Key Character Design Discussion

Key Discussion
#21

I’d like to talk about Chihaya Ohtori’s design (by Itaru Hinoue)

I was wondering about her winged hairclip and what it signifies to her, since it’s not really much alluded in the story. I did came up with an interpretation that seems convincing to me. It’s like her design is saying that she’s (Chihaya Route spoilers) like a lonely young bird perched on a tree (guess who the tree is), as if depending on the tree so much because up until the common route, she didn’t really have any friends, not to mention the fact that she’s still young.

It might actually be a foreshadowing to her character development, as (post-Common Route spoilers) she used to be quite indecisive, joining Gaia simply because she was told to do so. But when she grew up and made more friends, she became a more assertive ala “willing to soar high,” as she was willing to quit Gaia if it meant not having to hurt her friends. There are moments in her own route that has shown how much she has become assertive too.

That’s just an interpretation I came up with recently, so what do you think?

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#22

I’m not sure what to say about all that, but there’s an easier parallel to draw between Chihaya’s flaming red hair, the wing shaped accessories and her family name. Ohtori, written as 鳳, refers to a mythological bird that’s kinda like a phoenix called fenghuang. It’s also what the pokemon Ho-oh is based on.

This is the root to the Ohtori Kotori joke because Kotori translates to small bird. Of course, that could be totally off since the design were made before the names were decided upon, and the color scheme wasn’t always this either.

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#23

I think it’s there because it looks cute and Hinoni likes to make cute girls.

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#24

Ooohh, that’s an interesting point. Now that I’ve looked into it, it might be that the “Ohtori” came from her color scheme (since the Fenghuang is associated with fire)… and the hairclip as well. That or Hinoue might have designed Chihaya with the Fenghuang in mind, and gave the “Ohtori” as a naming suggestion. XD

(I ended up noticing something about her name, which I’ll put in her discussion topic instead)

#25

Interesting. I always thought the wings was an interpretation or, allusion, of that poem that Mio (Little Busters!/Mio Route) always loved to read, cause it was always talking about her loneliness as a person, and related to her dilemma with having no shadow.

[spoiler]

The seagull / wonder if she is sad / left alone without being touched / by the blue of the sky / or the blue of the sea." [/spoiler]

I always loved that poem because it truely expressed how Mio felt when she thought about people like Midori

Speaking of Little Busters!, is there a reason as to why Kengo, Masato, and Komari don’t wear normal school uniforms ? I’m an anime-only so it was never expressed.
I love Komari’s ribbons :slight_smile:


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#26

Kengo is busy with Kendo (though he has some sprites of him wearing the uniform in the VN). Masato is a punk (more like he simply doesn’t button his shirt) and Komari just… likes sweaters? Kanata did point it out to her, despite it not being against school regulations

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#27

Does Key artist do the art for new characters that are drawn in anime’s ? For example, when some Key characters don’t have sprites in the original VN, but that visual novel gets an adaption, does Hinoue/Na-Ga (depending on the Key work) draw a concept of what the character should look like, or does the animation studio decide what they should look like ?

Cause I mean, Rewrite has like 10 characters with no sprites that are beneficial to the story.
Same with LB, a little less, but same concept.
Speaking of the art too, did Na-Ga/Hinoue draw Suginami’s concept design for the anime, or did J.C. Staff do it themselves ?

And for the manga’s, if I’m not mistaken, there’s a Nagai (Rewrite) character design, which isn’t much, but was Hinoue in charge of drawing that ? Or was it someone else ? Doesn’t look Hinoue-like to me. I always imagined Nagai as a fiercer version of Courage-Chan, having the same looks and such. Would that also mean that in the anime, Nagai will look like the manga illustration of Nagai, or will she have a new design ?

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#28

That’s a bit complicated; for series like Angel Beats and Charlotte, I imagine Na-Ga would design most, if not all characters… But for the rest, well, that’s unclear. Like, who designed Rie and Nishina in CLANNAD? And as you said, Suginami in Little Busters? I guess it depends on the studio.

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#29

Hmmm… Hinoue said in a Rewrite interview that she did designs that wasn’t in the VN but felt was needed in the anime:

デザインをいろいろしました。ルチアの戦闘服もそうなんですけど、ゲームにはなかったけどアニメでは必要な衣装などデザインしているんです。
I designed many different ones. Like Lucia’s combat uniform, I’m designing a lot of clothes that I think are needed in the anime that weren’t in the game.

But who knows. If Nagai in the anime got a different design from the manga one, chances are Hinoue wasn’t particularly involved in her design. Otherwise, there’s a good chance that Hinoue prepared her design herself.

As for Suginami, it could be anything as well, but her design seemed… Na-Ga enough as it is.

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#30

It’s just an opinion, based on everything I read from her comments and the key companie. I believe she was too make sure “her” project will be a good one. This may be a very good sign, so the stay always in alignment with the VN.

