"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." - Thomas Edison

True indeed, because nowadays it seems like everything looks like something else. I was browsing images on Zerochan today and noticed a picture of Ruko, a character from a game called Tartaros Online. She looks remarkably like Gumi, a Vocaloid.

RUKO


GUMI


Also, there are three characters, but male instead, who look alike: the Vocaloid Gakupo, Kanda Yu (from D Grayman), and Alto Saotome (from Macross Frontier).

KAMUI GAKUPO


KANDA YU


ALTO SAOTOME


And Scout from the game Pangya looks like Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji...

SCOUT


CIEL PHANTOMHIVE


I'm sure I could find more if I just thought about it. I don't know if it's just a wacky coincidence, but it does seem that there are plenty of characters existing out there that look like each other. It's been annoying for me because I'm trying to develop some characters of my own. I created them a lot earlier, more than half a year ago, but now I'm really honing in to determine their appearances, personalities, and such. Problem is, I don't want them to resemble characters that already exist, which is a much more difficult task than I bargained for.

For one thing, there's naming: I'd originally picked the names Hinako and Raymond for the main characters of the sort-of-story I was coming up with. I wasn't sure what to put as Hinako's last name and spent quite a while looking for one, finally settling on Sakaguchi. It was while I was Googling (to see if there are actual people with the names that I've come up with) that I found out that there's actually a yaoi mangaka called Hinako Takanaga... o_o;;

Anyways, though, about the character Hinako that I am coming up with. Her name, and that of her father (which I haven't come up with yet), are the oddball names in the "story". Those two are the only Japanese names. The rest of them sound European or American. (I would've renamed Hinako to fit the rest of the names, but I've gotten so used to calling her that...)

As for Raymond's name, I really like the name Raymond and it just felt like it fit. But then I saw that there's a DeviantArt user who has a character called Raymond, and I didn't want the names to get confused. I can't come up with another name that feels right, so I think I will just spell it differently - Reymond instead.

Well, it's been quite a long time indeed, but at last the characters are coming into their own and I am quite pleased. I just have to figure out how I am going to draw them...I'm not good enough at drawing to make them look the way they ought to, in various aspects, like hair, eyes, and outfits; it only comes out well once in a blue moon. I've really got to practice drawing more. -_-;;

Labels: alto saotome, characters, ciel phantomhive, design, drawing, gakupo, genius, gumi, hinako, kanda yu, name, OC, original character, originality, quote, raymond, reymond, ruko, scout, vocaloid

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