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titleknown · 2 years

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Tetsuya Nomura Designing Humans: The Most Anime Animes To Ever Anime

Tetsuya Nomura Designing Monsters: He is just... a littol creacher. Just a weird little guy.

#tetsuya nomura #creature design #heartless #tonberry #silly #character design #jokes

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jliciousart · 6 months

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KINGDOM 👑💎 UNIVERSE

steven universe 🌹💎 × 👑🗝 kingdom hearts AU

what if there was a crossover between two elitist pretentiouscore kid-friendly franchises with immaculate vibes inspired by 90s-00s aesthetic... 👀

I designed these back in 2018 and I'm still very fond of them! I actually have designs for the rest of the gems too, but had no time to actually render them out 😭 I even have the entire KH1 opening boarded... please send me questions about kingdom universe lore if you're curious!

(image description available in image, and also under the cut!)

[Image ID: Characters from Steven Universe dressed in Kingdom Hearts-inspired outfit designs.

Left: Connie bears a cheerful expression and is holding Rose's Sword akin to Sora's likeness in his key art from Kingdom Hearts 1. She is wearing overalls from the cartoon, but modified with Nomura-esque character design flairs, like belt straps holding Rose's Scabbard, fanny packs, and gloves and zippers adorning her overalls. Her arms and legs are also wrapped with bandages, and there is a stylised rose adorning the flap of her shoes.

Middle: Steven is smiling and doing peace signs. He is wearing a pink sweater with his signature star-pattern shirt and jean shorts from the cartoon. His sweater has multiple zipped pockets. He is wearing a belt across his sweater, with suspenders hanging from his belt. His signature flip-flops have been stylised into strappy sandals with socks.

Right: Amethyst is brandishing her Keyblade over her head with her other arm outstretched, mimicking Riku's brandishing of Way to the Dawn after falling into darkness. Her signature Gem Whip has been converted into a Keyblade, bearing a very threatening and spiky design full of sharp amethyst gemstones. Her costume is very torn and ragged with studded belts over her right leg, hip and shoulder, combining elements of her pilot and reformed outfit from the cartoon. The Crystal Gem sigil—a simple star—is seen on the stockings of her left leg. Her shoes are crystalline amethyst armour shoes. End ID]

#kingdom hearts #steven universe #artists on tumblr #character design #tetsuya nomura #rebecca sugar #kingdom universe #cartoon network #square enix #su #connie maheswaran #amethyst su #kh

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kairidaily · 5 months

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I was looking up old, Nomura interviews. I was going to use the english Ultimania but I forgot they didn't leave in his commentary. So I'm using KHInsider's A Look Back: KINGDOM HEARTS Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1 article. Here's what he said about Kairi (circa KH1) and her design:

With the heroines of the other titles I’ve worked on so far, since I wasn’t the only person in charge of the plot, I had to be more careful with them than other characters, and it was difficult to have full control - but this time I was allowed to draw exactly as I pleased.

And instantly came up with something iconic :)

During development we floated the idea of having Kairi be playable, and I wanted to depict Kairi’s personality even more eg. against Sora, against Riku, and her past. But due to circumstances we had to postpone those ideas for now.

and proceeded to postpone for over a decade. some 👀 say he still is! 🙃

Her hair is a secret homage to Utada Hikaru, who provided the theme song.

Ooh neat! Here's the confirmation of the 'Kairi's hair is inspired by Utada's' thing. I'm less sad now :)

#meta #tetsuya nomura #kingdom hearts #kairi #character design #something sunday

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fletchingbrilliant · 6 months

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~machinist Zae is ready for battle~🖤

I can safely say I'm happy with this style emulation of Tetsuya Nomura. I chose to create a character out of my darling fiancé, my gay lover, my trans journey buddy. He chose machinist for his class and I live for it

Get yours for only $50 this Yule season!!!

PS I'm not sorry about the numbers on the character card.

