#the usagi name debacle

[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).

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YESS, finally a confirmation! and a little backstory to boot! EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU @freakova

couldn't be happier, gonna be talking abt this the whole week 💅

also omg, it's cool you got to talk to Candie! I knew about the Jules being named after Stan's wise Julie trivia (it's mentioned in the "facts" video on netflix's youtube) but it's cool to see it mentioned again!! ahhhhh this is such a cool interaction to see!

The writers of Samurai Rabbit have confirmed that "Yuichi" is Usagi's surname

Since there have been a reblog of one of my posts stating a theory to be fact, I decided to directly contact Douglas & Candie Langdale (The creators of Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles) to see if we can get 100% confirmation as to whether "Yuichi" is Usagi's given name or surname.

I am happy to confirm that we now have an answer and this debate can be put to rest.

Yuichi Usagi's surname was named after someone at a karaoke studio the writers knew. Yuichi, while is more common as a given name, can be a surname.

So there you have it! Usagi is the given name. Yuichi Usagi is written like Miyamoto Usagi and it is the name "Usagi" that is passed down.

Also fun fact, the Neo Edo currency was named after Stan's wife

[aleksiej]

does rottmnt donnie dislike touch?

i have rewatched all of rottmnt and am ending this debacle once and for all (at least for me lol)

based on the two seasons, the movie and the comics (tho the comics don't really bring anything to this conversation) i think i have the answer to one of the more controversial topics in this fandom

(no, it's not the yuichi vs usagi debate, usagi obviously wins that no sweat)

so, does donnie dislike touch?

in the series, he is shown being fairly touchy with his siblings throughout the series, with some exceptions i will try to list now, tho not with proper episode names as i am not looking them up, sorry not sorry:

pilot episode, captured by draxum in a cacoon with mikey he's visibly uncomfortable and tries to get away

mikey's solo mission, he doesn't look at any of the and in response to a hug he pats mikey's head with a metal arm from his battle shell.

glued together, he's showing visible discomfort at being forced into close (touching) proximity of his brothers, tho that discomfort is somewhat elevated when they do a second go-round after the sticky foam ball got crushed

that time splinter caught everyone in a trap hanging in the lair (i think it's the forest survival episode?), he's, again, uncomfortable and the first to find a solution to their entrapment, be it on his phone

there's probably more, but that's what i remember from the series and spread out on about 60 episodes it's noticeable, but not a deciding factor, especially since donnie's also seen being fine with touch. now, the movie offers us even more of a look into donnie's relationship with touch. this list will include every instance presented i can think of, in no particular order.

during leo and raph's fight after they lost the key, donnie jumps on raph's back in an attempt to stop him from advancing in the fight, as mikey tries to shield leo. it's a very quick decision and doesn't seem to particularly trouble donnie.

after the kraang come through the portal and the turtles escape-pod out, mikey's panicking and grabbing cj, also causing him distress. donnie grabs mikey under his arms like a plushie and is shown to carry him until leo gets back with a panic attack and news of raph, upon which leo starts at cj with a fight in mind and donnie and mikey keep him away. again, no distress is coming off of donnie, no more than the regular situation call for (although he gets more logic-minded and quiet as the movie goes on with only small donnie moments breaking it up, which seems to be how he reacts to stress, but that'll be in another fever post)

he's touching mikey sometimes during the subway battle, but it's most likely he either didn't notice or didn't care, considering everything else happening in that fight (ps the kraang train is my favorite villainous entity in the franchise, give me more of the kraang train and i will give you my soul)

he's shown very visibly having sensory issues (very relatable) throughout the whole movie because of the kraang. not necessarily to do with touch, oh except for the part when he had to get EATEN BY THE TECHNODROME THROUGH HIS BARELY TOUCHED AT ALL SOFT SHELL which is shown to be a sensory nightmare and awful to touch and yes, i had night terrors if that, thank you very much.

at the very end, they all hug with no visible problems except for the fact that they are on staten island. that is to say, there's one important scene still, it happens before the end, but i wanted to have space to gush about it so here we go.

the famous scene of raph grabbing donnie and mikey flying through the air, yelling "don't worry donnie, it's not a hug, it's a rescue". probably the most important thing said in accordance to donnie's relationship with touch.

