Another blog for testing layouts

This is a sideblog that I occasionally update for fun, but don’t expect much. Obviously these colors are vomit. Just testing for the look of it.

[karigarihakase]

Ships from Other Works that Give Me Vibes to Buguese/Aqune

I’ll be realistic. The relationship of my OTP of all time is kinda on the unique side, so it’s impossible to find anything that’s a 1/1, but they also use some fairly popular tropes, and I’ve been thinking about them for years, so it’s natural I’d get the same energy out of other things. So this could be a relationship rec list of sorts? Not really my intent, I'm just ranting for myself, but why not? And the reasons why I see the similarity will vary from ship to ship. I also added a status category, because it’s kind of impressive how many of these relationships are canon or close to it. But obviously, spoiler warning, so feel free to ignore that part.

-Ohgi/Villetta (Code Geass)

This one comes up in part due to the fact that I find Ohgi’s character arc has a lot of coincidental similarities to Buguese’s. Both have suffering homes that they want to save, and decide to follow the command of a mysterious but powerful person who hides their true identity. Both have their doubts about this but decide to firmly keep following this person because they believe it's the only way. Both ultimately come to regret that their actions led to people around them being hurt/killed, turn on said leader, nearly end up dead by crashing their mecha/airship but live, and somehow get promoted to the role of leader of their now saved home in the end. Oh, and both happen to find a girl who is on the enemy side who has amnesia, whom they plan to use at first, but end up developing real feelings for in the end. And yeah, I don’t think Aqune and Villetta have too much in common. Not zero (both are good cooks, and Villetta also becomes conflicted over time on which side to choose), but not a ton. And while they are an interracial couple, both are the same species, and they don’t have an age gap either (Ohgi is merely a few months older). But nonetheless, I chose to start the list with them because the similarities that do exist amuse me. And both Ohgi and Buguese have big hate bases. At least I think, if you like Buguese, you’ll like Ohgi.

Status: Canon. They’re married at the end with a kid. At least if we stick with the main series. I don’t really pay attention to the reboot continuity but I think they’re still together there.

-Eden/Aria (Saint Seiya Omega)

So this is a case reverse of the last one where Aria is a lot like Aqune. She’s introduced as this mysterious but kindhearted girl who happens to have lived with the enemy since she was young. And they want to use her for her powers. Okay, actually SSO has a fair bit of similarities to Spider Riders, with the villain Mars even having a similar backstory to Mantid. So imagine if Buguese wasn’t merely his top general, but actually his son, and there we get Eden. Eden was attracted to Aria and kind to her, but he also has his duty and clashes with the protagonists, who want to save Aria and take her away from the villains. And of course she’s torn because she cares about Eden but also about her new friends.

Status: Non-canon. Aria dies about half way into the first season. However, she is referred to in a later point as “the girl Eden loved”, and he doesn’t end up with anyone else, so there’s that.

-Gilbert/Violet (Violet Evergarden)

Truthfully, I didn’t really ship them much when watching the show, nor did I particularly love the show, but I ended up watching the sequel movie while on a 14 hour flight, and it completely changed my opinions around. The main reason I didn’t really ship them was that Gilbert was already dead per the backstory. The main premise of the movie is that oops… he’s actually not dead. Like Buguese/Aqune, this is an age gap relationship, and Violet was initially a soldier under Gilbert’s command. Gilbert, like Buguese likely does after the series, has a lot of PTSD over everything to the point that he pretended to be dead and cut ties with his past life. This included Violet, because he was so guilty over the life he made her lead. That being said, Violet loves him genuinely and will have none of this. The BuguAqu energy is so strong here.

Status: Canon. Allegedly they’re married in the novels, though I personally haven’t read them. Which still hasn’t stopped people from going through hoops and insisting they’re actually like parent and child, just like with BuguAqu.

-Rumpelstiltskin/Belle (Once Upon a Time)

This was precisely the relationship that made me realize how much BuguAqu draws from Beauty and the Beast. Because basically, these two are, in crazy OUAT fashion, a hybrid of Beast/Rumpelstiltskin/the crocodile from Peter Pan (Rumple), and Belle, obviously. Of course we all know the story of the Disney movie. Belle ends up willingly becoming a prisoner in the Beast’s castle, and then the two fall in love, he lets her go, and she returns and changes him back into a man. In OUAT’s take… well it’s basically like that, but you can’t have a casual conversation about anything that happens in this show with a straight face. It also ends up getting about 3000x more toxic. But yeah, Aqune willingly stays in the Insector castle, and while she doesn’t see herself as a prisoner, the situation is complicated enough that the Spider Riders sure do. Buguese lets her go in the end, likewise, because he came to love her. Rumbelle, like BuguAqu, has an age gap, actually a much bigger one. Like Buguese, Rumpelstiltskin is a terribly stubborn and often petty person who makes frustrating decisions galore and hurts the people around him, but it’s obvious through all that that he always loves Belle and is a wreck without her. Like Aqune, Belle is the type of person who’s willing to try and see the good in others, and is firm in fighting for what she believes in.

Status: Canon. They’re one of the main “true love” couples throughout the series, and they eventually marry and have a kid.

-Zephyr/Takius (Ragnarok the Animation)

Okay, if Rumbelle is BuguAqu but more toxic, this would be BuguAqu with toxicity over 9000 (Yet I still find it fascinating). So let’s see. We’ve got a big age gap here, but like, Zephyr is an outright old man, whereas I don’t imagine Buguese being all that old. Likewise, they met when Takius was still a child. Had a mentor/student dynamic. Also, Zephyr has brainwashed Takius, via the blindfolds that she wears, kinda comparable to Aqune’s masks. Zephyr is obviously a villain, though not the main villain, and it turns out he was just being used as a pawn. And Takius, despite her allegiance to Zephyr, also befriends the heroes and fights alongside them. She’s super strong, albeit can be quiet, distant and mysterious. So why do I consider this super toxic (besides what came up already)? Well, the fact that they were having a sexual relationship when Takius was most-likely underage (though she’s clearly an adult by the time of canon), and that Zephyr, unlike Buguese, is absolutely certified insane. Like, Joker-level insane. It makes anyone wonder what the hell Takius sees in him. But nevertheless, she loves him despite who he is.

Status: Canon, though they both die at the end. And yes, I’ve also seen people argue that they were like parent/child. People with 0 media literacy.

-Hiiro/Towa (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)

I have this one a lot because aesthetic. I mean, it’s an inter-species relationship and Towa is a dead-ringer for Aqune, except her hair is black. And those side portions of her hair which are actually green remind me so much of Aqune’s earrings I didn’t realize they were part of her hair at first. Likewise, Hiiro is a handsome swordsman with a ponytail. He’s humanoid, but has just enough ogre traits to be obviously not human. They do have some other similarities, though. Towa is like Aqune in that she risks her own health and happiness in order to lend her powers to help her land. She would give up her life in order to save another. Also, she helped heal Hiiro when he was injured, as their first meeting, which is like how Buguese and Aqune allegedly first met in the Teletoon Corp spoilers. And while Hiiro is angry and vengeful over what happened to his people, he obviously cares about Towa a lot, having a soft side for her, and is protective of her.

Status: Non-Canon. Allegedly they’re just really good friends, but it’s not like they have any alternative love interests, and do really good friends make eyes at each other like they do?

-Gale/Aya (Soul Link)

This show might be one I associate closely with Spider Riders because they aired at the same time. But it’s notable for really making me open to age-gap couples when I initially wasn’t. All because Gale and Aya are so danged adorable together. So aside from an age gap, what do they have in common with BuguAqu? Well, Gale is a villain, at least at the start. He and his crew hijack the spaceship, and end up taking prisoners. One of which happens to be Aya. But Aya is an extremely kindhearted girl. She never sees Gale as an enemy, and instead tries to befriend him. And it’s obvious that she warms his heart overtime, even if he’s a bad person who’s obviously done a lot of awful things in the past. It reaches the point that he risks his life in order to save her and send her back to her friends. Also, like Buguese it turns out that Gale and his crew were just pawns, seen as disposable by the true villain.

Status: Depends on the continuity. Non-canon in the first game, where their relationship is really only glossed upon (it’s still sweet though), and both die depending on the route. Non-canon in the anime because Gale dies. Canon in the remake games, where not only do both live, they have an explicitly romantic relationship. (And one of the two remakes is an H-game, so extra emphasis on the “explicit” part.) Blessedly, I’ve very rarely seen people who think they were like parent/child, but it’s happened.

-Gaito/Sara (Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch)

This one is here mainly due to some structural similarities. Like Aqune, Sara is one of the main team of heroes, except she happens to be on the villain side, willingly. That being said, Sara is much more bitter than Aqune, who never really had malice towards anyone. Gaito of course is your white-haired bishounen villain, though unlike Buguese, he’s the main villain (at least of season 1). But despite who Sara is, as she is ultimately purified and returns to her fellow Mermaid Princesses, she still loves Gaito. He’s a complete wreck when she’s gone (not unlike how Buguese was when temporally separated from Aqune), and at the end, she returns to stay by his side as his castle sinks.

Status: Canon, but they both die.

-Sesshomaru/Rin (Inuyasha)

Let me preface that I’m not much an Inuyasha fan, but I still think that this couple deserves a mention. Back when I first watched the show on Cartoon Network, I didn’t ship them, and I was surprised to learn it was a popular ship. I mainly only cared about Inuyasha/Kagome, which FWIW is an interspecies relationship with an age gap, involving a white-haired bishounen who tends to be a massive jerk. Though I don’t think it qualifies for this list otherwise. But I remember coming across someone’s Livejournal who would post about Spider Riders, and started reading it even though they vocally hated BuguAqu because apparently I’m a masochist. And it turns out they were a big fan of Sesshomaru/Rin. That got me thinking, it was kinda odd, when the two relationships are fairly similar. Because it’s cold and aloof antagonistic white-haired bishounen with a big grudge against the MC, who finds a very pure and kindhearted human girl who is younger than him and eventually starts to genuinely care for her. And ultimately lets her go at the end to be with her own people, giving her the opportunity to eventually choose where she wants to be. Yeah, in hindsight I still find it odd that you can like one relationship and hate the other, though I do get that Rin was very young in the original anime, making the ship rather awkward. At least Aqune is clearly more mature. But this person didn’t seem to mind age gaps. Just that it got in the way of Hunter/Aqune.

Status: Canon. The sequel anime has them married with two kids.

-Yuuki/Kajitsu (Battle Spirits Shounen Gekiha Dan)

This is an incestuous (older brother/younger sister) relationship, which I’m aware will be a turn-off to many, but I’m putting it just due to how well it fits. So, Kajitsu is your mysterious, quiet girl with special powers. She bears the light of Mother Core, which could be likened to Aqune being a handmaiden of Spirit Oracle. This is a power that the villains want of course. And both Kajitsu and Yuuki are on the side of the enemies. Yuuki is Kajitsu’s brother, whom she follows loyally. Yuuki can be cruel and cold, but he cares about Kajitsu more than anything. He doesn’t even realize at first that what he’s been doing has only been causing her pain, and so he decides to leave her with the heroes for her own good.

