#hell biker

Round 3, Match 78 — Robecca Steam (Monster High) vs. Hell Biker (Shin Megami Tensei)

Race: Fiend

Alignment: Neutral

June 10th, 2024

AWWW SHIT, HERE WE GO! PUMP YOUR ENGINES, LET THOSE EXHAUST PIPES SHOOT, AND ROCK AND ROLL FOR THE ONE, THE ONLY, THE BEST MOTORCYCLIST THE VORTEX WORLD HAS TO OFFER- HELL BIKERRRRR!!!!!

Ahem. The last of the non-biblical fiends in the series stands out to many, whether it be for his Hulk Hogan voice, strange origin, or just how odd he is even compared to his fellow fiends. Sure, Matador is a bullfighter, and Daisoujou is a mummified monk, but the strange mix of Ghost Rider, Biker Gangs, and cheesiness has captivated many, me included. Unfortunately, in Tony4U's video on the Fiends, he had to brush over Hell Biker for a... variety of reasons, but let's just say that the Angel of Hell has a lot of things, uh, riding on his portrayal.

Starting off, and this is very explicit, but Hell Biker is directly based on the long-running motorcycle club called the Hell's Angels, the largest biker gang in the world. For the most part, these clubs consist of people who stand for freedom and ride outside of the 'laws of society-' things like romanticized ideals that many may see in, say, the Yakuza, being people who aren't afraid to step out of line of the law to do what they see as right, or, in the case of the club, to express true freedom.

Hell Bikers' name in Japanese is, quite literally, ヘルズエンジェル, translating to Hells Angel, which makes the reference even more explicit beyond the resemblance of, not only the leather trench coat, but also the Motorcycle it uses. The design of the motorcycle seems to be based primarily off of classic 1980-90's Harley-Davidson cycles, as pictured below.

I really like the detail on the motorcycle that Hell Biker uses, however, that his bike's top is pink, with the sticker being a heart with a lightning bolt struck through it- it adds a far more playful twinge to the design, showing that it isn't just the bike of a hard-ass gangster. I like to think that the heart and pink coloring are just his way of showing appreciation to his mother- there is a common stereotype in several movies and TV shows regarding biker gang members, after all, being that a lot of them are mama's boys.

Back to the Hells Angels, the club formed in the United States in 1948 as a joint collaboration between several smaller gangs- namely, a breakaway from the Pissed Off Bastards Biker Gang named Otto Friedli who left due to a dispute joined up with several people from other gangs, each of which joined together to form the syndicate we know today. Since then, it ballooned into a worldwide gang with members all across the globe. Notably, the Hell's Angels aren't an explicitly criminal organization like most organized crime groups- despite having an organized structure, every charter in the group is their own person who does their own thing. As such, while it is arguable that the leaders of the gang are complacent in some horrible things, such as human trafficking, many people in the gang simply wanted a sense of community, and actively refuse to participate in criminal business.

Now, drifting back to Hell Biker, the series seems to portray him as one of those bikers in the gang that uses it as an excuse to get away with criminal activity and violent lashing out, driven by hatred towards both himself and the world at large. As the compendium almost always states regarding the fiend,

[Hell Biker']s anger with himself and the world causes him to lash out, that everyone else would suffer as well.

Yeesh. I think he needs therapy, not a biker gang. Design-wise, Hell Biker takes a lot of cues, interestingly enough, from a completely different flaming skeletal biker- the golden-age Marvel hero, Ghost Rider! Who hopefully needs no introduction. Of course, given the idea behind the demon being a biker, the fact that he's a Fiend, and how badass flames generally look when being driven on Motorcycles, it's hard not to explain the similarity. Overall, though, Hell Biker is a very interesting Demon, and he stands out alongside Matador as one of the fiends who breaks many rules left unspoken within the series. Much like Alice! Funny that.