This article is about the character. For the card, see Drum Bunker Dragon.
| “ | My title is son of Drum Bunker Dragon, Fang Slade Terrestrial XIII! What, should I write it in stone for you humans? | ” |
"Drum Bunker Dragon" also known as "Drum" was Gao Mikado's first buddy in Future Card Buddyfight and Future Card Buddyfight 100. His real name is "Fang Slade Terrestrial XIV". He won many countless battles with Gao and many tournaments as well. He temporarily became "The Fifth Omni Dragon Lord." Later, he returns in Future Card Buddyfight X to fight alongside with Gao in "The GGG Cup."
He is voiced by Shintaro Ohata (Japanese), Zhai Wei (Cantonese) and Brett Bauer (English).
Personality[]
Drum is introduced as hotheaded, stubborn, reckless, and somewhat selfish. At first he had difficulty understanding the human world and didn't get along with most people, especially with Gao, whom he refused to acknowledge as his Buddy. The two frequently bickered about trivial things such as pudding.
As the son of the Drum clan's chief, Drum has some self-confidence issues as he often fears he's not living up to his father's expectations and constantly tries to prove his worth to himself. During the ABC cup he developed an inferiority complex that pushed him to run away from Gao to train at other worlds.
After returning from his training Drum slowly starts maturing and becomes more selfless, he grew to consider Gao his true Buddy and became very loyal to him, as shown when the entire world was against Gao after the Gaen Cup.
Drum is aware that being Fang Slade XIII's son has earned him many things in life and is grateful for it, but he doesn't care about glory or prestige, instead he only cares about living up to the expectations of those he cares about such as his father and Tenbu.
In Japanese anime, Drum use the personal pronoun "おいら" (Oira), an uncommonly used one for males.
Appearance[]
Fang Slade XIV has the average appearance of a member of the Drum clan with a red colored body and an orange underbelly. He wears golden armor, with a ruby jewel set into the cuirass. He dons a dark red tattered cape, along with a brown belt to hold his torso and pelvic armor together. As another weapon, he has a three-clawed wrist plate.
After his training in various Worlds he gains the ability to switch his appearance between 3 different forms, and after fighting his father he obtained another form.
In Season 2, he gained the ability to change his mini form to match his Hero World form. In this form, he gets blue and white armor with a few accessories attached, including some handcuffs and a siren on his tail. However, he typically stays in his usual mini form until its time to do police work. When he becomes full-sized, he now uses his Crimson Battler form. His armor becomes turquoise and gold and covers less of his body. Also, his drills now come in the form of a cestus instead of his Salamander Engine.
When he becomes an Omni Lord, his appearances has a few changes, he has a helmet with 2 long horns in the front and two smaller horns at the back, he has a ronin-theme armor and unlike his other form, instead of wielding drill-type weapons, his Omni Lord weapon is a large katana with surrounding metal pieces aranged around it.
Anime Biography[]
Season 1[]
Drum Bunker Dragon, nicknamed "Drum" by Gao, is a resident of Dragon World. He fights and trains hard everyday; in hopes of attaining the recognition of his father, the current chief of their tribe. Being considered young and for having a stubborn personality for a dragon, his father sends him off to Earth; in hopes of him finding a Buddyfighter who is 'unconventional'. He appears before Gao a few hours later, to confront him over an argument that "dragon knights are better than dragons", after he draws a Buddy Rare card depicting Drum from a pack he got earlier in class, and gets into a fight bigger than he could have imagined.
Gao and Drum at first don't get along and frequently argue, mainly about trivial problems like pudding. Drum is reluctant to consider Gao his Buddy and refuses to let Gao use his Buddy skill. After Gao protects Drum from "Wolf"'s attack he starts showing more respect for Gao, and joins him during the ABC cup.
However, during the ABC cup Drum notices he doesn't get much chance to support the team and realizes he doesn't have much foresight like when everyone in his team could figure out Zanya's plan to beat Doai but Drum remained clueless about it. During Gao and Genma's match Drum realizes he's been almost useless the whole tournament and questions his own ability.
When Suzumi Mikado declares she's leaving to take a job overseas while visiting Yota's grave Drum is the only one reluctant, thinking only about himself. After looking at everyone supporting her decision and mentioning the Mikado family defies common sense he realizes Gao is the one his Father had asked him to become Buddies, but then he questions if he is even worthy of being Gao's Buddy, further hurting his confidence.