in my personal opinion, donnie doesn't mask (i mean look at his behavior) or if he does, he does it, rarely in public and even rarer with just his brothers. so every one of the hamato clan knows at least the most important of donnie's boundaries, especially related to the autism, as it's handled well within their family structure (both donnie's and mikey's autism is) . so, if raph calls out to him to warn about the hug he's giving donnie and treats it like a potential bad thing, there are really only two conclusions we can get to.

one, donnie doesn't like/hates physical contact. disputed by just about everything else in the show, except for the listed above exceptions.

two, donnie being open to touch or not is conditional. and considering the mentioned exceptions and raph's rescue from the movie, there's one similarity we can notice between them.

the touch affecting donnie is happening without his consent and without a form of escape.

(except for when donnie's hugged by mikey in his solo mission episode, but considering he's already kind of detached, i'm assuming he's just not up to it and so he uses his robotic extra arms to give comfort instead of ignoring his little brother which aww)

that's the uncomfortable part, the unpredictability and lack of a way to detach himself. aka, donnie's just like me for real. lmao.

donnie probably doesn't mind touch and welcomes it, but needs to be in control of the process and be able to leave if he gets overwhelmed. and his family knows that, hence raph's words in the movie that led so many people astray...

this might just be another evidence of how well donnie is written as an autistic character, both with his low empathy not being demonized and not preventing him from creating bonds (tho sometimes making it difficult) and the fact that the most common opinion of autistic people (that they hate touch, which is something a psychiatrist brought up as evidence of me not being autistic) doesn't apply to everyone.

as a summary, rottmnt donnie is probably the best version of donnie right now and he doesn't hate touching, he just has to touch on his own terms. extremely valid, extremely relatable.

[random-mailbox]

Episode 29 of Oshioki Yo! Podcast is up!

Ladies discuss next 10 episodes - ranging from filler to more important, the mandatory bathing suit one, Usagi's birthday debacle (how can you not know when your significant other's birthday is?!) and how Minako made sure to get her own heart crystal stolen. As always, providing cultural insights, pop culture references and comparing sub and dub versions of the series.

You can listen to the episodes on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Cast, and Podchaser (links to show pages in the platform names)

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Thank you for tagging me, I wrote a post looking into this a while ago and I have been writing a 2nd part to it this past week hehe x3

The short answer: You're absolutely right! You can tell your anon that Usagi is how the character should be called if it's friends and family. The show tells us that his name is Yuichi Usagi, [SURNAME][given name], same as how the comics follow japanese naming practice. People also are generally not given middle names there, so it does not seem like he has a secret hidden surname. Usagi is a given/personal name in the world of Usagi Yojimbo and Samurai Rabbit follows it as a way to honor their inspiration, Stan's comics. It is in a way, a namesake. Based on what I wrote in the linked post, Yuichi in this case could be a family name, but it could also be a second given name (very unusual in real-world Japan) or more like a title of sorts. The show however seems to mean it as a family name at the end of the day.

I've seen fewer written examples online of Yuichi as a surname, but I'm not japanese myself so I might just be looking in the wrong places or reading them wrong. So that made me think that maybe there's some intentionality behind it with the meaning ("brave first-born son"), perhaps even a reference to something in the comics? So based on that and interviews I looked up, I wrote that first post, "Yuichi Usagi - What's in a name?" about the connection between the cartoon and the specific Usagi Yojimbo story it was inspired by, "Senso". If you know more than conversational japanese, you might even predict the ending of the book just from the title alone haha :P The post has some spoilers for the Senso book, so I'll try to continue the rest without spoiling more of it. The ending is quite good so I don't want to spoil it.

