Usavich

Usavich (ウサビッチ, Usabitchi, from usagi (うさぎ^?, rabbit) , Japanese for rabbit, with "vich" to make it a Russian patronymic) 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 Gulag. 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 there are six seasons revealed.

Setting

The episodes are quite musical. Most every action has a sound associated with it and 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's stereotypical expressions of rage, fear, etc.