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DinoHunter2 — Before Bagan, There Was...
Published: 2017-03-09 07:10:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 9509; Favourites: 173; Downloads: 53
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Bakan!Okay, technically they're different drafts of the same monster: think of Bakan as the prototype to Bagan, especially the "totem pole" combiner version that showed up first. The three-formed concept was there from the beginning, but at this point in the character's development there wasn't any combining yet; Bakan was a singular kaiju who could shapeshift into three different forms to adapt to its environment.
This is all based on Tomoyuki Tanaka's proposal for the unmade film Resurrection of Godzilla. He describes the three forms as a pterosaur-like flying organism (Dragon God), a disgusting, squirming sea dragon with fins, slimy green skin and a wide-opening mouth (Water God), and a bipedal dinosaur like an anthropoid Tyrannosaurus (Monkey God). Tanaka makes them all out to be pretty different, and in the story they're meant to be mistaken for three separate monsters, but I wanted to stray away from traditional shapeshifting since this incarnation is a (seemingly natural) prehistoric creature and not mystical or alien-enhanced.
The solution I came up with was to make it a creature that can alter the texture and color of its skin the same way some amphibians and mollusks do. It can absorb massive amounts of water through its skin (inspired by a line about it sucking missiles into its body) to alter its weight and shape, and a combination of specialized finger joints and retractible skin membranes allow it to morph its front limbs into hands, wings, flippers, or whatever else it might need.
Each form is said to have its own distinct breath weapon: a flesh-melting "liquid beam" (pressurized stream of acid?) for the Water God, lightning for the Dragon God, and fire for the Monkey God. By constantly switching between these three weapons and fighting/movement styles, Bakan is able to overwhelm Godzilla and actually defeat him... at least temporarily!
You can read the whole, translated proposal on Toho Kingdom's website, here: www.tohokingdom.com/articles/2…
and here: www.tohokingdom.com/cutting_ro…
Artwork and design © Chris Eye, 2017. Bakan, Bagan, and all other incarnations of the character are © Toho.
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Comments: 21
....Ooooh, this is a thing of beauty here, man! I love the whole shapeshifting by just enhancing actually-occurring natural phenomena angle here!
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Thank you! It was fun to design!
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It certainly looks that way! Although I guess that this will have to come at the cost of the Totem pole Bagan...oh well, it probably wouldn't have been all that doable without blatant supernatural elements...
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This is awesome! Love the way you made it shapeshift without really straight-up changing its biology. Super cool!
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Now this is a fucking awesome picture of bakan. Really love the redesign of this lost concept monster and I like how they all sort of feel the same, but I sort of feel the dragon form feels more aquatic then anything.
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Thanks! You make a good point, though. I actually think all of them feel at least a little aquatic just by virtue of having that finny, amphibian appearance. The Dragon's probably the worst offender because of the long whiskers and blue skin. I wanted all of them to be different colors to help distinguish them and the water one was already confirmed to be green, so I made a choice. Originally it was going to be purple but I didn't like the way it turned out- maybe red or gold would have looked better, but I didn't want to overlap too much with Rodan or Ghidorah. The whiskers were meant to emphasize the dragon aspect, but I can definitely see how they might make him look catfish-esque as well. Probably should have lengthened the pair on the top jaw, not the bottom. Thanks for the feedback!
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You are very much welcome Dino ^_^
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wow this is an interesting Concept of Bakan, able to change forms to adapt to it's Enviroment and different Elemental Breath Attacks depending on what form that it is in. this guy would've been a interesting Monster to be featured in some Godzilla Movies
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Here's a fun Japanese lesson: So, there is a consonant sound shift that happens in Japanese. So I'll use DragonBall for example: Kamehameha, Dodonpa, and Mafuba. They all end with ha, pa, and ba. You would think these sounds mean something difference in Japanese, but not really. They all translate to "wave" (Turtle Destructive Wave, "Boom!" Wave, and Demon Sealing Wave). This is largely context dependent.
Another example is "kame," which means turtle. This sound shift also happens with k and g sounds. So, think about this: "Gamera" and "Kamera" mean the same thing. The "ra" sound appears a lot in animal-based kaiju names: Ebirah, Mothra/Mosura, and even Hedorah. The "ra" sound denotes something big, strong, or simple a lot of one thing. Except King Ghidorah has his name is taken from the Japanese pronunciation for Hydra (Hyudorah).
So, why this lesson in Japanese? Well, I'd have to look at the katakana/hiragana to be 100%, but Bakan and Bagan are sort of the same name.
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Very informative! They're essentially different developmental stages of the same concept/character, so that's no big surprise.
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That's very awesome! Especially love this concept! Could I use the concept for one of my monsters?
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Thanks very much, I'm glad you like it! I would prefer if you didn't, though.
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Alright, I won't. That's very welcome!
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Very cool! Awesome interpretation. Rather "believable" too, as far as movie monsters go lol.
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(deep breath) boy.this is awsome and the way you made up a way on how it "shapshifts"...MINDBLOWING!
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Thank you! I'm not 100% satisfied with the result, but I think it works well enough!
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Very nice. Your Godzilla related artwork is some of the best I've seen here.
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That means a lot, thank you!
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