#kingdomhearts #khfanart #final fantasy #ff art #tetsuya nomura #commissionsale #commissionsopen #oc commission #oc art #characterillustration #character design

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eggs-can-draw · 13 days

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Could be worse in the clothes department. A character from Final Fantasy has a skirt that is literally made of belts and nothing else. Cant really imagine that being comfy. I think their name is Lulu

I would agree with you but it doesn’t really seem. Tight? The shading implies a loose fit so it’s probably a bit. Specially disorienting at best and Kinda Pretty Heavy at worst.

The leg window is kinda funny ngl

#eggs can answer #TETSUYA FUCK YOU NOMURA #I can’t tell if this is a win or a loss for character designer Tetsuya Nomura but. it sure is smth #definitely not. comfortable looking.

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mr-legoman · 2 years

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Nomura and the destined villain

It seems Nomura likes to write or the idea of a man destined to turn evil or be corrupted in the pursuit of their ideal. Ardyn FFXV and more recently with Jack Garland, and you could even argue somewhat Xehanort in some aspects. He seems to work with the idea in some of his games.

So I think if some strange circumstances allow, he should make a Legend of Zelda action spinoff staring Ganondorf

#Yes I realize this could result in a complete disaster #And yes someone else needs to handle character designs #but it would still be interesting to see this madman work #tetsuya nomura #nomura #nomura tetsuya #Final Fantasy #final fantasy stranger of paradise #stranger of paradise #jack garland #legend of zelda #loz ganon #loz #ganondorf #xehanort #kingdom hearts

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rjalker · 1 year

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never going to get over the fact that my subconcious recognized Terra's fucking face from the CGI in the opening theme which is why I've hated his guts since the moment I saw him and did not trust him and kept waiting for him to do something Horrible and Ominous.

well now we all fucking know why, don't we?????

#Birth By Sleep #Terra Kingdom Hearts #Tetsuya Nomura you did such a good job at character design you actually #went all the way back around to failing. because we're supposed to like Terra.#but you did too good of a job at desining him and it instead made me hate and distrust him the moment I saw him #RIP

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babyloniastreasure · 1 year

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it’s okay to admit that an artist you like had a bad design. like. not every design is going to be a banger. not every design that makes it to the final phase is going to be good. some will be iconic, most will be standard, and some will be just terrible. you don’t have to jump to defense and excuses when a design is objectively bad just cause you like the rest of the artists’ work

#this is about both u-olga and about tighnari #i LOVE pako. but tighnari was a bad design. it doesnt matter who told him what or IF anyone told him what #in the end pako's design Was Bad and also doesnt mesh well alongside other characters--which he is excellent at being able to do #u-olga is ALSO bad.#takeuchi has some iconic designs and IS capable of harmony and thematics and nuance in his design. however u-olga doesnt have harmony #therefore. her design is BAD #i can say the same thing about arnold tseng and tetsuya nomura #Artists! Can! Make! Bad! Designs!#you dont have to defend them or make excuses

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siringadev · 3 months

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"Kitase and Nomura decided something very early in FFVII's development that has remained since then: within the FFVII universe, there's no one better than Sephiroth. He'll always be the strongest, the most powerful, and the most evil there is. (HobbyConsolas) Below are their specific words.

Yoshinori Kitase: This goes back to conversations I had with Tetsuya Nomura, who did the character design and also co-wrote the script for the original game; we designed and created the Sephiroth. Essentially, we talked and decided very early on something that has remained true all these years since: There is no one better in the Final Fantasy VII universe than Sephiroth. He will always be the strongest, the most powerful and the most evil of all. In many RPGs, what we call "boss inflation" happens: you meet a very powerful boss who is the greatest warrior, but oh my God, behind that character is another who turns out to be even more powerful; you will defeat him and surprise! Behind him was another, even more powerful. And this leaves those who arrived first in a bad position. We decided that we wouldn't do that in Final Fantasy VII; that there will be no one higher than Sephiroth. He will always be the big bad and the most powerful bad guy. I think it might have something to do with the fact that it remains so memorable. Because there's no one better in Final Fantasy VII than Sephiroth.

