After the general disapproval of version 1, Zanaikin felt the need to draw his version of how he imagined Rika to look like and posted it on his blog last Thursday. While waiting for him to come to Olsson for our usual meeting, I set up the equipment and decided to get working on my redraw of her. I had finished her face for the most part by the time he showed up and got a general approval on it, especially the hair pin I gave her. In terms of changes, I didn’t do too much other than add a slight embellishment to her skirt because without it, it looked somewhat plain and empty. The other major thing I changed was the look of the boots. They are the same style as in Zanaikin’s drawing but have added embellishments to make her’s match everyone else’s, plus I really like designing foot apparel.
One of the strange ideas we came up with Saturday was a result of random ramblings about Rika’s mech. Zanaikin and Citrus were having a debate about the look of it with Zanaikin taking the realistic side while Citrus wanted to add a little flare to the design. The topic of paint schemes came up while I was looking at my drawing so I exclaimed why not have Rika’s face painted on the chest plate. The absurdity of it generated much laughs and it got me thinking about it seriously. I proposed that it would be part of a joke that one of the other characters played on Rika. Someone would get Hikari to make some magic paint that would remain invisible until a certain criteria was met. They would paint an image of Rika’s face on her mech so that in the middle of the next battle, it would become visible causing the enemy much confusion. After the battle, she realizes why the enemy was acting so strangely and tries to find out who played the prank on her.
Hopefully, I’ll have the other second drafts done sometime soon…maybe.
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She reminds me of a character from ToLOVEru for some reason. Perhaps it’s just from all the talk about the show that just aired recently.
Zeroblade’s last blog post..not dead. yet.
Ah, yes. I’m not really excited about Rika’s character one way or another, so no comment on the redesign except that it’s a good, clean sketch.
The mech, on the other hand… yes, that prank simply must be in the storyline. Didn’t we say that it would probably be something Canan would do?
And I don’t care what Zanaikin says, he HAS to redesign that mech. It looks way too much like a Knightmare Frame. I’ve still got some ideas about how to redesign certain parts of the mech, and not all of them should be offensive to Zanaikin’s sensibilities…
Of course, one day Zanaikin needs to realize that a truly “realistic” mech is impossible to design and he’ll need to sacrifice some practicality for style.
hey Citrus I heard that!
yes, I will be redesigning that mech, I made it pretty clear that I was not satisfied in ANY way, shape, or form on how my first design came out. True, the final design is mostly likely still going to remind you of a Knightmare Frame, but I’d rather blame that on your excessive devotion to Gundams and not much towards the more utilitarian mech designs (since Geass’ knightmare really stand out in comparison to other mech animes).
and technically I am a believer that a truly ‘realistic’ mech design is possible, because there is a lot of advantages mechs have over wheeled, tracked, or hover vehicles in combat (e.g. better use of cover, greater adaptability to battlefield environment, easier multitasking, better handling by experienced pilots, etc.). Still, I am quite willing to sacrifice certain portions of practicality for style. I’m not planning to go overboard, since the game is hardly designed to be reviewed by weapon fanatics like those in the department of defense. But I do believe in application of the basic armor theory and fire coverage theory.
…and, half the things used in Gundams is just over-excessive! There is absolutely no reason to have a human-like faceplate!
btw, Rika will be having a prank war with Exelar to fill in some of the comedy needs of the game, and indeed her mech will become a big target.
Since I don’t have an opinion either way regarding mechs, I will let you two decide amongst yourselves what you want it to be like. Of course once you finalize the design, I’ll be happy to draw a clean version of it.