It's a bird... It's a plane... It's Bamba strutting in for this year's GR⚡️D GALA!
(crossposted on Twitter here)
As per usual, closeups and my giant essay of a design process writeup can be found under the cut:
Behind the Design
This year's theme of 'Celebrating Heritage' was super interesting to explore, in part because Bamba's (and the Ryusoulgers as a whole) whole thing is that he's centuries old and from a really isolated tribe that now has to interact with the modern, outside world. So going into it, I knew I wanted to take aspects of traditional Japanese fashion and modernize it for his gala look.
In terms of fashion designers and brands, I had three big inspirations:
The goat Yohji Yamamoto (No specific collection. Just all of it.)
Sacai, specifically the Women's Spring 2026 Collection
Hare, specifically the 2023 S/S Collection
All three are Japanese fashion brands that do a lot of interesting stuff with layering and texture and shape!
As the Black Ranger of the crew, Bamba... wears a lot of black. There's a pretty famous quote from Yohji Yamamoto on the color black that I think fits Bamba well, and I wanted to craft a look that, while had silver and gold elements to call to his RyusoulBlack look, was predominantly black in color with heavy focus on layering. I also wanted it to be practical to move in, if only because I think it's something he would ask for if he was a real client.
“Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy and mysterious. It can swallow light or it can make things sharp. But above all, black says don’t bother me.” - Yohji Yamamoto
Now that we have that established, let's move on to closeups!
A Closer Look
So many layers, so little time... where to start?
The look is pretty simple on the top half: It's a mesh tank top paired with a silver sleeveless Kimono top, with a bonus armband on his right arm! I did experiment with giving him sleeves, but I preferred the silhouette without.
Allllll of the layers are in the waist/midsection area. We have:
A modern twist on the traditional Obi, it's now been replaced with a corset belt
A long Haori coat with an inner silver lining. Normally this would be worn over the Obi, but I liked the idea of having it underneath and spilling over instead to create more texture
A bracer meant to be an asymmetrical match to the aforementioned armband. And it calls back to the bracers Bamba wears in his standard outfit!
Beaded waist chains. These are there both because I think they're cool and because the Inro and Netsuke need something else to attach to now that the Obi is a giant corset belt
A black and gold Inro pouch with Bamba's necklace design (created through the maki-e lacquer technique), attached to a silver Kishiryu MilNeedle Netsuke
And last but not least, the bottoms!
Gradient Hakama pants with silver lining at the ends (fun fact: Yohji Yamamoto is one of the first few designers to introduce Hakama to the larger fashion world!)
The cane that he's holding is in fact a Shikomizue: a concealed sword disguised as a cane. It usually looks way more subtle, but I've glitzed it up for the gala with more lacquer and gold
I had a very particular vision for his shoes. He's wearing the Maison Margiela Tabi Knee-High Boots in black (Can you tell I spent a very long time drawing and rendering these shoes?)
That's all folks!
If you've made it all the way here, congratulations! As thanks, I leave you my second favorite Bamba thing I've ever made:
Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger but every time Bamba is on screen sexyback plays and every time Canalo is on screen el muchacho de los ojos tristes plays
FINE DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND HERE IS THE BAMBA SEXYBACK EDIT BUT EL MUCHACHO DE LOS OJOS TRISTES ALSO PLAYS EVERY TIME CANALO IS ON SCREEN
(cl
Apostle of Destruction Jeanne is causing quite a stir at this year's GR⚡️D GALA!
Don't call her Mahoro unless you want her to come after you with her sword.
(crossposted on twitter here)
Keep on reading to see my design inspirations for this year's gala and closeup shots of the details (Abaranger spoilers ahead!):
The main inspiration for this year's fit come from two designers/collections:
Hassidriss's Burning Shadows A/W 2019 Collection for the dress
Miss Sohee's S/S 2025 Collection for the puffy sleeves and long train!
I went through a few different design concepts when brainstorming for Mahoro's outfit. Initially I wanted to do something on the bridal end, but eventually I ended up with something more demonic. Given what happens with Mahoro in Abaranger, I thought the fallen angel/hellfire vibe was appropriate.
