lordcusu-cusu

[lordcusu-cusu]

Here are some examples for those who haven’t seen it :

I honestly don’t think that this was a specific inspiration since Cindy’s design is very common and has likely existed before this shoot. Bettie was a huge influence in pop culture in general just by her hair alone but Cindy’s design is likely just based on the “generic island lady” character type that you’ve probably seen before but not recognised it as a trope. Bettie clearly did have a HUGE influence on it though so she’ll always be an inspiration even if it’s unconscious. I mean, look at Cindy’s hair !! It’s impossible to not immediately think of her !

And I still really like the idea of a zine but again, I have no idea how to set it up and I don’t want to be the only one in charge anyway. I’m still working on a few other things but even if a zine isn’t possible, I’d still like to do some simple drawing collaborations with people… I don’t know. Let me know if you have any ideas I guess

Omg how did I not notice this before

Thank you so much to whoever added this because I’ve been thinking this for years. Ive always drawn Cindy with Bettie in my mind [especially her fringe] and I’ve drawn her specifically referencing that shoot multiple times.

I’m actually working on something pretty big [all around ds2001 thing but emphasis on Cusu-Cusu] that has also been in my head for years but it’ll take forever so there’s no real need to talk about it yet.

ALSO !! ds2001 25th anniversary is this year and I would really love to do some collaborations with other fans. I thought about doing a zine but I have no idea how to set those up. I don’t knowwwwww I just wanna do something

[lordcusu-cusu]

hello relatively new bust a groove/ds2001 fan here ^_^ノ i look through the bust a groove tag on here semi frequently and your posts and fanart(especially the fanart like holy shit it's god tier) really stand out to me lol, but in the best way possible!!! as a fellow obscure media/character enjoyer i know one when i see one...our passion is truly unmatched o7

ok so since this is an ask i'll (finally) get to my question lol: what drew you to cusu-cusu specifically?? i apologize if you've been asked this before but like, i am genuinely curious...even despite the fact they're based around rather harmful african stereotypes(which ik you touched on in a post), what about them keeps you interested enough to look past that, so to speak?? is it the character dynamics? the mystery surrounding them, namely me and kei and those cursed masks?? as for me personally i do enjoy playing as them, their dances are super cool and fun to watch and their CPUs are very cooperative so it's easy to get quartets ^_^ oh and their stage's song is catchy though not my most fav one overall

Oh my god thank you SO much for this !!!! I have also noticed that I stand out with other fan artists, likely due to how different my artstyle is from the series’ style but my opinion of myself is not important, thank YOU so much for the compliment.

So… nobody has asked me that before. I talk mostly about Cusu-Cusu with my friends in real life since nobody here seems to be interested at all. Probably because of the racist tropes they follow and people are too blindsided to realise that they are actually really sweet and emotional characters. Which when I joined the fandom, I understood but now, ugh guys please just listen to me already… so lots of thanks to you for actually asking me anything about them. As to why I’m interested in them so much, of course it’s the dynamics and the mystery, the masks, the dances, all the quartets and their song !!! [Red Star is all the way up top of my favourites, including the New Wave mix, I don’t care for the European mix much]. If I didn’t like all that then what would I like ??

I have been such a big defender of them because there’s such loving, interesting characters and downright terrifying realities behind those stereotypes. It’s so clear that the designers had no racist motivations for creating them at all, they were just incredibly misguided because it was Japan in the late 90’s, so I’m not going to judge them. And their designs are wonderful !!! I wouldn’t draw them so much if I didn’t love their look [I have a HUGE amount of drawings of them… so many wips… so little time…]. I feel like people want to compare them to Hamm whose whole character was intended to be a joke and design was actually racist, I think he’s adorable, but Cusu-Cusu aren’t like that at all.

