Pachishohma: Riza of the Bloody Gaze

Around May 2022, I started my own series of Pachimon-inspired parody illustrations, repurposing my fan art of pre-existing fictional characters, all popular pieces online but useless for professional reuse, and dubbed the endeavor as Pachishohma (Pachimon + Enshohma).

I've made nearly 40 entries in this series and plan to independently print some art books featuring these weirdos in early 2025.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing my Pachishohma monsters here as well, both as extra content and as an additional backup for the aforementioned art book.

We'll start with the very first, off-color entry into the series, starring Riza of the Bloody Gaze, alias Bloodsucking Eyeballs.

NAME: Riza of the Bloody Gaze

ALIASES / NICKNAMES: Bloodsucking Eyeballs; Eyeboobies; Vampire Giantess

SPECIES: Demonically-enhanced vampire / parasitic demons

GENDER: Female

HEIGHT: 10 meters (over 32 feet)

WEIGHT: 90 metric tons

EYES: Red / yellow on both pairs

HAIR: Picotee blue

HOMEWORLD: Earth (Universe 1052620221970-S)

AFFILIATION(s): Rainbow Rogue (ex-boyfriend)

Riza was a callous and spoiled vampire mistress of lesser nobility who was active in 16th century Spain until her unnatural undead life was forever changed by an encounter with The Bloody Gaze, a bizarre pair of floating demonic eyeballs who may have originated beyond our known universe.

True to their title, The Bloody Gaze invaded Riza's hunting grounds and started absorbing the same human peasants that the vampire routinely feasted upon.

This macabre conflict lasted for six gore-filled nights until Riza and her loyal human familiars cornered the monster eyes, attempting to destroy them, only to have The Bloody Gaze violently possess Riza, resulting in a horrific battle of wills and a physical transformation into a twisted combination of the three fiends: a half-demon blue-skinned freak with a new pair of jumbo eyeballs, protruding from where Riza's bountiful bust once resided.

For most villains, merging with a demonic force would be considered a dark blessing, abandoning one monstrous form for an even greater one. However, for a vain and self-conscious blood-sucker like Riza, a giant pair of ill-placed eyes was too embarrassing to handle, and soon she ran off into the nearby woods, but not before drinking her familiars dry in a violent tizzy.

As the centuries passed, Riza mutated further into a wild giantess who could now magically extract and absorb the blood of her victims through her mutant optics, earning her the moniker of Riza of the Bloody Gaze.

Sometime in 1976, Riza's global hunting leads her to meet and fall for a fellow weirdo with fatal powers, the interdimensional taker of literal colors known as The Rainbow Rouge. The two were a terrifying power couple of gigantic proportions until an epic breakup in 1999 when they became bitter enemies.

Why the falling out isn't known by mere mortals but, as one last slight against his ex-girlfriend, The Rainbow Rogue lured Riza to the mountainous outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where a local giant statue has effectively imprisoned her within the region to this day... Though Riza still finds wayward prey who tragically venture beyond the city limits.

Artist's Commentary: Riza is a reworking of Maximax, a bodacious Brazilian giantess, greedy hoarder of treasure, and occasional predator of lesser mortals, created by fellow artist of monsters and babes Animewave-Neo, as shown in the compilation piece above. Another major influence was the colorful if unsightly and crass demons-of-the-week from the 1972 animated series Devilman.

EXTRA ARTWORK:

Spoof of The Hiromi Gargantua

Get it? Spoof of The Hiromi Gargantua? It's a play on War of The Gargantuas! No? Ah, nuts to you!

Anyways...

The long running anime series Mobile Police Patlabor is often cited as a strong example of the 'Realistic Mecha' genre from Japanese fiction.

Realistic Mecha is where giant robots are presented as plausible machinery that could exist and work within the real world while also avoiding the more fantastic clichés of most other giant robot stories such as alien invaders, supernatural power-ups, soulful sentience in the  machines, and giant Godzilla-style enemy monsters.

However, there are several exceptions seen throughout the Patlabor franchise where wacky monsters do appear and cause havoc, betraying the very concept of Realistic Mecha.

