#aghht srtuc posts

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

the tags in question (under cut)

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

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

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

Links below!

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

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

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Yuichi Usagi - what's in a name?

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

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

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

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

(edit 9.11.2025): Interviews I am going to reference:

Stranger Worlds interview with Stan about Senso (Sept 7,2015)

The CBCC interview with Stan and art director Khang Le + the showrunners/writers Langdales (May 9, 2022)

Film Rejects interview with Stan and crew (May 14, 2022)

POPverse interview with Stan and Khang (May 31, 2022)

Other interviews I am going to vaguely ref are here: SR trivia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just some thoughts!

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks and feel free to ask/talk more!

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Chizu x Kitsune and why it's gay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Friend Day and Happy Valentines!