Haimura Comments - NT12

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Volume 12 cover. For the first time since OT Volume 11, it’s Index and Kamijou (plus two animals…animals?)
The timeline of the actual novel says it was night when they went shopping in the Dianoid, but…I completely forgot.

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The image sketch for fake Aihana Etsu, aka Kanou Shinka-kun. The outline of the character was a little vague, so I worked at it for a while.
It was pointed out early on that I was going the “trap” route on this one, but you can tell I hadn’t fully shaken that off here.
As usual, I was told I could make him more of a “moe” character if I wanted, so I continued onto the next one.

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Kanou-kun part 2. I switched over to making him a “moe” character…or rather, a mascot character. It’s mentioned in the image too, but the hooded jacket is based on a 1998 anime called Serial Experiments Lain.
The main character wore a bear-suit type of outfit in her room. (Continued)

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Kanou-kun part 3. (Continued)Wearing a hood means hiding or covering the head, so I think it’s perfect for his position of borrowing someone else’s reputation and obscuring his own identity.
Which means it’s only natural for him to remove the hood during his “birth” at the end.

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Magic God Niang-Niang. There isn’t much difference between Versions 1 and 2 which I guess shows I got her character down pretty easily.
I had detailed descriptions of the three Magic Gods from the beginning, so as long as I didn’t stray too far from that, there was nowhere to really mess up.
That said, this is based on my generation’s jiangshi: Lei-Lei from Vampire.

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Magic God Nephthys. She has no real motif to her, so she’s pretty much just what I was told.
I think the only thing I added was the changing eye color.
In Version 2, which was the one used, her outfit was made less revealing and the green designs were added below the eyes. So does that mean her “true eyes” are…?

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Magic God High Priest. The very first thing he made me think of was Saint Hakushin from Inuyasha. Version 1 is pretty much exactly that.
I was told I could make him flashier and to remove the headdress since bald characters are so rare, so I made Version 2.
Version 2’s motif is…well, I guess that goes without saying.

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Magic Gods addition. Niang-Niang and the High Priest have unique elements on the back, so I went ahead and drew them.
Nephthys has nothing unique on the back, so I reluctantly left her out.
By the way, Niang-Niang isn’t wearing any underwear. (←This is very important!)

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Saint Germain part 1. This is my suggestion for the gentleman type (α) and lady type (β) that are mostly what appears in the novel.
Even as I drew them, I thought they were too plain and they were, so I went on to the second one.

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Saint Germain part 2. I made them look like they had put together a magician costume in the party section of Don Quijote, so they’ve really started to look like scam artists. I changed the Chambord to have a treble clef motif.
There are several other character variations for Saint Germain, but they all have a common theme in their outfits and the Chambord is kept small enough to hold in one hand.

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Volume 12 cover rough. I like to reserve an Index & Kamijou cover for a volume that’s important to the story or for the final volume, but sometimes you have trouble and can’t come up with any other good ideas.
Maybe I should have gone with a feint cover of Kanou-kun and Kamijou-san so people would think “Oh, a new heroine… It’s a trap!?”