Andrew Sudomerski
It’s been a hot minute, hasn’t it? While we do have annual gags here at Toho Kingdom, I feel like one pertaining to the K.W.C. has been a good long while–hard to believe our last one was back in 2017. But that’s never a bad thing. Better than cranking out just for convenience or what have you; it’s better when something comes from inspiration as opposed to obligation. At the very least, it feels more natural.
That said, in a fun twist of fate, it was Alex Williams (our Verifier and contributor to the previous April Fools match) who came up with the overall premise and suggestion (if memory serves, I think he’s had this one in mind for a while, but I could be wrong…). I gave it the greenlight, and he requested for me to make the banner for it.
Specifically, he inquired about a more “Grindhouse” style for the visuals. Always willing to take on something different, I went for it. Trying to get the look just right without coming off as a blatant steal from said inspiration. Though I was given some reference material, it was ultimately The Crazies that stood out to me the most in a lot of ways, particularly with the odd use of brightly colored people and terrain against the featured characters.
Then… I just made the banner. There were a couple of other variants we toyed (seen below) with after input from the K.W.C. Staff, but the final version is what you see in the main gag match already.
Now why were Minilla or Pigmon used? Well that’s not for me to answer. I’ll leave that to Alex, the primary contributor, for his thoughts and comments with this year’s gag… Or if you happened to know what the gag is.
Read the original April Fools’ Match:
K.W.C. Match 405: Minilla vs. Pigmon
Alex Williams
First off, I’d like to thank Andrew for allowing me to do this gag for April Fools. It was a lot of fun and I hope I gave everyone at least one good laugh throughout the match. As for why this match is the way it is, well, I just flatout hate Pigmon. I think it’s ugly and Red King was totally right to do what he did in their debut episode. To quote J. Jonah Jameson, “He was a hero, I just couldn’t see it.”
Anywho, I just thought it’d be funny to write a story where the harmless/friendly Pigmons are portrayed as these terrifying creatures akin to zombies and Deadites. Hence, why the match is inspired by Night of the Living Dead and the Evil Dead films. But, I didn’t want to just fill the whole match of the Pigmons being these vile and disgusting creatures. I did want to make them a bit more “nuanced”, for a lack of a better word anyway. So, I added a few small bits where they would resemble more of their actual canon personalities.
Now, to our protagonist of the match, Minilla. One of the three best characters of the franchise alongside Jet Jaguar and Anguirus. Minilla doesn’t get a lot of love, at least in the KWC front, and I wanted that to be changed even if it was just an April Fools gag. Aside from the more outlandish lines and situations in the match, I did want to show it’s possible you can have him be a big part of the focus. While not the best example of the newly added assists feature, it is something I believe is a decent demonstration on what a writer can do. Though, I doubt Andrew would allow him to have a chainsaw strapped to his stump or have the Garuda on his back.
Bruh.
As I mentioned above, Night and Evil were the general influences for the match, and like Andrew pointed out, I wanted that “Grindhouse” feel for it. It’s something we don’t get a whole lot of here and wanted to experiment with the general aesthetic of it. Hence, the very violent and gory bits we got throughout, and some swearing as well.
Aside from wanting to make a silly match, there was another reason why I wanted to do this. I’m sure you all heard by now that we’re, for the most part, switching to a two match a month system. I imagine some people were a bit bummed out by this news, but it was necessary. Nonetheless, I wanted to make the transition easier for everyone, thus the KWC getting an April Fools match.
With that being said, I’d like to once again thank Andrew for letting me do this and making that very awesome banner. It captured the “Grindhouse” feel I wanted perfectly.
I look forward to seeing what the next April Fools match could be, whenever that may be.
