Buckle up folks, because we're about to review my first favourite in this website!
If you haven't been tipped off by the ugly toothed, pupiless lagomorph that constantly winks at you from the favicon already, I have a soft spot for "edgy rabbits". As an artist, I find rabbits very, very fun to cartoonify: from fluffy round cottonballs to lankier tricksters, I could draw you a dozen different bunnyrabbit characters and I would never get tired of them. They have so many cultural impact and fun characteristics to base a design from: the most obvious ones are their long ears and short tail, but I am especially fond of their adorable Y-shaped noses. Many people just stick a triangular button nose on cartoon bunnies, but a rabbit's natural schnoz is so easy to draw and so much more visually interesting!
I don't know what it is about a rabbit that makes a wonderful mascot, and that only gets better when you corrupt it. I'm pretty sure you know at least one "edgy rabbit": from the iconic Robbie the Rabbit from Silent Hill, to the unsettling Zipper from Animal Crossing, even Cuddles from Happy Tree Friends can be considered an edgy rabbit if you accept "taking in pain and suffering" as well as dealing it.
Back to the Rabbit of TMS, just scroll back up and take a good look at that creepy lagomorph! With black sclerae and tiny red pupils (that light up!), furless patches of skin, wires intertwined within his ears and a stunning white straightjacket, Rabbit positively looks like the most "messed up" of the masks. The celebrity under him even characterizes the costume by twitching his head! I also appreciate some small details that enrich his design, like the slightly bent left ear, stiff whiskers and the dangly cloth strips that add flow to his movements.
For those who are not too keen on the association of straightjackets to asylums, rest assured, the connotations end there. Most of Rabbit's clues are themed around stage magicians and illusionists. He's an escapist! I like to think that he got away from some messed up animal experimentation facility and decided to bank on the very thing that saved his life.
A menacing rabbit like this deserves some performances that tally up to his concept, and boy do they deliver. Rabbit here begins with a post-apocaliptic setting complete with Mad Max-worthy backup dancer for Livin' La Frickin' Vida Loca. He gets a freakshow focused circus setting along the way. I love him so much. Another of his many talents is singing a wide variety of genres to throw the panel off.
Rabbit too is a great performer and very entertaining to watch on stage, with him twitching his head, swinging his huge sleeves, striking little poses, movements and dances. I love his voice too, but I'm running out of terms to describe voices. They are such an ethereal finicky thing! But it's kinda what I do these reviews for, to try to put into words my impressions. But at the same time, I feel like if I pour all my thoughts about Rabbit here, I won't have any by the time I want to make a shrine about him! Yeah, you heard that right! Rabbit is shrine-worthy! The first shrine-worthy I review here!!
All I ask from Rabbit is that I wish he got into the finale. Just one more performance to wrap it all up. He's as finale-worthy as the actual finalists!
Also wow I wish we had more creepy-edgy masks like this.
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