Sorry if old news, I just saw this article. Also sorry for typo lol
Usage Yojimbo animated series coming to Netflix
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Holy shit! If this catches even an ounce of what made Usagi Yojimbo amazing i am so completely sold.
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About damn time.
We were actually going to get a Space Usagi series like thirty years ago to be paired with Ninja Turtles, but Bucky O' Hare screwed that up.
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Too bad it can't just be an actual streamlined adaption.
But future usagi is better than no usagi.
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This is going to be classic Usagi.
I'm just saying were were GOING to get the space version back in the day.
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My only knowledge of the series is that one crossover with '03 TMNT, hope it's good
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This is awesome news to hear.
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The article made it seem like it was going to revolve around a descendant of Usagi called Yuuichi and would take place in some future japan inspired world. But maybe i'm misunderstanding things
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My only knowledge of the series is that one crossover with '03 TMNT, hope it's good
The comics are fantastic. Get them if you can, they're in omnibus format now for most of the series. I've been reading them monthly for almost thirty years.
Maybe don't start at the very beginning because that's a little rougher. Start a little ways in then go back later. The stories are mostly standalone. There's continuity but beyond "I met this person before" its really rare that you need to know an earlier story… and Sakai brings you up to speed with a line of dialogue.
The article made it seem like it was going to revolve around a descendant of Usagi called Yuuichi and would take place in some future japan inspired world. But maybe i'm misunderstanding things
AH, the article I saw didn't mention that.
Yeah… thats iffier. But if Sakai is involved I don't care. I'm sure they have a reason for doing it that way. Might even be a legal reason given how many different companies Usagi has been at and how he's guest starred with the TMNT in every iteration.
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Its an excellent read. One of my personal favorites. Now i was hooked from the first page, but i suppose a few of the earliest stories are a bit lacking in the art polish and still finding its footing. But by the first bounty hunter story and the village of fear it all just goes up from there
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My personal favorite story in the entire run is issue 93 of the Dark Horse run (so like, issue 128 or something total) and its a nearly silent issue where nothing happens, its just two characters sitting at a table having a tea ceremony. Its super detailed and indepth and really showcases how ornate and intimate the ceremony is… and its kind of the last time the characters are together and its just got a lot of STUFF to it being spoken under the surface despite being mostly silent. And that was like 2006 but I still remember it super clearly. Fantastic story.
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Gonna give it a try when I have more free time. But I'm warning somebody better pay the bookshelves if I end up wanting the tpbs.
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I've never read the books (or any of the TMNT comic books :ninja:) but I did like Usagi in the 2003 series and always wished he got his own series…...which opf course probably would've had problems but still.
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Spawned from Sakai’s comics that began in 1984 and counting James Wan among its executive producers, the CGI Samurai Rabbit follows the teenage Rabbit Samurai Yuichi, descendent of the great warrior Miyamoto Usagi, on his epic quest to become a true samurai. But he isn’t alone. He leads a ragtag team of misfit heroes – including a roguish bounty hunter, a cunning ninja, an acrobatic pickpocket and a faithful pet lizard – as he battles depth-charging moles, metal-tipped winged bats and monsters from another dimension, all in the pursuit to become the best samurai Usagi.
So it's Space Usagi But Not Space Usagi.
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What seems like this whole xeroxing of the main cast into these new characters thing does kind of rub me the wrong way. I hope they differentiate them enough so that the roguish bounty hunter isn't just literally a Gen xerox in space
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I've never read the books (or any of the TMNT comic books :ninja:) but I did like Usagi in the 2003 series and always wished he got his own series…...which opf course probably would've had problems but still.
As someone who has read basically all the ninja turtles for his entire life, and all but the most recent usagi for his entire life… hunt down the Usagi comics, don't worry about the turtles.
The Usagi comics are fantastic art and storytelling from a single creative vision.
The turtle comics... were pretty faithfully adapted in the 2003 series and if you've seen that you're not missing much, most of the worthwhile stories got into that one.... and much as I love the archie series you probably had to grow up with that one to care. The Image run was complete garbage. The second color mirage run was mostly to keep putting comics out. The THIRD mirage run was mostly to tell Peter Laird's weird fever dream and is just... whut. And the IDW run is pretty good but if you've seen the various cartoons and movies you know the broad strokes and it doesn't offer anything really new.
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Which was the one where Raph had a fox girlfriend? I have some strangely vivid memories of that one, i want to say there was a sumo guy and like a stingray man? I may have dreamt up that last one.
As for Usagi it is hard to pick a single one arc that was better than the other since it just flows so easily in and out of substories and alternative types of stories. My favorites are the Ishida mysteries and the Jei/horror/atmosphere stories. But i do however know my least favorite, that twin sister arc just doesn't do it for me, at re-reads its the only one i skim or even skip
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Which was the one where Raph had a fox girlfriend? I have some strangely vivid memories of that one, i want to say there was a sumo guy and like a stingray man? I may have dreamt up that last one.
