Thursday, January 30, 2014

News: First Images of TD14 and TD15 Made Public, Blaster Blade Seeker and Sacred Wingal Previewed

New promotional images for the upcoming VG-TD14: Seeker of Hope and TD15: Brawler of Friendship are now in circulation, showing off some of the trial decks' illustrations. The Beginning Set prints of the trial decks are the main focus of these promo images, advertising them as TD14+ and TD15+. In addition to the standard trial decks, the Beginning Sets will also include 53 card sleeves and a storage case, a Fighter's Count in denominations of +5000 as well as three promotional cards and a promo card pack.

Interestingly, franchise artist and Blaster Blade's original designer Itou Akira did not illustrate the new Blaster Blade Seeker artwork. The illustration was instead handled by Ryuutetsu, who has worked with Itou previously on Blaster Blade's Descent of the King of Knights RRR alternate artwork, as well as on both Blaster Spirits, the original Blaster Dark artwork and other projects. In the artwork Blaster Blade Seeker is accompanied by a much more grown up Wingal; while Blaster Blade is unchanged from his original design, Wingal's dramatic transformation has given him deer-like qualities, and a ring of magatama around his sword's hilt. The use of magatama is surprising and somewhat out of place; the franchise normally associates them with the Oracle Think Tank clan and Amaterasu specifically, while in the real world magatama are jewels of ancient Japanese origin and in art associated with birth as well as the Shinto religion. Their use here may be connected to Wingal's new title as "Seeker, Sacred Wingal."

Brawler of Friendship's promotional art was done by Suzukigorou, known for illustrating Spectral Duke Dragon in 2012, Nebula Lord Dragon in 2013 and most recently both Dauntless Drive Dragon and his Reverse card, Dauntless Dominate Dragon “Я.” The new Brawler units do not seem to recall any specific Narukami predecessors, although their general silhouette echoes most of Suzukigorou's previous work.