Cindy and Sahara want to be doctors, Sahara wants to be a vet specifically because she can literally talk to animals, kinda questionable but *cough* Utan in Discos Estrus. She also likes to sleep in trees which is also questionable, maybe smells a bit of racist character tropes of wild tribes not even being able to make homes for themselves… but shut up because her sleeping in trees is actually adorable to me. So many kids grow up climbing trees but what is there to do once they’re up at the top ? Take a nap up there is Saharas answer and that’s amazing. Also, she just loves her friends so much. All the unabashed hope for Me and Kei’s safety and possibly their survival is on Sahara because her innocent love for everything is so strong. I AM crying and YOU are too !! Cindy is great, I’ve said before that she’d benefit from being more interesting but that’s what makes her still likeable; she feels so realistic. Her maturity compared to Sahara is a huge reason why I think the team is so well crafted. Also I really like drawing her, I love how much her hair contrasts with the rest of her. And what do I even say about Me and Kei that I haven’t already repeatedly said ? Well, there’s always something more otherwise I wouldn’t have made this account. The mystery of them and their curse is incredible. However, I’ve constantly gone back and forth between liking the mystery of the curse and really wishing we knew more about it. Yet no matter how much I dread the reality of Me and Kei’s state, it’s still so intriguing, is it not ? But I suppose the main loveable thing about them is their designs because there’s not much else if somebody didn’t care for the mystery. But the ripped up animal skin, the incredibly unfortunate design choice of Cusu-Cusu as a whole, is the most obvious with these two. That’s why I draw them wearing things that are completely different. But I love everything else. The colours are cool but holy shit those masks and horns !!!! Compared to actually racist depictions of tribal masks, there’s clearly no negative intent at all. Definitely stereotypical but clearly acceptable. Maybe I love them so much because I used to watch the Harry Belafonte episode of The Muppet Show religiously when I was really young and the last song would deeply comfort me and put me to sleep. It included African inspired masks which Me and Kei’s look nothing alike but maybe there’s an unconscious connection there…? Although I am incredibly aware that Cusu-Cusu have no connection to anything culturally African.

Yeah I wouldn’t have talked about and drawn them the most if I thought they were just offensive and ignored them. I’ll never understand people who do that. That is another huge reason why I love them so much. I love defending them. I love talking about them with people who don’t quite understand them which those conversations haven’t actually happened… until now !!!! Thank you so much for this ask !! I genuinely thought that I’d never actually be asked anything about Cusu-Cusu by another fan and what makes me like them so much !! Maybe this is more than you expected for me to say but trust me, I had to much more that I scrapped from this and have saved for another day…

[lordcusu-cusu]

Might all well post the team’s bios

Since this account is also kinda kinda meant to be a bit of an archive of all Cusu-Cusu stuff but not really. This combination of their descriptions was put together entirely for my own benefit; easy access to all of them at the same time and I made it darker for my eyesight.

I’m mighty curious to those who are mostly indifferent to this team, especially those who aren’t intrigued by all those question marks. I want to know what that’s like. I wanna make people make up their own headcannons so I’m not stuck entirely in my own.

[lordcusu-cusu]

Continue Screen

Still forever my favourite continue screen and yes, I’m very biased. I remember when I first got into ds2001 and all I had was very few clips on YouTube, so I had to really search for information about, not just the game in general, but specifically Cusu-Cusu. So with this clip especially, I had absolutely no idea that Kei and Me were meant to be cursed. The two of them plus Sahara are all on the same level of awareness and anticipation, so it makes me think that when making the game, their cursed status wasn’t as clear as.. oh I don’t know…. Utan’s orangutan status? His actor[s] were clearly told what kind of character they’d be playing. With this and the stage clear screen, I feel like the team just wanted to show a marvel rather than to show any personality for Me and Kei separate from their cursed status [like, how can the see, or rather, even know what is happening?]. Maybe the bio’s and animations were made separately for Cusu-Cusu, or maybe I’m thinking too much about it. Probably that.

Anyway what’s really important is that CINDY LIFTS !!!!!!! And HOLY SHIT SHE LIFTS HUGE STONE RINGS!!!!! 5!!! 5 OF THOSE THINGS STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER !!!!!! AND THEN SHE JUST THROWS THEM AWAY !!!!!!! The severe lack of muscle in her model has always made me so disappointed. I watch her kick open the doors in Muscle Stadium and I’m so disgruntled with how short and not wide she is compared to characters who probably could also lift up those rocks……. Buttheycouldn’teveniftheytriedbecauseCindyisoneofakind.

I love how excited the three are once Cindy throws them away; I bet she feels like a total badass BECAUSE SHE IS.

But of course, we must also wonder where this rings are coming from. To me it’s simply that they were on top of the mountain/cliff/waterfall/general terrain/whatever, lost balance but Cindy miraculously caught them in time. That’s why the balance is so off.

