Transform!
Red Belt
is a webcomic drawn and written by James Finlay, featuring superheroes, action, and a whole lot of references to Tokusatsu in every other page.In the futuristic Neon City, a smartphone app called "Unleash the Beast" can allow anyone who downloads it to transform into an animalistic monster known as a Chimeraman, giving them superhuman abilities and letting them do what they will. Combatting them is the superheroine Alexis Reyes, who can transform into Red Tiger, and take their abilities upon defeating them. However, she's not alone in her efforts, accompanied by the cocky and talkative sniper, Green Hawk, who's simply in it to snag the abilities of the Chimeramen, and the silent and serious blade wielder Blue Shark, who's not willing to talk anytime soon.
The comic updates with a page once a week, feauturing hyper-stylized art to compliment the insane tokusatsu-style action. Not to be confused with the similarly-named film.
Red Belt contains examples of:
- Amusing Injuries: Poor Slugger Snowcrab ends up being a demonstration of Green Hawk's weaponry by taking a shot for each eye without any effort on Green Hawk's part.
- Animal Themed Super Being: Both the heroes and the Chimeramen.
- Panthera Awesome: Red Tiger
- Noble Bird of Prey: Green Hawk
- Threatening Shark: Blue Shark
- Wicked Weasel: Speedster Meerkat (Not exactly, but close enough)
- Giant Enemy Crab: Slugger Snowcrab
- Anti-Hero: Green Hawk may be stopping the Chimeramen, but he's only in it for all the power-ups he's able to snag.
- Expy:
- Red Tiger's motif and color come from GekiRed/Jungle Fury Red, while her Transformation Trinket bears a resemblance to the K-Touch in function and design.
- Green Hawk seems to be a mix of Zolda and Diend, with his motif, color, and weapon choice drawing inspiration from the Condor Telephone.
- Blue Shark's motif and color could either be from VulShark, GaoBlue/Wild Force Blue, or ZyuohShark, with her Transformation Trinket as a sword seeming to reference Sasword.
- Expressive Mask: To an extreme degree. Not only are the masked heroes capable of expressing with their eyes, they're capable of expressing with the mask in ways that should be impossible even with their faces. Of course for Green Hawk and Blue Shark, actually expressing without their helmets would expose their identities.
- Genki Girl: DJ Kiwami, the radio hostess of Neon City and the narrator for the story.
- Giant Equals Invincible: A hippo Chimeraman in #3 is a giant in comparison to the other characters and he's just as strong and tough. While Red Tiger and Green Hawk can barely make a dent, when Blue Shark shows up, she cuts through it like butter.
- Henshin Hero: What else from a love letter to all Tokusatsu?
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Blue Shark likes her blades, though whether she's a hero is up to debate.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Green Hawk's described as this in his profile, and it's not just an Informed Attribute either; when he learns that his gun can hurt the Monster of the Week, he strikes up a friendly conversation with him and shoots him in the eye.
- Oh, Crap!: Green Hawk's reaction when he first appears and realizes his cloaking device is no longer functioning.
- Reference Overdosed: Many, many, many references to Tokusatsu from Super Sentai to the Ultra Series.
- Shout-Out:
- The first cover art is a homage to an image of Kamen Rider 1.
- The narrator, DJ Kiwami is a dual reference to Kamen Rider Gaim, named after DJ Sagara and Kiwami Arms.
- One can make out Naomi, Akiba Red, Fuuto-kun, and Gamel advertising Yummy Candy Medals on the first panel.
- Kiwami's radio frequency is 55.5
- Blue Shark's screen for selecting finishers resembles the Meteor Galaxy.
- Sore Loser: The first Chimeraman introduced was a teenager booted out of the track team for being too unstable. She didn't take it well, downloading the app to go after the girl who took her place.
- Transformation Trinket: As expected from a comic homaging Tokusatsu, Red Tiger using a smartphone, Green Hawk a gun, and Blue Shark a dagger.
