#Cusu Cusu

[ewicomkicks2point0]

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]

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…

[clintpatrickthesims]

My The Sims 4 CAS Bust A Groove : dance Summit 2001

Cusu Cusu Team

[posthumanwanderings]

[Dance Summit 2001 model viewer] thanks @juliternity for their info about it!

[juliternity]

Messing around with the model/animation viewer again, and I found something interesting while figuring out how to use the debug menu. At the bottom of the screen, there’s a file labeled “WIN1” on the left image and a file labeled "CONT1" on the right image, which seems to hint that each team was supposed to have different win/continue animations, assuming it never made it to the final version of the game. In the bottom left, there is a value that appears to correspond to the individual team members, assuming that it may be possible to modify the selected character by adjusting this value. (Cindy is 0, Sahara is 1, Kei is 2, and Me is 3). The number on the right shows the frame count for each animation, with 46 motions in total compared to View Mode, with only 65 motions.

[queenshighschool]

hey this might be stupid but. lord cusu-cusu is definitely just capoeira, right

[ahaclownnoises]

Stimboard for ani!

mamdee this dor @milkywellz cuus cusu theyre my friennnd nn theyryee relaluyyy coool and stufffff

🌑/ 💫 / 🌑

💫 / 🌑/ 💫

🌑 / 💫 / 🌑

[nightmareb1tch]

Cusu and Discord mlp as chaotic friends? Maybe you could add Pinkie Pie if you want to play more chaos, and drive two adult unhappy parents crazy (Neither of them would risk Daishinkan's already shaken psyche)

Chaotic Pinkie Pie, Kusu and Discord would honestly mostly try to not annoy Dai (mostly to not get erased, Kusu because she just doesn't want to upset her father) but they would absolutely demolish whatever sleep schedule the angel partners, destroyer gods, and supreme kai had, and annoy the other Angels half to death

[nooodowoahdles]

Haven’t posted on Tumblr very much buut~

Meet my Obey Me! Oc, Zarania ♥️

Specifically in demon form cusus succubus girly </3

[ewicomkicks2point0]

Me with a cowboy hat… save me..

Me with a cowboy hat…

Save me Me with a cowboy hat…

[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.

[juliternity]

Updated the images of all the characters for a better quality. (Part 1)

[ewicomkicks]

Cusu-Cusu as Discos Estrus

I've thought about this concept for a long time now- a team dressing up as a different team. But specifically team A as team B, team B as team C and team C as team A. Not just a one to one switch. But Cusu-Cusu as Discos Estrus is all I can think of, which is the least surprising thing ever. Like this is the most ewicomkicks thing, I can't believe I hadn't drawn this sooner.

Also their shoes are exactly how I imagine what their shoes look like, Dragon's might be a bit shorter but Micro's are totally knee-high you cannot tell me otherwise.

Also, also.... Me and Kei....... that's it.

[queenshighschool]

Dance Summit 2001 - Team Select

[ewicomkicks2point0]

Cindy with cooler hair

The way I’ve drawn her hair has gotten more mullet inspired as the years go on so why not give in and shave her sides already, I always wanted this from the start anyway…