Naoki Hamaguchi: Sephiroth is already a very popular and beloved character, but let me tell you, I think people will love him and have an even stronger connection with him after playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. We received a lot of press after playing flashbacks of Sephiroth and Cloud in their youth. He's a little different from the Cloud that most people know, he's rougher, he's more new, he's a less savvy character (Cloud). And that's very interesting to see, but we also see Sephiroth from a different angle, when he wasn't the villain he later became. The demo ends at a certain point, and after that something happens that no one has seen yet… Although this is what was in the original, so people already know: we see what made Sephiroth stop being so heroic, a more human character and become a villain who disappears in the fire, becoming the true Sephiroth. Even knowing what was going on when I was working on this part, it really affected me. I wouldn't say I sided with Sephiroth, but I did sympathize with him. You understand much better why he made this decision. And I think that when people see this, they will love Sephiroth even more." There is a persistent idea among FF7 fans that Sephiroth is under Jenova's control and that he is a victim. But is it? In reality, Jenova is an alien parasite, a collection of cells with an instinct to destroy everything it touches. Jenova has no will or consciousness. Sephiroth then took control and came up with the image of a "mother", which is his own subconscious, or his repressed instincts. The parallel with the Anima of Carl Jung will be interesting here. The shadow that was not realized came out and took on terrible forms. But the horror is that this is Sephiroth. His previously repressed, dark, "feminine" side. Shinra wanted to make him a hero, an example of courage and bravery, an example for men, while his attractive image was sexualized along with the suppression of his own emotions. His image was sold as a commodity, and he himself was simply a propaganda tool. I think he realized all this and at that very moment a suppressed part of his personality was released in the fires of Nibelheim. And in Lifestream he finally established himself.

#fanart #digital art #sephiroth #jenova #final fantasy 7 #ff7 rebirth #analysis #villain #one winged angel

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beardedmrbean · 1 month

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Mutsumi Inomata passed away on March 10. She was an artist responsible for designing the characters in many Tales series games. Somebody needs to keep a close eye on Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura, we can't lose any more JRPG artists this year.

The official Twitter account for artist Mutsumi Inomata announced on Monday that Inomata died on March 10. Her family held a private funeral.

The announcement added that Inomata's death was "sudden," and she still had the draft for a new illustration that she had only started drawing before she died.

Inomata is perhaps best known for being one of the main character designers for Namco's (later Bandai Namco Entertainment) Tales of series of role-playing games, alongside Kousuke Fujishima. The company offered its condolences and sincere thanks to Inomata in a message on Monday, adding that the connection fans of the series have to Inomata's characters "will shine forever in their hearts." Inomata was the solo character designer for Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Rebirth, Tales of the Tempest, Tales of Innocence, Tales of Hearts, and Tales of Graces, and collaborated with other character designers for individual character designs in other installments of the series.

Within anime, Inomata worked as an animator at Ashi Production from 1979 until 1982, when she and some animators from Ashi Production left the company and founded Kaname Production. There, she worked as character designer and animator on such anime as Acrobunch - The Quest for Treasure, Plawres Sanshiro, Leda - The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, Once Upon a Time, and Watt Poe to Bokura no Ohanashi, among others. In her later freelance career, she drew character designs for such anime as Future GPX Cyber Formula, Saitama Bōsō Saizensen Flag! Shinimonogurui no Seishun!!, and Brain Powerd. She also drew the illustrations for the Utsunomiko and The Weathering Continent novel series, both of which later inspired anime adaptations.

Source: Mutsumi Inomata's Twitter account ________________________________________

Not someone I'm familiar with, but I know she had to be stellar, if she wasn't there'd be more information about her instead of a laundry list of all the things she created and projects she worked on.

Having a bad run Akira Toriyama and now Mutsumi Inomata, I don't know if they're the same circle but I imagine they probably knew each other and crossed paths in their industries.

Oop and they both did Dragon Quest, there it is.

