Drawing Girls Is Weird

            To anyone that's watched the popular anime Sailor Moon, it's pretty obviously a dumb show.  It's capable of being lovable and even in its own weird way, feminist, but in my opinion, its merits are buried under mountains of inane characterization, dialog, glitter, sparkles, and body image crimes of the worst sort.  (An EXCELLENT primer.) It has a soft spot in my heart because it's nostalgic and helped open a door to a new culture that I would later become fascinated with (and, if I may be so bold, a part of), but that's easy for me to say - I'm male.  I certainly wasn't Sailor Moon's target audience, so I was immune to its transgressions.

            That said, I felt the need to update the character designs.  I wanted versions that I thought would be cool role models for girls, or at least be cool girls that I would want to hang out with.  It was mostly a style thing at first - make them more punk rock, more badass, and have their appearances actually reflect their individual personalities by making them distinct from each other.  I wanted the clothes to make sense, so I came up with a backstory that they're all actually enrolled in a boarding school, and are social outcasts that found each other.  

            Then the issue of body types comes up.  For Mars and Mercury, I went for what I considered to be "normal" proportions.  Unhuge breasts, normal-sized waists, etc.  Maybe a little androgynous.  I gave Jupiter a straight-up body builder's physique.  I wanted her to be physically intimidating, athletic, and imposing.  I tried to push that as far as I could.  Venus was almost a reaction to Jupiter: more feminine curves, wears makeup, has more of a traditionally "attractive" look.  So the question arose on both sides of this issue: Is it a "solution" to the problem of female body depiction in media to masculinize women, like in Jupiter's case, and even to some extent with Mars and Mercury?  Is it possible to depict women in a more traditionally feminine way, like in the case of Venus, and still not be exploitative?  I feel like the answer to either question can go either way, and I'm certainly not in a position to provide those answers.  I think the best I can do is try to be mindful of it and be open to criticism.  Character design isn't just about making cool drawings - it is, in a very real sense, about creating people.  People that live and breathe and have roles in our society.  The fictional realm needs characters that people in our nonfiction world can relate to, and I think they should look the part.

            Ok, then!  On to the characters:

            I made Mars as a pyromaniac.  I basically made her Ren from my thing, except I replaced a lust for guns with a lust for fire.  I gave her Ren's clothes, tattoos, everything.  This is probably what Ren was like in high school, Doc Martens and all.

            For Mercury, I wanted to take the original Mercury's braininess to a whole new level.  I modeled her as part super literate riot grrl and part Lisbeth Salander's piercings and hacking skills.  Originally she had a copy of Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines sticking out of her pocket, but maybe that was a bit much.  She's vegan.

            I used Traci Lords' character from John Waters' Crybaby as a reference for Venus.  I definitely wanted to go for the 60's motorcycle gang girl thing, complete with the chain whip and everything - it seemed like a fun take on the original Venus' chain attack.  She actually has a bit of a dark background, which I won't go into detail for fear of offending anyone, but it involves sexual assault.  She rides a Triumph Bonneville.

            Jupiter is a total jock, and she dominates all the sports at the school.  Boys are terrified of her, especially during the sports that don't have a separate girls team, like wrestling and football.  She's also into MMA, so she's definitely the brawler of the group.  

            As it so happens, my idea to reboot Sailor Moon was beaten out by an actual reboot of the show called Sailor Moon Crystal.  For the record, I think it looks super lame.

Preliminary gesture.

Rough pencil.

Final ink.

Finished piece.