The longer answer: if you're curious, you can read that first post I linked (with more of those comics spoilers), where I try to connect the show and comic with things I noticed about it and it might make a better case for "Yuichi for this character is not meant as given name". Here in this reply I can talk about how the show and other materials handle it. I'm curious too as a fan. And I was also confused at first when starting the series, because I knew of Yuichi as a given name, so it seemed really unusual. But after reading more of the comic, more interviews and reading up on it in general... I'm convinced that the naming was intentional, maybe the crew didn't have time to explain all of it because of the constraints given by the network - netflix in this case, a streaming service, but filling essentially the same role as networks elsewhere - they order for a batch of episodes of a cartoon that's been greenlit for development. With that time constraint in mind, it seems more likely that they had to cut any possible "Yuichi Usagi backstory" arc or mention, because the more active+present storylines took front stage. One episode of an american TV cartoon generally takes around 9-11 months to produce, from pre-production to post. Actual production on it started in 2020, so recording episode tracks, the music, animation and so on. The show came out in 2022, April 28th,(edit 23.06.23 - accidentally wrote this as march) but this means the bulk of s2 must have already been nearing completion by the time it was announced in august for a september airing. So I think instead of any random reason, for why they named him with what sounds like [given name][given name] to anyone japanese or who knows a bit more about japanese culture, they simply had more challenges to overcome which meant they couldn't focus on all aspects of production in a similar way. We don't know which staff member named him, who decided his backstory or what discussions the writer's or previs teams might have had about him, his auntie, Stan's Usagi, or any of the family history we never quite see on screen in full. What was decided at some point before the Langdales became showrunners, is that they would focus on a younger descendant, who's trying to become like his ancestor.

His surname in the japanese subtitles is written as the given name spelling, both ユウイチ and 雄一, then his personal name as うさぎ same as his ancestor, Usagi AKA "rabbit". (Sidenote: Both in the old post and this reply, I'll refer to the official subtitles as a source on the japanese spelling, since netflix shows usually hire good teams to do the subtitling and dubbing and they seem correct in other dubs/subs I've watched.) In both the og EN version and the JP dub he also introduces himself as Usagi right away to Kitsune after the Mogura tunnels fight is over - this boy is so ready to just introduce himself and become friends with new people. This is how the character wants to be known as and he's eager for people to use his personal name. But why a given name as a surname then?

Whatever the show and surrounding meta-info tells us, I've seen some explanations and questions by other fans, which also make sense. For example, fans who live in another country nearby and speak a bit of japanese or they studied japanese/lived in the country - that this naming doesn't make sense because Yuichi is such a common given name; that it sounds more like his new friends are referring to him by family name, Usagi, because that's what's done in real-world japan. And yeah, I agree with that in general because it does make sense if you live there. But, this is a fictional futuristic version of an alternate japan. Which both the show tells us and we can read interviews about it. Taking that into consideration, maybe the name thing is something that emerged from their exploration of that.

So even though it's an attempt at a fusion, as a whole, the show is also an attempt to see what a futuristic Japan could be like without more western influences. It's interesting looking at the cartoon from this perspective. There's also the addition of the Ki-stone as a eternal, clean(?) power-source. There are flying/floating cars and electricity throughout the city, there are automated refridgerators and other kitchen appliances with some sort of actual artificial intelligence in them, as well as vending machines and a whole arcade, with an interesting "Ki-cycle" version of a racing game. We can see this in character outfits as well. Everyone who has a weapon they can put away is outfitted with some larger magnetic strips(the Murakami twins), or smaller magnetic pieces (Chizu and Usagi). So the writer's room and previs artists team probably thought about the cultural effects of this as well. So I don't think they would have switched to [given][surname] just to westernize it more, if they're making a world based on Tokugawa-era Edo. Many of the traditions that most us western/european fans would think of as Japanese, are traditions set or developed during that long timeperiod. Well-known arts like the haiku poetic form, kabuki and bunraku, ukiyo-e are all from this time. People wear modernized versions of older/more traditional outfits. And in the environment we can see references to the Edo era, as well as Meiji era, but also elements we would find more commonly in our modern-day Tokyo, like motorcycles, vending machines and cameras. So it's just an interesting sci-fi blend of the traditional and modern.

But lets say that I don't really know that much about japanese history to judge that accurately, I'll refer to what Stan himself has said in interviews. In the 2021 Comic-Con panel, he interjects art director Khang Le's answer about his direction and inspirations on the show with taking both modern and traditional aspects. "This is the shot." "this concept art is what sold me on the series". So I think there was trust there because both are artists, so Stan probably felt he could let the concept art team run with their ideas.

