Character Profile - Iwanbou (No.1 ~ 3)


- Along with the giant Fuji, the other hidden character of the Juppon Gatana (Ten Swords), 
having the "puppet to be worn" concept as its image, is this Iwanbou. Maybe I've put into it 
too much importance (and maybe I've put into it more stuff....), like making it as a "bridge" 
between the Kyoto Arc and the Revenge Arc, but personally I've much enjoyed drawing it. 
The number one had hidden the concept, so in the beginning I was drawing it as a mysterious
character, but with time the design changed a lot and so did its personality, turning into a 
somewhat sympathetic character. This is the Iwanbou as a character. 
I didn't intend to use the number two, but as Gein ripped the first one, I made its appearance,
just that (or maybe it is a foreshadowing?) The number three was the fruit of my image of a 
powered suit for the battle against Kenshin.
Reading all again, this looks like something very apart from the Ruroken Universe, what makes
me regret a bit.

- About the design, the Iwanbou no.1 (and no.2) had X-Men's Blob and Mojo as its motif, but I
don't know if it's because I was into Vampire Hunter from Capcom, but also Sasquatch and Victor
got mixed up in all that and the result was a cute change for the Iwanbou. 
And about the third Iwanbou. People say its motif was the Evangelion Production Model, but the
actual motif was Hulk. Not the original Hulk, but the Hulk from the mini-magazine "Marvel X" (it
looks like a table of the characters from the Age of the Apocalypse of the Marvel Universe. I
don't know what it is really, though), that came with "Wizard", a magazine about Ocidental comics
that I buy now and then. And I mixed that Hulk with the big smiling mouth, the small eyes and 
the hair of the Iwanbou no. 1. The strange tatoos was intended to pass the image of a fighting
tribe from unknown lands, but I wasn't that successful. I'd like to try again to draw characters
with tatoos.