yuichi?)

[chamomilehoneytea]

Ordering Bessatsu Margaret May 2018 Issue

Hello everyone! 

The May 2018 Issue of Betsuma will include a new Kimi ni Todoke bonus “volume”; according to the Betsuma website, the story is 50 pages long and will focus on Kurumi and Sawako at university. Other characters may make an appearance, but based on the website’s description, it seems to be a Kurumi-centered chapter with touches of Sawako and Kazehaya’s long-distance relationship (especially judging from the accompanying image). 

I can’t confirm the rumor, but someone in a Japanese Kimi ni Todoke forum claimed that some people who went to the Karuho Shiina meet and book sign event at the Kimi ni Todoke Exhibition said it seems like there’ll be an Ayane-focused story in the future. If this is true (I really hope it’s true!!), then there may be a few of these bonus chapters released sporadically over the next year. And if there were about four or five stories (Kurumi’s, Ayane’s (hopefully with Pin), Chizu / Ryu’s, and Sawako / Kazehaya’s), they could all be compiled into a separate bonus volume.

As there’s no guarantee of a bonus volume available for purchase in the future, the only way you’ll definitely be able to read this new story is if you buy the May 2018 Issue of Betsuma, which comes out this Friday, April 13th. 

Here’s a link to the May Issue on Amazon Japan:

https://www.amazon.co.jp/別冊マーガレット-2018年-05-月号-雑誌/dp/B07BSXQMBS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&keywords=別冊マーガレット&language=en_US&qid=1523285639&sr=8-1

And here’s a comment I made a few months ago that includes some useful resources to walk you through the ordering process:

https://chamomilehoneytea.tumblr.com/post/169702239844/pinxayane-this-months-february-issue-betsuma

It may seem intimidating at first, but once you set up an account and add your information it’s pretty easy. Amazon Japan is very reliable and I’ve always received my orders quickly and in excellent condition, so I can’t recommend them enough! 

I’ll post a summary / translation of the new Kimi ni Todoke story, but I won’t be able to share pictures (someone else may upload scans, but there’s no guarantee). So if you really want the book for the images but are reluctant to purchase because you can’t read Japanese, don’t worry - I’ll have you covered! :)

Please let me know if you have any questions, because I really want you to get a copy if you’re interested. I’ll do whatever I can to help, so don’t be shy! :D

[dream-fes]

Surprise or Chocolate!? Chizu’s Big Valentine Plans ☆

Duration: 2017/2/9 ~ 2017/2/15 

Dream Festival’s very first Valentine’s Day-themed event has arrived! This event is unique to the previous ones in that it combines many types of events into one~

This event has three portions: Score Ranking, Point Ranking, and Point Collecting. To collect event points, play the two event songs, Starting Together and Reversible Valentine Bitter Sweet. 

Reversible Valentine Bitter Sweet is a score ranking song, meaning that if you play the HARD or NORMAL difficulties of that song you will be ranked based on your score for special rewards (such as My Room plushies). 

By collecting event points, you can acquire exclusive My Room posters, the event story, and the event-exclusive UR dream card series “Valentine Devil”. (shown below)

Last but not least, the Dream Card Shop has two new card series: UR “Sonic Blaster” and SR “Sweet Chocolatier ver. Keigo and Yuuto”! Both of these card series will have an increased appearance rate until 2/8 2pm JST. 

The above two card series will give you an event point bonus, as well as HR “Sweet Chocolatier ver. Kanade, Shin, Junya, Itsuki, Chizuru”. 

[drawnaghht]

TMNT x USAGI mega-crossover pt 2 - another lineup sketch

Some more lineup sketches as I try to nail down the height and body differences between this cast so I can keep them consistent in arts (at least to soe degree)

You can tell this one is a lot different, I made this this past week while looking at the old ones from autumn.

Bonus: closeup of the tiny Yui!Usagi thinking about this crossover and how all these other descendant teens are a bit taller than him. Tho he’s not that insecure about his height, it does make him feel weird about being the only one who hasn’t grown taller yet (something like that). 

I feel like headcanoning that... life on the farm with just detroyed vegetables to eat wasn’t all too great a contributor to that...