#31

She hasn’t had a full-on Hinoue-Art anime adaption/anime in general since 2007-2008 with CLANNAD. There’s LB, but most of the characters are Na-Ga’s with only 4-5 Hinoue characters including not-as-important characters like A-Chan.

Of course she would want it to be good. Not to mention Rewrite had a ton of uniform changes and scenes that Hinoue didn’t draw/do that she wants to do for the anime to give a synopsis of what the characters/clothes look like.

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#32

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I just got this idea that the ribbon in Kurugaya’s design (by Hinoue again) might have gotten itself from the song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.” The song was basically about a dude who was uncertain if he can still return home, and asked his lover at home to “tie a yellow ribbon” if she will still want him back. Not sure about (LB! post-Refrain Kurugaya route spoilers) Riki having that uncertainty, but Kurugaya did welcome him by the end, so yeah.

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#33

Looking at Chihaya’s character design for the anime, opposed to the Visual Novel. I honestly have to say that it kinda looks disappointing now that I look at it a little closer.

How do I explain this. In the anime character design adaption, she looks like a power puff girl who’s cheeks that you just want to pinch.
In the original character design in the VN, she looks like someone who is straight-up loyal and seems like she gets the job done quickly.

The anime version looks like a 12 year old Chihaya living in a Loli universe. The VN looks like a 16/17 year old girl, living in the Rewrite universe.

Maybe it’s just the eyes that are intimidating me. I guess it’s because of the difference in her eyes. In the sprites that’s shown for Chihaya, her eyes are shown to be Tsurime-ish (for Modern Hinoue eyes), but in the Rewrite Trailer and stuff, you can obviously see her eyes are more Tareme-ish. I guess it’s due to Hinoue making the cast look different from the sprites, compared to the VN OP designs, where they look more child-like.

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#34

The way you describe it, the anime design sounds a lot more accurate to her character…

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#35

Can’t argue with that. Lol. It’s just that her VN design looks more Sharp. The Anime design looks poofy if that sounds right.

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#36

You’re pretty much describing the difference between ALL VN vs anime designs, Key or otherwise. Thats just the way they look.

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#37

It’s actually just Chihaya that doesn’t look right out of all the characters for me. Everyone else’s anime-look seems fine, and seems close to the original. I know that there’s a restriction to hair strands and sharpness since it is an anime of course, but I’m just referring to the eyes of course, and it doesn’t look right.

There was that Akane talk the dealt with the eyes too if I recall. Chihaya’s eyes should lean inwards more. She looks loli-Ish. Would not be a pleasant scene when she first appears in the common route if she looks loli-like.

#38

Clannad gives us a very rare opportunity to see how genetics are visualized since we get 3 whole generations of a family. So wanted to take a look at how and what traits are passed down.

[Album] Furukawa Genes

Starting from the top of the family tree, Sanae’s hair is a warm brown color, and she has 3 distinct ahoge. Akio’s hair is a deep red. It’s pretty wild and all over the place, and he has 2 ahoge. Nagisa’s hair is a reddish brown, and she has 2 ahoge. Tomoya’s design isn’t as clearly defined, but CGs show that he has blue hair, no ahoge and pretty straight hair. Finally, Ushio’s hair is straight with a pale brown color. She also lacks the ahoge.

Here are the main colors of each character.

In general, we can see that the daughters inherit most of their appearance from their mothers, but their fathers’ traits still show in their hair. In 2/2 cases the ahoge number is based on the father. Nagisa has clearly gotten some of Akio’s red color, and some of his wildness can also be seen in how Nagisa’s bangs fan outwards(not necessarily reflected in her personality). That wild influence is nowhere to be seen in Ushio’s hair, and she also has the least vibrant shade of brown due to Tomoya’s blue color in the mix. Interestingly, there is barely any difference in eye color between the women. Akio’s eyes are brighter, and Tomoya stands out the most with his blue eyes.

One thing that we unfortunately can’t check reliably is if Sanae’s wavy hair is passed down. We can see that Sanae’s hair starts curling up towards the ends, but Nagisa and Ushio only have shoulder length hair, so we can’t say whether they don’t have the genes or it only starts curling with long hair. Neither Akio nor Tomoya have curly hair, so based on the previous observations we could hypothesize that their daughters inherited their straight hair.

So the genetics are solid, I think. We can instantly see that Nagisa is Sanae and Akio’s daughter, and likewise can we instantly see that Ushio is Nagisa’s daughter which is pretty important if you know what I mean.

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#39

Am I the only one who thinks Lucia is one of those characters that looks beautiful from side views, but not as good from frontal views ?

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#40

Well it depends whether you’re talking about her design in which medium she’s depicted in. She looks much younger with softer expressions in the anime compared to the VN (which is pretty much most other adaptations) so it may look off putting to some because of proportions.

Personally, if we’re talking about the VN, she looks beautiful to me haha.

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Below should still be considered frontal right?

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