Brushogun was the involuntary adversary to the Teen Titans. He is featured solely in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo.
History[]
It's said that Brushogun was an amazing artist during his youth, and soon fell in love with the image of a woman he had painted. Brushogun used mystic dark arts to bring his creation to life, but unfortunately, the magic consumed him and he became the ink-filled, paper-skinned being, Brushogun. Whenever he put his hands on a flat surface, he could create ink minions in a variety of colors.
The Titans came into conflict with Brushogun when his creation Saico-Tek attacked Jump City and the 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 worshipped 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 first true love's kiss.
Physical Appearance[]
Brushogun's appearance resembles that of Venom or Slenderman 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 black hair, dark eyes, and black hair in a ponytail. In Modern day, 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 Daiso's monstrous form.
Known Creations and Their Cultural Influences[]
- Saico-Tek resembles a Power Ranger or a 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 Ana Puma from Dominion Tank Police)
- 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 Animatrixsegment, 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 indeed a villain in his younger days but was only being used as an ink dispenser in the movie therefore making him innocent at the time.
- It is assumable that, while being used by the detective, Brushogun saw the error of his ways as a villain and shifted his alignment back to good (from before his transformation).