Yes, between giant albino alligators, unmanned killing machines, out-of-control Labor robots, deep-sea reptiles, genetically engineered mega-rodents, hideous human-alien hybrids, and gigantic Kappa androids, this otherwise unassuming franchise about police officers piloting 30-foot-tall police-bots in the near-future has a lot of giant monsters popping up.

This continuous trend started with The 450 Million-Year-Old Trap (July 25th, 1988): the third episode in the original direct-to-video series and was an early directorial effort from the now famous director Mamoru Oshii, one of the forgotten grandfathers of Patlabor.

A series of mysterious incidents occur in and around Tokyo Bay, including damaged undersea cables and a parked car being pulled off a pier, leading some to believe that it could be the work of an actual sea monster. Detective Takahiro Matsui of the Metropolitan Tokyo Police Department (a recurring character in the franchise) requests Captain Goto, head of the Police Special Vehicle Section 2 Division 2 (SV2 for short), for help on the strange case. 

Goto and his SV2 Patlabor team help pilot a remote control submersible Labor to search for what caused the incidents. However, the Labor is destroyed during its underwater search, convincing all present that the monster truly does exists.

The SV2 are given orders to kill the monster soon after but not before they stumble upon the giant creature's origins: an life-form birthed from a science experiment gone...a little out-of-hand thanks to a well-meaning but clumsy and shortsighted mad scientist.

Although this sea monster is largely off-camera throughout the episode, its noted that the artificially created being went through various stages of accelerated evolution (presented in a brief montage of resurrected prehistoric animals) until reaching its supposedly final form which makes its rather anti-climactic reveal by the story's end.

As you can tell by now, The 450 Million-Year-Old Trap is a subtly played spoof of Toho Studio's classic run of giant monster movies, complete with a big blue-colored War of The Gargantua homage shown throughout this article.

Now we could call this unnamed guy 'The Blue Gargantua' for obvious reasons but, based on an odd little twist in the tale where this somewhat benign beast shares an unexplained resemblance with SV2's team member Hiromi Yamazaki, the ironically tall man from Okinawa who's soft-spoken and kindhearted, I shall nicknamed this character The Hiromi Gargantua until I'm corrected otherwise with an official moniker.

RELATED VIDEOS ON PATLABOR:

Marc of Oh No Anime takes you through the life and legacy of one of anime's most under-appreciated franchises, Patlabor (direct video link right below video box).

https://youtu.be/J52ecXnl_EE

Here's Glass Reflections' take on the franchise.

https://youtu.be/TydVnMSC3Y0

And for those of you asking yourselves "What the Hell is a Gargantua?".

https://youtu.be/aDwI-wTAxdM

Gorf Can Cook...PEOPLE!?!?

The barely seen Giant named Gorf teaches us how to make a jumbo-sized pot pie with terrifyingly horrific results!

The following short from College Humor may be the last giant monster-related piece of fiction to come out in 2016, and although the idea is 'cute' (and I say so with extremely heavy quotations) in theory, the execution is rather a bit of a bummer, if not downright disturbing: why is it fairly sympathetic interns or working employees who always suffer in these sort of skits over said victims' higher-ups?

I think this video would have been slightly less unsettling / more enjoyable if Gorf the Giant had raided the Senate Building for some republican AND democratic based ingredients, over this sad lot of defenseless humans.

That's probably just my own bias speaking here, though I think we can all agree that as fun as these fantastical beings can be in both serious drama and in darkly-tinted comedy, we're all better off living in a world where giant monsters are not real...Maybe.

Ice Giant and Ice Men Sketches

Following up from my last post regarding the unmade movie "Gamera vs. The Ice Men from Outer Space", this was my first attempt at The Ice Giant, and again, based it on some educated (if not realistic) guess work.

My First Attempt At The Ice Giant.

The Ice Giant creature is deliberately humanoid, so I could easily ignore the wild design choices of Gamera's other Showa-era foes, with a more straightforward build. I also took cues from both Daimajin and Daiei's Yokai Monster films, in regard to minor effects make-up that would allow for the suit actor's eyes to be visible.