Status: Canon. It turns out that they’re reincarnated lovers who haven’t dropped the love part despite being reincarnated as siblings this time. Both die, however they’re reincarnated for a second time, now as an interspecies couple, amusingly enough.

-Sandor/Sansa (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Note that I’m mainly referencing the books here, as I don’t care for the show and have barely seen any of it. But yeah, another age gap relationship in a medieval fantasy setting that takes obvious inspiration from Beauty and the Beast. Sansa, while more naive than we ever see Aqune (of course, she starts the series off as very young and sheltered), is a good-hearted, idealistic young girl. She ends up stuck in an enemy kingdom, and encounters the bitter, jaded and monster-like Sandor (though he is very much human). Despite everything, she manages to work her way under his skin and he becomes protective of her in his own way. Though they part ways, it’s clear that she continues to think fondly of him, despite his (perhaps deserved) reputation to everyone else.

Status: *shrug* Given how long it’s been since book 5 came out, I don’t really expect this series to actually continue. But I mean, she comforts herself thinking of an imaginary time when he kissed her. I think it has a good chance if they both live.

-Char/Lalah (Mobile Suit Gundam)

This is another ship where I never particularly thought about it when I first watched it years ago. But it’s hard to deny the influence of Gundam on many anime that followed, and it’s pretty clear it had some influence on Spider Riders too. Buguese is a Char clone, plain and simple. He even has the same seiyuu as Rau from Gundam Seed, an even more obvious Char clone. But he’s the rival to the protagonist, wears a mask, has a hidden agenda, affinity with the color red, pilots a custom Machine Sector… oh, and he also clashes with the protagonist over a particular mysterious and quiet girl with special powers, who seems to have romantic feelings for the both of them, and he’s basically her savior after taking her in from a bad alternative. And as you can see, Aqune herself is something of a Lalah expy, though she also has some traits with Char, like the mask and a long-lost sister. It was watching GQuuuuuux that made me realize how danged good Char/Lalah is. Mainly because it’s the first series to really put emphasis on the importance of the relationship, especially from Lalah’s perspective. Otherwise, she was more like The Lost Lenore for Amuro, who had more chemistry with Sayla anyway.

Status: Non-canon… I guess? Both are dead. But it was at least canon from Lalah’s side.

-Gamma/Yuni (Katekyo Hitman Reborn)

This one, I could take arguments why they don’t count, but my getting so many BuguAqu vibes from their aesthetic is the primary reason I watched the show. Firstly, it’s an age gap relationship. Secondly, Yuni definitely shares traits with Aqune. Because she’s another girl with special powers who are important to the villain’s plans, and is both a compassionate and self-sacrificing person. I wouldn’t say Ganma is a lot like Buguese, but he definitely had reason to hate Yuni at first (in his case, finding out one day that she was the daughter of the now-dead woman he was once in love with). But similarly to Buguese, he comes to care about her the more time he spends around her, and becomes very protective of her. And while Gamma does start off antagonistic, he really wouldn’t qualify as a villain in the same vein that Buguese would. Anyway, when he princess-carries her, it screamed BuguAqu to me.

Status: Canon-ish? It’s basically text, but are they really gonna go out and make a het ship get married on a series that runs on its BL fandom? Plus the manga doesn’t really have a proper ending.

-Karigari/Sasagawa (Tomica Hyper Rescue: Drive Head)

I’ll say this is more thematic/aesthetic again, as the main things they have in common is an age gap and one is a villain. But let’s see. Karigari is jaded and fixated on revenge, just as Buguese is. Sasagawa is a very compassionate person. While she obviously doesn’t have any sort of powers like Aqune, she always does what she can to help and support the heroes, even if that’s merely cheering them on. She’s also able to trust in Karigari fully despite knowing what he’s capable of. Karigari cares about her very much, and it’s her influence that gradually makes him a better person (and this culminates with crashing his mech into a large building at the end in a heroic sacrifice, but lives, much like Buguese). Also, he keeps her at a distance, generally believing it would be in her best interest, as her role directly contradicts his. (As opposed to an Insector general/eventual Insector leader and Spider Rider/Oracle Handmaiden, they’re a wanted criminal and TV celebrity, respectively.)

Status: Non-canon. As of the way things end, they’re just really good friends. Same as Hiiro/Towa. But Karigari does want to confess his love one day, and Sasagawa’s VA/namesake supports it, so… Hopeful. And again some people insist KariSasa is like parent/child, despite Sasagawa being like late 20’s when they first met, so not child, and the whole episode where Karigari built a whole scheme around confessing to her and only didn’t due to being interrupted by a life-threatening crisis.

-Reiji/Ina (Shinkalion: Change the World)

Okay, these aren’t hugely similar, but I definitely got the vibes. So, Reiji is definitely comparable to Buguese, being the masked, white-haired villain trying to get revenge on the heroes, and protect a certain world. Also pilots a mech. And he brainwashes Ina, despite (or because) he’s clearly in love with her. It reminds me of the possessive angle with BuguAqu anyway. But Ina isn’t much like Aqune, aside from the fact that they’re both very righteous. Aqune could never have that chaotic non-malicious-mad-scientist energy.

Status: Non-canon. Despite it being basically text. But yeah, here’s our third case of, canon says they’re totally just really good friends.

-Sanzo/Goku (Saiyuuki)

Is it odd to have a M/M ship here? Well, I think this one fits really well. Firstly, Sanzo is similar to Buguese down to the two having the same Japanese voice actor. But yeah, cold and angry, generally doesn’t like being in the company of other people. But he ends up saving Goku, who’s like your typical mysterious girl with special powers archetype except for being a boy. Like Aqune, Goku is a generally amicable person, developing a strong bond with Sanzo due to their time together (though it's also practically a reincarnation romance) and he’s the only one Sanzo will sometimes show care for, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. Also, there’s an age gap but it’s actually Goku who’s way older. Sanzo certainly appears older though, so it kinda goes both ways.

Status: Non-canon, but good grief, for the fourth time I’m not buying that they’re totally actually just good friends, especially when you factor Sanzo’s past life stuff.

-Grey/Maria (Chojin Sentai Jetman)

So with this one, Maria is a would-be member of the titular sentai team, except that she’s unceremoniously killed in the first episode. Except it turns out she’s not actually dead, and she returns as a brainwashed enemy. A key difference though is that unlike Aqune who’s only made to fight against her will, and otherwise joined with the Insectors willingly, Maria is fully brainwashed and doesn’t even realize her previous life. Though, neither does Aqune given her coincidental amnesia. Grey is one of the enemy generals, not unlike Buguese, who ends up becoming close to her and developing a genuine affection for her. This is to the point that he decides to help her and even let her be with the heroes if it's for her own good. It’s also an interspecies thing, Grey being a robot. Though, he isn’t too much like Buguese otherwise. Actually, his personality is more similar to Stags.

Status: Non-canon. Both are dead, and Maria is definitely conflicted when she remembers her previous lover (though he ends up moving on with someone else).

-Hyunckel/Maam (Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken)

Hyunckel is a silver-haired enemy, a swordsman who initially holds a grudge against the heroes. Maam is a strong warrior whose powers come from “jiai”, or compassionate love/kindness. Note that the incantation when Aqune transforms (though this was changed in the dub) is “Oracle no jiai”. In short, both girls have such strong compassion that it’s emphasized by the narrative. Maam is the first to try and understand Hyunckel, even though he had taken her hostage at that point. He later switches sides, and is shown to care for her a lot.

Status: Non-canon. And I can’t even “but actually” this time. I mean, the show is open-ended enough that it’s not sunk, but it also heavily pushes the Popp/Maam ship, and Hyunckel goes off on his own to try and atone for his sins.

....

I feel like I'm probably forgetting some other obvious ones. This is something I've actually meant to do for years, oops. I'm also open for more suggestions, because I consume more anime than anything else, so it obviously gives my resource pool bias.

[tassjis]

Legend of the Dragon

[tassjis]

[karigarihakase]

A Bikkuriman Guide(?)

Enjoy a rare periodic post here, because I've been meaning to do this.

This is a slightly-modified copy/paste of something I wrote on Discord a little while back, trying to explain this franchise. It's been about a year since I got invested in Bikkuriman, through the 2023 Bikkurimen anime, and I went into it completely blind, as there's basically nothing about this series available in English. Thought it might be helpful for anyone else who's ever wondered about the franchise but also wasn't really sure what was what or what the whole deal was.

And heads up that there are some spoilers here, mainly for the original series, but kind of unavoidable in explaining a major recurring plot thread.

In Japan, a popular kids snack is chocolate wafers. You’ll see these all over in the stores, just a simple crunchy wafer candy, usually packaged with either a sticker or trading card, and often collaborating with popular characters. Ie: Pokemon, Demon Slayer, Sanrio, etc.

In the 80’s, the candy company Lotte created their own line of characters, with their own lore, which were released as stickers packaged with wafers. In 1987, the first Bikkuriman anime, which was produced by Toei and aired in what I’m pretty certain is the same timeslot which has been airing Precure since 2004, debuted.

The series focused on the battle between angels (led by the powerful but womanizing Super Zeus) and devils (led by the hammy, buffoonish Super Devil). The two have of course been rivals for years, though occasionally have a more friendly relationship, and some seasons do make Super Devil considerably more threatening than his original incarnation.

The main characters are a group of seven young warriors (technically eight, but one ends up dropping out of the party early) called the Wakajinshi, who fight on the side of the angels, each themed after a different mythological hero. The main one is Prince Yamato, the green-haired boy with a cat on his head. They work together with the angel Saint Phoenix as they try to reach a place known as the “next world”.

Their most prominent ally is Cross Angel. While not a Wakajinshi herself, she fights alongside them and has the ability to purify those who have been turned into devils. She has a huge crush on Yamato, and starts off as a crybaby but is eventually able to become stronger.

One interesting mechanic of the Bikkuriman franchise is that the characters will evolve at different points, not unlike Pokemon. Often they’ll have similar names, but sometimes will take on a completely new name in their powered up form. For example, Saint Phoenix later becomes Head Rokoko.

The series ran for 75 episodes, the first 13-ish were half-length and the rest were normal length for a TV anime. Notably, the series ends on a downer end, despite being a kids toy commercial.

The character of Saint Phoenix/Head Rokoko that I mentioned above became extremely popular, especially gathering a lot of fangirls. And beloved to many fans (myself included) is the romantic subplot between Rokoko and the devil Satan Maria. And well, it’s not exactly a sweet and wholesome romance. It’s… complicated. Mainly because Maria is an absolute psychopath. Not the kind of character you’d think to be romancible. Rokoko knows full well how dangerous an enemy she is, and they have a rivalry since early on, Maria becoming basically obsessed with him as a result. Rokoko, being very much kind-hearted and compassionate, eventually tries to make peace with her and hopes to unify angels and devils. Well, stuff goes down, leading to the depressing ending I mentioned. But while Maria is almost killed as well, Rokoko saves her life. Afterwards, Maria agrees to unify with Rokoko, the two merge into a single being, and they magically create a son, the half-angel half-devil Pia Marco.

Because of the popularity of Rokoko and Maria, their relationship has been basically a constant throughout the franchise. An alternate ending was created for the TV series in the form of the OAV, Rokoko and Maria’s Miracle, which retells the main events of the series, focusing on the relationship between the two.

There was also a shoujo manga, set in a different continuity from the anime, called “Warrior of Love, Head Rokoko”. I haven’t been able to read it, unfortunately, as it’s old and long out-of-print. But it centers of course on the relationship between the two. The black-haired girl on the cover is Aizen Kaguya, who is Maria’s love rival.

In 1989, the second series was released, called Shin Bikkuriman. The series is a direct sequel, centered on Marco. However, due the the circumstances of his birth, he grew up completely unaware of the identities of his parents. Marco is just a bratty little glutton, but like his father, he’s a very compassionate person who would even reach out to terrible enemies.

Marco is joined by the angel Oz, the devil Cocky, and a mysterious girl named Orin, who eventually becomes his love interest. The gang gets into some big trouble right from the onset and wind up being fugitives on the run from a group of angels known as the Bay Girls, who also have ties to characters from the first series. Like Marco, they’re also unaware of their origins at first.

While the first anime was rather on the repetitive side, Shin is a much more plot-heavy series. Also, despite being a sequel to the ‘87 series, Shin can stand on its own pretty well, due to mainly being about different characters.

In 1992 came the 3rd series, Super Bikkuriman. Its continuity with the previous two seasons is questionable, it can easily be watched as a standalone, but it very much draws from the same lore.

The hero of this series is also Phoenix, but he’s not the same Phoenix. He’s said to be a descendant of Head Rokoko. Given that he’s a pure angel, it does draw the question as to whether Rokoko had any side lovers (as Maria was still his true love in this season), or it’s just so far down the line that the devil part of the bloodline was reduced to near non-existence. Signs point to the latter.

Phoenix is joined by three other heroes, Tiki, Asuka and Amuru. Amuru is a descendant of Maria and is a devil/angel hybrid like Marco was. The series, comparable to toku shows or even like Saint Seiya or Spider Riders, has the heroes transform into armor to fight. At first, only Phoenix and Tiki are able to transform, but Asuka and Amuru get the ability later.

This series also features a far more sinister Devil, who has trapped Zeus inside his body. The objective as first is to rescue Zeus, but things get messy, and it turns out that both Zeus and Devil make up the last two of the six legendary heroes. There’s also a girl named Manya who also happens to be a descendant of Maria and plays a major role in the story.

After Super, Bikkuriman went off the air for a while, only to return in late 1999 by a new animation studio (Comet rather than Toei). This season was called Bikkuriman 2000. And yes, crummy picture. Don’t feel like finding a better one, because I didn’t really like this season. Sorry.

Aside from Zeus being a main character, and Rokoko appearing later on, the series has almost no connection to any previous lore. It focuses on two angels, Takeru and Pochi (and a 3rd boy but I can’t remember his name) who encounter Zeus and join him as allies. For a chunk of the series, they’re repetitively harassed by a Team Rocket-esque trio, but they eventually make a Heel Face Turn. The final arc of the series, which follows a time jump, is by far the most interesting part, but to the point that it almost feels like a different show.

But yeah, enough about 2000. The following series, 2006’s Happy Lucky Bikkuriman, is much more interesting and finally goes back to the original continuity.

This series is about two friends, Genki and Jero. The pair end up meeting the legendary Prince Yamato and Cross Angel by chance. But how? Because time travel antics, as this series is set before the ‘87 anime chronologically. It turns out, Super Devil decided to write his own fix-it fic. So he sends the Wakajinshi and others back in time. Of course, the beginning is about finding all the original gang and bringing them all back together.

But then they encounter a devil girl called Himiko, who looks suspiciously like Maria. It turns out that she’s Maria’s ancestor. And while initially an enemy, she winds up befriending Genki and developing feelings for him. However, Super Devil has his own plans for the poor girl, and decides to send Maria’s soul back in time into Himiko’s body, which ends up turning her evil again. Well, things eventually work out.

There’s actually a love triangle between Himiko, Genki, and Jero, the latter realizing they had feelings all along for their childhood friend. And despite Jero’s very feminine appearance (the one wearing blue with the glasses in the key visual), Jero is a boy. Or at least grew up thinking so. Jero is actually genderless, identifies as male, and turns into a female after evolving. And ultimately, the end feels like the love triangle is almost resolved as a threesome of sorts. Or I’d like to see it that way, though clearly Himiko has to end up with a devil for Maria to be born one day. ><

Also, this season has an Italian dub, which is possibly lost media, and maybe a French dub as well. I’m not sure why they chose this season to dub, as it does require familiarity with at least the first anime to fully understand everything. But still a neat piece of trivia. There were even attempts to sell it for an English dub, with a promotional trailer existing in English, but obviously nothing came of it.

Then, all of a sudden, Bikkuriman came back in 2023, this time being produced by Lesprit and Shin-Ei Animation. The most recent season was called Bikkurimen.

The premise here is that the main characters from the original series have been reborn into modern day Japan. The catch is that most are unaware of their past lives. We’ve got a high school boy named Yamato who notably looks just like Prince Yamato, but goes about his days ignorantly, working as a delivery boy part time. (The cat on his head is a pet cat in this version)

But speaking of deliveries, the hot commodity in this world is Bikkuriman wafers, or rather, the stickers that come packaged in them. In this anime, they’re a pure craze, like Pokemon cards back in the 90’s. And there’s some basis to this in reality, given that certain Bikkuriman stickers really do sell for hundreds of dollars on the secondhand market. But anyway, a big shipment of wafers is attacked, and Yamato gets caught up in the mess, learning that when he places a sticker of the character who is his factor onto himself, he can temporarily transform into that character, and do battle.

Due to being set in the real world, the battle between angels and devils is represented between two rival convenience stores. Yamato ends up joining the Angel Mart crew, made up of Wakajinshi members Jack and Ushiwaka, as well as the store’s manager, Phoenix.

The rival devil store is run by a mysterious man named Maris. Note that the name is one letter off from the other iconic character in the franchise. This is because, despite being a man, Maris is the factor of Maria. Maris and Phoenix have a relationship mirroring that of the original Maria and Rokoko. Like Maria, Maris is a psychopath (who happens to be just a tad obsessed with his enemy). And like Rokoko, Phoenix is a sweetheart who just wants the two of them to join together. They have an official line stamp to express this.

So basically, they made Rokoko and Maria into a gay couple in this incarnation. Maris can transform into Maria, effectively making him a gender-bender, but he sees himself as distinct from Maria, so it’s sort of like sharing a body. Actually, this being the first series I watched, I started shipping the two through this series, but now I love every incarnation of them. RokoMari is the true power couple, from the 80’s to today.

As for watchability, Bikkurimen has subs, though they apparently came from some foreign streaming service and have some grammatical issues. But at least it can be watched in English, unlike the other seasons. And there are subs for the first episode of 2000. Haven't watched it personally so no clue of the quality/accuracy. However, if you have the ability to watch raws, the rest of the seasons are relatively easy to dig up via torrents/shady pirate sites/Internet Archive. Actually, most if not all the series are streaming legally through Japanese sites last I checked, albeit region locked and probably mostly paywalled.

[doyouknowthisanime]

Do You Know This Anime?

Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head (TV, 2017)

I have seen this anime in its entirety.

I have seen part, but not all, of this anime.

I have not seen this anime, but I have seen another anime in the same franchise.

I have not seen this anime, but I know a lot about it.

I have not seen this anime, and know little about it.

I have never heard of this anime.

Voting ended onMay 6, 2024

[karigarihakase]

Drive Head and Earth Granner were not flops in Japan

Let me start with a small disclaimer. I’m not writing this because I’m a big Tomica fan and I don’t like seeing their anime slandered. I’m also a big Spider Riders fan and have no problem telling you that it was a flop of epic proportions. I’m also not writing this to slander Shinkalion. I think it’s a great show.

This seems to be an ongoing misconception, mainly outside of Japan though I’ve seen some Japanese fans too that assume this (and usually get shot down right away because this is just not true).

I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is Shinkalion, as it’s often the context for this discussion coming up in the first place. Shinkalion was a smash success in Japan. It was the perfect storm. Trains are huge, so a series devoted to them, packed with accurate train facts and detail, was going to be big. The work was targeted at young children, but attracted an audience of older railfans as well. The series had a ton of popular seiyuu, so it attracted older otaku who watch for seiyuu. The series had Google as a sponsor, so it had big money behind it from the getgo. It had collabs with hugely popular properties, including Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla. So yes, it attracted fans of Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla who weren’t going to watch it for any of the other reasons listed above. So yeah, there’s no denying Shinkalion was a big success in Japan. But there’s no denying Frozen was a big success in the west (and Japan, and all over the place.) An argument that Drive Head and Earth Granner weren’t successful because they never reached Shinkalion’s level of popularity is like saying Tangled or Big Hero 6 were flops because they weren’t as big as Frozen. (And to be honest, I’m not in Disney fandom. Maybe there are people that argue that? But if there are, they’re idiots.)

Let’s start by talking about the origin of Drive Head a bit, because it’s rather important for explaining what happened. Drive Head was the first TV anime made to promote the Tomica brand of die-cast cars. It was neither the first Tomica anime, nor their first TV series. But it still was something of an experiment, given the brand has existed since 1970. Drive Head was billed as a co-production between OLM (a.k.a. the Pokemon studio) and XEBEC. But as anyone who takes the time to look through the credits can tell you, OLM had very little actual involvement in it. And XEBEC was on its last days. Drive Head had a dismally low budget, with constant off-model animation and two recap episodes, which is another reason that western anime fans were not impressed. Ignoring the fact that the series was aimed at children in Japan as a vehicle to sell toys, not sakuga fanatics.

And the reason that the creators just didn’t care? Well, besides the fact that it was experimental in ways, and that it was just made to sell toys to pre-schoolers? Because Drive Head was merely designed as a placeholder for Shinkalion while it was in production. Takara Tomy wanted Shinkalion to be big. Drive Head was a throwaway. Even the toys themselves were just retools from the Hyper Series line in the first wave.

But Drive Head was a big surprise to the Takara Tomy execs. Because it was big with its target audience. Now, the target audience of Drive Head is not on social media. They’re not the type pouring out fanart on Pixiv. Probably, they can’t even draw (some of the fan-submitted art on Drive Head News Channel, the live-action variety show it spawned proves this.) They’re pre-schoolers! That being said, Drive Head does have aspects that can appeal to adults (as long as they care about more than sakuga). Yeah, I did write that essay and a million fanfics about the villain/heroine romance straight out of Megamind that probably wasn’t written with the target audience in mind. Drive Head did somehow manage to trend on Twitter whenever new episodes aired. Heck, the series character designer posts fanart on Twitter that often treads NSFW territory and has an audience for it. But, Takara Tomy also doesn’t care about that audience, nor should they. They care about selling toys to kids.