#anonymous #rip another legend #tales series #dragon quest #Mutsumi Inomata

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skyflyinginaction · 1 month

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Kingdom Hearts Destiney Trio Character Design Analysis

This is another character design post based on Kingdom Hearts. I said before that Kingdom Hearts is a convoluted game. It's mainly because how it's just so much to remember so it is difficult to compile everything in his post. This is going to be taken from interviews or design notes from the creator.

I wanted to talk about the main Kingdom Hearts trio Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Their names mean sky, ocean, and land respectively. The meanings in their names might have been obvious but in Japanese, the important thing is the context in which those names' meanings are used in Japanese. Knowing Nomura he puts as much meaning in the games as possible the same can be said with the trio's names.

The sky, ocean, and land are components that make up the world. These three act as the basis of the worlds we live in, worlds are an important terminology in Kingdom Hearts Sora, Donald, and Goofy travel around worlds fighting heartless and places where one resides and calls home. The meanings in the trio's name note their close relationship with each other, their importance to each other, and the importance of the friends that make up their worlds; they are each other's world so to speak.

Sora

You can’t talk about Riku and Kairi without talking about Sora, the main character of the series. The series started with him and his character design goes through the most changes in the series. When he goes to many worlds he takes on different forms to suit the world he is in. Sora goes through numerous changes in the series; this is seen best in his design; the character design notes his growth and change in the series.

Name:

Sora's name in Japanese means “sky, (空)” it references his role and personality he displays that being his adventurous spirit, cheerful, bright, friendly, and light-hearted personality and he can easily make friends due to his outgoing personality and he seems to look at the bright side of things.

There is something to how it's used in the game: sky is referred to as heaven's source of goodness sky where the light comes from references to the goodness in Sora’s heart that has the power to mend the hurting. The sky connects all worlds as sort of an interdimensional pathway that Sora uses to travel to worlds to fight heartless and seal keyholes. There are many worlds but they share the same sky which can mean they share the same Sora. This can refer to the people connected to Sora’s heart, hence the same sky.

Design:

Tetsuya Nomura designs his characters based on their names and outfits related to their personalities the same is said about Sora, Nomura created Sora’s design based on Sora’s cheerful outgoing personality. Sora has spiky hair in his design. This is a Nomura-styled character art so having spiky hair characteristics is a signature of Tetsuya Nomura.

When it came to designing Sora Nomura placed roundness in his designs and designed Sora with soft curves to fit with the Disney universe art style in which soft curves reflect Disney's style. Sora has soft curves to match Donald and Goofy. He is traveling with Donald and Goofy so he would be designed to match them.

Why the designs of Kingdom Hearts characters designs look deformed because they capture that Disney cartoonish look so you see more shapes in Sora's hair since it is a trademark of the cartoon art style that Disney has looking at Sora’s design has fewer details and triangle shapes in Sora hair it's simple not overly complicated much like the cartoon style Disney is known for.

Mickey Mouse was originally going to be the main protagonist but Sora was created instead, Sora's clothes are based on Mickey Mouse Sora is wearing clothes similar to what Mickey is wearing in Disney with the red shorts, yellow shorts, and white gloves resembling Mickey's clothes. Sora’s base colors reflect the colors of Mickey Mouse; his colors are red, yellow, white, and black.

An interesting detail in Sora’s character design is that he wears a crown necklace and has a crown chain hanging on his waist. Sora wears a crown necklace which is prominent in all the designs; the crowns in his design are a reference to the crown logo in Kingdom Hearts fitting since he is the main protagonist of Kingdom Hearts.

The blue eye color is a reference to the sky color being blue.

Sora is a character created as a link between Disney and Squire Enix and his design tells.

Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes

Kingdom Hearts 2 Sora goes through another design as he matures throughout the series Kingdom Hearts 2 design is notably mature and it shows how much Sora as a character has grown.

In case you didn’t notice sora’s Kingdom Hearts 2 outfit has sharper edges the designs lost the soft curves and were replaced with sharker lines Nomura tried incorporating sharper elements in their designs how much they grew compared to the first Kingdom Hearts they appeared.