[lordcusu-cusu]

Stage Clear

Always been intrigued by this. Neither Cindy and especially Sahara have ever mentioned being happy if there were to be a giant chunk of meat gifted to them from the heavens, or anything even remotely close to that. However, it's clear that Me and Kei actually see it as a literal gift for them coming down from the heavens because of how quick they are to bow down to it. Could that reaction be curse induced? They can't eat it anyhow when the masks are not removable. And that fact makes this cute little winning screen subtlety devastating, just like all the other pieces of Cusu-Cusu.

Also, yeah, Sahara is vegan/vegetarian, so at least it comes back to being silly.

I wonder what creature that piece of meat is from? That's not an interesting thought at all, the BAM universe can just have giant animals with pink fur. But it's so funny in-game. The lighting never matches, the sound effect it makes when it slams into the ground commonly fucks up the audio and Kei and Me are so clearly about to fall off the edge [thats actually a frequent occurrence with the team's animations in general, gameplay of them can be annoying to watch with how far apart they are from each other and the camera doesn't help with that at all]. I end up thinking: 'why couldn't they do an epic pose just like all the other teams' stage clear screens if there's clear flaws in how theirs was done?'.

Woah, look at me complaining about Cusu-Cusu…

[lordcusu-cusu]

I’ve taken way too long to talk about this

In the ds2001 website [now archived], the team description for Cusu-Cusu is not only different but gives some extraordinary extra information.

Here’s it translated :

Cusu-Cusu ☆Team Story

Sahara and Cindy come looking for Kei and Me, who have gone missing on a trip to Africa, and find the two masked and disfigured. The Cusu-Cusu elder tells them. “These two have incurred the wrath of our god, Lord Cusu-Cusu. There is no other way to lift this curse than to use the mysterious power of the Groovetron." The two immediately entered the Dance Summit 2001 to obtain the Groovetron. “Come on, you guys dance with me! This is no time to be cursed!"

Let’s get into this, each sentence at a time, immediately because I can’t wait any longer.

We already knew that Cindy and Sahara don’t live in Africa but it was kinda vague for Kei and Me, this confirms that they also don’t. Although, unsurprisingly, it’s unclarified to which country, they’re just going to Africa.

The ‘disfigured’ is very intriguing. Is that referring to their horns? Or does it mean the masks were the disfigurement in general? I hope it’s the latter because I really like their horns so adding the physical pain of growing horns to their curse symptoms is horrifying. Disfigurement could also include those genuinely strange splotches of greenish… “stuff” on their arms? Maybe I’m focusing too much on it, this was only translated through a website so maybe it doesn’t matter that much.

I already thought that the title ‘Cusu-Cusu’ was a culturally significant term separated from Lord Cusu-Cusu, so this confirms that it’s the name of Me and Kei’s tribe and that it also has an elder. ‘Incurred’ makes me curious because what did Me and Kei do to make their Lord angry? Either it was something so terrible and possibly sacrilegious or Lord Cusu-Cusu is a frequently wrathful god and cursed them because it’s also just evil. I’ve had the idea that all they did was leave, ever since I first found out about their story. Born and raised in whatever country in Africa in their in-universe tribe and moved away, which was the start of Lord Cusu-Cusu’s wrath. So when they went back for a holiday, likely meant to be a family reunion, their Lord finally got a hold of them and cursed them.

We already knew that the Groovetron is the only thing that can cure them but it will always make me so sad. As I’ve said before, I would so prefer for Me and Kei to be safe than for Texas to have some steak. The fact that it’s their tribe elder to confirm this, shows that the Groovetron isn’t only some modern technology but that it can also be regarded with the same respect as a god.

Sahara and Cindy IMMEDIATELY join the Dance Summit 2001 because they love each other so much and will not hesitate to help their friends wwwwwww we know all that. What I find interesting is the speech at the end, which is most likely Cindy because of the bossy tone. She’s the leader, of course they’re gonna dance with her. It’s curious because what the hell is she talking about? ‘This is no time to be cursed’? What do you mean?! They don’t have a choice and that’s exactly why you’re here!! Well, I take it as incredible denial. We can already see that Cindy has leadership built into her, that she’s confident, independent and persistent and all that can turn into bitterness towards Me and Kei’s “hesitation” even though she is currently trying to save their lives. Also, she seems to not fully know what the curse is, can’t blame her since they’re still able to dance [how convenient]. The lack of knowledge makes a clear distinction between the two halves of this quartet, confirming that Kei and Me are related to each other but not Cindy and Sahara, likely befriending them during their travels.