[awarmbowlofhomemadesoup]

Unofficial Guide to Yuichi Usagi's Friends and Family

This is for the fanfic readers who want to read about Leoichi but aren't as familiar with Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles. Note that I'm not a diehard fan but I did watch the two seasons so here are my thoughts.

This post is also spoiler-y to the show and have referneces to the Usagi Yojimbo comics.

Gen

Samurai Rabbit's Gen vs Usagi Yojimbo's Gen

Samurai Rabbit's Gen is based on Usagi Yojimbo's Gen. UY Gen is a self-proclaimed best friend of Miyamoto and constantly has him paying for the food and drinks every time they meet in their separate journeys.

UY Gen is a bounty hunter who knows how to wield a sword but refuses to follow the samurai code because of daddy issues (his dad chose to be faithful to the samurai code over providing a good life for his wife and kid).

More on Samurai Rabbit's Gen

SR Gen is also a bounty hunter but the similarity stops there. He was once from a rich family until his mother chose to heal a wanted convict. This made the people of Neo Edo mad at her which brought down her hospital.

Gen, upon growing up, had to make the hard decision to sell their mansion to the shogun and live his life as a bounty hunter.

Similar to rottmnt Raph, he's the oldest brother and carries that energy to his friends. He has a sister, Yoshiko, who looks like him. But they both insist they look nothing alike.

Toshiko is more free-spirited than Gen, but in Gen's opinion, she's more reckless, which ends up with him cleaning up her mess.

They also have a family car called Ashibasha that is possessed by a yokai that enters into any neglected non-living object. They keep Ashibasha in slight disrepair since they got attached to the yokai possessing it.

Other Stuff I Can Remember about Samurai Rabbit's Gen

He fights with a pair of kaikishi weapon of studded metal clubs called kanabo. Its special abilities are not yet known.

He and his friends are all staying in his ancestral home that his sister bought back.

He's a hypochondriac who would overworry over a paper cut and is a frequent patient of the Neo Edo hospital (which used to belong to their mother) run by three Shiba Inus who like to stay silly despite the horrors.

He's also a germaphobe and one of his greatest challenges against the Machine is going through the sewer part of their ship.

Aside from being a bounty hunter, he's also a sign spinner.

He and his sister has a background on fixing mech.

He sometimes is the advisor to Usagi's naïveté. Like telling Usagi to read the situation first in their first meeting or when he told him that the birthday venue for Kitsune should be something she likes because Usagi kept showing fighting venues.

He knows how to be intimidating for his advantage but is actually a big softie like following Usagi's idea to be their Kaiksihi sensei even when it's going badly so as not to hurt his feelings.

Kitsune

Samurai Rabbit's Kitsune vs Usagi Yojimbo's Kitsune

SR Kitsune is based on UY Kitsune. UY Kitsune is a street performer who robs her audience. A friendship was formed when Miyamoto stole back his wallet from her at the end of the chapter.

Despite being a righteous stick-in-the-mud, Miyamoto does have a sense of humor and doesn't seem to hold it against her when she robbed him of his money pouch that made him washed the dishes in a restaurant he ate in.

More on Samurai Rabbit's Kitsune

SR Kitsune is a street performer too. But instead of tricks with a fan and a toy top, she does puppeteering. She's also easygoing and has the tendency to make casual remarks about her life that ranges from zany to kind of concerning.

Like never having a birthday party in her life because she's an orphan, or that her childhood friend is a puff of gas that smells of fermented soybeans that she assumes is a ghost.

Similar to Mikey, she's just as playful and carries an energy of lightheartedness. She's the glue that holds Chizu with the others while Chizu is busy being the leader of the Neko ninja clan.

Other Stuff I Can Remember about Samurai Rabbit's Kitsune

She fights with kaikishi weapons which is a pair of bladed fans called Tessen. Its special abilities is not yet known aside from being able to return to her like a boomerang when thrown.

Has gay energy with Chizu.

She has a habit of stealing stuff but is trying to rein it in since she has her friends now.

Became sisters with a deadly alien ai that adapted its personality to her own. Her little sister is named Kiyoko. In the Usagi Yojimbo comics, Kitsune also has adopted a street orphan named Kiyoko whom she taught how to steal stuff.