Sora’s hair has changed a lot which means that he grows more, his hair was pointed down as a kid now it's stuck outside. If you look at his design the spikes in his hair are more vertical. Sora now has lighting in his hair because of Roxas influence.

Sora's base color is black so Sora’s clothes have an entirely black color, his base color is used to contrast with Roxas base color white, nobody even his Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes are designed to contrast aside from Roxas black base reference to Mickey Mouse's own body which is colored black.

The designs in Kingdom Hearts 2 are slightly more realistic and more like Final Fantasy design.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

For Sora’s clothes in Dream Drop Distance, his outfit is taken from the first game but has a few differences, black and red are Sora’s main colors, and it's prevalent in his clothes. dream drop distance primarily on growth it would make sense if they take us back to his look from the first kingdom hearts.

As I stated before black is a reference to Mickey Mouse's body and it shows up again in his clothes.

There is a new detail in the design its sora has an x in the middle of his chest, x is a sigel that Xemnas uses with nobodies to make the members of the organization vessels of Xehanort mark the death of a self this is what Xehanort is planning to do to sora make him a vassal of Xehanort hence the death of his self this a foreshadow that Xehanort interferes with the exam.

Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes

Sora’s Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes show how much Sora grew as a character And faced bigger challenges.

Sora's clothes design is a mix of his Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes and Dream Drop Distances clothes his clothes are more sleek and sporty to reflect Sora’s new battle style that he moves around more sora does a lot more acrobatic action-oriented movements and his clothes show that. Since Kingdom Hearts 3 is a new game, Sora's Kingdom Hearts 3 outfit reflects that.

The hair in Sora’s Kingdom Hearts 3 design is muted and his hair points back, the bits that are used to stick outside or folded back.

If you look at Sora’s hair from the top view in Kingdom Hearts 3 it's shaped like a crown. This is unintentionally from Nomura, the use of crowns in the game references Kingdom Hearts.

His current design is from Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes might have some Roxas influence in them if you put Roxas and Sora Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes together you can tell that parts of his clothes are taken from his like the plaid is a reference to the light and darkness motif a callback to Roxas wristband.

Sora’s clothes in Kingdom Hearts 3 are red and black, black to reference his Kingdom Hearts 2 clothing base color his Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes are black it's just the graphics make his clothes gray.

Sora has buttons on his clothes the button is a reference to the buttons that Micky Mouse has on his shorts, Sora 3 buttons on his jacket are a reference to the 3 in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Sora’s design looks more realistic and more defined as compared to his design in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Here is an interesting detail I want to mention it's about Mickey Mouse, Mickey's clothes in Kingdom Hearts are based on what Soras wears in the game which would make sense since Sora is designed after Mickey Mouse this is used to resemble what Sora wears in the game this is a clever reference to the fact that sora is based on mickey mouse mikey had the same clothes to match Sora.

Riku

Okay, the next design to discuss in the trio is Riku, Sora’s best friend aside from Kairi. Riku’s design, much like Sora's, goes through numerous clothes changes due to his character development in the games. Riku goes through a lot of growth across the series and the clothes in his design prove that.

Name:

Riku’s name in Japanese means "land, (陸)” Land is one of the components that make up the world land is associated with being strong and unmovable this can reference Riku’s newfound strength and resistance towards the darkness and desire to have the strength to protect those who matter like his friends Riku and Kairi.

Unmovable can infer how Riku is steadfast in his convictions demonstrated in how he is determined to wake up Sora no matter what form he takes and his ambition to travel to other worlds.

The land is a common feature in all the worlds, landforms are the physical core of all the worlds this notes Riku’s personality being that Riku is more mature, grounded, and realistic compared to his other friends.

Design:

Riku is drawn as an old-fashioned rival character, rival designs have a contractional design their rival is the same is said with Riku whose entire design heavily contrasts with Sora’s. He is created based on the series' main theme of being able to choose light and darkness so it would make sense that he is created to contrast Sora.

