Inspirations

Let's not beat around the bush. It's gonna be a while before Hi-Striker is a real tangible thing. So as a cop out, here's some stuff that inspired Hi-Striker in one way, shape or form! That's almost as good, right?

JoJo's Bizzare Adventure - Part 4

Back in 2012, I played a game on the Xbox Live Arcade called 'Fighting Vipers'. It was a port of a SEGA arcade cult classic fighter and while it got me into fighting games, it also introduced me Ghengis Bahn the 3rd. I remember looking at him and thought 'Whoever created this dude is a genius!'. Sometime later I went down the rabbit hole and learned about The Bancho, Japanese Delinquent gang leaders and absorbed as much media about these cool dudes I could. It eventually lead me to something that I was somewhat familiar with from years ago. A little manga from the 80's called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Maybe you've head of it?

And The Grip It Had On Me Was Borderline TOXIC. Anyone who knew me at the time could vouch for that. I think it might've even caused a rift with an old friend of mine.

Anyways! JoJo's Part 4 - Diamonds Are Unbreakable! It's up there in my top 3 favorite parts, with 2nd place being Stardust Crusaders and 1st belonging to Battle Tendency! Taking the Stand battles of Part 3 and doing away with the globe trotting adventures in favor of a small town story, we see Josuke Higashikata and friends as they run into trouble at every turn. An escaped serial killer, Stand Arrows, extreme games of rock paper scissors, a cartoonist with a massive ego and an alien. And that's all before we get to Yoshikage Kira!

I very much fell in love with the small town setting of Morioh as I've always had a thing for stories set against somewhat static backgrounds, whether they be big cities or middle of nowhere towns. Stuff like Napoleon Dynamite's rural Idaho, Beavis and Butthead's Highland or Mission Hill's Cosmopolis. So it was a big deciding factor in having HS take place in a fictionalized version of Yonkers, NY and a lesser extent to some of it's surrounding counties and townships.

Plus there's a charm to having a big city of characters! Y'never know who you'll bump into next!

Huh...Strange.

Kongoh Bancho

You ever read that crap series The Seven Deadly Sins? You ever wondered if the author did anything that was actually, y'know. Good? Well as it turns out that Nakaba Suzuki did something good! Very good in fact! So good that the kids would call it 'peak'!

Akira Kongoh is a 10 ft slab of a Delinquent who's on a quest to defeat a syndicate of evil Superowered Bancho who are hell bent on taking over Japan! Along the way he'll meet all sorts of gimmicky Bancho, have cool fights, eat some pudding AND THAT'S IT!

KB might be an all timer, but it's definitely not the most complex or serious story out there. And there's nothing wrong with that! I'm a firm believer that sometimes less is more. I mean for fuck's sake, one of the super Bancho is literally a giant great white shark in a jacket.

Sometimes that's all you need.

Weird...Why does this all seem...familiar?

Scott Pilgrim (Series)

A controversial entry on this list for sure, but please. I ask that you hear me out first. So please refrain from fire bombing my house for now.

Let's get this straig-Ok I'll stop pullin' on your leg. You've probably noticed that so far this page has been a note-for-note copy of the Tough Breaker page.

Now I won't lie when I say that Tough Breaker and Hi-Striker share a lot of similiar DNA. Both are Battle Manga inspired stories with a decent helping of fighting game flair and my own artistic sensibilities. But I'm not gonna be that lazy and say they both have the exact same inspirations. So let's pivot here on in.

But I will cop to Hi-Striker having a little bit of Scott in it. MOVIN' ON!

Lastman (Comics, Animated Series)

Probably one of the more 'out there' inspirations that Hi-Striker has drawn from. But admittedly not THAT much, this IS a story about Clowns after all.

Based off the French comic series of the same name (also recommended), Lastman is a raunchy, dark and violent ride that focuses on down on his luck amateur boxer, Richard Aldana. A scumbag with a golden heart, he finds himself and Siri, the daughter of his former trainer, at the center of a conspiracy involving gangsters, the occult and other worldly magic that.

Richard will have to bob and weave his way through all sorts of madness as he tries to figure out what's causing these crazy monster attacks, all while trying to fend for himself and Siri.

I'll say this right here and now: Lastman is an INCREDIBLE show, probably my #1 in terms of Adult Animation. And I do mean ADULT because this show really holds no punches in some of the stuff it depicts...It's a lot to stomach, even for someone like me who's seen some stuff.

As I said up top, Hi-Striker isn't going to go THAT far, but it's Lastman inspiration comes from how in this seemingly normal (albiet Clownish) world has a wild underbelly of magical folk walking amongst the normals. Mostly to contrast to Tough Breaker's 'Everyone knows about Vigor' world, but you get the idea.

Fatal Fury (Series)

Let's lighten the mood a bit since that last one got a little heavy with the topic matter. And how about this for a swerve? This is somethin from the Misc. Fighting Games section of Tough Breaker's page!

