Donald Trump has a new identity in a video that has gone viral on the internet – as a Ranga Manga Monster who destroys the world.
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Papa Trumpusan, as he is being called, stars in what appears to be a campaign ad for Japanese television, but is in fact the work of 28-year-old Hollywood-based video artists Mike Dahlquist, aka Mike Diva.
He also created the electronic music track (Our Glorious Leader) used in the clip, which shows a young Japanese woman (Chloe Doan) seemingly day dreaming in a bedroom plastered with images of The Donald when news comes on the television that he has been elected World President.
That's the cue for her to enter an alternative realm where everything is Trump-flavoured. She glides in space through a cityscape comprising nothing but Trump towers. She passes through a portal in the shape of a Trumphead and emerges in an orchard of Trump-faced cherry blossoms. She rides on the back of a giant Trump-headed alpaca (a fundraising Super alPACa, maybe?) and finally embraces him as nuclear rockets blast off. The pair then transform into a giant robot (according to some observers, it's a Robo-Beast from the 1980s anime Voltron), which erects a giant wall, blasts into space and destroys the Earth with a well-aimed laser blast.
It ends with a young woman's voice saying "Trumpu, 2016", then giggling.
According to some reports, many people have mistakenly taken the video, which has been viewed more than 3 million times, at face value.
That's a confusion Dahlquist seems happy to foster. "A lot of people are confused, a lot of people think its real, and a lot of people are angry," he told The Japan Times.
To the American ABC news network – which claims the clip had been viewed more than 13 million times within its first three days online – Dahlquist said the reason he made the video is because "this little guy, Trumpusan" was "adorable".
He added that commenters on his YouTube posting were split about 50-50 between those who thought the clip is pro-Trump and those who think it is anti.
But keen-eyed watchers (at least those who read the katakana script) have picked up on a couple of clues that suggest Dahlquist may not be quite as enamoured of The Donald as he professes.
First, there's the image of Der Trumpster giving a Nazi salute, with a swastika in the background.
Second, there's the image of him a few frames later, forming a love heart with his hands. The image is overlaid with script that drops the C-bomb on Trump, Japanese style.
But Dahlquist may yet prove to be an equal-opportunity satirist. He has promised a new video, about Hillary Clinton, will be released within weeks.