This choice made the Ice Giant quite monstrous, while keeping it to something that could still be easily constructed by 1966 movie monster terms. And in addition, invoked the style of traditional Japanese fantasy and monster art, despite the character being inspired by the Frost Giants of Norse mythology.

I really like this first design, but based on that last fact alone, I decided to do another take on the Ice Giant that would be more in tune with the Frost Giants...

My Second Try At The Ice Giant.

Egad, was that a bad idea!

Now this design is supposed to be full-blown actor make-up, like the title monsters from "War of the Gargantuas" (1966), but with the actor's face far more visible than the aforementioned movie beasts.

It's very true to the mythological Frost Giants, but at the same time, pretty lame for a Japanese movie monster. Or at least a Japanese movie monster from the sixties, as opposed to the strange, simplistic make-up effects from earlier films of the fifties and thirties. Like the pre-Godzilla era film "King Kong Appears In Edo" (1938), where in those two decades at least, this sort of design would have made much more sense.

In theory this should have worked, but again, its very weak compared to the design that came before it. Plus, why is he trying to drown a sea fairing turtle like Gamera? I know I drew this blasted thing in a creative haze, but seriously, what the heck ME?

Ice Man and Miscellaneous Designs.

 

I decided to try my hand at the second design once more, believing that the main fault lied with the head and face. The second attempt at a slightly less human-like Ice Giant is good, but also not all that great.

There's also an alternate take for the first Ice Giant design's head, and although it's cool looking (pun not intended), it comes off too much like Guiron's knife shaped cranium. Not to mention being way too elaborate for a 1966 Japanese fantasy film.

Also seen above is my take on the alien Ice Men themselves; again, it may be too elaborate for the sixties, but it follows the original concept quite closely, and it does look way too good for me to dismiss easily.

I'm guessing the Ice Men could only have been executed around this time through puppets, and tried to incorporate such a lifeless weirdness to their already grotesque forms.

I couldn't help myself from throwing in some humor to the sketch, since the Ice Man seen here really is a nasty looking piece of work, who would probably be more at home in one of Gojin Ishihara's wonderfully twisted illustrations, than a Daiei science fiction epic.

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Realistically however, Daiei may have come to the conclusion that the Ice Men, as they were originally imagined, would be too extreme, both in their construction and operation on set. Or at least, far more extreme for audiences tastes at the time (the Japanese kids would have loved it though).

So the Ice Men may have ended up more human looking in the final film, had it ever been completed, minus some icy white skin and related uniforms, done with minimum effort. This purely hypothetical idea of mine and mine alone, is very similar to the alien races featured in other Kaiju Eiga around that same time, namely the Xillians of "Invasion of the Astro-Monsters" (1965).

Gamera vs. The Ice Men (1966, Unmade)



Teaser Art for What Will Be My Version of The Ice Giant

I finally got myself a copy of Shout Factory's release for "Gamera vs. Barugon" (1966), and immediately headed straight for the audio commentary by tokusatsu (Japanese for live action effects fantasy films) expert August Ragone.

No offense to the film itself, but I've seen it plenty of times before, either by itself, or with the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" crew. And that being said, I was more interested in the obscure history of the Gamera franchise, which admittedly, no one touches upon beyond August Ragone's commentaries. And maybe, MAYBE, the odd magazine article that I don't have the time (nor money) to effectively track down.

And it's a real shame that the remaining Gamera DVDs from Shout Factory lack August's input, because I love hearing about giant monster movies that never were. And boy, did I get a welcome surprise gift with the "Barugon" commentary!

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Now before I go any further, for those who don't know who Gamera is, let me enlighten you.

The 1960s was the golden age boom for Japanese movie monsters, with Toho Studio's Godzilla series and its various spin-offs, dominating the box office in both Japan, and globally abroad. Because of this, other Japanese film companies, who were somewhat reluctant to follow in Toho's knack for tokusatsu film making, eventually jumped on the band wagon, and with varying results.

