Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

The first mecha Riuva is featuring in the Mecha Madness column is the Dominator!!!! What’s that, you ask? It ’s only the coolest organic robot to have graced the screens of otakus everywhere. For the benefit of the unenlightened, I will briefly explain why I chose it.

Dominator is from Overman King Gainer, the hugely popular (in Japan at least) Tomino series produced in 2002. The mecha from that show are divided into two classes: Overmen and Silhouette Engines. The former are basically much more powerful and come with unique special abilities known as Overskills and the latter are grunts. Dominator is an Overman of course and its Overskill is the ability to form any shape and change its mass and volume at will. How cool is that!!??

The Overskill gives it the power to form weapons, shields and transform into any shape that the pilot can envision. I will explain more about its abilities later.

Pilot
The pilot of the Domi is Cynthia Lane. She’s the online arch-nemesis of the protagonist, King Gainer, and they play online games together all the time. Gainer doesn’t realise that Cynthia’s an Overman pilot until very late in the series.

She’s quite similar to Anemone from Eureka seveN, just less psycho. Still a bit emotionally unstable though, thanks to her foster father, Kid Munts aka Boss of Siberia Railways (the bad guys of the show), raising her to be the ultimate Overman pilot. Cynthia thinks of Overman battles as a game, so she doesn’t get scared and just has fun with her creativity, forming a multitude of various forms with the Domi’s Overskill.

Cynthia is extremely cocky and loves to trash-talk her opponents, eats chocolates all the time and is very cute. I like her. I do not like pacificist mecha pilots, mean ones are just fine.

Her gaming skills are just as good as her piloting, she’s the undisputed queen gamer in her world, with only Gainer being able to defeat her online. Not in real life though. Everyone loves gamer chicks.

Total Domination!
Domi is a very well-balanced mecha, strong both offensively and defensively. The unrivalled unpredictability and versatility makes for a very very fearsome Overman. Unfortunately, due to the same factors, it is also very difficult to pilot. Asuham, a skilled Overman pilot, tried and completely failed to utilise the Domi properly, getting owned badly in the process. Only Cynthia, with her immensely well-developed sense of spacial perception, hand-eye coordination and super reflexes, basically referred to as Oversense, mixed with child-like creativity, brings out the monster within the Domi.

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DomiLook

The Domi looks very similar to Hao’s Spirit of Fire from Shaman King. In its default mode, the Domi has long limbs, a featureless face, and a yellow chest with three green eyes across it. The rest of its body is bright red. A Buddha-halo thingy forms from its shoulder when Cynthia feels like it. That’s about all the details it has, it basically looks like a slimy amphibian bot.

The Overskill of the Domi allows it to change its mass, shape and volume freely. Hence, it has amazing mobility, attacking, defensive and counter properties that Cynthia utilises to the max!

DomiMobile
Most, if not all, Overmen are able to fly and hover freely in the air. But our favourite organic mecha takes aerial maneuverability to a whole new level. Capable of amazingly tight turns and instant random directional changes, the Domi also possesses great acceleration. For a comfortable leisure trip, it even has a cruising mode the shape of a tear-drop.

The Domi doesn’t use external boosters like other mecha. Hell, it doesn’t even use any visible form of propulsion. Even other Overmen have to use their Photon Mats to fly, Domi just floats away like a rock in space. The lack of external propulsion devices makes this Overman stealthy, silent and able to operate in all sorts of terrain, even ice and water.

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DomiAttack
Non-melee attacks are rarely used but situationally useful. Lasers fired from its palms and the battering ram are the only two long range attacks. The primary mode of attack are grappling techniques, which are launched from counter moves. Material blades shaped from its own body also add to its creative arsenal.

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DomiDefence
I am Domi. I see an incoming projectile. I can either a) contort my body in outrageous shapes to avoid it, b) fly away with my speed, c) block it with a formed shield, or d) let it hit me and bounce off my supple smooth skin. Ooh, what say you, Gaara, to this rendition of Absolute Defence?

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Domistrikeback
Like a Tai Chi master, Domi uses the power of the enemy against themselves. Its trademark counter techniques not only let it evade the attack, but also make the enemy regret he ever did it.

Black Domis
Seeing how effective she was, the SR decided to mass produce these units, but they have probably 1% of their prototype’s combat capabilities. Ugly too.

Merchandise
Other than a trading figure set which has Cynthia and Dominator, there aren’t any proper models. It’s impossible to replicate the coolness of Dominator in a 3D plastic form, so I’m not too worried by it. The form wasn’t meant to sell toys anyway. Tomino isn’t a merchandise whore, despite the Gundam franchise being the biggest in the model kit world.

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