During a cruise party Drum rescues Dragowizard, Qinus Axia from Sofia Sakharov, resulting in Qinus Axia declaring himself Drum's "Buddy" which he was annoyed with. After watching Tasuku and Jack's power when saving the cruiser he finally decides to leave Gao to train and become stronger, asking Qinus Axia to watch Gao while he's gone.
In Episode 23: Drum's Heroic Adventure!, Drum returns to Dragon World and meets with his father who was taking care of many baby Armordragons. His father says that Drum is still weak and literally kicks him away to various worlds for training. During his training, he stumbles across a dimension parallel to Gao's that has his classmates and friends accompanying a village. The village takes him to the cave where the monsters attack and they give him an ancient stone tablet that was said to help their hero out in times of need. Drum activates this tablet and out comes Legendary Brave, Tasuku, Craftsman, Baku, Sage, Kuguru, and Dancing Magician, Tetsuya. The five venture further into the cave and encounter situations similar to the battle between Kazane Fujimiya and Kenta Zakoyama. Drum eventually learns how to get his allies to work as a team, and learns how to understand Gao's position in commanding his units. He then returns to Earth in the middle of the battle between Gao and Kazane in the following episode. Drum then shows his Dungeon World form: Brave, Drum.
During the 5 vs 5 match against Sengoku Academy Gao faces Raremaro Tefudanokimi, who had prepared an anti-Dragon World deck, but to his surprise Gao and Drum decide to use Magic World to show Drum's Magic World form. With the support from Qinus Axia and Gao's Magic World deck Drum uses his "Megablast Bunker!" ability to win the fight.
Before Gao's fight against Shosetsu Kirisame, he and Gao went to look for food, while doing so they hear Kiri but run into Sophia who uses Disaster Force to throw them into the sky and let them fall to their deaths. During the fall, Gao encourages Drum to try to activate his Buddy Skill, despite admitting that he doesn't know how to activate it. Gao encourages Drum to activate it anyway and succeeds, revealing his Buddy skill to be a Sun themed hoverboard. During the fight Drum shows his new form, Thunder Knights, Drum Bunker Dragon.
Against Rouga Aragami, Drum fought using his Dungeon World form. Drum also fought Iron Claw Ikarino using this form as well.
During the buddyfight in epsode 52, he evolves into Super Armordragon, Drum Breaker Dragon to defeat his father. Through the second round of the Gaen Cup, Drum showed off his new form which was vital in hepling Gao defeat Gremlin. During the final round Drum faced Tasuku's buddy Demios Sword Dragon and was shocked to learn that Demios in fact comes from Dragon World and used to be a Super Armordragon. Demios defeats Drum in battle twice, cruelly stabbing him on the back the second time. Before being destroyed, he entrusted Gao to defeat Tasuku.
Gao challenges Kyoya Gaen to a battle, but the entire world is supporting Kyoya thinking he's a messiah, so everyone is against Gao. When doubt begins to affect Gao, Drum's encouragement help him recover his spirit. During the fight, Drum manages to survive Azi Dahaka's attack and destroyed him, but was defeated by Demonic Demise Sword, Aqulta Gwaneff. While in the Drop Zone, he worries that Gao won't be able to defeat Kyoya, and when he's about to lose hope, a vision of the Mighty Sun Fighter activates Gao's Future Force and lets Drum become his future self and win the fight. Afterwards he explains that Future Force is different from Disaster Force as its power comes from the potential of the future.
Season 2[]
Hundred Demon Invasion[]
During the time skip between seasons, Gao and Drum went to Dragon World for some training, during which Drum obtained a new form, which he revealed during Gao's fight against Tenbu. He uses the training he received in Hero World to help Gao track down and capture the Hundred Demons.
Becoming an Omni Lord[]
In Episode 14, Drum becomes the next Fifth Omni Dragon Lord right before Tenbu was devoured by Yamigedo.
During Gao's special leave from Count Dawn, Drum trains to become a true Omni Lord. After several weeks Drum finally earns the Omni Lord emblem's acceptance and becomes the new Fifth Omni Lord. After becoming the Omni Lord Drum meets the Fifth Omni Cavalry Dragons, but they aren't impressed by him and refuse to accept him as Tenbu's successor until Tenbu's spirit convinces them to do so.
One by one, the Cavalry Dragons join Gao's deck, except for the former member of the Drum Clan Alliot, who held a grude towards Drum for being a "daddy's boy". However Drum proves that he only plans to keep the title of Omni Lord until Tenbu can be rescued and earns Alliot's respect as well.