Now, the first wave of Drive Head toys went out of print pretty quickly, when the robots were replaced in-universe by their mid-season upgrades. And the price of Sonic Interceptor, the main character’s first mech spiked up right away. There was still a demand for it. This probably should’ve been the first sign the toyline was doing well. Takara did take notice, and this placeholder show that was originally only planned for 37 episodes (an unusual amount when most kids shows run for 4+ cour) was expanded to have a sequel web series and movie. It has been officially stated from the staff that the series was planned to end at episode 37, and changes did have to be made to expand the plot. It must have been early enough in its run for this to be decided. However, given that the web series was primarily recap episodes (and even the entirely new ones were short episodes) and the movie was about an hour long and didn’t have significantly higher production values than the TV series, they clearly still rushed to get these made. The success of Drive Head was said to be unexpected. Even with the movie, they were still surprised. They had planned for two interactive Drive Gear linked screenings (the Drive Gear being a toy that made certain sounds in response to the show itself). Drive Gears were available for loan at these showings. Not only were these showings sold out so quickly that they set up a few more, but many kids brought their own Drive Gear from home, not needing to borrow one. The movie itself was also shown only in limited theaters, which led to enough complaints that they were forced to expand locations (and it still wasn’t enough). Though the movie wasn’t a box-office topping success and it’s actual revenue remains unknown barring in Korea where it seemed to indeed be a flop, it still proved popular with (once again) its target audience. Two theatres even kept playing it for a couple months after all the rest stopped.

Drive Head has continued to be rebroadcast on satellite networks and various streaming services. It is -still- popular with its target audience. You get posts on Twitter like, ‘my kid loves Drive Head and is asking for the toys, but they’re $200 on Amazon. Help!’ There’s still that much demand for these toys.

Unfortunately for these kids and parents, Drive Head hasn’t seen a single re-issue on the toys since its end, and has barely been acknowledged by Takara Tomy at all. There are a number of reasons for this. One is Shinkalion itself. The show that Drive Head was designed as a placeholder for and that Takara Tomy expected to be successful was so successful that it ended up running for longer than planned as well. It held onto the timeslot on TBS where Drive Head once aired until it was prematurely cancelled itself thanks to TBS wanting that timeslot to promote the ill-fated 2020 Olympics. So while there was talk from reliable sources about a Drive Head season 2 happening, it never got its chance to happen. The next reason is TBS itself. They screwed over all their anime programming, barring late-night fare, and it wasn’t until Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury came out in 2022 that they would even consider daytime anime again. So all of Takara Tomy’s properties jumped ship to TV Tokyo. And Drive Head, unlike Shinkalion, is so intrinsically tied to TBS that the likeness of their headquarters and even some of their staff members are featured in the anime. Though, given that real-Sasagawa no longer works for TBS, and has expressed interest in reprising her role one day, it could be feasible to get her on board if a TV Tokyo sequel ever happened. But for a time, there would definitely be some messy legal hoops involved, and there still could be for all I know. Thirdly, XEBEC. While Drive Head could be given to another studio easily enough (perhaps Studio Mother?), XEBEC is no longer of this world. A sequel under a new studio could lead to a radical staff change which might help or harm it. That and well… time’s passed. The time Shinkalion had the timeslot, Covid screwing with anime production after that… Despite new kids discovering the show through streaming platforms, the original target audience is older now and has moved on. It’s the kind of show that could get a nostalgia sequel 10 years from now but for a direct sequel at this point, that ship has sailed, for better or for worse. Even when Shinkalion got its long-awaited sequel, it was mainly focused on new characters and mecha, with the old cast reduced to cameos. And Takara has been releasing toylines with similar gimmicks and aesthetic, such as the currently-running Jobraver. So for that reason, the coveted re-issue of the Drive Head toys is basically doomed.

But now, Earth Granner. The special anime released to commemorate Tomica’s 50th anniversary. I mentioned above that the Tomica brand was born in 1970, so you do the math. You should see right away why that was an unfortunate year for a big 50th anniversary celebration.

When Earth Granner’s toys first hit the shelves, late April 2020, the biggest of the lockdowns were happening worldwide. While Japan’s lockdowns were not as long lasting or extreme as some countries (barring its extreme embargo on foreign tourism), they did happen, and toy stores were certainly deemed nonessential and were shut down for a brief period. So while yes, you could order the toys online on Amazon or the like, right from the get-go Takara Tomy lost their chance to have kids see the big cool $50 robot toy in the store and beg their parents for one. When it was revealed in a first-quarter sales report that the Earth Granner toys sold less than expected, there was almost gloating from a certain section of Shinkalion fans (-not- the target audience of either show) who were not happy that a new Tomica anime debuted before Shinkalion’s season 2 did. Despite the fact that new Shinkalion toys were still being produced and the brand was still very much alive even without a currently airing anime. This clearly ignoring the global crisis which was quite likely to blame for this new line to not have stellar sales from day one. And note that these low sales were quite temporary. Come December, Earth Granner was -the- hottest toyline for young boys. According to lists of the top Christmas toys, it was outselling both Rider and Sentai. That does not seem like a flop to me.

Earth Granner actually appeared to be a quite ambitious project from Takara. They’d learned from the success Drive Head had and planned all sorts of things for it. This included having tokusatsu-style costumes designed in real life of the two main heroes, who would allegedly appear at events and perform stage shows. But again, this was 2020. There was never one stage show. The costumes were only used for a few special events late into the anime’s run where they had drive-in advance showings of new episodes and Raiga and Kuga would be around to greet the kids though their car windows, assumedly. It’s unknown if there were ever plans to make suits for the remaining three Granners, or exactly what would’ve become of the franchise if it had the chance to be what Takara Tomy clearly wanted from it. But Earth Granner simply ended after its year run without even getting a movie like Drive Head and Shinkalion did, and it’s gimmicky extra-packed Blu-Ray box was canceled, having done poorly on the crowdfunding. Clearly, the show was again not a huge hit with adult fans, perhaps even less-so than Drive Head in Japan which did get a BD release. But the toys were still a top seller that year, despite the circumstances they had to deal with.

Again, Takara Tomy barely acknowledges the franchise anymore, and the toys are out of print. However, it also seems that Takara Tomy is going in a direction of less new anime, given their toys themselves prove to be more successful than the probable cost of the shows that promote them. With Tomica’s current Jobraver line, it’s clearly doing well enough that it’s survived for over a year. Its anime is merely sporadically-released all-CG-animated episodes on Youtube. The other currently airing Takara Tomy works include Go! Go! Vehicle Zoo (2-minute long episodes that air sporadically, and cross-promoting three toylines at once, including Tomica), Bouken Tairiku Ania Kingdom (10-minute episodes, and entirely done in stop-motion), a rebroadcast of Punirines (an all-CG 10-minute-episode anime from last year), Duel Masters (which has been running near-endlessly since 2002), and Beyblade (another long-running franchise which only recently made its return to TV after being relegated to streaming only for a while). Shinkalion may be a special exception due to its massive crossover appeal, but even that has no anime currently, rumors of an upcoming new series aside.

Tldr; Drive Head and Earth Granner did great with their target audience despite being screwed over by outside circumstances. You just don’t hear about them because you don’t chat with too many 4-year-olds in Japan.

[karigarihakase]

"I suppose I can continue tomorrow," Karigari said. "Mantid must be suspicious as to why I holed myself up in here all day. It's a shame I couldn't guess what Buguese's actual hobbies are."

"Besides pining over Aqune?" Sasagawa asked, teasingly.

Fact of the matter stands, the man has literally no other hobbies. It’s both sad and hilarious.

[karigarihakase]

Hey, not very active on here, but I've seen some talk about the Spider Riders characters ages and I wanted to throw out a few things.

This was the site which listed them, which was TV Tokyo's official site: https://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/contents/spiderriders/characters/

It says:

Hunter- 13

Corona- About 13

Lumen- About 12

Sparkle- About 8

Magma and Igenous- Late teens

There is also an Italian activity book which claimed that Igneous is 16, though I don't personally think of that as canon. It also states Lumen is 12.

[karigarihakase]

Pazudora- A Guide

What’s this massively-long-running kids anime, reaching near 250 episodes that you’re probably not following?

This is a guide I’ve been meaning to write for a while for Pazudora, a neat kids show which has been ongoing since 2018 and basically no one talks about.

Pazudora is the second anime adaptation of the Puzzle & Dragon mobile game, following Puzzle & Dragons X. And yes, they take place in a shared continuity, but familiarity with one is not at all necessary for following the other. The two series are vastly tonally different, with X being a rather-serious story set in a fantasy world. Pazudora is mostly a comedy, but can get serious when it wants to, and it’s set in our world. But then wait, how do they share a continuity? Because it turns out one of the main characters was Isekaid from the world of X to our world. And yes, there is a crossover episode at some point and various references to X scattered around.

As you might be guessing from that explanation, Pazudora is bizarre. How should I describe it? If you’re at all familiar with the Battle Spirits franchise, it’s a lot like Heroes, but on even more acid. Pazudora is centered around various tournament arcs, where pro gamers intend to become the best in the world. But when they’re not in the middle of a tournament (and heck, sometimes when they are), the rest of the show is pure ridiculous filler. After about 100 episodes in, the series switched to short format episodes (rather, half is a live-action variety show where a bunch of comedians play Pazudora and Ninjala.) This lack of screentime for serious plot apparently led the writers to take a plan B. Make it even more ridiculous. It actually worked to great effect. Although, many characters suffered greatly reduced roles as a negative side effect, including some who were quite prominent previously.

And now, a brief introduction of the cast. 

Starting with the Pazudora Club: 

Taiga Akashi (cv. Asuna Tomari)- The main character. His family runs a takoyaki business, and he dreamed of being no. 1 at takoyaki-making. After seeing a Pazudora match with the popular pro-gamer, Matsuhara-Pro, he becomes enamored and decides to switch fields... not losing his objective at being the best in the world. And to be fair, it’s not like he drops takoyaki for Pazudora. He still takes the business very seriously. And he’s able to utilize his skill at flipping balls of flour and octopus to help him become better at playing mobile games. Yes, seriously. Taiga is also ridiculously smug, and it’s funny. He’s not a goody-two-shoes hero, which does make him stand out from some generic shounen protagonists.

Toragon (cv. Tetsuya Kakihara)- Taiga’s partner. He’s the character in question who was isekaid from the world of X. His normal form is that of a tiny round tiger (but he’ll insist that he’s a Toragon- part tiger, part dragon) and he eventually evolves to a more mature looking form that he only takes during battle.

