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Hare Apparent:
A teenage rabbit descended from the great warrior Miyamoto
Usagi embarks on an epic quest to become the best samurai ever in the new Netflix/ Gaumont series. they encounter various yōkai, the monsters of Japanese mythology … Later, they act as a group, and it’s wonderful the way the characters develop, the way the entire group dynamic develops.”
Yuichi’s character arc is pronounced, as Sakai notes. “At first, he wants to fight,” he says. “That’s what he thinks a samurai should do. As the series progresses, he learns about himself. He learns about what it is to become a samurai, that it’s not just fighting. It’s about control. It’s about fighting, but what’s more important is not fighting. He has to learn when it’s appropriate and when it’s not. The fighting is never gratuitous. It’s a lot of fun. It’s never malicious. And I think Netflix and Gaumont handled it really well.”
On Wisdom and Honor
— Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai
early background and character designs. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this will work.’ And it works. And it’s beautiful. The writers, Candie and Doug Langdale, did an amazing job with the storyline,” he says.
“My Usagi lives in feudal Japan, but we brought him into the storyline,” Sakai continues. “And there’s an incredible twist to my character that I just loved. So, they took my stories, but they also expanded on it and just went on much farther than I could have imagined.”
The Langdales, for their part, watched Akira Kurosawa films for inspiration, along with Japanese yōkai movies from the 1950s. “We were creating a world based on the world that Stan created for the Usagi Yojimbo books, but it’s a thousand years in the future from that time,” Doug Langdale says. One major hurdle, the Langdales said, was creating a Japan-centric futuristic world. “The idea is that there hasn’t really been any influence in the future Japan in the series from other parts of the world,” Doug Langdale explained. “So trying to keep, as much as possible, western influences out of the look and feel of the world was a big challenge.”
To that end, there are no electronics — including smartphones and computers — in the world of Samurai Rabbit. “That came from high up,” Candie Langdale stated. “We were told not to do that. And we were like, ‘great.’ It makes the story more interesting with the challenges that that presents.”
Sakai was “very involved in every step of the process,” he says. “I approved everything. Everything came my way, from the initial plot outlines to character designs. I even approved things like the broccoli, and stones that were used for the background. And it was great, working with Netflix and Gaumont. It was a wonderful experience.” Set in a sci-fi CGI universe, Samurai Rabbit also includes dynamic 2D sequences rendered in a gorgeous, hand-drawn style featuring Yuichi’s ancestor, Usagi. “Gaumont and I set about trying to make a different look between Yuichi’s futuristic world and my classic Usagi world,” Sakai says. “Whenever my Usagi appears, it’s a very different type of animation. You can immediately see that it’s either a flashback, a fantasy sequence or something very different. It’s a nice contrast, and it works great. I love the look of it.” Over the course of his quest, Yuichi learns not only what it takes to become a great samurai, but also more about his ancestor Usagi. “Yuichi idolizes his ancestor, and he himself wants to become a samurai, a great warrior,” Sakai recounts. “So he goes to the city, but things don’t go quite as smoothly as he had anticipated. He winds up with his band of misfits and together
In early episodes, Yuichi “pretty much personifies the arrogance of youth,” Sakai says. “He thinks he knows it all. He thinks he’s so wonderful. He’s been given the sword, but he learns that there’s so much more that he needs to learn, that he has to develop. He has to grow as a person. Throughout the series, he not only matures, but he learns things about himself and what he’s capable of doing. He learns that too much arrogance is not good, that if he wants to be a leader, he has to control that — so that, rather than direct people, he inspires them.”
Asked what he hopes viewers will take away from Samurai Rabbit, Sakai recalls a conversation he once had with a mother of one of his read-
ers. “Her son was reading a Usagi book, and she asked, ‘What’s it about?’ He thought for a second, and said, ‘It’s about honor.’ And I thought that was such a great answer. And that’s something that I would like people to take away with, is that this series is about honor. It’s about loyalty. It’s about friendship. And I think that’s a great message to leave with people.” ◆
Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles premieres on Netflix on April 28.