Vs the Inverse Omni Lords[]
The attempt to Seal Yamigedo failed due to the interference of the Inverse Fiends who wield the Inverse Omni Lords. Before Gao's fight against Yamigedo, who took control of Ikazuchi, the Calvary Dragons give Drum a new power. With his evolved form Gao and Drum are about to defeat Yamigedo but he quits and forms a coccoon to evolve again.
The Omni Lords are forced to fight the Inverse Omni Lords in the underground maze behind Aibo Academy. Drum's opponent is Tenbu's Inverse Omni Lord form, which the Cavalry Dragons refused to attack until Kazuchika Okada snapped some reason into them.
Final Battle[]
Once the Inverse Omni Lords were taken care of, and with the rise of a new Omni Lord, victory seemed to come to the Omni Lords but Kyoya appeared and tried to take control of Yamigedo's coccoon, only for Yamigedo to hatch and petrify everyone except Ikazuchi and Tasuku. Drum and the rest of the Omni Lords join Ikazuchi to fight Hyakugan Yamigedo in the distant post-apocalyptic future, who has evolved so strong that needs to be contained in two separate cards. While Ikazuchi put a good fight, Hyakugan Yamigedo won but not before Gao is unpetrified and Ikazuchi gives Gao a card with the power to destroy Yamigedo for good.
During Gao's fight against Hyakugan Yamigedo Drum is briefly sent into Yamigedo's belly where he finds Ikazuchi and Tenbu, who had a plan to escape. Once Drum returned he told Gao of Tenbu's plan. Using the Omni Lord's final Trump Card, Gao managed to defeat and destroy Hyakugan Yamigedo once and for all while Ikazuchi, Yamigedo's first form, and Tenbu escaped safely. With Hyakugan Yamigedo dead the post-apocalyptic future was rewritten into a new future.
Leaving Gao[]
Once the Yamigedo crisis was over Drum sticked to his word and returned the Omni Lord emblem to Tenbu. Sometime later Drum had to return to Dragon World and become the chief of the Drum clan. Years later Drum will have a son of his own, "Fang Slade Terrestrial XV", whom he will send to Earth to have a Buddy, just like his own father did when he was young.
Season 4[]
Return and the GGG Tournament[]
Drum was first shown taking part in and winning a pudding eating challenge and met Chibi Panda and Batzz at the same restauraunt, after Batzz attempted to take on the challenge as well but failed, the trio quickly became friends and together met up with Gao, with Gao happily jumping on to Drum and giving him a big hug out of happiness to see him again.
Drum was revealed to have been invited to return as a special guest during the GGG cup by Guru Bunbuku, and left his duties as tribe leader to his wife and children and also revealed he was expecting his 10th child with said wife.
Drum returned home with Gao and his family, celebrating his return and even having a Buddy Rock-Paper-Scizzors match with Batzz for some food, later on in the night Drum and Gao caught up after looking at the Mighty Sun Fighter comics and talked about everything that happended following Drum's departure.
Drum's return to the battlefield came during the Buddyfight between Gao and Kanata in first round of the GGG Cup, using his power of Overturn and new Thunder Empire form to defeat Athora in one strike and allowing Gao to get the win and move on to the second round.
Drum aided Batzz and Bal to return Noburu's deck when it was stolen by Sakate during the GGG Cup.
When Paruko was reverted back to a baby by Ozon B, Drum dispalyed the skills he gained as a parent and made sure she was kept well taken care of whilst Guru got her back to her correct age.
Drum was later used in Gao's final round battle against Tasuku, he was defeated after Tasuku equipped Jackknife "Granthese" however through the use of Buddy X Cross by Gao he, alongside Bal was able to protect Gao from Dragonic Punisher.
Following the end of the GGG Cup, Drum said his goodbyes to Gao and Batzz and promised to meet them again before returning to Dragon World.
Gallery[]
For a full gallery of Drum, see Drum Bunker Dragon (character)/Gallery.
Trivia[]
- It was mentioned in Animage 8/14 that his height in his real form is from 2.5 meters to 3 meters.
- Counting the total of his appearance in both seasons (The first Buddyfight! Anime and Buddyfight! Hundred), Drum has been Gao's longest buddy.
- During and after his debut in the anime, Drum has become on of the most recognized and famous characters in the franchise.
- Drum shares the same Japanese voice actor with Ozon-B and Guru Bunbuku.
- Similarly, he shares the same English voice actor with Kakumo Maihama and Wisdom.