Able to pilot a giant mech because of her puppeteering skills. Someone give that girl a gundam.

Chizu

Samurai Rabbit's Chizu vs Usagi Yojimbo's Chizu

Yuichi's Chizu is based on another character in the Usagi Yojimbo comics. Miyamoto's Chizu is also a ninja. But Chizu's brother, Shingen, got to know and work together with Miyamoto first.

I'm not yet finished with the comics, but all I know is that Chizu's brother died but she has heard of the samurai that he has worked with.

She has trouble with the ninja clan accepting her as their leader, and at one point was told by another ninja leading the clan to marry him so that the ninjas would take her authority more seriously. She refused.

In the end, the other ninja died after he tried to kill her to overthrow her. She then forced a kiss on Miyamoto as thanks or something and then left. (Seriously, I can count three female characters that forced a kiss on Miyamoto.) Chizu is a possible love interest for Miyamoto in the series.

I haven't finished the comics. But after a quick scan in Wiki, I find out she also fails to lead her clan and became a fugitive.

More on Samurai Rabbit's Chizu

SR Chizu has something like a mother complex but a third secret thing with Neko ninja crew leader Lady Fuwa. She was kidnapped as a baby by Lady Fuwa and was trained to be a weapon alongside other cat orphans.

So she kinda has a "You raised us but you kidnapped us. You destroyed our childhood for your gain but I wouldn't be here if not for you. You lie and cheat and backstab including me but I don't want to kill you" complicated thing with her.

Despite ninjas being famous for deception, she's the most strait-laced character in the group.

She tried to be loyal to Lady Fuwa. But Yuichi, Gen, and Kitsune reminded her of her childhood friend that Lady Fuwa took away so that Chizu wouldn't have any other bonds but her. It was Kitsune who was most hurt by her betrayal and Chizu made every effort to make it up to her.

Similar to rottmnt Donnie, she has a dry sense of humor. But again, that's where the similarity stops. If Donnie has evil-scientist-vibes, I think Chizu needs to be reminded to get loose sometimes. Well, at least Kitsune's there to remind her.

She really tried to lead the clan to no crimes but she has so much to learn first. Her clan, with the exception of one who was still loyal to her, turned on her in favor of Lady Fuwa.

Other Stuff I Can Remember about Samurai Rabbit's Chizu

Chizu fights with a kaiksihi weapon bow and arrow, along with her ninja gear of throwing stars and wrist-mounted crossbows. She's also familiar on how to use the naginata (it's like the Japanese version of a polearm).

Is ship-teased with Usagi but it's probably a callback on the Usagi Yojimbo comics.

Has gay energy with Kitsune.

Is looked up to by Hana and the other ninja kittens.

Tetsujin

Based on a sunbear, Tetsujin is the last warrior and guardian of the mystical ki-stone aka Kaikishi warrior. He's the tech guy of the group and his form became that of a sci-fi ghost because of the ki-stone.

He and Lady Fuwa used to be together (which neither Usagi, Gen, Kitsune nor Chizu wants to hear about), but it turned out Lady Fuwa was just using him.

Yuichi Usagi's Aunt

Usagi's Aunt's name is not yet known despite two seasons. She's not based on the Usagi Yojimbo comics. She taught Usagi everything he knows about sword fighting.

Although there was an implication of war a long time ago, judging by Usagi's aunt's leg and ear prosthetics, and that Usagi's parents are nowhere to be seen, there doesn't seem to be any samurais in Neo Edo.

Did She Ever Give Usagi Formal Training on How to be a Samurai? I don't know.

I'm not sure if she has formally taught him how to be a samurai, aside from sword fighting, such as the samurais' philosophies, virtues, and principles. But Usagi once quoted her words about protecting those who need to be protected. So it's possible.

But unlike Miyamoto Usagi, Yuichi Usagi didn't follow the traditional path of being a samurai:

Miyamoto received his sword, Willowbranch, when he was acknowledged by his lord and future master, Lord Mifune, upon proving himself in a tournament.

For Yuichi Usagi, he was given his Aunt's sword, Edgewing, when he wanted to go out to the city. In the Usagi Yojimbo comics, the sword of a samurai is his soul. But it doesn't seem to be the case for Edgewing.

