Kuga

—Kuga

**Kuga** (Korean: **쿠가** [rom. Kuga]) is a trained tiger warrior and a representative of the Running Man Games due to him being the strongest warrior in his tribe. He participated in the Running Man Championship to go out into the world and test his strength.

He has a secret hidden underneath his gloves. He has the power to generate shock waves via a charged attack punch to increase his level of impact when hitting an obstacle.

Because of the Bars Tribe joining for the first time in years, his presence attracts a lot of attention due to being a strong candidate for the championship.

## Physical Description

Kuga is an orange shirtless tiger with a big, muscular, triangular body with a pale orange underbelly, with blue eyes. He has brown eyebrows with pale orange tips at the top and has brown tiger stripes. He also has apricot ears with brown conchae. He has brown hair, which is neatly swept to the right. He also has pink paw pads in his hands, except for his feet, which are brown instead. In height, he is the second tallest.

His outfit consists of dark-gray pants frayed at the bottom with purple gloves and purple belly band with yellow trimmings tied by red ropes. Under his gloves are brown paw pads to imitate his pink paw pads. During and after the events of Missing Gloves however, he wears white band wraps taking place of his gloves.

## Background

Growing up in the Bars Tribe, he wasn't aware about anything about the outside world until he joined the competition. According to his description, the Bars tribe rarely ventured onto the outside world and instead stayed in isolation, focusing on mastering martial arts and mental training.

Kuga is based on his real-life counterpart Kim Jong Kook.

## Personality

Throughout the series, he is shown to be caring, serious, and honest, but easily angered and hot-tempered, as shown when Lonky started taunting him about his loss. He is also deeply insecure about his paw pads, thinking that his pads make him look weak and thus, wears gloves to hide it.

Despite being hot tempered and violent, he is gentle and not the type to use his strength to attack anyone unprovoked or without reason, and he does not use his fists against small, young and weak opponents like Popo.

## Abilities and Equipment

### Abilities

* **Martial Arts Mastery** - Kuga is shown to be incredibly skilled in martial arts, having been trained since childhood in honing his craft. Because of his skill, he is highly feared by the other Running Men, who try their best not to get on his bad side.
* **Superpaw/Pink** - His pink paws possess a special power known as the 'Superpaw', an incredibly powerful ability to create a shockwave strong enough to heavily injure their victims. It's name comes from the paw-shaped crater produced from the shockwave when it hits a surface.

### Equipment

#### Gloves

* Kuga is often seen wearing a pair of dark purple training gloves over his hand wraps in order to hide his pink paw pads. Before losing it suddenly, he was shown taking great care of it, sewing it up when it's seams were falling apart.

## Relationships

### **Lonky**

In the beginning of the games, Kuga loathes Lonky for cheating the games and making fun of him for his loss. During the series however, Kuga grows to be more tolerant of him, often shutting him up by throwing him around by grabbing his neck whenever the giraffe taunts or purposely riles him up.

The only time they are shown to get along is during the ending episodes of Season 1, where Kuga saved him from getting absorbed by Ulcus and Lonky returning the favor by pulling him up when he fell.

### **Liu**

In the beginning he was cold with everyone, including Liu and thus, treated him with little to no respect. Nonetheless, Liu treated him with kindness out of the games, even comforting him when he was devastated over the loss of his gloves. As the series progressed, he slowly lowered his walls around him and started treating him more like a younger brother, being the first one to protect him from his own sister when she slapped him away and also the one restraining Liu before he could get into more trouble when he tried to follow his sister while he was under emotional turmoil.

### **Master Makhan**

When he was young he used to hear great stories about him, resulting in Kuga respecting him greatly for his powers, despite knowing about his exile. The respect never faded away, with Kuga wanting to save Makhan from his brainwashing so they are able to fight fairly and Makhan helping him gain more confidence about his paw pads and releasing his hidden power, the 'Super Paw'.

In the two-piece episode of 'Red-Eyed Beast', when he was knocked out by Makhan, while he was still brainwashed, Kuga developed a strong grudge for him, wanting to fight him as payback, since he didn't recognize him. That hatred eventually faded when he finally discovered Makhan's true identity as DV2.

## Appearances

Kuga appears throughout the entirety of Season 1.

## Quotes

"Pink is the color for men."

"Their bells sound a bit far away, I just need to make one more call to catch them all at once."

"Was Lonky just trying to warn me? No, there's no way I could ever trust that Lonky!"

"This was our strategy. A great one. And we'll fight another day."

"My paws are very strong, strong and pink."

"A true master doesn't bother with naming his takji."

"Nice try Lonky, but you won't win...this time"

"My gloves! they're gone! Where are they?! Where did I put them?! maybe the...Infirmary?!"

"I'll get him! I can, I promise you that!

"I'm gonna f\*ck up your bones and \*\*\*grab your tongue and beat you up until I can't beat you up any\*\*\*anymore! you hear?!

"I'll show you what happens when you mess with me or the Bars Tribe! or I'll just\*\*\*completely!

## Trivia

* In Captured, Kuga, along with Miyo was killed by Ulcus when he stepped on them. He, along with the others, came back when Popo turned back time.
* In the official comics, he had a girlfriend named Tina who broke up with him when it was revealed that she was a spy for the Giraf tribe.
* His name has 2 meanings. The first means 'plague' in Croatian, while the second means 'gift of God' in English origin.
* Kuga has tiny, white retractable claws, which he rarely uses throughout the series.
* He is the most popular member of the Running Men.

## Video

-애니메이션 런닝맨- 캐릭터 소개 2.쿠가 - RunningMan Animation - KUGA
## References

1. ↑ Running Man Animation Episode 48, The Last Card
2. ↑ Running Man Animation Ep. 35 - Gaining Ground Part 4
3. ↑ NAMU Wiki