It's always fun to discover new animated shorts, especially when they're as straight-up funny as Usavich, an animated series created for MTV Japan by Kanaban Graphics.
There's not a lot of information about this series online. Satoshi Komioka and Aguri Miyazaki (no relation to anime directors Hayao and Goro Miyazaki) created the series and put together the storyboards. Komioka writes and directs each episode while Miyazaki designs the characters and the backgrounds.
Usavich is currently in its second season. Each episode is 90 seconds long and features some of some of the funniest and most bizarre shorts this writer has ever seen (and this is from a guy who once watched a cartoon about a hippopotamus with noodles on his back). The combination of 2-D and CGI animation in this series is top-notch, and the gags are very imaginative and have a great energy.
So What's It About?
Usavich follows two rabbits, Kirenenko and Putin, who are stuck in a Russian prison. The first season (subtitled "TIme for . . .") showed the every day life in the jail, with Kirinenko oblivious to most things which aren't sneakers, and Putin interacting with the other denizens: Komanech the transvestite chicken, the sadistic but easily-cowed Prison Door, and Leningrad the hungry frog.
You can see them the entire first season by clicking over here.
The second season, "Watch for . . .", follows the pair as they hit the road (Kirenenko because he wanted new sneakers, Putin . . . just because) and try to stay out of trouble, stay away from a pair of homicidal policemen and just try . . . to stay alive. Not all of Season 2 is online, but you can check out selected episodes by clicking this link.
Kirenenko is Tough Bunny, Putin is Dumb Bunny
The two main characters of Usavich follow the classic Dumb n' Dangerous pairing in comedy.
Putin is the dim but good-natured bunny. He wears a green-striped uniform with the numbers "547" across his chest, and has his ears tied together. Putin was a labourer who was sentenced to three years in jail after missing 3 days of work (due to a hangover). Due to his hapless nature, Putin tends to get the short stick of any situations that he ends up in. For some reason, he tolerates the frog Leningrad, even though he always eats Putin's other pal, the transvestite chick Komanech.
Kirenenko is the dangerous rabbit, a former mafia boss who was sentenced to death. He wears a uniform with red stripes, and "04" across his chest, and has a safety pin through his left ear. Considering how invulnerable Kirenenko is to such minor things as guillotines, bullets and poison gas, one wonders how he ever got the pin through his ear in the first place, but that's a minor issue.
Kirenenko is generally oblivious to his surroundings, preferring to read magazines about sneakers. If he has a weakness, it's that he has a serious addiction to footwear.
"Time for Dancing" Most Imaginative Episode
The 5th episode of the first season, subtitled "Time for Dancing" is probably the most imaginative of the entire series. There's no real plot here: random noises in the jail cell combine to create a dance track for Putin and Kirenenko to react to. Tres cool.
Yes, there are the inevitable poop jokes in Usavich but only the most censorious will object. Once again, the key to a good poop gag, people, is imagination. It's what separated The Simpsons Movie from Surf's Up, both in reviews and in box office.
Any criticisms? The whole "Kirenenko flies into a rage and becomes invulnerable" angle becomes a bit boring after a while, and one occasionally wishes that Putin would get the upper hand in an episode (like when Laurel finally beat up Hardy). And while we're at it, the creators' use of J.S. Bach's Jesu Bleibet Meine Freude as background for the final gag becomes cliché after a while.
But those are minor quibblies. Overall, these shorts are a lot of fun and have a great energy to them. Definitely check Usavich out.
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