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Burai Eclipse: The fifth Burai, Burai Eclipse was based on Iori Yagami from King of Fighters, because I had this idea he'd look cool as a Kamen Rider type character.
Burai: The original version of the concept, Burai was dreamt up when I was first getting into tokusatsu and Japanese Superhero shows, and owes a lot of his initial look and the multi-form change gimmick to Kamen Rider Black/Black RX. Certain conceptual details of Burai's looks carry through to the rest of the Burai series.
Tiger Burai: The third Burai, Tiger Burai was an attempt to go in a different direction and see how I could expand the concept going forward. I designed Tiger Burai as more of a hand-to-hand fighter, and the remaining Burai alternate between that and carrying weapons.
Cobra Burai: The fourth Burai, Cobra Burai is an attempt to make more of a darker anti-hero style to the Burai series. As I came up with him around 1997, this was a few years before such characters became more of a fixture in the Kamen Rider series, so I would develop this more in the revisions I made, as well as giving him form changes.
Burai-X: The second Burai, based on Kamen Rider 2 from the Kamen Rider series. Additionally, I worked in that this was the western version of Burai, to distinguish him from the more Eastern-influenced Burai. This would become more pronounced with the revisions recently done, where I fleshed out their gimmicks and also homaged the Musha and Knight Gundams.
Kuroyasa: The first general of Black Shiva (the organization that perpetually opposes the Burai through various forms in this series) Kuroyasa is meant to function as Burai's evil opposite, but with an earlier version of the technology, and so features form changes that echo Burai's.
Cobra Burai (KaiserForm): Here's a funny one. My plan with Cobra Burai's updated form changes was that they'd be as sanke-themed as his base form. Trouble was, I couldn't come up with anything past his "king cobra" super form, so I've decided to change over Cobra Burai's form changes to reference a running gag in the Kamen Rider series, because I always have time to add one more of those in.
Jagura: Tiger Burai's arch-nemesis, borrowing liberally from Street Fighter characters Sagat and Adon. As I had that carry-over from the initial design, I tried to alter his costume to make it even more like what a Thai kickboxer would wear. Also, I enjoyed experimenting with making the energy-scar on his chest a practical effect.
Emperor Kuroyasa: Later on in the Burai series, arch-nemesis evil organization Black Shiva undergoes a schism and split into two factions. Kuroyasa leads the insurgent group--called Red Shiva"--and gets a new look as well.I enjoyed doing this, but I wish I hadn't had him firing death rays out of his hands. I'll fix it next time.
Virago: The other member of the ruling council of Black Shiva, Virago creates Burai-X to counter the threat of the initial Burai. In her original 1997 design, Virago didn't have a lot to her, but I added a lot for the redesign, up to and including the alternate form on the left.
Burai-X: The second Burai gets a new look more congruent with my plans to contrast him with the original Burai. When I redesigned Burai in 2015 or so, I made his form changes based on the Musha Gundam, which takes the classic mecha and makes the samurai motifs much more explicit. Burai-X, then, takes his cues from the Knight Gundam, which takes the classic mecha and adds more knightly touches. The challenge was making their base forms look complementary, but visually distinct when you took a closer look.
Burai Gesshoku: Burai #5 gets a redesign, and since I was pretty satisfied with his design, I didn't change much about it, apart from overhauling the transformation belt to make it more interesting visually. As far as the suit, I tried to add details to make it look a bit more practical, like something that could be a suit.
Burai-X Archer Form: When re-designing Burai, I based it on the form changes from Kamen Rider Black RX--balanced base form, agile and speedy alternate form, slow and durable alternate form. In keeping with the medieval motif of Burai-X, his speed-form is that of an Archer--mobile, and able to hit from long distances.
BlackShiva: In between character designs for Burai's arch-nemeses, I decided to do a group-shot. I'm glad in the re-designs I was able to make them look more like they belonged together and had a common design ancestry while still offering a means to distinguish them from one another.
Dorado: Dorado was another 90's design for a rival villain to Burai-X who, despite having the name "Dorado," had not one bit of gold in his design anywhere. I think I fixed that this go-round. :)
Giger:
Valkyrie:
Burai-XCalibur:
Burai:
BatBurai:
BuraiMangetsu:
BuraiTarantula:
BuraiYoroi:
KabukiBurai:
TigerBurai:
Isikhathi: