"Red Helmet", Ussuri brown bear

one time a man punched a bear in the face to save his chihuahua and if that's not heroism idk what is

This bitch gave me nightmares as a child, as did the rest of his ilk. Akakabuto is, at least in my eyes, more a symbol of Bad Thing Happening then just an animal. He's a force that seems unstoppable, almost supernatural, which oppresses every person who's made the slightest bit of contact with him. And, most importantly, he can only be defeated by a collective of dedicated individuals coming together and putting all their energy into ending this commonly shared blight on their lives. He's spooky and could easily be victim to metaphor is what I'm getting at.

I made him a dark, shaggy Ussuri brown bear because I felt like it. Also because I'm just not sure how many North American Grizzly Bears are running around in Japan. His missing eye is a little grodier then the simple shrunken, empty socket we see in canon. Some of the skin hangs in gnarly little flaps, and you can see the scar tissue forming where his eyeball used to be. He's also got his obligatory namesake, a long, red mane, and yes it's a pretty bright red because fuck you. I wondered for a bit about making it more of a strawberry blonde - a mutation that has actually been seen in bears before - but he just wouldn't be 'Buto without his cherry red locks.