So maybe it's more informal? Since Yuichi Usagi seems to be the only samurai around, the samurai tradition may have become obsolete by the time Yuichi Usagi became Miyamoto Usagi's thousand-year descendant. Similar to how the samurai class was abolished in the late 1860s. But that's just my assumptions.

Did They Pass Down Katsuichi's Unique Style of Swordfighitng? I don't know either.

It is Katsuichi, Miyamoto's sensei, whom Miyamoto learned the way of the sword that had made him a great samurai. But it is not yet confirmed if Usagi's aunt learned the same style.

How does the Yuichi Line Connect to Miyamoto Usago? I don't know that either.

While Miyamoto Usagi is acknowledged as their ancestor, it didn't say in the show if Usagi and his Aunt came from the line of Miyamoto's paternal cousin, Yamamoto Yukichi, or from a descendant of (surname unknown) Jotaro, Miyamoto's son that was raised by his childhood love, Mariko, and childhood rival, Kenichi.

Hana and the other Ninja Orphan Kittens

In the Samurai Rabbit series, Hana and the other orphan ninjas are basically child soldiers. Chizu and Usagi rescued them and the orphans now lived a peaceful life with Usagi's aunt.

They still have a long way to go as they're still trying to get used to civilian life without looting or destroying property (as they did when Usagi and Gen took them on an outing).

Karasu-Tengu

Karasu-Tengu is the Master Yokai of all martial arts and also a nature yokai who doesn't like how Neo Edo had become because it destroyed a forest for it to become so big.

She was going to seclude herself into the deeper parts of the forests to protect and live in it. But Usagi figured out where to find her. She tried to shoo him away like how one would be whacking a slipper after a bug, Usagi fights her as he asks for her to be his sensei.

In the end, Usagi proved himself worthy, and they make a funny pair by how small and harmless Usagi looks like next to her -similar to Miaymoto and his sensei.

Samurai Rabbit has a lot of references to the Usagi Yojimbo comics with more characters. But this post is long enough.

[drawnaghht]

hmmm one thing I really like in SR, is how most of the body types we see are fairly stumpy/strong or just overall, don't feel fragile (since they're based on animals moreso than humans, I suppose that must be the influence there)

The only characters who we could even call "skinny", are Usagi himself, and then the Shogun, lord Kogane (who is short under that outfit of his). Both their body-shapes are still different (Yuichi's triangle shapes VS Kogane's bell-shape) but are also more-or-less closer to that stick-figure shape we don't see in the other characters

usagi and kogane

vs the other cast

since it's primarily a more "action anthro" or "funny animals" show, but also 3D, it's sorta nice to see this change of pace compared to other modern cartoons where the girl or women characters are always skinnier or less bulky, even if they do action, or often even male characters will be the same height/similar body type and there's not as much variety in the cast. But here they're all different animals so it's a nice excuse to add more variety according to character and inspirations heh. Now, with Chizu and and Kitsune, they might not be very bulky, but they are at least the bare minimum of "very ordinary-looking body types) and also different heights from each other. With Gen and Toshiko on the other hand, even if it's a cost-saving method to keep the budget for the heavier/costlier and more necessary scenes, I like that Toshiko is allowed to basically, be just a person but in a way that's realistic for this world, so she's still the same build as Gen and the rest of her family, with the only difference being that she wears ear-rings as a show of character.

also, like I'd said b4 in an older post, I appreciate they didn't do the "boobs on animals" design choice either (all the female cast, but especially characters like Chizu or Toshiko) cuz well, it's not a game or something hyper-realistic, but also, seems like the visdev crew was really smart and aware abt this sorta stuff. So with the exception of Lady Fuwa, the rest of the female cast do not really have detailing or design aspects that would make them seem close to cartoons or 3D games that do add more visible chests to their anthro characters (like, for whatever reason, it could be anything). just a nice change of pace.

tho I guess like, it *is* aimed at kids, so the designers were aware of some of this stuff probably and steered the designs into something easy-to-draw (I'm thinking of visdev and storyboards) as well as model and animate.

[drawnaghht]

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!

[drawnaghht]

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).

[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