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drawnaghht · 9 months ago

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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!

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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

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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!