Sakura Uzuki (cv. Honoka Inoue)- Taiga’s neighbor and childhood friend. Her family runs a cake shop. Sakura is a member of the Pazudora club along with Taiga, and while she does initially strive to be a pro-gamer, she decides she doesn’t want to, and plays more of a support role as team captain. She’s quite good at the game, and will still play on occasion, but rarely does these days. Sakura begins the series with a crush on Matsuhara-Pro, but gradually develops feelings for Taiga, and a lot of her character arc is her coming to terms with. Many of the ED animations focus on this relationship. An interesting note- Sakura is voiced by Honoka Inoue, daughter of Kikuko Inoue, who voiced Sakura’s mother.

Whip- Sakura’s partner monster. Whip is initially one of the only monsters besides Toragon who will appear out of battle. She’s cake-themed, and something of a glutton. Unlike many characters who got reduced roles when the show switched to short format, Whip actually landed several focus episodes, which tend to be trippy even for this show’s standards.

Yukichi Tokuzawa (cv. Chie Koujiro)- Taiga’s friend, and co-Pazudora Club member, who is incredibly rich. He admires Taiga like a brother. Although not as skilled in Pazudora as others, he does eventually get his pro-gamer license. Still, he rarely makes it far in the tournaments. His main rival since childhood is Tsukasa Oujo, who is another rich kid. His partner monster is some sort of thunder god thing. It doesn’t appear enough for me to remember its name. It gets a chibi form that can appear out of battle when the series switches to short format.

Ryuji Matsuhara (cv. Yusuke Kobayashi)- The main rival character, and kind of an edgelord. To be fair, Ryuji has a serious inferiority complex going on, being that he’s the younger brother of the great Matsuhara-Pro. So he grew up always being second best, and when he ends up with the Pazudora Club, he also finds himself being second best to Taiga. Throw in the writer’s love for pulling the Warf-Effect on him, and he gets messed up to the point that he temporarily leaves the team and goes off to America to work out issues. With a little help from Oujo, he comes back a lot better. His family business is calligraphy, and his partner monster is a blue sea dragon. Like Yukichi’s, it’s not very relevant.

The Adults

Gen-san (cv. Taketora)- A fellow restaurant owner in Taiga’s home town, and the most frequently appearing adult character, even in the short episodes when the rest of his idiot trio get demoted to extra. He still gets a somewhat reduced role, it’s just not as bad in comparison. Gen is, as I’ve implied, not-too-bright, and he’s basically one of the kids, often joining the Pazudora Club on their adventures. His archrival is Maeken, who he sees as a rival for Yukiko-sensei’s love.

Ken “Maeken” Maeyamada (cv. Anri Katsu)- Taiga’s homeroom teacher. If you only watched the short format episodes, you would not even realize he’s a character, as he barely exists anymore. He’s a lot like Gen-san, and the two have a mutual rivalry (and mutual love for Yukiko-sensei), although they actually do really see each other as friends. They’re just tsundere about it.

Yukiko-sensei (cv. Yukiyo Fujii)- The school nurse at Taiga’s elementary school. If not for the fact that she’s referred to as “sensei”, you’d be forgiven for not even realizing she’s an adult, as she’s one of the most childish characters in the show, is oblivious beyond reason (she has no clue that Gen or Maeken are crushing on her hard), and has a tendency to just be doing silly stuff that makes no sense even in context. She does in fact have a split personality, but her evil side is only seen on one occasion. She loves Taiga’s takoyaki, although her favorite food is actually strawberry cake, and she later becomes bros with Musashi, who actually trumps her in the braindead department.

Toki (cv. Taiten Kusunoki)- A grumpy, reclusive old guy who becomes the eventual coach of the Pazudora Club. He’s something of the “big good”, if this series actually has one. This due to the fact that he’s the longtime rival of the “big bad” Kashiwaki. Despite their rivalry, it’s really not hard to mistake the two as exes. The fact that Toki is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki (Number Nine) and Kashiwaki is voiced by Sho Hayami (Garudos) makes it hilarious. And yes, there’s one episode where the only relevant characters are the two of them and the omniscient announcer voiced by Rikiya Koyama (Otherworld King). It’s a Battle Spirits villain convention.

Kashiwaki (cv. Sho Hayami)- A shady guy who’s trying to revolutionize pro-gaming. He coaches a team consisting of Shin, Death Binen and Black Rose. While obviously ambitious and portrayed as the ultimate “villain”, it’s more that he’s misguided, and he gradually comes to care about his team and shift priorities.

Chisato Akashi (cv. Akemi Okamura)- Taiga’s mother. She’s the one mainly in charge of the takoyaki shop. She is married, but her husband is usually away.

Hitomi Akashi (cv. Miki Narahashi)- Taiga’s grandmother who also runs the takoyaki shop. Actually a pretty cool old lady.

The Rivals

Ryuichi Matsuhara, a.k.a. Matsuhara-Pro (cv. Hirofumi Nojima)- Older brother of Ryuji, and known as the strongest pro-gamer. Taiga admires him, and this eventually becomes a mutual thing. He cares about Ryuji a lot, despite tensions in their relationship.

Iwao Harima + Gon + Yasu (cv. Kimiko Saito/Iwao + Miki Narahashi/Gon)- Local bully and his groupies. Iwao has a big crush on Sakura, who just finds him repulsive. Fortunately their appearances are rare these days, as they were just a particularly annoying Team Rocket. However, it is noteworthy that Gon looks like Akira from Drive Head. And that Akira’s seiyuu Takashi is one of the comedians who appears on the live action parts.

Nekota Nekoyama (cv. Ayumu Murase)- Basically the pre-teen boy equivalent to a crazy cat lady. Becomes one of Taiga’s early opponents when he tries to kidnap Toragon, due to him being a cat, technically. His partner is another cat-like creature like Toragon. I don’t think he ever became a pro-gamer, but might’ve just blocked it from my mind. Either way, he’s not at all relevant these days.

Tsukasa Oujo (cv. Atsushi Abe)- Our resident rich pretty boy. He has fleets of fangirls who follow him to every tournament. He definitely has the tendency to be a pretentious snot, but does show a kinder side now and then. Eventually gets his pro-gamer license and becomes a tournament regular.

Honoka Himeno (cv. Nanami Yamashita)- The idol pro-gamer. She loves to be in the spotlight and can definitely be manipulative. She values her career as a pro-gamer just as much as her idol career, which has led to problems with her management. However, her two teammates are also idols and pro-gamers. Also, she’s a massive butt monkey. Notably, she’s an expy of Garnet from X, down to the same seiyuu.

Eina (cv. Chika Anzai)- One of Honoka’s teammates. Mainly just notable due to getting a win in on Taiga, something Honoka’s never managed.

Zi Chao Li (cv. Kazue Ikura)- Some Chinese martial artist pro-gamer whose existence I completely forgot. Needless to say, he doesn’t appear much anymore.

Shin Kanzaki (cv. Natsuki Hanae)- The psychic pro-gamer. Yes, on Shin’s debut he’s shown to have the power to mind-control his opponents into losing, making him way too OP for his own good. He starts to play fairly later. He’s the strongest member of a pro-gamer team assembled by Kashiwaki.

Death Binen (cv. Kenji Nomura)- The second member of Shin’s team. A brutish man who speaks in grunts and displays animal-like behavior. This is actually all a stage persona. He can talk and behave like a normal person.

Black Rose (cv. Natsuki Aikawa)- The third member of Shin’s team, and the lone female. Nothing is known about her. She never even gets a speaking part until well over episode 200 and is relegated to off-screen matches.

Musashi (cv. Jun Fukushima)- The most brain-dead pro-gamer ever to live. Seriously, I don’t know how he’s a pro-gamer, because he’s a total joke character. Does a lot of funny stuff through his cluelessness.

HIDETO (cv. Tatsuhisa Suzuki)- A rock-star gamer who writes his name in all caps. Completely irrelevant.

Hayato (cv. Takuto Yoshinaga)- He’s one of the first rival pro-gamers Taiga faces after getting his license. Despite being made out to be a main rival, he quickly fades into the background, but sometimes turns up in crowd scenes.

Shinsengumi (cv. Chiharu Sawashiro/Soji + Masafumi Kimura/Isami + Makoto Furukawa/Sanosuke)- Another rival pro-gamer team, where all the members are named after the Shinsengumi members. Although competent and make a good showing for themselves when they appear, they mostly get ignored these days.

Hibiki Kobe (cv. Kokoro Kikuchi)- A newbie player who admires Taiga. Appears in the short-format episodes only. Some of the earlier stories there involve teaching him the game. He partners with a bastet monster who always follows him around out of battle.

Leo Hashiba (cv. Ryohei Kimura)- A major character who doesn’t show up until the short-format episodes. He’s roughly Taiga’s parallel, as a smug-but-generally-friendly pro-gamer and restaurant owner who uses a lion theme rather than tiger.

Black Toragon (cv. Tomokazu Sugita)- Leo’s partner. Exactly what it says on the tin, he’s a Toragon but black. However, he’s much more stoic than the zany Toragon.

Minami Mido (cv. Ami Nakano)- Leo’s assistant, and fellow pro-gamer. She’s kind of like his much-more-serious handler at times. Ends up becoming friendly with Honoka. Sadly, she doesn’t go into space with most of the cast, so hasn’t been relevant for a while.

Ginga (cv. Minami Takayama)- Initially a minor recurring character, but later becomes part of Taiga’s main circle. He’s an alien, but a very human-looking one. Like Ryuji, he has a bit of a complex involving his much-more-competent older brother.

Void (cv. Hiroki Takahashi)- Ginga’s brother. He’s a cold and stoic type, and an extremely powerful player. Serves as the main antagonist during the space arc, but it seems there’s a larger threat at play.

Dusk and Rip (cv. Koji Ishii/Dusk + Fumiko Orikasa/Rip)- Void’s only two named teammates so far. Dusk is the one who trained both Void and Ginga in the past. Rip is Void’s guard and she has a huge thing for him.

And yes, there are lots more characters I didn’t include here.

.....

Where to watch: And here lies the problem. There are torrents up to about ep. 123. Then nothing since, barring maybe one or two episodes someone randomly released. The episodes are streamed on YT every Thursday, but deleted after two weeks. I do have some saved, but probably only dating from less then a year back, so I’m still missing a chunk myself. I might upload those to a Mega when I get the time.

The show airs Sundays at 6PM Japan time. For how much longer I have no clue, but it can easily be live-watched.

There are also no subs except for one episode, which features a cameo of Potato from Pui Pui Molcar.

[karigarihakase]

Just some musings

-This is Soaker’s alt

-I don’t really expect Twitter to die imminently and think people are freaking out for nothing. But in the event it actually does, I may use this account. Actually not a big tumblr fan but I do appreciate no character limit.