Fire is obviously a huuuge part of this design. I wanted to really emphasize the destructive, all-consuming nature of it-- This fire doesn't just burn bright and hot, it reduces everything around it to soot and ash. That image of Mahoro in the Abaranger opening surrounded by flames lived rent free in my head:
Anyway, on to the details!
Starting with the bottom half of the design: Fire, fire, fire! I used red, orange, and yellow beads for the flames on the dress. The train has a darker red to black ombre to show the soot that comes with burning, with a red bead lining at the bottom and red and black beads scattered to look like floating ash particles.
There's a lot going on with the top half here:
I wanted to pay homage to Jeanne's original design, so I took inspiration from her corset-laced cutout pants and put them here as waist cut-outs. I also made the neck wrap in an X/cross shape since that's very prominent in her original outfit
Speaking of the neck/arm wrap thing, that was originally meant to be green as a reference to Dezumozorlya (and his awful vines, eurgh), but the colors clashed too much. Still, I wanted a reference to his vines, and to suggest that Jeanne was being bound and constrained by an outside source.
Coincidentally, changing the neck/arm wrap to black and gold means that it's also colored in Asuka's color scheme :)
Dezumozorlya's brainwashing mark thing was made into a gold beaded accent
Pointy sharp earring because she's a pointy sharp character. The design is supposed to resemble black sludge oozing over a yellow crystal, because corruption/fallen angel vibes
Lastly, I gave her these green beading details at the wrist ends of both sleeves, mostly because I love AsuMaho and wanted to incorporate the promise bracelet somehow :)
Anyway, that's it! idk how to end this so uhhhh. If you made it all the way to the end, I hope you liked my little write up. I'm very normal about Mahoro and Asuka. If you haven't watched Abaranger, do so at your own risk <3
Guess who's crashing the first every GR⚡️D GALA? It's Kamen Rider Aguilera of course!
Keep on reading for Hana's outfit sketches, as well as very rough sketches for Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's outfits and a VERY LONG RAMBLE ON MY DESIGN IDEAS.
(also crossposted on twitter here)
onto the sketches! here's the original sketch of the final design, as well as a variant where the cape was much thinner and she had much longer end sleeves on her dress shirt.
i ended up scraping the long sleeves in favor of giving her the world's largest cape. the centerpiece for the cape was also meant to be a golden rose, but i wanted to pay homage to her relationship with Sakura (and also i didn't want to overwhelm with the gold) so it became a Sakura flower instead!
unfortunately, i didn't have time to fully sketch or render out Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's outfits. so instead, here are some very rough preliminary sketches!
this wasn't something i planned initially, but all three ex-deadmans ended up having some sort of corset piece (Hana with the classic corset, Orteca with a tentacle corset, and Tamaki has a metallic ribcage piece under the vest he's wearing), so i guess that's the tying accessory for all three?
they all also ended up wearing heels or platforms of some kind, but that's less thematic and more of just me thinking everyone should wear heels.
some quick notes on Orteca and Julio/Tamaki's designs:
Since Hana had the bee motif, I wanted to stick to the squid and wolf motifs for Orteca and Tamaki respectively.
For Orteca, this is mainly shown through the tentacle corset, plus the incorporation of pearls since they're associated with the ocean. i wanted his design to be equally as dramatic as the rest without doing big cape or big hat again, so backless shirt and hanging pearls it was!
For Tamaki, the highlight piece is the gigantic fringe hat because i love a good hat moment. Also I love his original deadmans outfit (sans the haircut) so much I wanted to replicate it with the hat and the ribcage corset piece.
I don't know if ripped jeans and giant punk platform shoes are appropriate for a gala but they definitely help with Tamaki's wolf motif! It's hard to see, but he also has a stag beetle belt buckle and two metal horn-like things protruding from the finger stripe gloves to pay homage to him as Over Demons.
i've never considered myself much of a fashion designer, so getting the opportunity to design some high fashion looks for my favs was super fun!
defo a big thank u to @itmethanh for putting this art event together, i'll definitely be back next year :)
