Spoiler free

Oh, now we’re getting nostalgic. Taivas Robane and Barus Kuma are the main protagonists of The Nyverian Curse, two best friends who’re seemingly always standing back-to-back against the world. They were heavily inspired by my childhood favourite cartoon show, Swat Kats, where a pair of ex-military rogues work together to make their city a safer place, all the while trying to escape the arm of the law. The vigilantism, teamwork, banter, heroism, and down-on-luck nature of these characters formed the foundation of the design for the Dakusin. They weren’t powerful like Superman, they weren’t rich like Batman, and they weren’t inexperienced like Spider-man.

Something I loved about that show was how the writers balanced the importance of the two protagonists. They needed each other, and were stronger together than they were alone. It wasn’t a hero-sidekick dynamic, but rather that of partners, of equals.

The fact that the double-main character dynamic was done so well set a challenge for me. I strived to capture it, but I won’t know how well I pulled it off without you guys to tell me… wink-wink, hint-hint, nudge-nudge. On a side note, I suppose I have to admit that the ‘arm of the law’ those inspiring characters had to constantly be weary of, personified by a certain stoic commander in the cartoon show, was the inspiration behind Captain Auriol Svard, the arch-rival of the Dakusin. But I’ll get into that another time; I just got the craving to revisit one of those episodes…