-Big fan of kids anime. Forever love Spider Riders (Buguese/Aqune OTP) and prone to ranting about it at random intervals but the fandom is deader than dead. Other favorites include Drive Head, Pikaia, Shinkalion, Pazudora, Girls x Heroines (toku but close enough), Battle Spirits, Gyrozetter, Earth Granner, Precure, Aikatsu, Pretty Series, Sanrio stuff like Fairilu/Jewelpet/Onegai My Melody, Duel Masters, Digimon, Doremi, Time Bokan 24, Inazuma Eleven, OG Bakugan, Yuusha... honestly I could go on and on. If it’s a kids anime I probably watched it, and if not it’s probably on my to-do list. TBH I don’t care for the Pokemon anime in the slightest but I love Pokemon themselves. Have too many favorites spanning all gens to list.

-Became a hardcore Tomica collector as a result of falling in love with Drive Head and discovering Hyper Series through there. Then the main line... then TLV... It’s a very slippery slope. Buses are my favorite to collect.

-I also like collecting gacha and trading figures of anime characters and other cute things. Occasionally Nendos but scales are way out of my price range. They make TLVs look cheap.

-Also longtime Gundam fan (G was pretty much my gateway drug to anime) and love mecha shows in general.

-As my current url implies, I’m a devotee to the Number One Genius Scientist in the World Dr. Karigari and I also adore Sasagawa and ship him with her. I also love to bully them both, and have plushies of them as my trademark.

-I’m very much a live-and-let-live person and I don’t enjoy confrontation. But I guess in a related sense I’m generally pretty shy and quiet. So please don’t take my silence as a sign of dislike. I’m interested in hearing what others have to say.

-Used to do a lot of writing (fanfic and original) and translation projects (JP -> EN). Kinda fell out of all that due to IRL stress, but just might fall back in one day.

[karigarihakase]

Let Me Protect Your Smile- A KariSasa Manifesto

A small disclaimer: This essay is entirely an expression of my personal opinion and interpretation, and is not meant to be a be-all-end-all fact sheet and start drama. Also, it is entirely about two fictitious anime characters, and in no way, shape or form is this in reference to the former TBS announcer Yuri Sasagawa, whom the character was named for (nor the title character from the 1920′s horror silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, whom the other character was named for- with a modified spelling because his namesake was German but he’s part Japanese). Yes, this is sounding like the ultimate crack relationship already, but fortunately none of that is relevant. Just a sort of hilarious side thing to acknowledge.

  Drive Head is an anime I’ve been invested in for quite a while now. It’s an obscure kids anime which premiered April, 2017 and ran for only 37 episodes (though it was followed up with 8 short ONA episodes and an hour-long movie.) While popular in Japan, it never caught on in the west due to numerous factors, the biggest being that it had no legal stream or even fansubs for most of its run. That and the fact that the show suffers from some really poor pacing, with a heavy amount of filler rescue-of-the-week episodes and even two recap episodes before getting into the meat of the plot, which is actually quite intriguing. It’s just unfortunate that they took as long as they did to get there. Actually, a lot of the filler episodes are pretty enjoyable. The show has a very likeable cast of characters. Depending on one’s tolerance for slice-of-life and shows that are more character-driven than plot-driven, the pacing may not even be an issue. It still was for me when watching one episode a week, but felt much more palatable when binge-watching. Well, YMMV.

               The show is centered on an organization called the Mobile Rescue Police, which controls three (eventually four) robotic frames called the Drive Heads. They can switch between vehicle form and robot form, ala Transformers (Takara Tomy is behind the show, after all), though the robots aren’t sentient in this case. Each is driven by an elementary school student who was chosen due to their pure heart. The Drive Heads are launched during various disasters, in order to rescue people. And, Bayfront City seems to be hit with some pretty nasty disasters, though as it turns out, a lot of them weren’t just freak occurrences.

               That being said, this essay isn’t about the members of the Mobile Rescue Police. It’s about their biggest enemy and their biggest fan.

The Number One Genius Scientist in the World Dr. Karigari

Karigari (real name- Fritz von Gustav Karigari- who is prone to referring to himself in lengthy titles to brag about his great intelligence) is a character who is quite popular with the fanbase for good reason. Initially appearing in the 11th episode, he finally serves as a real villain, and is a very competent and dangerous one on top of that. Despite all the boasting he does, when it comes down to it, he really is as intelligent as he believes he is. And he hates the Mobile Rescue Police (particularly holding a grudge against the Chief Engineer Jou Kurumada), because in the past, he used to be involved with them. He was also developing a robot for disaster relief. But Karigari’s system, which was powerful and cutting-edge, was also deemed too dangerous. Therefore, the Drive Heads were chosen instead. Taking this as a blow to his pride, Karigari severed ties with them, and swore to make them pay.

Despite being a villain, despite being petty, despite being a complete egomaniac, there’s a lot more to Karigari. Right from his introductory episode, there are hints that despite his hatred for Kurumada, he holds this grudging respect for him. (Telling his subordinates “Don't underestimate Saionji and Kurumada.) Karigari’s various attacks on the Mobile Rescue Police (which he actually refers to as  “games”) often feel like tests, so he can see their newest equipment and force them to keep improving. Karigari also makes it clear he isn’t actually interested in hurting or killing anyone either. Yes, he traps Chief Gozu up on the Akashic Tower, which he claims is covered with explosives. But the explosives were all fake. It was just a bluff to incite the Mobile Rescue Police into action and ultimately make them aware of their shortcomings. That’s basically how he operates. He’ll do what it takes to win, but he’s noble in his own sense. The contrast becomes more obvious when the true enemy of the series emerges.

Yuri Sasagawa, on the scene

Whenever an incident strikes, Akasaka TV will be there to cover it. Announcer Sasagawa appears in each episode, together with an unnamed cameraman, to bring all the details to the people of Bayfront City. Sasagawa is almost always cheerful and excited. While she tries her best to keep up a professional appearance, it’s clear as day that she’s passionate about Drive Head (particularly the blue frames, Sonic and Cyclone Interceptor) and just wants to gush about them. It’s to the point that most fans interpret her as lusting over the robots themselves. Well, with some of her comments, it’s not hard to see things that way. (The relationship chart on the official website, which shows her with a heart pointing to Interceptor, does not help matters either). The point is that she adores Drive Head more than anyone, even though she’s rather disappointed that she doesn’t know who the drivers are.

While Sasagawa could easily have been used as a one-note gimmick (lots of shows do have a token ‘announcer’ character who appears every episode for the purpose of announcing, and nothing more), she’s actually incorporated into the plot quite nicely. She’s given a few episodes in the spotlight. For instance, one where she becomes the one in need of rescue by the Drive Heads, while test-riding a new Ferris Wheel that gets knocked off its rails. One where she’s on vacation from work. While she isn’t a hero per-se, and tends to get into trouble, she’s brave and reckless and helps whenever she can. She evolved into a character in her own right, and a very fun one at that.

Karigari and Sasagawa

I probably could say this about a lot of my ships, but initially, I wouldn’t have imagined these two interacting, much less getting ship tease with each other. When it actually happened, it was like being slammed with a hammer, realizing how amazingly compatible they actually are. Well, I’ll get to that later. First, the canon evidence, and my analysis of these moments.

In episode 11, the very first scene which Karigari appears in is pretty interesting. Because while I have my doubts it was meant as an intentional KariSasa scene, it does involve Sasagawa. The problem is that it’s unclear if Karigari knew at this point who Sasagawa was in the first place, given that for some unidentified period of time, he wasn’t even living in Japan (allegedly.) But anyway, the scene involves Karigari appearing near the Akashic Tower. Which becomes a centerpiece of his plan later in that episode. So obviously, the basic interpretation is that he was going there to scope it out. But it’s worth noting that Sasagawa was there being filmed. If anything, I feel like it could have been intentional foreshadowing. The episode was written by the main writer, Kenichi Araki, who has worked on all the episodes containing explicitly KariSasa moments.

The first real hint is in episode 18. Yusuke and Akira, Karigari’s two subordinates, become concerned that the Mobile Rescue Police will find their location. When they try to confront Karigari about it, he’s paying no attention to them, as he’s been watching the news coverage of the strange weather affecting Bayfront City. Which was his doing, so there was really no need for him to watch it. Except, he pauses on an image of Sasagawa, commenting that she’s beautiful. So his objective was just to watch the girl he has a crush on. I mean, obviously alarm bells should be ringing off at this. He’s a bad guy, crushing on this sweet girl who may not be one of the heroes, but is certainly their biggest supporter. There’s no way that could possibly end well. Except, the writers take it in a much less cliché and more appealing direction.

Episode 19 follows up with this new plot thread right away. Karigari is again watching Sasagawa on TV, but this time she’s reading fortunes. Such as, “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're a Sagittarius. It's looking especially good for your love life. Now's your chance to finally confess to that person on your mind!” Hearing this, Karigari is very excited. Even though, as his subordinates point out, his sign is Ophiuchus. But because the TV stations don’t give fortunes for the less-acknowledged 13th zodiac sign, Karigari chooses to go with whichever fortune is the luckiest. For the day, he’ll become a Sagittarius.

Karigari won’t put this very lucky fortune to waste, so he heads to the Akasaka TV building. There, he’ll unleash his newest revenge plan, and confess to Sasagawa while he’s at it. Or at least, that’s what he hopes to accomplish. His plan begins with using the parabolic antenna on the building to cause blackouts in certain areas of the city. Sasagawa is busy reporting on an unmanned replenishment craft, which is returning from a space station to earth, when she’s informed about this more pressing news story.

Of course, Sasagawa and her cameraman rush to deal with this crisis. Sasagawa is told by one of her higher-ups, “This is the situation. Karigari has chosen you to have exclusive coverage of the story.” The man warns, “He's a very dangerous character.” Despite this, Sasagawa doesn’t look worried at all. She replies, “Let me handle it. I have no reason to refuse exclusive coverage on the man who opposes the Mobile Rescue Police!” So she heads into the trailer that Karigari had managed to drag into the building. Of course, she’s interested in taking this one because of her personal investment in the Mobile Rescue Police. I like how, despite warnings, she doesn’t seem to be afraid at all. Not that it’s out of character for her either, but considering the apparent threats Karigari has made in the past, and is making currently, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to refuse entering a small enclosed  place with him and leaving it for the authorities to deal with. But she decides then to confront him anyway.

So, once inside, Karigari greets her while posing dramatically (he has a flair for theatrics, after all.) “Welcome Miss”.

Except, he freezes up immediately after. Actually being face-to-face with the object of his affection, he’s so nervous he’s not sure what to do. Which is actually pretty amazing, given how confident he always is. Sasagawa’s first impression of him is bafflement. At first, she can’t really believe that this person is the infamous Dr. Karigari. But, Karigari confirms that he is, indeed, Karigari. And he starts explaining to Sasagawa all the details of his current plan, while the cameraman is filming, so it’s broadcasted live on TV. Remaining as calm as she can, Sasagawa listens to all of this and tries to understand it.

Soon, the Mobile Rescue Police contact Karigari, and he threatens that if Kurumada and Saionji don’t come to the TV station and surrender, he’ll cast a blackout on the entire city. After this, Yusuke cuts off the transmission. Karigari is glad, because now he and Sasagawa can get back to where they left off. Sasagawa, however, has no desire to continue the interview. She’s done sitting quietly and listening. Instead, she rips Karigari apart.

