Samurai Rabbit producer Ben Jones on Yuichi Usagi as a character, introducing him in this SDCC 2021 panel, and the different look of the show as they focused on a younger audience:
"So as Stan mentioned, our Usagi is much younger so as the show is told from his perspective we wanted to lighten the tone as well so mostly we drew from other sources like Hong Kong action comedy films like the films of Jackie Chan or Stephen Chow.
So you get things where you know - Usagi will be in the middle of a fight with Gen and he'll be perched on top of of his tetsubo."
"or you see the fun way he decides to ride his motorcycle - cuz he's a teenager and, you know- has no concept of mortality"
"so that just - ...that just seems like a great idea."
"[...] because it's an action comedy, we still have the stakes of an action movie but we have sort of you know, Usagi again not understanding mortality has a lighter reaction to it so he's pinned up to the tree by these knives and - he's just sort of like treating as a minor inconvenience."
I just think it's funny how this is one of his defining traits being introduced right off the bat in the 2021 SDCC panel, that lack of tact or fear in dangerous situations xD
also this:
"Or we take things that are sort of lighter like Usagi getting a job as a sign spinner and turning into an entire fight sequence that lasts most of an episode."
