Ballmastrz: Rubicon Creator Christy Karacas Talks Going Full Anime, Season 3 Hopes and More

Ballmastrz: 9009 ended its second season with a massive cliffhanger teasing that a huge new space battle was on the way, and now Ballmastrz: Rubicon has arrived to continue that story by finally giving fans the space opera epic they have been hoping for! It’s a much different kind of return than expected, however, as the first reveals of footage from the upcoming special saw Crayzar and the Leptons take on a much different look from before. After referencing anime, Tokusatsu, manga and more in the two seasons of the series, the franchise has actually transformed into a full on anime. 

It’s such a wild return to form that we just needed to know how it all came to be. ComicBook.com got the chance to speak with Ballmastrz franchise creator Christy Karacas ahead of the special’s debut on Adult Swim, and asked him about what it felt like going from references to becoming a full anime, potential plans for the future (with some slight Rubicon story spoilers for those weary), anime’s rise in popularity in the last few years, and much more! 

Read on for our full talk with Ballmastrz: Rubicon creator Christy Karacas, and let us know your thoughts about the series in the comments! Are you excited to check out the new anime special? How do you feel about its transformation? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

Coming Back as an Anime for Rubicon

NICK VALDEZ, COMICBOOK.COM: I was excited for Ballmastrz: Rubicon, because Season 2 had that huge cliffhanger. It was unfortunate timing too though since it ended during the shutdown, so as time went on, it didn’t seem like it would continue. So, how does it feel coming back for Ballmastrz: Rubicon?

CHRISTY KARACAS: I’m so excited and I’ve been so impatient because again, we set that up, and I hate when there’s a cliffhanger that it doesn’t get resolved, or if it’s just some fake out. We totally knew what we wanted to happen, but it was just such a weird thing between COVID and the Time Warner merger and all these things. There kept being all these delays, and I wondered if people would even remember. So I’m excited if they remember and they’re psyched to see it.

Speaking along those lines, it’s coming back in a completely different way. You’re working with Studio 4C now, so how was becoming a full anime production?

That was awesome. It was kind of a dream because I’ve always been a huge fan since films like Mind Game, and I like Detroit Metal City, and Tekkonkinkreet, all these things. So I had always wanted to do an anime studio, but I was like, “Oh, I don’t know how.” And then I had this connection, and it just all worked out, so I was shocked. I was shocked we could even do it in Japan. Then I was shocked it was 4C, so it blew my mind.

Working With Studio 4C

When it comes to the character designs in this new collaboration, what was that like? Because we get introduced to some new characters connected to Crayzar, and new power-ups. Did your team come up with these designs and pass it over? 

This time around, what happened was I wrote it with my partner, Andrew Reuland here, and then I storyboarded it with one of the storyboard artists from season one and two, Veronica Lu. We rough storyboarded everything and then sent it to 4C. Then any new designs I would do sketches, and then they would redesign it in their kind of clean style, redid the color design, and redid the background design…They didn’t redo the boards, but there were small changes. There were changes they would make that were maybe more in the anime style. 

It was funny, I was saying this in another interview. I was so nervous to work with them. I was like, “I’m not good enough.” So I went really crazy with the storyboards…There was a lot of action cut. They were like, “This is just too much. We can’t animate all this.” I was like, “Oh, because I thought you’d want to.” But then I was like, “Oh, it was just too much to cram into 22 minutes.”

Telling Crayzar’s Story in Rubicon

That’s another thing too. When approaching this special as opposed to a potential Season 3, did you have to factor in how much story you wanted to tell compared to where you might want to save and take it after? 

Yeah. We wanted to definitely set up a new season or new specials, but we still want it to be a self-contained story. I think what was interesting too is that so much of the show had focused on Ace, Gaz, and [Baby] Ball and this sports stuff. Now since it’s going in such a different direction, it really kind of is a Crayzar story. Crayzar was always kind of a fan favorite, but you didn’t know much about him. He’d just show up and be goofy. But we were like, “No, there is much more to Crayzar.” So we were psyched about that. 

Ball and Crayzar are, I would say, the main people in this and some of Crayzar’s family. So that was really fun to have them interact because they were just pretty funny together, I thought. And I’d love to see more of that. I mean, we hope if it had more things, I’d love to see all these weird characters from the other teams becoming more main characters and living on this ship. Even though they’d be having these epic space adventures, they’d still probably be having really dumb arguments on the ship and about really dumb things. So it would be really fun, I think.

Big Teases for the Future (RUBICON SPOILERS AHEAD)

This is a tough to say because Rubicon also has a cliffhanger, but it also feels more like a finale because we got this cinematic experience with it. Now, if that’s the case, how do you feel about Crayzar and the development you were able to get with him? 

I hope it’s not it because there’s so much stuff we haven’t answered or resolved or explored enough. I mean, we were making all these jokes about things we could do. Would Ace start hitting puberty and growing up on the ship? And would Dee Dee and Leto, what is their relationship going to turn into being in space? And Gaz isn’t really a mess anymore. She’s really responsible and the new leader. There’s just all these new things and again, even explains the team. And then Crayzar, there’s a lot with Crayzar and his brother that we wanted to get into, their past. Because his brother clearly hates him. And we don’t really explain why, but there are reasons we have, why he just so hates Crayzar.