“Please stop! If you take down the entire capital's electricity, it won't just paralyze the city's functions. There will be countless casualties! Hospital patients depend on the power! Stop involving people who have done no wrong in satisfying your selfish vendetta!”

Karigari doesn’t seem to be angry over her criticism, though. He replies, “But I have to win this game. I absolutely refuse to lose!” Sasagawa is further upset, but Karigari continues, “I'm not seriously going to leave casualties. You needn't worry. I never planned for a capital-wide blackout to begin with.” All it is was a bluff, he makes clear to her. “I just want to beat Saionji and Kurumada. Once they admit defeat, I'll be satisfied. And after that...”

“After that?” Sasagawa replies, confused.

“The police will arrest me. I'll go to hell. Well, whatever the consequences may be.”

Hearing this, Sasagawa is completely dumbfounded. It was quite the opposite of what she was expecting. Not only was she wrong about Karigari’s intentions being something horrible, Karigari also admitted to her that yes, he acknowledges that he’s not a good person and realizes the hole he’s been digging for himself all along. He’s just that desperate to win and repair his wounded ego. So just like her first impression when she stepped into the trailer, Sasagawa again has to change her perspective on this dreaded enemy of her Drive Heads.

Already becoming more curious about Karigari’s true intentions, she asks him, “Why did you choose me?” Karigari replies, “Because of what you said this morning. It's my chance to confess.” But Sasagawa never gets to find out exactly what he meant by that. Nor should she really have reason to believe that he would confess to her, as he’d only just met her. 

At this point, a mysterious eye symbol appears on Karigari’s computer, and the antenna starts to move on its own as a result. That space craft from earlier was its target. The ship loses power, and starts to plunge down towards the city. Naturally, neither Karigari nor Sasagawa have any idea how this happened, and are both panicking. And this brings us to the third unexpected side of Karigari Sasagawa got to see. His vulnerability, and legitimate worry for the lives of the people in the city.

Fortunately, the Drive Heads are able to prevent a disaster from happening. But as a result of what occurred, Karigari tells Sasagawa, “Your fortune was wrong, Miss. Or rather, it might be that Sagittarius isn't my sign.” Thus, he never does confess, and he has Sasagawa and the cameraman leave the trailer. Because the police are surrounding the trailer outside, ready to capture Karigari, he and his subordinates escape through the roof in his flying car. Sasagawa watches from outside, looking worried for him.

Okay, so I wrote an essay on this episode. But it was what made me ship them. It was the important foundation for everything that comes after. It brought Sasagawa from the point of, ‘I hate this bad person who dares oppose my Drive Heads and hurt people’ to ‘he’s this weird, awkward guy so obsessed with winning that he’ll go to hell for it, and he actually doesn’t want to hurt people? And something about a confession…?’ It’s an impressive turnaround, solidified with that longing look towards Karigari at the end. At the very least, she pities him after this, but she also seems legitimately curious about him, given that she asked him why he chose her, something that wasn’t relevant to the rest.

I should mention, from Karigari’s side, the relationship seems a lot more shallow. Sasagawa is interested in him because of her interactions with him, but Karigari is interested in her because she’s beautiful? Well, you can see as things go on that it’s more than that. From things that Karigari has said and done, I feel that he’s more attracted to her vibrancy. The way she’s always smiling and upbeat. With his bitterness over the past and negativity, of course he’s drawn to her positivity. She’s the light he needs in his life, a new focal point besides revenge.

But, moving on to episode 24, which is my personal favorite. Karigari and his subordinates stay at a hotel in the mountains, and he uses this opportunity to research the eye symbol which has been responsible for a large number of disasters. Karigari promptly stops his research when he realizes it’s time for Sasagawa’s morning fortune corner, and switches over to a live stream. The problem being, Sasagawa isn’t on. She’s off on a summer vacation, and a different announcer is filling in for her. Karigari is in shock. He turns it off, depressed. “My luck is terrible today. Because every morning, I look forward to seeing her smile.” Karigari plans to head back to his room, but his subordinates notice something.

“Over there... isn't that the fortune person?”

Lo and behold, Sasagawa was vacationing in the same hotel. Karigari is overjoyed, in a dramatic enough fashion that he manages to generate shoujo sparkles around him. Thing is, Karigari is also a nervous wreck. This man with an ego from hell is still too shy to actually go up and talk to her. Which leaves him to hide his face under a newspaper and watch her from a distance, looking like a complete stalker. And cringe whenever someone else approaches her, which happens quite a lot when she’s a popular celebrity.

“If you're that concerned, why not just call out to her?” “Want me to call her?” His subordinates, foolish as they are, get that he’s totally crazy about her and want to help. “Stop that! Don't do anything that's unnecessary!” is Karigari’s reply. “But this is a rare coincidence,” they argue. “She's spending her summer vacation in the same hotel we're in.” Karigari still isn’t convinced, and says, “As if she'd believe it's a coincidence. She might mistake me for a pervert who's following her around.” Which is ironic, because in trying to avoid that, he was basically stalking her.

Anyway, Karigari finally decides he has to do something when she gets up to leave. Otherwise, he’ll never get the chance. But then, per the disaster-of-the-week nature of the show, a meteor suddenly crashes right near the hotel. Despite being off from work, Sasagawa decides to go out and investigate anyway. Karigari, needless to say, is disappointed by this turn of events.

So Sasagawa is off in the mountains alone, calls up the TV station, and starts covering the story. Watching her from the hotel’s TV, Karigari is panicking over how reckless she’s being. And he was right to panic, because Sasagawa gets too close to the edge of a cliff and falls off to her imminent doom. Or not, because Karigari went out after her, and catches her with his flying car. When Sasagawa opens her eyes, she’s certainly surprised to see him there (though Karigari is kinda hiding himself in the back seat, so nervous he can’t even watch. His subordinates were the ones driving. Still, it’s Karigari she notices right away.)

After landing the car on the ground, the two are left to talk for a little. Sasagawa asks, “Why did you come to save me?” Still a blushing adorable wreck, though he’s trying to stay composed, Karigari answers, “Really? My reason is simple. I enjoy watching your fortune corner every morning.” Because apparently, he still can’t pull off answering honestly and saying that he loves her. “That will be all, Miss,” he says, as he heads back to his car. Though she’s puzzled by his answer, Sasagawa hopes he’ll stay around. “Please wait, Dr. Karigari!” He holds out his finger and corrects her, “That's the Genius Scientist of Dreams and Romance, Dr. Karigari.” Sasagawa watches him go, looking confused.

It’s really pretty adorable I think, the awkwardness between them. With Karigari’s inability to confess, and Sasagawa just having no clue what’s going on, but still remaining oddly fascinated by him. The dynamic between them is something really sweet already.

Episode 31 involves Karigari working intensely to complete a virus, having finally learned the identity of the eye symbol (the AI of a long-forgotten super computer he dubbed “the Evil AI”) and hoping to destroy it. In the process of doing this, he looks to be quite paranoid, checking around to make sure it’s not already on to him. Unfortunately, it was, and the Evil AI is very, very smart. Karigari’s system was infected by it. It brings on screen an image of Sasagawa and starts to taunt him with her voice. “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're an Ophiuchus! I predict something fantastic will happen today. Both you and the results of your research will be erased from this world before long, Dr. Karigari.” Then it proceeds to delete his virus, blow up his hideout, and attempt to kill him using his own Walker Vehicle. Karigari is rescued by Kuroeda, one of the Drive Head’s drivers, but is badly injured and taken in by the Mobile Rescue Police to receive medical attention.

Enter Sasagawa, who is blissfully unaware of all of this, but has been busy covering stories on this popular new Ark symbol, which happens to look identical to the mark of the Evil AI. After that, she reports on a new city complex being constructed, with the ominous name of “the Tower of Babel”, when she’s nearly hit by a car. It turns out to be Karigari’s car, driven by his subordinates, Akira and Yusuke. Though the camera crew working with Sasagawa is quite concerned by this, Sasagawa looks absolutely delighted to see them. She exclaims, “They’re the criminals who saved me!” and runs up to them, asking about Karigari right away. There’s really no other way to interpret this besides, ‘Sasagawa has become really fond of Karigari.’ And it’s really, really cute.

Of course, Akira and Yusuke decide it’s best not to tell her what happened with Karigari. After all, Karigari wouldn’t want her to worry. Instead, they hand her an envelope, containing a flash drive of some sort, telling her that it’s vital for saving the world. They say that Karigari wanted her to have it. The reason being, “It's because you're the person he trusts the most.” The two fly off and leave her with it. And as it turns out, when she brings it to Kurumada since the contents are impossible to access without some advanced technology, the chip contains a virus of some sort. (Ultimately, it’s a copy of the virus Karigari was creating to take down the Evil AI, though Sasagawa herself doesn’t get to learn of its true purpose.) Nonetheless, she entrusts it to Kurumada. Sasagawa doesn’t seem to have any doubt in Karigari’s intentions either, despite the fact that he created a virus and handed it over to his enemies. So she trusts him, he trusts her, and the virus helps save the world from a major crisis thanks to that. Neither of them know the other particularly well (it’s possible they’ve met offscreen sometime, but who knows?) so it’s rather telling, I think, that they can place trust in each other for something so vital.

Sticking with the trust thing, episode 36. Sasagawa has been looking into the strange phenomenon where people are turning into metal. She’s also noticed that the Ark symbol has something to do with the disasters that have been happening lately. Her co-worker and friend Unai notices the images she’s looking at, and comments, “Don't you think there's a chance it could be the work of Dr. Karigari?” Without hesitation, Sasagawa replies, “No. I don’t think so.” However, that gives her an idea. She’s sure that Karigari knows something, given his virus. Therefore, she decides to visit Karigari to find out what. I love how she’s quick to defend him, and sees him as someone whom she can approach to find out more.

The next day, Karigari is watching Akasaka TV while binging on ice cream, and is quite disappointed. “I was hoping to see Miss on the news,” he says, but Unai is on instead. Yusuke and Akira, meanwhile, are pissed that Karigari ate their supply of ice cream, and insist that he buy them some more. Karigari says that he can’t. He doesn’t want their last remaining hideout (which is located underground beneath his former destroyed hideout) to be found, and they have to prioritize work on the Drive Head he’s remodeling. Well, Karigari quickly learns why Sasagawa wasn’t on the news. His security cameras show that she’s right on top of his hideout. Which she somehow ended up at, despite having no clue how close she was to the real deal. “I guess he wouldn't be here,” she thinks to herself, just seeing nothing but rubble. “But somehow, it was my first instinct.” Naturally, Karigari is freaking out over this. But he decides to be practical. Like he said, he can’t leave the hideout for any reason. He’s made up his mind. For a moment, anyway. “You came here to see me after all. Miss… Of course I have to go!” Suddenly becoming sparkly-eyed, Karigari plans to rush out and meet her. But Akira and Yusuke forcibly stop him. He’d convinced them it was a bad idea to expose the hideout, after all. Sasagawa has to leave anyway, as she’s called back to work. But she looks back one last time, suspiciously. 