Riku is designed to balance Sora, he is created as a foil in Sora’s which is seen in his design If you put the characters together you can tell how much they contrast one another, even their clothes show contrast, Riku has long hair to Sora’s spiky short hair, sora wears a jacket and Riku wears a sleeveless shirt. Riku’s color scheme contrasts with Sora’s color scheme where Riku's main base color blue contrasts with Sora's and the rest of the colors in Riku’s design contrast with Sora’s colors in his design.

Riku’s eyes are green, this is a reference to what earth or land appears to have a green color.

Riku’s hair color is silver, Riku's silver hair is a clever nod to how he was possessed by Ansem before even took on his appearance in Kingdom Hearts 2 Riku’s silver hair references Ansem's gray hair notes his possession of Ansem, and his hair color foreshadowed that.

Riku is ashamed of his actions in the first game which still haunts him until Dream Drop Distance, Ansem references his darkness Ansem haunts Riku in the form of his darkness until Riku reconciles with his darkness in Dream Drop Distance.

Riku is close to a final fantasy protagonist or a Squire Enix-style character due to the fact he plays a worried protagonist and it shows well.

Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes

I don’t know what to say about Riku’s clothes in Kingdom Hearts too other than his clothes follow the same pattern that I previously mentioned His clothes are still made to contrast Sora he has a similar color scheme to Sora The white in Riku’s jacket contrasts to soras black base color.

Riku’s hair becomes long in Kingdom Hearts 2. This could infer how he is trying to control the darkness his hair is the last thing to think about.

Riku looks much more mature and cool in his Kingdom Hearts 2 design.

Dream Drop Distance

Time for Riku’s design one thing to notice is Riku’s short hair, his hair is altered in Dream Drop Distance and is focused on Riku’s growth in the series. I think there wouldn’t be the best way to show his growth by cutting off his long hair. growing long and then getting cut off in a new style is symbolic of a new beginning.

Riku’s clothes in Dream Drop Distance resemble his Kingdom Hearts 2 and the first game outfit his shirt resembles his jacket from Kingdom Hearts 2 and his pants come from his Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes. His appearance is back to what he appears in the first game. This game is a reference to Riku’s growth so that would make a reference to it.

Riku has a dream eater symbol on his back this notes that he is Sora’s dream eater Riku is Sora’s dream eater he's supposed to protect Sora from nightmares and shows up to wake him a reference to Riku’s true wish which is to protect the things that matter in his case it's Sora so Riku being Sora’s dream eater is fitting. He is protecting Sora from a distance.

Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes

Riku gets a new outfit in Kingdom Hearts 3 Riku’s clothes are black and blue with a yellow accent on his shoulder blue is widely dominant in his Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes this is in contrast to Sora’s black and red base color in his clothes.

Riku’s new clothes design is made to match Sora's clothes in Kingdom Hearts 3, they share the same chequered pattern which is a reference to the close relationship that the three have.

Kairi

Last but not least the third of the trio: Kairi, the girl with whom Sora has strong feelings.

Name:

The “Kai” in Kairi’s name means "ocean,海” in Japanese, “ri” has no meaning to it in particular “ri” was added to her name because Nomura felt “Kai” wasn’t feminine enough.

When I look up what “ri” means in English there is one kanji that comes to mind it's “里”, which means village. “ri” is another way to say village in Japanese and if you put her name together it means ocean village this can reference to how she lived on destiny islands. the context of the kanji for “ri” not only comes from the village but is used in the context to mean one's hometown. Kairi is Sora’s home the person that Sora is going back to, a village among the ocean where you hear ocean waves evoke nostalgia and peace which is what she is to Sora, Kairi is the girl Sora has strong feelings towards and gives him peace she is the wildfire that eats soras anger as Saix puts it.

The ocean plays a part in Kairi’s role and personality in Kingdom Hearts, the sea is home to all life forms, a reference to how Kairi is Sora’s home as I previously mentioned. There is a lot of symbolism with the ocean that has to do with Kairi’s personality of nurturing and caring. This can infer how she cared about her two friends Sora and Riku and how she helps others. The ocean connects to the world; this references how Kairi can connect to others in the series like Namine and aqua. The ocean is the bridge between the worlds this references Riku’s and Sora’s goal to save her in the first game the ocean acts as a bridge between the lands which infers how Kairi helped Sora see Riku in his Ansem form connecting them again.

