I’m currently watching Ultraman Taro, as part of my recent fascination with tokusatsu, and there was a particular episode where they mentioned the rabbit on the Moon. As you can imagine, the people I was watching the show with were quite confused so I ended up having to explain what the Moon rabbit was to them. However, it brought to mind that I had actually come across the Moon rabbit in a variety of media and that it might be worth discussing. Therefore, I thought that I’d take a look at the fascinating impact of the Moon rabbit on media.
Let’s start with what the Moon rabbit is. When looking at the Moon from Earth, you will only see the near side of the Moon which is covered in lunar maria. Different cultures have interpreted these lunar maria differently with some believing it resembles a man’s face or a lady but the cultures of East Asia and the Native Americans interpreted the lunar maria as resembling a rabbit with the East Asian cultures also seeing a mortar that’s being used to make the elixir of life, mochi, medicine etc.
Alongside these stories, myths and folklore, the Moon rabbit has had a fascinating impact on modern popular culture. While, understandably, most of these lie within Asian media, there are a few examples of references outside of Asia. How many of these are intentional is the subject of some debate but notable examples include BoJack Horseman showing that the first astronaut to land on the Moon was a rabbit, Batman: Lovers & Madmen having the Joker mention the Moon rabbit as being a crazy idea, as part of a lyric in the Cosmo Sheldrake song “The Moss” etc. However, by far and away the most notable example of the Moon rabbit in the West is from a real life event, this being the Moon landing with Apollo 11. Ron Evans, at the time a capsule communicator, told Michael Collins “Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-E has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.” with Michael Collins merely responding with “Okay. We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.”
Having looked at Western references to the Moon rabbit, let’s now look at where the lion’s share of references to the Moon rabbit are, Asian media. In Dragon Ball, Goku ends up defeating Monster Carrot, the leader of the Rabbit Mob, and takes him and his underlings to the Moon so that they can make mochi for Earth’s children. A bit more subtly, the main character of Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon herself, is called “Tsukino Usagi” which you can split up to become Tsuki no Usagi which means Rabbit of the Moon in Japanese. I had previously mentioned that the Moon rabbit was referenced in Ultraman Taro but a far more blunt reference is in Ultraman Ace where the kaiju Lunaticks resembles a rabbit who appears on Earth after having destroyed the civilisation that lived on the Moon.
Within Japanese video games, a particularly amusing example actually comes from one of my favourite Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy IV, where, upon arriving on the Moon, you can find a cave with Hummingway, a rabbit-like species that live on the Moon. Interestingly, several of the rabbit NPCs in Animal Crossing have houses whose aesthetic is heavily based off of the Moon with one of them even asking for a Moon-themed vacation home! In Nioh, a souls-like, there is a guardian spirit called Gyokuto whose description speaks about Moon rabbits, although here they’re called Moon-hares, them making medicine or mochi and attribute flashes in the sky as being them travelling at great speeds between the Earth and the Moon.
The impact that the Moon rabbit has had on popular culture is fascinating and, particularly if you’re interested in Asian media, I think more people should be aware of it. Let me know your own thoughts on the fascinating impact of the Moon rabbit, how you first learned about the Moon rabbit, interesting examples you’ve come across and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!