The first true rival of Street Fighter and the first real fighting game to have massive amounts of deep lore! It can only be...Fatal Fury!

Terry Bogard, his brother Andy and their friend Joe Higashi return to the brother's home of South Town to seek revenge for their father who was killed by the merciless crime boss, Geese Howard.

What follows are many adventures around the shady town ranging from shadowy conspiracies, ancient mystic scrolls and new crime lords trying to vie for the power that Geese once held.

When you get down to brass tacks, FF and Lastman kind of have some overlap with some of the story themes. But FF is much more lighter and Shounen-y in tone, so Hi-Striker can take much more from the series without any weird baggage.

Plus Maximilian is basically Geese to Ace's Terry, so y'know. There's that.

Honorable Mentions

Like on the Tough Breaker side of things, there's a lot of stuff that influences me but doesn't hit that certain threshold that something else might've. So here's a nod to the runner ups.

One Piece

Can't believe I'm about to type this one, especially since it's only so recent for me.

If you asked me a year ago what I thought of One Piece, I'd probably say that it's overrated garbage that's gone on for far too long.

Ask me now and I'll tell you that One Piece is just alright. I certainly have more of a respect for it now having watched the Netflix show and gave the anime an honest chance (I got up to Crocodile before I kinda stopped).

But having a more positive perspective on the series now, I also appreciate how out-there Oda can get with his character designs and how it just works with how whacked out the world can be at times.

So Of Course I'm Gonna Steal That Shit For My Fighting Clowns Story. Hell I've already ripped off how charcters can just be giants, at least in spirit.

Also I just REALLY like We Are. It's the perfect Shounen opening.

Fist of The North Star

This one's something of a joke pick, but it bares mentioning.

As I've mentioned before in passing, there's a secret kayfabe to Hi-Striker. That being that Hi-Striker is the creation of Kidd from Tough Breaker, as Kidd is an actual Clown who really likes battle manga. And above all else, he holds Fist of the North Star in highest regards.

Realistically speaking, there's not that much influence outside of general battle manga tropes and a lot of the guy characters being giant slabs of beef, punching and kicking each other.

But above all, you still gotta respect the classics.

Cirque Royale

I feel as though I need to admit something right here and now: Hi-Striker and Tough Breaker are not going to be heavily 'deep' stories. They're about stylishly dressed 20 somethings hanging out, cracking jokes and getting into fighting gamey fights.

Shocking, I'm sure. But what can I say? I'm writing the stories I want to make. And that's not to say it's all just fights and quipping. I'm not hack fraudster Rob Liefeld after all. There is gonna be SOME level of thought, cohesion, representation of folks and character growth. But if you're expecting me to tackle topics such as Race, Classism, Gender Identity, Ableism and the like, then you're going to be disappointed. I'm just not smart enough for something like that without being annoyingly hamfisted nor do I have enough world experience to take inspiration from for genuine representation of the issues. So I'm not even going to try.

But I know someone who's been working on a comic dealing with said issues! And it features Clowns even! Bonus!

Cirque Royale takes a deep look into the lives of the newly appointed Royal Clown family and everything that comes with it. It's presented as a slice o'life deal, but there's a lot going on under the hood. A lot of stuff that I might've mentioned earlier in this entry that probably should've gone here!

And you might be wondering, how does Cirque Royale influence Hi-Striker? It must've if it's featured here, right? Well...No...At least not directly...I'm sure SOMETHIN' will be inspired by it, but we're not there yet.

The stories me and author Britt are writing couldn't be more WORLDS apart in terms of completion, planning, tone and Clown stylings even. They're about as compatible as Pokemon and...something that isn't as compatible with Pokemon. Britt is writing something that is clearly deeply personal and has a lot to say about the world around us. Me? I'm doing the equivalent of bashing two action figures together and calling that 'nuance'. Again, I'm being very hyperbolic, but you get what I'm saying.

Cirque's here because Real Recognize Real. And I just think more folks should get on it. Hopefully I did an ok job selling it to you. And if not...well you should still read it anyways. Broaden your world views. It's good for the brain.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go back to figuring out how to make Hi-Striker X Cirque Royale work without having to heavily buff or nerf either side...Hmm...GOT IT!

It's an Elsworld-type story where Maximilian is sent to assassinate Aries for reasons, but because he's such a weak, little man, Max doesn't kill Aries. At least not directly. Rather due to Max's innate ability to control one's Fear (he's an 8ft practitioner of Blood Magic, so y'know. These kind of things come pretty naturally to him), he puts Aries into an eternal state of awakening. Experiencing nightmarish horrors beyond horrors over and over again, progressively getting worse until Aries is driven mad! Boom! Done deal! Slam dunk it into another end zone, baby!

Anywho, read Cirque Royale here! You won't regret it!