The most successful of the these was "Giant Monster Gamera" (1965), a black-and-white B-movie from Daiei Motion Picture Company, which dealt with giant prehistoric turtle from the arctic, accidentally reawaken in modern times by atomic weapons. If that wasn't strange enough however, the giant turtle also lived off flames, had the crazy ability to become a flaming flying saucer-like form while tucked within his shell, and went on a destructive rampage across Japan to satisfy his millennium long hunger.

You know, just like us humans after a prolonged, jet lag induced nap!

In the end, Japanese and other foreign scientists work together to build the Z Plan Project; basically a gigantic rocket ship (far larger than even Gamera himself is), to trap the monster. And to safely send the deadly turtle to live on the planet Mars, since Gamera is too dangerous and virtually invincible to leave here on Earth.

"Giant Monster Gamera" turned out to be a surprised hit, and Daiei followed suit with more movies staring their previously doubted terrapin newcomer, along with other sci-fi and monster based movies that were to rival Toho at the box office. Since then, the Gamera series has been an off-and-on-again affair, especially when compared to Godzilla's more stable career. But to date, there has twelve entries into the series, ranging from sub-par children fair, to fantastic accomplishments that even novices to the genre can easily enjoy.

And like Godzilla and many other giant monster movies throughout cinematic history, Gamera has had his fair share of projects that never made it to final celluloid, which brings us to today's topic at hand...

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"Gamera The Giant Monster Versus The Ice Men From Outer Space" (or "Gamera vs. The Ice Men" for short) was the original concept for the 1965 film's sequel. And was a surprisingly ambitious story idea, even by the standards of other unproduced Kaiju Eiga (Japanese for monster movie) ideas.

The original story treatment deals with alien invaders dubbed The Ice Men, whose transparent, ice-based bodies grotesquely exposed their internal organs and skeletons. They begin their invasion of Earth by setting off multiple volcanic eruptions across the globe, in hopes that the ash-soaked atmosphere will create a new ice age. And thus drive an unwitting humanity underground, so that they can have free range, and control over the surface.

Humanity insists on remaining above ground however, and thus the Ice Men are forced to reveal themselves, in order to forcefully enslave the human race instead.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Meanwhile, Gamera is set free from the Z Plan capsule (not unlike the events from the completed '66 sequel), and flies back to Earth. And by fortunate timing and circumstance, joins mankind in its final, epic battle against the Ice Men, who also unleashes their own monstrous champion, the simply titled Ice Giant.

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Unlike other monsters from the Gamera series, who were wildly original creations of a considerably inhuman, animalistic design, The Ice Giant was going to be a very humanoid entity, heavily inspired by the fearsome Jottun (or Frost Giants) of Norse mythology. Particularly the Ymir, who was said to be the most massive and ancient Frost Giant of them all. And of whom the semi-tragic Venusian monster of the 1957 film "20 Million Miles To Earth" takes its name from.

"Gamera vs. The Ice Men" never got pass a basic story treatment, but the concept of a contradicting cold element, against Gamera's fiery one, remained, resulting in the finished version's title antagonist of "Gamera vs. Barugon" (1966).



Original Artwork of Barugon by Your's Truly (2010)

However, the idea of a humanoid being made from an geological element, stuck with the Daiei production staff, who soon after replaced the element of ice for that of stone. And taking cues from the Jewish folklore creature known as the Golem, and a little bit of Japan's own supernatural legends, resulted in the creation of stone idol Daimajin, and his impressive trilogy of films, all from 1966 alone.

I'm surprised that no one else brought up this awesome tidbit of unproduced movie trivia. And being an artist, I plan on doing my own interpretations of The Ice Giant and his masters, not unlike the educated guess work I've done with this particular Godzilla obscurity, Takegami.

Although knowing my luck, never-before-seen production sketches for the icy villains will suddenly pop up from movie oblivion, and half way into my project; not unlike what happened to me and my Ghost Godzilla designs a year ago. But ultimately, real design art from the original film makers themselves would be better than non at all, let alone my own 'fan fiction' style attempts.