Transapient has revived his Kaiju Revolution series with this redesign of Jyarumu from the old
Godzilla: Trading Battle video game. Right away the MUTO influences in this design are immediately apparent. I find it interesting that rather than do his own take on the MUTOs he’s opted to split their traits between other kaiju; he gave the MUTO’s pronounced sexual dimorphism to Varan (Varan being the gracile, flight-capable male, while the more robust and flightless female of the species is his take on Komodiathrax from the ‘98 animated spinoff), while giving the MUTO’s distinct “stealth fighter” aesthetics, energy draining abilities, and inherent danger to the natural order to Jyarumu. He also seems to have incorporated elements of Dagahra into his take on Jyarumu, framing his species as an ancient enemy of Mothra’s species while also having the ability to shed scales emitting a dangerous prion-like disease as a result of his metabolism in a manner seemingly analogous to Dagahra’s ability to produce Barems as a result of his consumption of pollution.
An aside: while in this thread we tend to focus almost exclusively on the actual designs themselves, I sort of think the descriptions of the designs often deserve some attention as well, particularly in lore-heavy redesign “series.” There are often a number of interesting details about how the monsters are reimagined, from details of characterization or powers not immediately apparent from the picture alone, or the artist’s thought . For example, while his redesigns are not my favorite I do enjoy the writing in TrollMan’s Folly of Man series (Daikaiju and other assorted beasts and threats from Toho mixed with Cold War tensions and a sprinkling of cosmic horror to boot), with a number of interesting little details (in his canon Battras are the males of the Mothra species). Similarly, Transapient includes a number of neat little characterization, story, and power details in his Kaiju Revolution descriptions; most notably his revised origin for Ghidorah, making him a former ally of Godzilla that ultimately went insane.