The ocean symbolizes purification and healing; it references Kairi being the princess of heart. She heals others like how Kairi saved Sora many times in the series, able to return Sora to his form when he was heartless and helped Axel steadily restore some of his memories of Xion she saved Sora not physically but through his heart.

The ocean reflects the sky, the horizon is where the sky and sea meet; this refers to Sora and Kairi's inseparable connections. Kairi serves as a motivation throughout his journey.

Nomura wanted to depict her personality against Sora, Riku and her past in Radian Garden Kairi is the exact opposite of her friends in many ways.

Kairi is a special individual you think that might be her princess of heart power but that is not it, Kairi recognized Sora when he was heartless just like she saw Riku through their Ansem form. Kairi was initially frightened about the prospect of training with Axel but was able to make peace with it to befriend Axel despite the fact he kidnapped her. She can make peace with Axel; she saves Sora and the other guardians by using the power in her heart to hold on to and believe in Sora; faith and belief are products of the heart, a reference to why Kairi is a princess of heart; she has that sort of strength.

This might be what Nomura meant that Kairi is the strongest person on the island, not a reference to Kairi’s princess of heart powers but that Kairi has a powerful inner strength.

Design:

Kairi is drawn as somewhat of a tomboy with short hair and active clothes references that, her clothes reflect that she is a country child since she lives on the islands.

One notable thing about her design is how it references the game, Kairi hair is an homage to Utada Hikaru the one who provided the theme song for Kingdom Hearts, kairi hairstyle that changed throughout the series is credited to Hikaru Utada. The clothes that Kairi wears in the first game are taken from Hikaru which serves as a basis Kairi’s clothes are based on what Hikaru puts as much meaning as possible and he references certain people when he designs his characters.

Kairi has blue eyes in her character design, a reference to the ocean whose color is blue.

Kingdom Hearts 2 clothes

Kairi had a different design in Kingdom Hearts 2 Kairi became a bit more mature because she is at the Age when girls grow a lot faster than boys.

Kairi is noticeably a lot more feminine in her design, pink is Kairi's image color, it's the color of femininity. Kairi wears a pink one-piece dress and has long hair and ribbons on her heels; this makes her look much more feminine than her first design in Kingdom Hearts.

The one-piece dress and the white can be a reference to her nobody Namine who wore a white one-piece dress.

Kingdom Hearts 3 clothes

Kairi has a brand new design in Kingdom Hearts 3, her clothes in her design are made to align with Sora's clothes are made to match Riku and Sora this is a reference to the trio's close bond to each other and her close bond to Riku and sora is referenced again in the chequered pattern in her clothes.

Kairi’s pink dress is her image color that carried over from the second game as well as the hoodie too passed on in her design in the game.

There was one interesting detail in her hoodie. In her design it has cat ears on her hood, They are folded ears from a Scottish fold cat this is a reference to Chritihy. The car ears on Kairi’s hood are not cat ears but Chirithy ears not just in the game but in the concept art as well. You see the ears in Kairi’s concept art.

Chirithy are dream eaters who bond to the wielder to oversee them and their progress and help them where they may they act as guidance of sorts Chirithy is a guardian to the player this might be a reference to the fact that Kairi is one of the 12 guardians Chirithy is a close companion to the player this references to her relationship with sora that she is close with sora Kairi is there to guide sora back like how a surrogate Chirithy would act to the player like she has always has done in the series when she saved Sora.

you can see how much Nomura put as much meaning as possible in her design and it shows.

#kingdom hearts #sora #kairi #riku #character design #my meta #sora kingdom hearts #kairi kingdom hearts #riku kingdom hearts

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doodles-of-a-nerd-kid · 7 months

Text

*Warning, this is gonna be a ridiculously long post...

