An animated Usabi Yojimbo animated series has been in the works for quite some time as comic book creator Stan Sakai has previously brokered a deal with the French studio the Gaumont Film Company to bring the project to life. Development news on the project was virtually nonexistent for quite some time before Sakai teased fans on Twitter back in 2019 with a first look at the series' logo and artwork.
Now, news has broke that Netflix has signed on to stream the project, though details on the series may upset longtime fans of the Dark Horse comic.
Instead of the animated series begin set in the Edo period and following the comic book series' main protagonist, Miyamoto Usagi, the series will be set in the far future and follow Usagi's descendant, Yuichi who leads a ragtag group of warriors that includes a bounty hunter, ninja, pickpocket, and pet lizard. They fight bomb weilding moles, bats with metal claws and other adversaries from other dimensions. The original Dark Horse Comics series is set during Edo period (1603-1868) of Japanese history and follows Miyamoto Usagi on his musha shugyō (warrior's pilgrimage), which would be the equivalnet of a knight's pilgrimage.
Mumbai, India based 88 pictures will handle the CG animation series for the Netflix original. The studio's previous credits include the Guillermo del Toro-created animated series Trollhunters and 3 Below: Tales of Arcadia.