That would be the archie comic. Raph's girlfriend was Ninjara, the sumo guy was Tatoo (he also had a figure) and the stingray was named either Man Ray or Ray Fillet depending on if it was the comic, cartoon, the coloring book, or the toy.
He was part of the mutanimals which also included Mondo Gecko, Slash, a jaguar, a werewolf,a bat, and Leatherhead the crocodile.
They uhm… all got murdered near the end of the comic. There's a reason the writer got fired before the end.
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As for Usagi it is hard to pick a single one arc that was better than the other since it just flows so easily in and out of substories and alternative types of stories. My favorites are the Ishida mysteries and the Jei/horror/atmosphere stories. But i do however know my least favorite, that twin sister arc just doesn't do it for me, at re-reads its the only one i skim or even skip
I think Grasscutter is probably the definitive opus, but its not exactly a traditional Usagi story and its really steeped in mythology. It might be the best story but its not the one I would recommend first to a new reader.
I really need to re-read the whole series again at some point. Most of it I read as it was coming out, so even though i have the volumes some of the stories I probably haven't read in at least a decade, same with OP.
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Grasscutter was grand on the first read. But as with a lot of overarching stories it suffers more on re-reads, while the shorter and simpler stories often feel fresher and less cumbersome to get through. But i mean thats unavoidable. Also in the archie TMNT did they have like a huge dragon pet or something? Like thrice the size of a turtle big
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Also in the archie TMNT did they have like a huge dragon pet or something? Like thrice the size of a turtle big
They did not. There was a dragon man once who was the size of a building. And they had a giant flying cow head named Cudly that could transport people between dimensions. No pets though.
In the Mirage comics Mikey had a cat.
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Well that explains Ice Cream Kitty.
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Daisho is the one volume that I'll always recommend as a good jumping on point for the series.
It
- is mostly a self-contained story that gives an extremely good idea of who Usagi is as a person with a few short stories bookending it.
- doesn't require reading any previous volumes since most of the supporting cast is introduced in it outside of Gen.
- has a really good villain and personal motivation for Usagi.
- has the portrayal of mundane aspects of feudal Japanese life in its depiction of how swords are made.
- is far enough along in the run that Sakai has a better idea of what he wants the series to be.
all in one volume.
Grasscutter and Grasscutter II are amazing but much better if you've read a lot of the previous material; particularly the stuff about Jei and Hikiji. The Dragon Bellow is the earliest one that meets most of those checkmarks above and is the first really big story for the series (so the art is still evolving) but has a bunch of previous introduced characters.
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Way back when i could only really buy the books out of order, and it never really posed a problem. The fact that most Usagi books are just simple self-contained stories makes it so good for casual reading.
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I also largely got the books out of order and never really had a problem with it. Its easier nowadays to start a series… at the start, so that's a better way to go if you can. Though annoyingly the current end is hard to get because Dark Horse massively underprinted.
I do have to wonder though. Stan Sakai is 67 now, and clearly he's just going to keep doing Usagi until he can't anymore... but does he have an actual end-game in mind at some point to bring things to a natural conclusion?
For the most part I'm fine with the series just running forever with one off adventures, but it would be nice if at least the Jei plotline and Tomoe's wedding got some sort of conclusion, and the wedding is a story that's been brewing for like 15 years now.
Or is the space alien Senso story supposed to just cover all that in case of emergency and be the unofficial ending if nothing official every comes?
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The recent remake of Goblin of Ashigahara is a pretty clear sign that big changes are in store for the series but as to what that actually means is hard to say.
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What WAS the change in that story? I haven't been able to get ahold of it yet.
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What WAS the change in that story? I haven't been able to get ahold of it yet.
! He's now went there for the specific purpose of asking Mifune's spirit permission to abandon a life of wandering and enter the service of a new lord because of a recent change in a "personal relationship".
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That would be a significant thing, yes.
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Oh shit. [Hide] Legitimate Usagi babies?[/hide]
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Having just sat down to read it myself my main take away was that i don't know how to feel about fat Gen. Is it like a set up that he's getting too old for this shit and might die? Or does Stan just think it's a fun new design
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Hard to see Gen dying without any real payoff to Jei setting him up as a future vessel.
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Man I really need to re-read the older stories. I do not remember that at all.
I guess it has been like 20 years for some of it.
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He got stabbed in the shoulder back when they were fighting over grasscutter i think. And that was like early 2000ish? Lots of slowburning plotlines he might want to start wrapping up while he's young
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Not only was he stabbed, but Jei has used the wound multiple times to knock Gen out of fights and always leaves him alone afterwards.
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Not-Usagi finally hits April 28.