Also, switching the name order in general wouldn't make sense because then we would have Gen introduce himself as Gennosuke Murakami, [given][Surname], when speaking to the Bat Squadron leader, Admiral Nochi, but he introduces himself as would be expected in Japan normally. Maybe it feels weird that they all refer to themselves so casually by given names already, after just 2-3 days of knowing each-other (someone called this "friendship speedrun" early on). But then, older characters are referred to by their surnames, like Lady Fuwa, Admiral Nochi (in a position of power) and Lord Kogane (out of distance). Meanwhile, characters like Tetsujin are already referred to with their singular given name, because that's how they introduce they introduce themselves to both the characters and us the viewers, so Kitsune and Chizu as well (them moreso because they are orphans + their namesakes didn't have surnames either). At the same time, other adult characters next to Tetsujin, almost never refer to the orphan crew by name at all, except Fuwa with Chizu (familiarity). In this way the show kind of skimps around the issues around names and respectability - all the othr adults and gang members almost always refer to the orphan crew (the 4 main characters) with some moniker or nickname, ("Rabbit!" "that Neko Ninja", that thief, the rhino) but not their given names. Tho I believe the Mogura gang leader Chikabuma does refer to Usagi by given name, that be because of the boy’s notoriety as a trouble-maker dealing with the yokai and other weirdness by that point and descendant of Miyamoto Usagi, the worst criminal known to present-day Neo Edo.

You might also be right that it's like how the name Ross can be both a surname/given name. I was also confused about the name Ross as a child learning english because I hadn't heard this as much in my own native Estonia names being both singular and family names, and Ross would have been one of those names I tossed around in my head as a child like, "how is this possible? which way do you know how to use it?" I think many fans in general might be confused about the rabbit part bc in english, we have well-known names like Peter Rabbit, Roger Rabbit, but also real-world surnames like Harley (hare) so "Rabbit" as a given name might seem unusual to an english-language reader, whether native or learned. There are many japanese names based on animals as well, this is fairly common through many cultures, but since in the show and og comic, the characters are majority animals, who just act human most times, it's treated more like it's normal to give your child a noun as a personal name. So there's characters like Nezumi, Inukai, but also General Oyaneko or Lord Hebi, because that is what fits them as those animals. But a purely english-language reader might not know these words, so keeping the animal/pun names is both more rewarding and more fun.

Since we can't just go and ask the crew directly (I personally would find this a bit rude/embarrasing without a lead-up), it's better to trust that the crew did some research about it. I've seen different opinions on it from other fans('it's just an american show, there's no research behind it, it's 3D so obviously it's like other shows' etc), but I've read/listened interviews myself and the only conclusion I can come to from those is that Stan and the crew liked making this show and loved it a lot, just as something they collaborated on together. As someone from a diaspora myself, it feels like something they meant to make for the Japanese-American kids who might be watching it, but also for themselves as Usagi Yojimbo fans. For example, if the showrunners (experienced as showrunners/writers already from other shows before) hadn't campaigned for it during pre-production, we wouldn't be having scenes of Miyamoto Usagi at all, flashbacks or anything. Because Netflix itself (we don't know the exact story) wasn't having the idea of a direct adaptation. So they worked around this and made it their own thing, a new character, new cast, lets not touch the original comic lore too much to avoid changing it. But the showrunners and crew worked him into the lore and worldbuilding of the show anyway. So I'm more inclined to believe that they wanted to take care to actually do research properly next to the feedback Stan gave them as producer. Because that's how both the showrunners and art director talk about the show in any interview. "We discovered a way to use x to make it better fit the story" "We were inspired by z and y from Stan's work" and so on. It's also possible though that during production they simply didn't have time to work Yuichi's backstory into it so that's why we never get any explanations for why it sounds like he has two first namesm essentially. I could make 20 theories about that off the bat. But the bottomline is still that the show/characters tell us his name is Usagi. Otherwise, following what we're used to from animation/comics in japan, other characters would also be referred to by their family names, e.g. Murakami-san for Gen. So my point with all that is to say that I don't see that he was named with a given name as surname bad intents in mind, or even plain incompetence. They even cite being able to go to Tokyo in Japan, for both material and enviroment references and other research. Edo is the former name of Tokyo so obviously this is a different kind of effort than me going online and pouring through many online pages and pdfs.

