On January 10, developer Cygames announced a new character for mobile game THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls. Akira Sunazuka is a streamer girl from Niigata, taking her interest in fashion and FPS gaming to the idol world. She’s cool, she’s stylish, she’s a gamer, she tosses hashtags into her sentences, she’s extremely online. There’s a lot the fans are liking about Akira. But what caught my attention, and what has clearly captivated a lot of fan artists, is her unusual teeth.
Akira has what they call in Japanese gizaba; combining gizagiza, meaning “jagged” or “serrated” with ha or ba for “teeth.” Peter-senpai has written extensively (from the origins of the fad to just a few days ago) about yaeba, the “eight layered teeth” that describes a single crooked fang poking out for cuteness. In the 2D world, we also see kenshi, or “dog teeth,” for your more threatening, fang-like canines.
Gizaba, however, is a bit less common. Sometimes called “shark teeth,” and indeed Akira Sunazuka’s card lists her special skill name as “Shark Teeth,” gizaba are more obviously monstrous than a single fang or two. People in real life are known to have fairly sharp canines, but you won’t see a set of chompers like Akira’s without getting a lot of cosmetic dentistry involved. As such, gizaba tend to show up in your monster girl stories more than the straightforward and down-to-earth world of THE iDOLM@STER.
Still, Akira’s bold character design has been making waves. My own Twitter feed has been full of Akira fan art for the last few days, and the sight of her tugging at her lip to show off two rows of sharp, pointy teeth already has me asking: when can I have an Akira Sunazuka figure on my shelf? And is it safe to put things in her mouth?
Akira Sunazuka is the second of 7 new idols to be added to Cinderella Girls in celebration of the game’s seventh anniversary. The third will be announced in February.
Screenshot via ringo on matomedane.
And now for some choice fan art I found on Twitter:
ぎざぎざした歯への理解を深めたかったのだがなんかちょっとコワい絵になってしまった。 pic.twitter.com/JEGvCbESjy
— どくろまる (@d_chrml) January 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/Stockente_0612/status/1083382901025103872
https://twitter.com/toro3p/status/1083378465770885120
久々の二次創作。ギザギザかわいい pic.twitter.com/OBPhWqx3Vp
— 左折@ (@sasetsu_HG) January 13, 2019
砂塚あきら pic.twitter.com/yldfIZWYhd
— 孟達@C103日曜日 東C 08a (@jacjoraaaa) January 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/giba_FED_P/status/1084151805859098624
There are of course thousands of more posts on the #砂塚あきら hashtag alone and many more untagged pieces of art worth sharing, but these will at least get you started on your trip into the world of gizaba.