I really wanted this in the special. We didn’t have time. I wanted to have flashbacks of Crayzar before Earth. And that’s something I hope we get to do if we do more. Because again, I want to explain all these things, that you see this whole other side of it. Sometimes when you see a story from another point of view, it’s like, “Oh, that’s interesting. That’s why they’re like that.” So I think that would be really fun. But I mean, it’d be sad if it’s the end, but it would also…I guess you just know that they’re off to more adventures somewhere.

Just in case, yeah, it felt very anime.

Favorite Anime References

And on that note, you’ve got in a lot of cool shout outs to anime in both Rubicon and the main series itself. Do you have a particular favorite that you’ve managed to sneak in?

I mean, one thing that I got really into that’s not really anime, but it’s a live-action show, is there’s this show called … I don’t know if you’ve seen the show MegaBeast Investigator Juspion. But there’s a lot of Juspion references. It’s this really bizarre, I mean, I think it’s awesome. And it’s funny, we talked a lot about … How do I say this?

Sometimes in the live-action, there’s a certain sensibility that we were like, “How do we replicate it as an anime?” Sometimes on these live action shows every time the ships and things have really crazy names. So with Crayzar’s spaceship, Super Fortress Gold Diamond, we wanted to have these crazy names and we were going to do graphics on the screen, but then everything got weird with translation. And we’re doing it at 4C. It’s COVID and it’s over internet. So we ended up [just having them] say the names a lot.

We had names for different weapons and things. I was psyched. I was psyched about Crayzar’s rose that he uses to…it’s not really a reference, but it just seemed very anime. What is he even doing with this rose? And is it really controlling things? What’s going on? So that was one of my favorite things, I think.

Oh yeah, it was pretty cool because that helped emphasize the space opera part of it with a kind of huge galactic battle. It all hit the mark in terms of anime stuff. 

Anime’s Rise in Popularity

Ballmastrz was kind of ahead of the curve in terms of how much love it was showing to anime. And so as a full anime creator now, how do you feel about anime’s rise of popularity now in the West as compared to a couple years ago?

I mean, it’s funny, I was just having this conversation with someone. There’s a graphic novel I just saw yesterday, it’s called Step By Bloody Step? Have you heard of this?

Nuh-uh. 

It’s put out by Image Comics. I can’t remember the creator [series writer Si Spurrier and illustrators Mattheus Lopes and Matias Bergara], but it’s this little girl character with this big kind of, it’s almost like an iron robot kind of thing. But I remember thinking, I was like, “Oh, is it a manga?” I guess, I can’t even remember. I think it’s not though. A friend I was talking to at the time, just goes, “I think everyone’s been so influenced by manga now that now you’re seeing a lot of things that look like anime or manga that are not made from there.” But the line is getting very blurred.

I mean, Steven Universe looks very animated me in a lot of ways. Maybe it’s the background or some of the designs, but also looks kind of maybe European or French. And that stuff kind of blurs the line too. But I think it’s great. I mean, I think the cool thing with anime is I just think so many of the stories and the characters are just so out there, that it never gets boring. I love Marvel movies, but sometimes they all start to feel the same. But with anime, y’all just see some new anime, “What the heck is this about?” It never seems boring.

Oh totally.

Do you know Rooster Fighter? It’s not a rooster guy, it’s a legitimate rooster that fights kaiju. And it’s so weird because it’s a rooster. It doesn’t talk. It’s so good. It’s really cool.

Oh, it sounds awesome. Yeah, you’re throwing out deep cuts that even I am not aware of! It comes through in the team designs and stuff too. I know my favorite is the Choo Choo Chums, do you have a favorite team? I know it might be hard to choose.

I really love Mega Fist and Stink Finger. That’s that green finger and that guy that has got gold lights on. I just think they’re so funny. And really, again, one of the reasons I want to do more is I’d love to have episodes where they’re in the story being main characters because I think they’re really funny.

Rubicon’s Main Takeaway

So just as a final question, for those jumping into the Ballmastrz special, maybe this is the first time that they’ve seen it with Rubicon, what are you hoping that those new eyes take from this experience?

I mean, I hope they just enjoy it and have a good time and want to see more. And maybe they’ll go back and check out the original first two seasons. But I definitely think for me, I like the first two seasons, but I really like this new direction. It’s exciting and it’s just feeling right now. How, I don’t know. It’s definitely enjoyable.

Yeah, it feels like it’s always meant to be an anime. Just great job on that all all around. Thank you for taking the time out to speak with me. I really appreciate it.

Thanks so much for having me, man. I think after the special premieres, they’re going to do some kind of marathon on Toonami and do a bunch of Toonami [promotion]. So again, maybe if people dig it that never saw it and they’re checking it out, maybe that’ll look good to the network.

Ballmastrz: Rubicon premieres on Adult Swim on Monday, February 20 at midnight EST, and it is now streaming with HBO Max.