The show is also set a 1000 years after whenever Miyamoto Usagi lived at in his prime. I might write more about that in the future bc I like making timelines for things myself but that could be another reason for why a lot of formalities and japanese traditions we might know or have heard about from Edo-period onwards, have slowly disappeared. We see this in how Lord Kogane treats the city and his own personal items (the museum, the hats), but also in how people are so used to technology, they don't care about nature or taking care of things as much and are used to keeping lights on (light pollution). Then we have the episode with the war pigs, "Willow Branch". Usagi tries to remind himself how to adress these ghsots from a 100 years ago because "how did these old traditions go again?" and he calls them Busho, leaders of these two factions, but does it awkwardly. So it might be a similar case that people don't use. But interesting to think about this knowing that they also tried to think about how an alternate Japan would look like without as many western influences because of the timeline having alien tech now... and the slightly changed history with the Ki-stone and Miyamoto Usagi sacrificing his own legacy to save Edo in this version. He sends his sword away to be sent to his family. His first-born son. (If we follow the Senso connection I wrote about before) But it never gets there.

With all this in mind, we can also make similar connections to previous fan-theories. Surnames were not as common before the Meiji Restoration era (started in 1868), when surnames were required of everyone. Before that, only the nobility and samurai class had surnames. (This is also why Neo Edo doesn't have a Shōgun anymore, because the samurai don't exist anymore, so they have a Lord Kogane instead, one who's even elected to show this stark difference more.) So maybe the crew thought, with this alternate timeline, lets say that Jotaro is our older Usagi's only child still, but he never inherit the Miyamoto name because he's been raised by Mariko and Kenichi, so he gets Kenichi's surname, but we don't know what that is, because in the comic he is just Kenichi, Usagi's childhood rival. So blip, 1000 years into the future, and the family only has Yuichi as a surname. Maybe they got it from a paternal ancestor in the family after Jotaro, but maybe they renamed themselves after the effects of the Meiji Restoration changes and picked it based on the legend of the Usagi they knew and the lost sword they never got back. It's meant to be an auspicious name. And it just sticks even if the children are daughters because the family hopes to find the sword and pass it to the first child.

But lol, this is just my teorizing based on what I know of the comic right now (still reading) and what I remember/looked up of some history of that time. It's like a brain-game of cross-referncing both the show and og comic and then real-world history a bit as most fan-fic about the UY world does haha.

A simpler reason is also that following the UY comic, all characters are continually referred to by their personal names. Otherwise we would be calling original UY comics Usagi his surname, Miyamoto, because that would be respectful in Japan. But Stan isn't writing for a Japanese audience strictly. In this 2010 interview re-uploaded by the Japanese American National Museum, Stan himself says, "Usagi might be about Japanese history and culture, but it's told from a distinctly western perspective". As an author, it was also probably more convenient to use your character's first name if that is what your accustomed to.

There's also the possibility that he was initially just Usagi when the show was still about a younger Miyamoto Usagi (going by what the Langdales said about being brought on as showrunners later, and this 2019 article showing Stan with a banner which looks too much like a younger version of Miyamoto Usagi to be Yuichi) but they had to change it when the premise changed into 1000 into the future but not Space Usagi (for whatever possible production-related reasons again). The name Yuichi came to mind, but they put the Usagi back into the name to intentionally create discord in the show story - character's constantly mix him up with his ancestor Miyamoto Usagi (a traitor to everyone else in Neo Edo) and the name similarities aid that confusion more. So instead of the name Yuichi being only a reference to a comic that new viewers wouldn't know about, they might have intentionally kept it confusing because the name sounds good but feeds into their premise of showing how much history can change in a 1000 years - which was the idea that interested Stan himself too, because they did something interesting with his Usagi that hadn't been done before.