I cannot understand why nobody ever thought to look into this until I decided to do it pretty much two years ago, and I’m sorry that I’m only posting about it now. I’m not sorry to you, the fandom, I’m sorry to Kei, Me, Cindy and Sahara. Fuck Lord Cusu-Cusu though. I hate that guy

I wonder why they decided to add all this incredible stuff only in the website and why it was never there to begin with. I also wonder if they added stuff for the other teams but I don’t really care.

This was translated through DeepL so it’s probably the best translation out there.

[lordcusu-cusu]

A thing I don’t like about Cusu-Cusu :

How much they are based on stereotypes. I won’t go into so much detail because that will need to be it’s own dedicated discussion but I am very aware that’s the main reason as to why people ignore them, people have admitted to that. No hate or anything negative towards people who are uncomfortable with Cusu-Cusu, I really respect you. I’m really not surprised that I’m their only big fan, at least in this era of the fandom.

Some Cusu-Cusu things I love

That Me has the darkest black hair in her team and I assume the whole game. I instantly noticed this when I was watching gameplay for the first time and I felt so stupidly proud when I did

I really love their stage. Like, they’re just out in the middle of some jungle and there’s a waterfall and a snake that looks really weird and all those rocks and all those bushes and trees and the fog that completely surrounds it all. EVERYTHING. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. I WANNA BE THERE. Ugh don’t even get me started on the remix where evRYTHING IS SUDDENLY REALLY DARK AND HOW THE LEAVES AND FLOWERS GLOW AND TGAT STINKING CORPSE LILY IS SPEWING OUT SOME GLOWING SHIT UGGGGHHHHH

Me and Kei’s horns !!!!!!!!!!!!! SUCH a cool design detail to add, makes these characters and the universe they’re in even more diverse. And I’ve always believed that they have no connection to their curse.

Their loud stomps they do that can fuck up the audio sometimes, similarly to that giant chunk of meat that comes down from the sky but does it way more obviously

Still love my headcannon that Cindy made the teams accessories and that Me doesn’t like to wear accessories as much, if at all

Specifically the eyes on Me’s mask, I’ve referred to them as looking like targets and I still really like that look

The physics on Cindy’s tail, it makes it look so cool, especially when it drags on the floor sometimes. Same deal with Dragon’s hair but I think her tail looks cooler in the game lol

Sahara has the highest quotient out of all the characters, ‘wild child quotient : 102’. Even higher than Shogun’s which is ‘Micheal quotient : 100’ so basically she’s more of a wild child than Micheal is themself

It feels pointless to say this but I haven’t seen any other drawings of Me so to me it’s pretty clear that her hair is in a single braid [ its modelled the same way Dragon’s is], but I also like to imagine that her hair is very curly so her hair being pulled back in a low braid helps keep it out of the way of her horns. I also recently [like over a year ago lol] started seeing Kei’s hair as micro braids [still up in a ponytail, obviously].

Their dances ??!!!!??!!?! HELLO ????? Before I even found out about the existence of DS2001, I was super fixated on Robo-Z, so when I saw Cusu-Cusu for the first time, instantly fell in love with them, then I saw their gameplay, then saw FUCKING ROBO-Z GOLD MOVESSSSSSS !!!! I screamed. I cried. I died. I shat myself. Also their quartets are reeAally good. I’d love to make a compilation of all my favourite moves if anyone would ever post good view mode footage

I have an idea that Me and Kei are twins, I don��t really think I need to explain this. They’re so just so similar in a way that other characters in other teams aren’t. I can get REALLY deep about it but that’ll be for later…

I’m so intrigued as to why Me and Kei’s quotients are 71 and 72 respectively. It’s most likely because it’s the average number for a quotient but still….. [I just have to look so deeply at every single thing because there’s nothing else I can do]

Obviously their relationship with each other. They just love and care for each other so much so the curse on Me and Kei is so much more devastating. Galaxy4 also have trauma but join together with the power of friendship to deal with it, Cusu-Cusu on the other hand, are not able to get over it. Not only is the curse happening right now, non of their endings are ideal. I can’t really imagine them all happy and together in a lovely sisterly bond because that just isn’t allowed to happen in their story. And who even are Kei and Me ?? We have no idea !! We just know that Cindy and Sahara love them so deeply and it all just makes so sad. But I love it

Saharas hairstyle being a reference to Pebbles from The Flintstones, I’ve never watched the show but it’s such an adorable reference and I just love bones as accessories.

