Kabuto Mushi – Beetle Battles – Mushiking

9 07 2009

Dunno if this is still on, but some years ago a game called Mushiking spawned a new trend in Japan and some other asian countries: Adopting stag/rhinocerous/scarab beetles as pets!

Here’s a video taken with the iPhone 3GS made by Danny from DannyChoo.com

There’s some historical stuff mixed about those stag beetles… I heard somewhere that some samurai helmets designs back in japanese history where based in those beetles (a simbol of strong defense), thus the name Kabuto Mushi (literally translated to Helmet Bug).

Japanese Samurai Helmets - Kabuto

If you ever saw some of those helmets in display, you might’ve noticed some of them had either a couple of horns, or one single horn in the middle… which is a characteristic of some kabuto mushi.

The game Mushiking, was basically a SEGA arcade card game in which you’d collect beetle cards that could be used in arcades to make virtual battles against other players.

The game was so successful that it also received the anime treatment… found the spanish version of the opening:

Real battles between kabuto mushi are also popular, and they are made in a way that resembles sumo wrestles. It’s also interesting because usually those beetles don’t hurt each other during battles… it’s usually a strengh match where one beetle tries to turn, toss or push each other.

References to those beetles are everywhere, including Kamen Rider Kabuto, the 16th formation of the series (notice the helmet designs)

Here, you can see a.. well, it’s a toy belt with a buckle that looks like a kabuto mushi from the Kamen Rider Kabuto series which I guess is their transformation device… called DX Kabuto Zector