I still do not understand why they're not just making a Usagi show and instead doing… this. I understand why CG and not hand drawn but... not the original characters?
Is it just they think the space angle is more msrketable? Is it a Calvin and Hobbes situation where the original characters and story remain entirely under Sakai's hand after he had uneven experiences with the different Turtle shows? ? I just... I dunno.
The 2012 CG TMNT show had a Usagi one-off episode in the final season that was pretty great.
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Best chance for us to get a Uesagi show would have probably have been when they made the 2003 series.
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Not-Usagi finally hits April 28.
I still do not understand why they're not just making a Usagi show and instead doing… this. I understand why CG and not hand drawn but... not the original characters?
Is it just they think the space angle is more msrketable? Is it a Calvin and Hobbes situation where the original characters and story remain entirely under Sakai's hand after he had uneven experiences with the different Turtle shows? ? I just... I dunno.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOoMcsxX0AM31q3?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOoMd1cXsAw4k6g?format=jpg&name=4096x4096The 2012 CG TMNT show had a Usagi one-off episode in the final season that was pretty great.
Because Stan Sakai is old, knows an actual adaptation of the comics is impossible and wants that sweet toy money and I for one DO NOT BLAME HIM.
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Sigh. I understand WHY this route, Space Usagi has been the pitch that would be an easier to make tv show for 30 years, (that Bucky OHare sabotaged) so I GET it, and I'll watch it, hopefully its great!
But just… sigh. Why is literally the entire rest of the cast named after their comic counterparts, and only the rabbit is different?
...he's even got the eyebrow scar like Usagi. Its a different shape but its still an eyebrow scar. ANd why are they throwing Usagi's name into that trailer so much?
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It's extremely disappointing, yeah. At the least couldn't they have had Usagi come to the future. He's the main draw of the comic and he's…not here.
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I don't get the calculation that goes into deciding that you'd rather bankroll an unproven spin-off show rather than going with a proven concept with adaptable stories and a cult fanbase.
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There is something very weird about the animation that I can't quite describe it.
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It's extremely disappointing, yeah. At the least couldn't they have had Usagi come to the future. He's the main draw of the comic and he's…not here.
That would just be Samurai Jack then.
Maybe since they're namedropping him so heavily as a thing that everyone should already know (in the trailer at least he's mentioned twice) there'll be flashbacks or "legends" or something?
There is something very weird about the animation that I can't quite describe it.
They're basically adapting 2D designs into 3D and not really accounting for it.
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That would just be Samurai Jack then.
Maybe since they're namedropping him so heavily as a thing that everyone should already know (in the trailer at least he's mentioned twice) there'll be flashbacks or "legends" or something?
I mean, ideally it would just be the original setting, but obviously they don't think it would get viewers or something, so the next best thing would be putting him in a setting they think is good. But the way they're doing it just means there's nothing for me here, there's no Miyamoto Usagi and they've changed the setting. Unless as you mention there's super heavy flashbacks or they just ape the personalities for the descendants I dunno why they even bothered paying for the license. It's kind of like Lucifer, which is so far removed from the comic that if they changed one or two more details they needn't have paid DC.
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There is something very weird about the animation that I can't quite describe it.
The movement feels very keyframed. But not zippy enough, theres not enough strong posing or followthrough to sell the movements. Hopefully of this is successful, the team would.be more experienced/comfortable with their tools to deliver a snappier look.
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So, I watched the thing.
THe staff are clearly big fans of the source material, down to using some straight up comic panels for flashback legend shots. But despite the character names being the same and the personalities broadly the same, it is not in any way the source material.
It's very much like the serious Mirage TMNT stories beign ported over to a goofy cartoon show. It's inspired by the source but its very very different and only superficially the same. It was not the worst thing I've seen but I can't recommend it at all either. Very generic, which is a shame.
Maybe its for the best that its a generic in the future spinoff. If this was a straight adaptation of the source but took the same liberties with the characters and tone and storytelling I'd actually be kind of upset.
But if it gets Stan a paycheck and gets some more people to try the comics, then great!
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Well that’s all you can really hope for out of this relationship especially even with this likely getting axed somewhere down the road.
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Usagi is leaving IDW and going back to Dark Horse.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/usagi-yojimbo-quits-idw-back-at-dark-horse-stan-sakai-imprint-dogu/
No idea what happened behind the scenes to prompt the move and then the move back just three years later, but it must have been SOMETHING.
(Someone in the comments wondered if it was related to Dark Horse being sold to a Chinese investment company (Vanguard) in 2018, just a few months before Sakai left for IDW, and now being sold to a Swedish media/game company (Embracer) just a few months before this announcement. No idea there but an interesting coincidence in timing.)
Also Stan is creating his own imprint, Dogu Publishing? I guess for his family to be able to keep up his legacy and licensing and stuff.
...oh and the not-Usagi cartoon is getting a second season. Eh.