COLOUR SCHEME !!! The colour scheme for the whole team is just perfect: how neutral yet colourful Kei looks, how Cindy’s dress colour and skin colour blend into each other and how her black hair provides a really good contrast, etcetera etcetera…

Probably the most specific headcannon ever but I think that Cindy likes wearing tails. I’ve done designs where the tail is just a really stylised fabric piece but I really like the look of her having an actual tail so I think that she personally would also really like it. Inspired by this tweet I saw on pinterest lol :

[lordcusu-cusu]

fucking LOVE this drawing. I made her so pretty !! The cowboy hat comes from that Cusu-Cusu + Discos Estrus mashup with Me as Texas, which I’ve been working on a new drawing of that for ages. Group composition is hard for me, especially when I want to highlight each of them equally. I’ll figure that out eventually so this was a little tribute/teaser.

I think I draw Me the most. I have no idea why.

Me with a cowboy hat… save me..

Me with a cowboy hat…

Save me Me with a cowboy hat…

[lordcusu-cusu]

Nothing much to add here other than I noticed one annoying typo. Still no more acknowledgment of Cusu-Cusu in the fandom at all and I’m completely fine with it. They’re MINE ALLLLLLL MINE AAHHAHHAHAAA

Me and Kei my lovessss

I sometimes forget that we know completely nothing about Kei and Me. I’ve made up so much of what I think they’re like that when I try to look for any proof that my headcannons are right, I remember ‘oh shit, yeah ! We know fuck all !!’. Me and Kei are nothing outside of their curse, I doubt that the designers even had a concept of what their faces would look like when they were being designed. Because they aren’t mean to have faces, in the sense that the reason that they exist as characters is to be cursed. Obviously they have faces in the DS2001 universe and the writers want that to matter to us but as players observing fictional characters, the curse just feels so empty. Did they want fans to theorise? Are the connections to Capoeira intentional? I truly don’t know… People never really draw Me and Kei and it’s either because their masks and horns are hard to draw or they just don’t care about them. And I 100% believe it’s the latter. In fact I know it is. I know it’s partially my fault because I have a really hard time actually posting my drawings but trust me when I say that I’ve completely lost count how many times I’ve drawn them despite archiving all my Cusu-Cusu drawings in a designated folder. My point is; if someone doesn’t like certain characters as much as I do, great! I honestly think that Cindy’s description is a bit boring, but I just can’t accept that when it comes to Me and Kei. I know the writers didn’t give us much but I just need people to actually think about these too for a second. They don’t deserve to only be cursed. The whole reason we see Cusu-Cusu is to help Me and Kei get rid of the curse. I mean, none of their endings are good. The majority of the characters in DS2001 just want to use the Groovetron for harmlessly selfish reasons. Some save the world but some just want to eat some fucking garlic steak. This team just aren’t allowed any peace it seems. BUT THEY DESERVE IT!!!!!!! But as I reach the end, I remember that actually don’t want an uproar of Me and Kei fanart because I still like being the only Cusu-Cusu fan…. Anyway, I love you Me and Kei !!!!!!!!

[lordcusu-cusu]

This came from an idea that if by some miracle, or winning Dance Summit 2002, Cusu-Cusu get a hold of the Groovetron and Me actually gets her life back and cuts her hair short, I guess. With how quickly she goes from cursed induced half-consciousness to tanning her face every day, I think that if there was one instance of her being too tired to plait her hair back, annoyed with her horns being in the way, she’d immediately decide on cutting it short.

I don’t really like the style of this anymore but I didn’t when I posted it anyway. The outfit is boring, I guess this isn’t a very fashionable day for Me. It truly is the most casual Me ever

Just Me

And with short hair !!

Just wanted to draw something simple so yea, this is the most casual Me ever