A childhood dream came true for many of us with the release of the first episode of a special video by Tsuburaya Productions, where ULTRAMAN makes his heroic appearance in Singapore. There will be 3 episodes, and the short films are part of a collaboration with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) entitled “SingapoReimagine ULTRAMAN”. The virtual campaign celebrates the 55th year of formal Singapore-Japan diplomatic relations (code named SJ55), and is set to run for 1.5 years. Coincidentally, the year 2021 is also the 55th birthday of the beloved Japanese tokusatsu superhero!
Don't miss watching “Power of Singapore Episode 1” on YouTube, which kicks off in typical old school style with a menacing kaiju who is known as Red King (actually, Red Dot Diva thinks it looks quite cute!) stomping the grounds of Gardens By The Bay, basically doing its thing and scaring the bejesus out of people.
SACRED GUARDIAN SINGA, our home-grown Red Dot Island original tokusatsu franchise, is raring to debut their opening theme song and music video today (8 August) on their Facebook Page! The song, a re-recording of a 2013 hit Malay language song Suara Kita, is by local rock band Tujuhband. Lyrics for the opening verse and part of the chorus have been rewritten in English.
The hard-working and passionate team at Tokuasia has been making slow but progressive steps in the last one and a half years despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to on-going health and safety restrictions, filming teasers and more footage for the planned live action series had to be put on hold. But that did not stop the creators from thinking of different ways to keep the SACRED GUARDIANS SINGA spirit alive.
Holy Bak Kut Teh! The prequel comic to the local tokusatsu SACRED GUARDIAN SINGA project will be having its launch tomorrow, 12 September 2020 on local leading publisher AsiaPac Book's Facebook page!
The virtual launch party for the comic entitled SACRED GUARDIANS will begin at 3 PM. Writer Aydeel Djoeharie and artist Alan Bay will be appearing at the livestream (moderated by AsiaPac's Chong Lingying), ready to share their creators' journey in bringing this book to fruition.
“Writing Sacred Guardians was both challenging and fun. With inspiration from American and Japanese superheroes, the story blends in Southeast Asian history, heritage, cultures as well as positive values to create an exciting, relatable story for our young (and older) readers,” said Aydeel Djoeharie, who written and directed several film projects before.
As for the book's artist Alan Bay, “Sacred Guardians was a special project for me not only for its story and characters but because it also helped me get through the pandemic as I spent most of time staying at home and working on it.”
Just before tomorrow's launch, the five SACRED GUARDIANSpoofed in unexpectedly into Red Dot Diva's lair with a present - a limited preview copy of the comic. They declined her offer to stay for tea, but said that she could share a little about their origin story to her readers.
Local Red Dot Island illustrator Alan Bay may call himself smallguydoodle on social media, but his artistic talent is anything but small.
He has worked for an extensive list of projects, ranging from high profile game titles like Assassin's Creed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Romance of Three Kingdoms Online, to comics, cartoons and children's books.
His first printed fantasy-RPG-based comic was a collaboration with Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and ChuangYi Publishing called ATLAS. The comic still lives as ATLAS REALMS on tapas.
Red Dot Diva is excited to get her hands on SACRED GUARDIANS, so she took the opportunity to ask Alan Bay about his experience working in the different industries as well as nab a couple of teasers for the upcoming comic book.
The inaugural online event this weekend (16 and 17 May 2020) consists of a list of workshops by local comic book creators as well as live streams of book launches and meet and greets. It is such a great way to help the community remain connected with each other during the Covid-19 Circuit Breaker.
For Sunday's (17 May) schedule, there will be a series of free live streams via Facebook:
1400 hrs - Meet the creators: Sacred Guardians Singa
1500 hrs - Comic book launch: Elizabeth Choy
1600 hrs - Making comic books with Asiapac Books
1700 hrs - Discover the "POP" within you with Singapore Comic Con
1800 hrs - Launch party for Comix.sg, Singapore’s new online directory for comic creators
Soon, Red Dot Island will have another superhero to call our own! And, he is even more awesome than VR Man. His name is Sacred Guardian Singa, and he possesses great power from an ancient source of local and South-East Asian origins.
Sacred Guardian Singa is a passion project by Basil Yeo, Gan Meng Yeow and Aydeel Djoeharie, the founders of tokuAsia. tokuAsia first started out as a community built to foster the appreciation tokusatsu entertainment, which includes the likes of Godzilla and Kamen Rider. Their love for tokusatsu movies has inspired them to do a fan movie for many years, and finally, they worked together with other equally dedicated team members and partners, to bring a Red Dot Island version of a tokusatsu superhero to life via a recently formed company tokuAsia Pictures LLP.
A comic book called SACRED GUARDIANS about the origin of Sacred Guardian Singa and his past lives will be launched this year through Asiapac Books. It will be written by Aydeel Djoeharie with illustrations by Alan Bay. And of course, a Sacred Guardian Singa live action series is expected to be developed by end-2020.
For now, the co-founders of tokuAsia are excited to share the Sacred Guardian Singa concept trailer to fans out there:
“We are thrilled to finally be able to present the concept trailer for Sacred Guardian Singa to the entire world. It was always our vision to develop a superhero story that resonates with who we are and our place in this world, yet contains enough universal themes that will appeal to
someone living on the other side of the globe,” said Basil Yeo, CEO of tokuAsia Pte. Ltd.
“The concept trailer gives our audience an idea of the flavour of the Sacred Guardians brand, and the quality that they can expect as we continue to develop the pilot episode, with a view of making a full series by year end. With the incredible level of talent we have on-board the project,
and the amazing support that we have received from our partners and the community, we are very confident that we can take the brand to the next level,” said Aydeel Djoeharie, COO of tokuAsia Pte. Ltd.
Red Dot Diva watched the Sacred Guardian Singa trailer when it premiered at Singapore Comic Con last December. She appreciated how the trailer managed to show a Red Dot Island heart at its core, with relatable South-East Asian faces, recognisable accents, well choreographed fight scenes, and an appealing superhero costume (love the white and gold aesthetic and that lion headgear design!).
**For the non-locals, Singa means lion in Sanskrit. It is where the name Singapore comes from, which means Lion City.
