Bombergirl: ENTER Hiiro!

 Bombergirl returns yet again with another new character, further confirming Konami's insane self-awareness of both itself and its many franchises, both new and old, for this addition easily has the strangest origin of them all by far.

I'm a month late again, I know.

Described as the maiden of the Karasuba Shrine and a demon [yokai] hunter with the blood of the Karasuten Sutei, this otherwise fairly cheerful and incredibly tall (clocking in at 220cm, or 7 feet fall) woman uses her family's techniques and her body to engage in battle and protect her village. If she isn't tending to her shrine, then she's playing with the children who visit it. It also appears, however, that she has a dark side to her, with a few quotes referring to a more gluttonous (though to what extent is left to the imagination, given her usage of the word cute) side referring to eating people, especially her master with their demon blood and their organs up.

Being of the blocker class, she uses her magic to place a myriad of blocks that both function to block opponents, blow others away, and provide a healing effect to teammates within a certain range.

Her first ability, of course, does just that. Referred to as the 'Healing Stone wall', it places hard blocks ahead of the placer, with one of them eventually emitting the healing effect in a 5x5 radius for a little bit.

The second one, enabled at level 3, places the three same blocks, though now they emit wind that [presumably] pushes them back. This is called the 'Whirlwind Stone wall'.

An unlockable bonus skill, called 'Nenbaku no Jutsu', creates a summoning circle that reduces movement speed of your opponents for a little bit.

As far as gameplay goes, she's a relatively basic character with little to be blown (no pun intended) away by outside of Bombergirl's usual affinity for bombastic bosoms. What actually makes her stand out in my book, however, is her origin.

Scrapped 'Kurenai' design

Finalized 'Hiiro Karasuba' design

Based on Tsugumi from the incredibly obscure 1995 fighting game 'Dragon Might', there was an even earlier iteration of her called 'Kurenai', whose design was considerably more reserved in terms of clothing and was intended to be even taller than that in what was a cute nod to the urban legend Hasshaku-Sama, which was a 2Chan horror story about an incredibly tall woman of a similar height. This, obviously, was scrapped. I think it's funny any of this was even being considered, given the chibified nature of all the in-game models, which makes discerning any height differences virtually impossible. 

Unless I'm mistaken, too, I think she's the only character here to receive an iteration so new she became a different character entirely. At most, the majority of the cast would either receive design alterations or just be scrapped outright, like the Jetters Louie (or Rui) girl who was considered early on in development.

As always, I appreciate you all taking the time to give my ol' website of horrors a read, even if only for a laugh or out of incredibly morbid curiosity. The next write-up will be an incredibly interesting one as it actually pertains quite heavily to a bit of Hudson Soft's history and the beloved Bomberman Jetters anime.

Until next time, though, I'll catch you all on the other side of the boom!