anyways. i like calling him Usagi in general because it sounds better for him specifically as a given name since it's what everyone calls him on the show. And I switch to Yuichi when talking abt him online or in longer posts where I've talked about og Usagi as well - because both names are easy to use as personal names. But as a fan, say, writing fanfic it's just good to know that his friends and family would all probably call him Usagi because that's how he introduces himself/that's how they know him, a namesake to his ancestor who he idolizes, which is sort of the whole point of the character and the show in a large way. I think people can write his name the opposite way if they want to, (given name Yuichi, surname Usagi) as if the whole family renamed themselves Usagi. And there's a distinct possibility that this is a convo that went through the writers room too (if we can imagine that they had time to discuss this more during 2019 in pre-production), but this would lose the whole point of the name and image connection with his ancestor, the original comics' Usagi and would also create more unneccessary confusion, when there was existing confusion of having two Usagis. Usually with projects like these, there is also a research stage where they show the target audience some non-finished version of some of the episodes (or even all of them), to see how the audience reacts. This test screening then gives the producers and crew feedback on how initial reception will be. Maybe with just Usagi, or just Yuichi, the kids watching didn't connect that these two rabbits are supposed to be, or like the many older fans online, couldn't tell between the two rabbits at all. But we don't know that so that is all just my own speculation. Overall, from other older shows' crew stories, (like this one about GLTAS by producer Giancarlo Volpe) test screenings and audience research can have both a positive and negative effect on what a production decides to do next. It depends on many factors. So I wonder if something like that might have happened during pre-production and changed how the network wanted the show, or even influenced how the show itself and the show's Usagi were named. Something like that can sometimes be out of the crew and the showrunner's hands. So yeah. Hope all that makes sense! It's kind of a lot of rambling, but, it's fun for me to think and speculate about what other parts of the production might have been like ^^

I could of course be 100% wrong about some of these things, but this is just what I've observed to be possible explanations out of sources I've seen of the show. But again, we don't have word-of-god on any of these, so I will personally probably continue referring to him as Usagi until we get more interviews or online posts from the crew about it. Which would be really interesting! I'm not really holding onto that but hey who knows - the series art director Khang Le did post about the show on its anniversary and shared a small tid-bit so maybe we'll get smth similar for the name lore haha ^^

tbh from a practical view as a fan, it feels like too much work for me to decide, "ah, the show crew don't know anything so I will rename him in every fanwork" But that is just my preference, so what other fans do is up to them. Like yeah, I made a few theories that make either version make sense, but without more behind it, all we fans can always do without more info is only speculate. The show already gives us the answer and if we as western fans accept that Yuichi is meant as a surname, it works in a way.

If you're interested for another view on it... wait for that 2nd post where I deep-dive into this from a different perspective again x3 Since we don't have a direct answer from the show aside from "this is how every character references them and each other, how family refers to him", I got curious and did a bit of searching about Yuichi as a surname too, but I want to go a bit shorter with that one so I'm just re-reading it. So idk when I'll finish writing the post bc of work but maybe soon when I have more time to proofread it.

In the Usagi Chronicles, is Usagi Usagi's first name and he has a different last name from his ancestors, or is his first name Yuichi and Usagi is the family name? That's literally the only area I struggle in with the names. I know Miyamoto is the surname in the comics but the TV show aaaa confusing

To answer your question, the characters in Samurai Rabbit refer to Miyamoto Usagi as Miyamoto Usagi. Yuichi Usagi introduces himself to others as Yuichi Usagi.

Here's a screenshot of the S1E1 transcript:

This means both names follow the same sequence of Surname, Given Name.

Therefore, Yuichi is Yuichi Usagi's surname.

What makes it confusing is that in the real world, the name Yuichi is both...

a surname...

....and a given name.

This is only my assumption, but it could be like the name Ross. Ross can be a surname (Bob Ross) or a given name (Ross Geller).

Anyway, @drawnaghht might be more knowledgeable with this. Thoughts?

[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]

not sure if anyone here or or elsewhere in newer websites has mentioned this already but.... technically, isn't Tomoe Ame also a "two first names" kind of name? I don't think anyone assumes either name is her last name tho if they've read the comic... Now i'm thinking about going down this thread of thought to see what I find, just out of curiosity, since I've seen different stuff said about her name specifically.

I know she's named after a candy Stan once liked as a child called Tomoe Ame (トモエ飴) but also loosely on Tomoe Gozen, a real-life samurai who lived during the late Heian period and took part in the conflict that led to the first shogunate. I think some sources also say that while Tomoe "is her given name, Ame is her family name" - like this info page of the UY RP game in the HERO System Role--playing game.

But I wonder if older Usagi fans have brought this up about her name before? Or had arguments about it?

There is this Talk page, dating from 2005 and 2008 under the Wikipedia page for UY characters;

"Ok, so "Ame" is her given name and "Tomoe" is her family name? I thought it was the other way around." (2005)

"Ok, that's backwards. See her official bio page:" (2005)

"But her bio reads "Ame Tomoe"..." (2008)

The Usagi Yohimbo fanwiki also has this trivia (as do other similar "fandom.com" wikis:

"Sakai claims to have based the character's appearance on female Japanese martial arts star Etsuko Shiomi, a member of Sonny Chiba's "Japan Action Club"."