And Karigari, meanwhile, is left crying. Yes, he’s actually crying, and it’s as pathetic as it sounds, but sort of endearing at the same time.

Now, this scene is obviously just for comic relief, but on the other hand, the ship tease is just blatant. Between Sasagawa’s amazing sixth sense putting her in just the right spot (though she’ll never know for sure) and Karigari’s over-the-top reactions, seriously. While it probably was for the best that they didn’t  meet (that Drive Head Karigari was working on becomes quite important in the next episode, so he needed to finish it), I can’t help but wish they did. They both just end up disappointed that they couldn’t see each other.

(Look, this is basically princess carry)

37 is the last episode in the TV series, and arguably the biggest KariSasa episode. When the episode begins, the Drive Heads are rushing to get to Ark’s location, but are attacked by an army of fake Drive Heads that the Evil AI produced. Sasagawa is covering the battle from up in the news helicopter, which gets hit in the crossfire and starts to crash down. But Sasagawa is rescued by a colorful Drive Head. “Don’t make me so nervous, Miss.” Karigari was of course the driver, and he puts the helicopter down onto a roof. “You’re…” Sasagawa realizes right away that he was inside, and smiles. Whether she heard the following conversation between Karigari and his subordinates, implying that they were all ready to die in this battle, or she simply just had a bad feeling about this, Sasagawa looks terribly worried when she gets out of the helicopter, and calls out Karigari’s name. But since she’s stranded up on the rooftop, all she can do is watch him fight.

When it seems like the situation has finally been resolved, things take a turn for the worse again, and the entire world is in danger of imminent destruction thanks to the Evil AI. However, Karigari has a plan to stop it. That is, to fly into the Tower of Babel and contain the Evil AI somehow. He turns his cameras to where Sasagawa is standing and says, “Farewell, Miss,” before taking off.

Sasagawa can immediately tell that he’s going to do something dangerous, and tries to run closer. She watches as a huge explosion erupts in the Tower, crying out, “Dr. Karigari!”

After the incident, Sasagawa is clearly not in a good state. She’s seen wearing her casual clothes, meaning she took some time off from work, the same job she loves enough to do while she’s on vacation, and she comes to the remains of the Tower of Babel, where she leaves flowers. Given that her glasses are fogged over, she must have been crying.

Some time later, Sasagawa returns to work, getting back to normal life. Right before she goes on air, she receives a strange email. It isn’t signed, but it reads, “Miss, what’s today’s fortune?” Immediately, Sasagawa’s eyes light up, knowing that Karigari sent it, and he’s alive somewhere. As this and other epilogue scenes play, the ED theme is running in the background. The song’s lyrics could not be more appropriate. “No matter when, I’m going to protect your smile.” This is just the essence of KariSasa. Karigari did what he had to do to save the world. He and his subordinates survived, but not without severe, crippling injury. But he knew Sasagawa was worried, and wanted to make sure she knew that he was alive. He wasn’t able to see her yet, but as long as she could be happy again, that’s what was important to him. And that’s what motivates him too. Her vibrancy and happiness. And thanks to that, a villain comes to save the world.

Karigari himself does not appear in the 2018 web series, though to be fair, the series itself had very little substance to it, being half recap episodes, and it was mostly to introduce a couple new Drive Head frames and support vehicles which would appear in the movie.

In the movie itself, well, Karigari and Sasagawa do not interact on screen (the pains of getting a 57-minute movie) but I’m bringing it up because it’s not without some meaningful shiptease. Basically, the Evil AI comes back, the Drive Gears get corrupted, and because of that, the four drivers are unable to launch in their Drive Heads until they’re fixed. Instead, they’re controlled by substitute drivers from the Mobile Assault Police. Although Sasagawa knows nothing of this, she comments to Unai that Cyclone Interceptor has somehow lost its appeal to her. Still, she continues reporting on the Drive Head’s actions per her job, and is absolutely devastated seeing the Drive Heads get trashed in a fight. Karigari is watching this on the news and comments, “Such depressing news doesn't suit you, Miss. Well then… I guess it's time I make a move.” So in order to make Sasagawa happy, Karigari goes and hijacks Cyclone Interceptor’s frame and remodels it a bit. He gives it a new form called the “Force Field Mode”, and returns it to its proper driver. When Sasagawa watches it activate this mode for the first time and save the world, she’s in awe. She’s clearly fallen in love with Cyclone Interceptor all over again. It’s painful in a sense that she has no idea that it was Karigari’s doing. But at the same time, the irony is just plain beautiful. Karigari gets no credit, despite being an egomaniac who loves recognition, but he’ll always protect her smile. And Karigari, being a massive tsundere, calls up Kurumada after this to insist that he not get the wrong idea because everything he did was all for his revenge… well, a “revenge” that he hasn’t seemed to bother with for months, since he fell in love with Sasagawa. And his actual motive, which was wanting to help save the world, in order to make her happy, is known to the viewers.

Why KariSasa

Even considering all the ship tease, the pairing is not canon. We don’t even know if the two have ever interacted post TV series, though it’s certainly not out of the question, given that an unspecified amount of months past and Sasagawa herself didn’t have much of a role during the web-series either. But regardless, I love this pairing and still root for it.

The two are just so much alike, for one. On the surface, they really don’t seem to be. One loves the Drive Heads obsessively while the other swore revenge on them, obsessively. Notice the ‘obsessively’ part, and there’s your first parallel. They’re both linked by a strong obsession with the same thing. Also, the both of them are absolute nerds. Karigari being a scientist, and a dork who will create deadly weapons based on history, like his “Archimedes Beam”. And Sasagawa does try her best to act professional when on air, but it’s obvious that she loves cool robots, heroes and justice and just wants to squee over them. I feel like, since Karigari is a scientist of course who loves to go on about his achievements and Sasagawa is into that stuff, they would be such great outlets for each other. And Karigari does even get his own Drive Head in the end, which Sasagawa would probably love getting to ride inside. (She often talks about wanting to ride in a Drive Head or Viper with a boyfriend on the Drive Head Line bits, which aren’t canon but they still exist.)  They seem to think alike as well. I mean, they both vacationed at the same hotel at the same time. And there’s the fact that Sasagawa was able to guess the location of Karigari’s hideout that one time.

As well as being outlets for each other, I think they both help each other a lot. Well, I explained a bit before how Sasagawa’s vibrancy helps Karigari. He also wants to impress her, and he starts to do more heroic things. Karigari had a background in disaster control, but turned down a dark path. She helps bring him back to the side of the light, and make him a better person. Of course, Karigari helps Sasagawa in a straightforward sense by saving her life twice. And surely, he would always come to protect her if she were in danger. But aside from that, I feel like he broadens her narrow-mindedness. Sasagawa went from seeing him as obviously a villain to someone she started to care about, as she learned more about him. She sees things in black-and-white, but the world isn’t a black-and-white place. As well, she can come off as rather shallow, gushing about how the Drive Heads must be driven by handsome young men (which is false), being disturbed by the thought of the driver being someone who looks like Izawa (an older fat man) and pining over guys she thinks are traditionally attractive. Karigari is older than her (going by appearance, though neither has a canon age) and would be really hard to call “attractive”. Yet, later on she’ll squee over the thought of seeing him, and he’s someone who has such an effect on her that she’ll take off from the job she clearly loves because she’s so distraught over his apparent death. This is what I mean about the both of them having a truly strong impact on each other, despite only meeting a few times.

I also think that they both have this sense of admiration for each other. As I mentioned before, Sasagawa loves cool heroes. While to an extent, she wants to be like the protagonist of a romance novel, being the heroine who is protected by the hero, and loves that kind of moment, I also think there’s indication that she too wants to be the hero sometimes, and do something important. Like her going to confront Karigari without fear, and when she wanted to investigate the truth behind Ark personally. She loves the heroic side of Karigari the most (as long as he’s not putting his life in danger). As for Karigari, he probably sees in her more of the person he was in the past. Someone who believes in justice and protecting the people in the world. I think that he would want her to not become jaded like him.

In Japan, TV announcers have this sort of idol status. It’s actually a plotline I’ve seen in Japanese media, both before and after Drive Head, to have a character crushing on a TV announcer. Even the older Tomica Tokusatsu series, Tomica Hero Rescue Force had an episode like this (albeit with a weather-caster, but not a big difference). It’s usually played as a joke, a delusion on the fan’s part. Having a celebrity crush on someone you’ll never meet and is never going to reciprocate even if you do meet. But yet, Drive Head decided to play it a little differently. They did meet, and Sasagawa actually reciprocated. I love that they took a cliche and played with it differently this time around. And I mean, KariSasa is also basically “the villain gets the girl” which obviously isn’t used much, but in this case the “hero” was a 10-year-old who was never interested anyway. KariSasa is fun because it subverts expectations.

In a more silly but totally valid point, what I mentioned way above about Sasagawa being robo-sexual. After the series, due to his injuries, Karigari makes himself into a cyborg in order to survive. That’s the closest to a robot a human can be. If Sasagawa is robo-sexual, then he’s absolutely her “type” in a post-canon setting.

Even if they don’t end up together romantically (if the series ever continues, that is), I still just love the odd friendship between them, and the great effect they have on each other. So, that’s why I ship KariSasa. And of course, I would love a romantic resolution.

Fandom

What fandom? Really, Drive Head has a non-existent fandom in the English speaking world. About the only discussion you can find about it from when it was airing was on old 4chan threads. Therefore, there aren’t any fics either, except for the ones I’ve written. 

I have a ton of KariSasa fics, many of which will never see the light of the internet for various reasons, but several of which had. Most of what I write is light-hearted, silly fluff, because that’s my cup-of-tea and works so well with these two, but I’ve written a few which were more serious.

You can see the fandom tag here: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/%E3%83%88%E3%83%9F%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%20%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96%E3%83%98%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%20%E6%A9%9F%E5%8B%95%E6%95%91%E6%80%A5%E8%AD%A6%E5%AF%9F%20%7C%20Tomica%20Hyper%20Rescue%20Drive%20Head%20Kidou%20Kyuukyuu%20Keisatsu%20(Anime)/works

There are, of course, Japanese fics on Pixiv, as the canon was more well-received there, but not one is KariSasa. Given that the most popular ship seems to be Kuroeda/Saionji, who are considered the two most handsome characters, even though they barely interact, I can imagine why a het ship with a male who isn’t traditionally attractive doesn’t get much fanwork. Especially factoring in that KariSasa seems to be generally well-liked and accepted by most fans and even some of the cast, going by how much I’ve dug through Japanese twitter posts. Which is sad, but inevitable. 

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Have a bonus shot of the lovely couple bonding over a stockpile of Coke.

[karigarihakase]

[karigarihakase]

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