So, some of you reeeeally wanted to know just a teeny weenie bit more about my weird boy huh? Well, here ya go:

Yeah, where do I freakin' start with this--? It was not only hard to put together despite the very simple (and more obvious) inspirations... but I had to mega ponder whatever the heck I was on when creating this character, LOL

Lets break it down all over again:

It is extremely obvious (I think) of which characters Tilde's appearance mostly stems from... our funny scout robots from Cave Story: Mr. Traveler and Curly Brace themselves. (Which heehee geddit he has a punctuation naem TILDE ~~ xdd)

I'm pretty sure some of you have probably assumed (Especially with how much I pair them together...^^") Tilde is... well... their kid somehow--

Not... quite? It's... much more complicated than that, don't worry about it! Anyways, I basically chucked them both into a blender to combine their appearances together as much as possible; an example of this is Tilde's hair! It's a blonde color like Curly's and straight; but has a waviness, spiking up at the ends like Quote's hair.

Tilde's antenna earphone things are green, and his eye color is also that bluescreen blue that Curly has as well, lol.

So Tilde's outfit inspirations! Tilde is actually wearing Sue Sakamoto's sweater, along with someone's long green scarf. Its a bit old and worn out... but it's very shnazzy, dontcha think? ^^ In earlier drawing drafts of Tilde back in 2021, his sleeves were actually much more sprite accurate to Sue's-- But then I played OneShot and drew them droopy like Niko's once and it... stuck. idc its staying too. I think I wanted to give him a cuteness bonus, so I gave him hairpins thanks to Chase from Harvest Moon lol

Underneath Tilde's sweater he is wearing a simple black tank with magenta shorts, like Quote's tank and sprite Curly's pants. His shoes I unfortunately don't have a direct correlation for their colors, but they're inspired by Cave Story 3D JP Curly's shoes.

A much more rare appearance, but this is what Tilde looks like as an adolescent-- Don't question why, just roll with it-- I have my reasons and I won't tell you :^) When I was drawing him, my brain just handed me Basil from Omori. Literally, just Basil's energy and a bit of the Mother series protagonists for outfit design... I tried to swishing it around a bit and ended up with a very puntable looking guy, which was the exact vibe I was going for~ >:3c

I gave Tilde a sweater turtleneck and called it a day, then Lucas came to mind again when I was coloring-- Which overall made this particular bit of the outfit more interesting ^^ Tilde here is also wearing Toroko's pendant. Not really much else to cover here, since the many traits from Tilde's youth carries into here. Continuing...

Oh boy, how the times have changed and he's all grown up now T_T

Tilde when he's older takes almost all the liberties from especially Quote, wearing his infamous deadpan expression naturally... but he still remains extremely expressive like Curly ^^

Tilde's outfit is very obviously influenced by them, from their cargo pants to their color schemes (which are also admittedly being carried from his youth as well.) Quote's Blade Strangers design (If you ever heard of it.) was definitely an influence for him as well--

BUT to keep him looking a bit more fresh, I devised to use even more of that special jrpg sauce i love to throw on my characters lmAO

Y'all should already know from my previous post that I'm a weeb a Japanese culture enthusiast, not gonna explain that again

Specially for his outfit Tetsuya Nomura's character designs immediately come to mind, i cannot tell you which one specifically.

While imagining the "cool rpg boy outfit" all these characters blend together in my head, probs because they seem to have similar vibes LOL (very cool Nomura-san)

100% CERTAIN Felix from Golden Sun had an influence on Tilde's outward appearance. I actually drew older Tilde before teen Tilde, and I gave him long hair partly bc of him-- lmao

(While Soren from Fire Emblem is not a main influence for Tilde, he is simply here because I hate him for making me realize long haired dudes are just,,, peak character design idk what to tell you.)

So that's Tilde's sheet

goes very crazy I know

If imma do a Tilde sheet, i gotta do it properly-- He's the best(est)

I'm very tired I worked on this for almost a whole week lol imma sleep or something

#so that's it #if you are curious about the inspirations for a different character #just ask me!#original content #tilde

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