But I cannot find this info or sources for these so I will have to check these later when I'm less tired x3 Basically, when it comes to fanwiki's, you can't always trust them. Having been a sole moderator for another fanwiki for years, I know just how many people like to add misinfo or their own headcanons or other things they've heard onto official/unofficial wikis, meaning most trivia without some source (like even what book or episode it was mentioned in), is a bit useless info in many cases. Sometimes I think that maybe I should make a Samurai Rabbit fanwiki, just to have one with legit info and have one new place to discuss things about the show itself but.... lol i am so tired of fandomcom wikis haha

Here is the official cast page info about her btw:

https://www.usagiyojimbo.com/the-cast/

"Tomoe Ame is an anthropomorphic cat who is loosely based on the famous female samurai, Tomoe Gozen.[7][8] (Tomoe Ame is also a brand of Japanese candy.) She is a samurai of the Geishu clan and serves as Lord Noriyuki's personal bodyguard and closest adviser. She also happens to be a very close friend of Miyamoto Usagi, whom she and Lord Noriyuki first met in the story "Lone Rabbit And Child" (from "Book #1: The Ronin"), as they were being pursued by assassins that Lord Hikiji hired to kill the young lord. Usagi was able to help protect Lord Noriyuki as they made their way back to the Geishu manor, even when Tomoe almost died from drowning in a fast-moving river after being attacked by an assassin disguised as a ferryman. After recovering, she has become very grateful to Usagi, and the two have helped each other out many times since. In the events of "Book #4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy", Tomoe was captured by a villainous lord after discovering his scheme to assassinate the Shogun, and it was up to Usagi to rescue her. Even though Usagi and Tomoe have been very good friends as well as partners in combat, it is believed that the two have deep feelings for each other that go beyond mere friendship, as seen in the story "Chanoyu" ("Book #22: Tomoe's Story"). However, recently, Lord Noriyuki is preparing to form an arranged marriage between her with another lord. An animated version of Tomoe Ame appears in an episode of the 2003 TMNT animated series "The Real World - Part 1".\"

So not much about the name again besides what already knew before haha ^^;

I'm still waiting for the Tomoe Ame book to come back in storage at my local book shop so I can order it, but until then, I'll probably slowly continue reading UY where I can and start a list for info shared abt the characters in the books.

[drawnaghht]

can't believe the whole yuichi usagi side of the tmnt fandom is synchonizing this week bc guess what; I also have another "Usagi is his first name" post in the works lol

[drawnaghht]

Hmm, going by that, it would actually also make sense why Usagi would be obsessed with his ancestor from 1000 years ago - if he's a namesake, then of course he becomes a little obsessed with an ancestor that long ago! i mean, most people would know about their ancestors from maybe max 5 centuries ago, but 10??? that's impossible to keep track of unless someone upkeeps the family lorebooks very meticulously xD

And if this theory is plausible, this would mean that auntie as a first-born (assuming from Usagi's age of 16 and the sword that she's the eldest child in her generation), would also be named Usagi... which I guess makes the naming of the characters all the more funny/complicated or maybe easier for some haha xD

Also good point! I've been tagging her as auntie usagi this far, but after the whole name reveal in january, I've been also tagging her as "auntie yuichi" haha xP tbh, I think just "yuichi usagi's auntie" or "auntie usagi" are also fine" whatever makes it easier to remember + find is always fine imo, especially since we don't have a proper name for her.

ok. VERY DUMB THEORY TIME.

what if… what if instead of having their family name as Usagi in honor of  common ancestor Miyamoto Usagi, the whole family just… they all rename their first names into usagi xD

slightly also based on this post by @mariegreen-2000: https://www.tumblr.com/mariegreen-2000/724355413487828992/a-samurai-rabbit-theory-idk

i’ve just been imagining that Auntie is also named Usagi… sdfsdf but with a different surname again to keep the theme running haha

[drawnaghht]

Thank you for confirming, this is so nice to see! 🙏 official confirmation!

It's 2024 and people still seem to get mixed up between the rabbits so have these banners for your convenience!

Feel free to use