ウサビッチZERO

Usavich is a series of animated short films originally created for MTV's Japanese mobile service "Flux" and still being created for MTV Japan by Satoshi Tomioka and his studio Kanaban Graphics since 2006. It is about an odd pair of rabbits imprisoned in a Soviet prison in 1961. The first season shows the absurd everyday occurrences of the two rabbits' prison life, and the subsequent seasons show the two rabbits' life on the run from law enforcement. So far, 6 seasons and 79 episodes have been released. The episodes are quite musical. Almost every action has a sound associated with it. Most episodes in the first season begin with a quiet jazzy beat accompanied by the rhythmic squeaking noises of Putin dancing Kozachok on his bed. Each episode usually ends with the punchline accompanied by the chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude from J.S. Bach's cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147. The animation style is a clean, rather sparse, linear style with broad swatches of color. There is, generally speaking, some incomprehensible whispering but usually no intelligible speech. Speech is heard in the second season, when some Russian phrases can be heard quite clearly, although they are few and far between. Everything is communicated through either incidental sound or by a character expressing emotions. The main characters include Putin and Kirenenko. Several guards and other prison workers visit Putin and Kirenenko in their cell. They are never fully visible, and the character on the other side of the door is indicated by one of several door designs that slide into place. In season six/zero, they used to not wear the doors all the time. They are the main antagonists of season 1 and six/zero. Season 2 features some Soviet cars and military vehicles, including Moskvitch 407, Lada VAZ-2101, Lada VAZ-2105 police cars, BA-20 armored car and even a KV-1 heavy tank. The aircraft brought down by Kirenenko is a MiG-21 Fishbed fighter jet. For every fifth episode of each season save for Season 6/0, there is an impromptu percussive performance in the show.