Brushogun (ブラショグン) is a character in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. He was Tokyo's first "supervillain" and an involuntary enemy of the Teen Titans, featured solely in the movie.
History[]
Brushogun was an ordinary artist during his youth, and soon fell in love with the image of a woman he had painted. He used a dark magic spell to bring his creation to life, but the spell came at a terrible price. It cursed his body, and transforms him into a paper-skinned, ink-blooded being, Brushogun. He could create minions in a variety of colors when drawing with this magical ink. With his newfound powers, Brushogun became Tokyo's first supervillain and terrorized Japan, but was eventually caught by Uehara Daizo, who sought to use his magic for his own personal gain.
The Titans came into conflict with Brushogun when his creation Saico-Tek attacked Jump City and Titans Tower. Determined to solve the mystery behind the attack, Robin and the other Titans travel to Tokyo, where they meet more creations of Brushogun but are popularly assured - particularly by Commander Uehara Daizo of the Tokyo Troopers - that Brushogun is merely an urban myth. However, shortly, the Titans find themselves under attack from more of Brushogun's creations - among them another Saico-Tek, Nya-Nya, and Mecha-Boi and are framed as enemies of the state, making them hunted fugitives.
Finally, they manage to backtrack Brushogun to a closed manga publishing house, only to find out that Brushogun is a victim himself: he has long been imprisoned by Daizo and hooked up to a giant printing press to produce more villains for Daizo to fight, so he would be worshiped as a hero; the Tokyo Troopers are also Brushogun's creations. The first Saico-Tek and various helping hands lent to Robin were actually Brushogun's calls for help to prompt the Titans into finding and freeing him.
Revealing himself as the villain he really is, Daizo orders the living ink creations to attack the Titans, but these are soon overwhelmed by the Titans; as a result, Daizo chooses to merge with Brushogun, mutating into a giant ink monster. Robin defeats the monster by pulling Brushogun out of it, causing the ink creature to revert back to Daizo. Finally released, Brushogun peacefully dies in Robin's arms, fading into nothingness. After the well-fought battle, Robin and Starfire share their true love's kiss.
Physical appearance[]
Broshogun, during his youth (left) and after his transformation (right).
Brushogun's appearance resembles that of Venom and Carnage when he first turned into Brushogun. When he was a regular human, he was dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono with a black sash and having dark eyes and black hair in a chonmage. In the modern days, he has become an old man with light gray skin, a couple strands of hair, dark eyes and a lot of wrinkles. The only clothing on him at the time is a pair of black briefs, most likely created when he exited out of Daizo's monstrous form.
Powers[]
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Brushogun performing Japanese dark magic.
Brushogun was a normal artist who was transformed by dark magic into a demonic, paper-skinned being made of magical ink he can use to perform various supernatural feats.
He mainly uses his ink to paint false objects and living beings (exploding shuriken, Tokyo troopers, many superpowered criminals, giant monsters, etc.) into reality, with real powers and/or equipment, that do his bidding. They can also shift their bodies, disguise themselves, and regenerate damage like lost limbs. Brushogun can also enchant or curse objects touched by the ink to his will or use delayed effects, like how he could make a card fly to Robin in a police van with his name written in his ink, after which it magically formed into an exploding shuriken to break him out, or the printing press he was trapped in for Daizo to keep control of him as he exploits his powers in the final battle.
Before his mutation
At his most powerful, Brushogun becomes an ink monster with him as its core. It is massive in size, can form ink constructs to attack or grab others, and produce and control armies of ink minions. Since he was being controlled by a printing press at the time, removing him from the machine was the only way to undo his magic and ink creations.
Since his creations are all made of ink, they have a fatal weakness to water, which dissolves them.
Known creations and their cultural influences[]
- Saico-Tek resembles a Power Ranger, Super Sentai, or Kamen Rider.
- Deka-Mido, a giant green reptilian monster that resembles film monsters Godzilla (Japan) and Gorgo (Great Britain)
- Timoko, the yellow sushi-obsessed robot that Cyborg fights is an homage to Boss Borot from Mazinger
- Nya-Nya, a pink cat-girl (a nod to typical anime catgirls such as Anna Puma from Dominion Tank Police and Felicia from Darkstalkers)
- Mecha-Boi, a blue robot that resembles Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom in Japanese)
- Scarface, Raven's ghost-like opponent is based on No-Face from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away
- The Tokyo Troopers, living ink creatures looking like human police troopers.
Trivia[]
- The name Brushogun obviously consists of the English word "brush" and the Japanese term "shogun", meaning "general".
- The way Brushogun was tied to chords in a black body with a machine is a reference to The Animatrix segment, Part 2 of The Second Renaissance, where it told how machines and robots imprisoned humankind in virtual reality and used them to power their vehicle, Zero One.
- His mutation in his youth greatly resembles the Spider-Man villains Venom and Carnage.
- It was implied that Brushogun was a villain in his youth but was only being used like a pawn in the movie, therefore making him innocent at the time.
- Brushogun's origin is similar to the tale of Pygmalion from Greek mythology: that of an artist whom fell in love with his own creation.