Todd Blankenshipさんのイラストまとめ

Promotion is indeed a real rule in chess, by which a pawn becomes a queen, rook, bishop, or knight by advancing to the last row of the board. This means of course that Hym has the same character arc as Alice in Through the Looking Glass. Sort of. https://t.co/CRUOY9ylnC

A bit late to mention this, but: vol.2 of Viz’s Dai manga release it out now. If you like the anime, there’s a 73% chance you’ll like this too!

“Star Emperor Swords” is a direct translation of the Japanese name, 星皇剣/Seiōken. What do these swords have to do with stars or emperors? I think it’s just that the kanji 星(star) and 皇 (emperor) look similar, making them fitting for the name of a pair of twin swords.

As I mentioned last time, the Superior Zombie also seems like a possible inspiration for Special Zombie Oars in One Piece, right down to the similar way Zaboera/Moria control them from the inside. The anime adds a nice effect where the zombie’s eye switches off when Zab emerges.

The giant, horned, saber-toothed, one-eyed Superior Zombie bears a passing resemblance to the Special Zombie Oars from One Piece, which of course came way, way later. Was Dai another influence on Oda, along with DB and Kinnikuman?

The Japanese name for Superior Being is 超魔生物/Chōma Seibetsu, a super-demonic living being. So with Zaboera’s creation, this becomes 超魔ゾンビ, super-demonic zombie. In other words, “zombie” is swapped in to replace 生物/“living being” (since a zombie doesn’t count as living)

Popp is very…grabby in the manga as he asks Maam to heal him. In the anime she deftly glides out of his reach first.

Basically, Yanagita and his Fantasy Science Reader series the Japanese equivalent of all those Science of Superheroes/Star Trek/Harry Potter books. Their main draw for me is the copyright-friendly illustrations provided by Yutaka Kondo.

Next Week: Special Zombie!

(Also…Zoom/Rūra teleports the user to a specific place, while Zip/Ririrūra teleports them to a specific person. In DB terms, Zoom works like Kibito’s Kai-Kai while Zip is like Yardratian teleportation)