Susumu Hori (Drillimation)

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Susumu Hori
Mr. Driller character
Susumu in his 1990's design.
Created by	Hiroshi Takajima
In-universe information
Aliases	Mr. Driller
Marital status	Single
Species	Humanoid
Gender	Male
Height	56 in (142.2 cm)
Weight	100 lbs (45.3 kg)

'Susumu Hori' (Japanese: ホリ・ススム, Hepburn: 'Hori Susumu') is a fictional character and the central protagonist in The Drillimation Series of anime and video games by Drillimation Studios, first appearing in the 1986 game Mr. Driller. He formerly served as the mascot of Drillimation since its founding until being replaced by Susumu Takajima in 1998, being one of Drillimation's many collective mascots with him easily recognized by his pink and sky blue jumpsuit.

Concept and creation

Susumu was created by Takajima in 1958 while trying to create an animation at the Tokyo University that would be successful. While other characters that other students created weren't that good, Takajima's idea was suggested by himself while borrowing elements from Disney's animated films. Takajima originally named him Mr. Driller, but a professor at the university asked Takajima to name him Susumu.

After graduating, Takajima and a group of students formed Drillimation Studios, which would later become the most popular animation studio in Japan. Takajima said that Susumu Hori was to be used in every short film the studio produced before the studio began production of the Angry German Kid anime. When the studio began development on the Star Trigon anime, engineers at Drillimation Studios wrote a story about a boy who must overcome dangerous obstacles and to defeat a mad scientist from destroying the world. Takajima found the concept useful and decided to make the series based in a medieval-based world in modern times. Takajima took out the name Mr. Driller decided to make him fight monsters using a drill.

During the creation of the Mr. Driller arcade game in 1986, Takajima wanted to avoid animating Susumu's hair while he jumped, and due to the graphical limitations of the Commodore Amiga, the computer the arcade version ran on, the four colors he used were magenta, cyan, and tan, as well as brown. Over time, as the technology gotten better in Microsoft Windows, Susumu's jumpsuit he generally wears was colored reddish-pink. Surprisingly, before Susumu was born, both Taizo and Masuyo thought that they were going to have a girl, and they bought him a lot of pink stuff. This was based on a true story from Takajima's childhood when his parents thought they were going to have a girl but turned out to be a boy instead when he was born.

Appearances

In the anime

Star Trigon

Susumu made his debut in the main Drillimation anime series in 1972 starting with Star Trigon. According to his backstory, he is the prince of the Lucky Star Kingdom who is trying to seek revenge on Team Ankoku for murdering the kingdom's monarch. He is the second child between Ataru Hori and Taiyo Toby in the Hori clan, and currently lives in the Lucky Star Kingdom to this date. He is accompanied by Wataru Hoshi during his missions.

Lucky Star

Susumu returns in the magical girl series Lucky Star as the male protagonist, with the female protagonist, Konata Izumi, making her debut. In the series, a group of scientists manage to bring back Konata's lost mother, Kanata Izumi, who was mercilessly murdered by Dr. Manhole on Halloween of 1983 when Konata was five months old, as a youkai. After Kanata's revival, the Lucky Star Kingdom's inhabitants coronate Kanata as the queen of the Lucky Star Kingdom. Kanata's husband, Soujirou Izumi, also becomes coronated as the king, and was frequently called Lord Soujirou by Susumu and others. As a result of Kanata's return, the prom that was scheduled becomes relocated to the Lucky Star Kingdom, and at the party, Susumu was not permitted to dance with any other girl besides Konata, and was forced to sit in his throne until Konata arrived and was coronated. After Konata arrived at the Lucky Star Kingdom, Susumu becomes impressed with her appearance and realizes that Konata has developed a crush on him, starting their friendship.

Because Susumu didn't want to lose Konata, he is forced to relocate to Kasukabe, Saitama in order to see Konata regularly.