Drum Bunker Dragon (character)

''This article is about the character. For the card, see Drum Bunker Dragon.''

"Drum Bunker Dragon", or simply "Drum", is a character in the Future Card Buddyfight anime and manga, and the buddy monster of Gao Mikado. He is mostly dependable for the 'Salamander Engine', a weapon made up of six drills passed down throughout his family tree. His real name is "Fang Slade Terrestrial XIV" ("The son of Drum Bunker Dragon Fang Slade Terrestial XIII" in the Japanese version).

He is voiced by Shintaro Ohata (Japanese) 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 a long 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.

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.

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.

Hundred Demon Invasion
During the time skip between season, 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.

Finding the Omni Lords
In episode 14, Drum becomes the next Fifth Omni Dragon Lord right before Tenbu was devoured by Yamigedo.

During Gao special leave from Count Dawn, Drum has train to become a true Omni Lord.

In episode 25,

Trivia

 * It was mentioned in Animage 8/14 that his height in his real form is from 2.5 meteres to 3 meters.