#pipijuras

Design

Pipijuras is another shining case of Passion Republic Games’ love for Ultraman, with Pipi being a very obvious Alien Baltan homage. This would even be lampshaded when Baltan fought by his side in the Ultraman character pack trailer (although in hindsight this allegiance would probably never work out as the goals of the two are in direct opposition). A less obvious source of inspiration would probably be Alien Metron as well as they both lack a distinct head and just kinda have… domes.

Just like Gorogong, Pipijuras went through quite a few design revisions.

Pipi also got the classic robot doppelgänger treatment like with Godzilla and Mechagodzilla (who are also both guest fighters in the game), in MechaJuras. MechaJuras was actually originally meant to be a playable character, but this was later scrapped in development so that effort could be allocated elsewhere, and so now it’s just a mini boss. I will say though, if PRG ever wants to add more original monsters to the roster, then MechaJuras is a prime choice.

Pipi, as an alien kaiju, is meant to be somewhat off putting and ominous. But between his design, mannerisms, and the fact that most of his alternate skins are named after fruit, I personally find him absolutely adorable. I would absolutely surrender all earthly possessions to Pipijuras… if he wasn’t an evil bastard.

Lore

Pipijuras was sent to earth on a mission, but for what purpose is slowly revealed over the course of his story mode as he regains his memories.

In 1983 he came to earth in a flying saucer packing some teleportation technology, but he ended up crash landing in Nevada and going into a coma. He and his ride were later recovered by the Global Titan Defense Initiative and taken to their main base of operations; Area 51. His body was subsequently experimented on and the GTDI eventually got the idea to try and mind control him for use as a weapon against other kaiju, and so many resources and geniuses were put to work on him. During Pipijuras’s crash he was badly injured, and so received cybernetic implants by the GTDI. Some of these cybernetics are what gave him some of his abilities, such as his projectile attack, which works by focusing Giga Energy into an exploding projectile. The projectile attack specifically was invented by Dr. Reiner, a somewhat important character who will be further elaborated on when I get to Thundatross. Somewhere along the line, development of MechaJuras began.

However, as decades went on it became increasingly difficult to make a mind control device, and so the project was passed down to multiple different geniuses. Dr. Reiner eventually left to help form OtamaTEC, and even took half of Pipijuras’s teleportation device with him. Budget cuts were repeatedly made to the department, and by the time a fully functioning mind control device was made the department had so few funds that it was partially made of scrap metal and had numerous issues. It was ultimately little more than a hat with some electrodes.

Eventually, Pipijuras was deployed though. When Gorogong was awoken from his slumber by the GTDI, Pipi was deployed to fight him in order to prove that the project was worth keeping around. This turned out to be a mistake as Gorogong pretty easily knocked off the mind control device. In Pipijuras’s story mode he beats Gorogong and immediately high tails it back to Area 51 to retrieve half of his teleporter while taking out MechaJuras in the process. He then goes to the OtamaTEC tower to retrieve the other half and begin completing his mission, starting with teleporting to an entrance into the hollow earth.

It’s here where I should disclose some information. As you can probably guess, Giga Energy is a mysterious energy source in the world of Gigabash, and an extremely powerful one at that. It’s essentially turbo radiation, but with almost none of the harmful effects of gamma radiation, the only real obvious drawback being that it creates kaiju. Obviously humanity is trying to harness this power, but that puts them in direct competition with the kaiju of earth as Giga Energy is their primary food source and the only thing truly capable of sustaining such massive creatures. Giga Energy has a source though: the Giga Core, which resides in the center of the planet within a labyrinthine cave system called the hollow earth (an obvious shout out to the monsterverse). What exactly the Giga Core is, what Giga Energy does, and how feasible a cave system in the molten core of the planet is, are things I’ll further discuss when I get to Zyva.

Pipijuras was sent to earth to find the Giga Core by essentially the emperor of his people, and when he does find it he hooks his teleportation device up to it and teleports the entire planet, cracking it open and destroying it in the process. This is what greets earth after being teleported.

Basically, Pipijuras is merely a scout for an entire alien race that routinely harvests the Giga Cores of planets to power their home. All without any consideration for the native inhabitants. In fact, they seem to take joy in this. Pipijuras is explicitly stated to openly mock any resistance met, and when his emperor detected a Giga Core on earth they laughed maniacally. All of this makes Pipijuras arguably the single biggest threat to earth in the world of Gigabash.

This also leaves me with tons of questions as well. How many Giga Cores are out there? How many planets have Pipi’s people destroyed, and did they do this to their own planet? Are his people naturally evolved kaiju or did they augment themselves to gain this status? His people have no mouths or visible method of respiration so do they rely entirely on Giga Energy?

One thing is certain though.