Perhaps you'd think that to be true if you're into astronomy, or something similar, yet different: astrology. Perhaps some or even many of you scoff at it, dismissing it as wishful thinking, a bunch of superstitious mumbo-jumbo that inaccurately describes your personality.

My zodiac sign, Leo, didn't suit me so well. When I was a lot younger, maybe it was true; I used to be a lot more outgoing, so much more fearless than I am now. When I was in 6th grade, one of the people running the YMCA afterschool care that I attended said that he thought I was more of a Virgo than a Leo. Always eager to find explanations for things (and usually unimportant ones), I thought, "Well, that's why I was born late, I must've intuitively known that I was not supposed to be born in the time range of a Leo."

I do like these sorts of things; back when I was somewhere from 5-8 years old, I was quite meticulous about filling out a Barbie birthday planner with the birthdays of my friends and stuffed animals (stuffed animals especially, as I had an astonishing amount of them, which have since disappeared somewhere in a room upstairs). The planner also had a small page about what the people born in a certain month are generally like, as well as examples of famous people born in that month. I remember that when you were putting an entry for someone's birthday, you could circle one of two Zodiac signs, since each month will have two different ones in it (July has Cancer and Leo, August has Leo and Virgo, etc.). I never really understood why it mattered at the time, having not paid attention to the traits affiliated with each Zodiac sign.

Then there came a time where I pretty much forgot about the Western Zodiac. I very rarely read horoscopes; the only time when I hear mine is if I'm bored and I see them in my mom's newspaper. But late last year, my mom brought home a book which claims to have descriptions of people born on every day of the year.

I have since become immersed in reading this book when I have free time, and although I suppose I could use it to try and understand my friends better...It could be horribly far from the truth (I know some people who fit their birthday descriptions so well that it frightens me, but I don't think my birthday description was quite on the mark) and I would not want to rely on it to judge people. Rather, I look at the personalities of each day and I use them to help me shape my own OCs - original characters. It comes in handy because all of the birthday personalities have both strengths and weaknesses, and of course, it'd be boring to have characters that have no negative qualities.

Even more recently, I read somewhere (probably Time magazine) that the dates of the Western Zodiac signs are inaccurate, and now there is a "new" Western Zodiac with different dates and a 13th sign. I can't describe it very well, so search the Internet for it; click here for one place that has a little info about it. What it means for me is that I'm now actually a Cancer, not a Leo, which I think is more accurate, so I figure I'll go by that from now on.

Cancer: Sensitive, sometimes indecisive, moody
Leo: Ambitious, self-confident, basically a natural leader

Labels: birthday, book, cancer, change, characters, horoscope, leo, new, OC, original character, people, personality, planner, signs, star sign, stars, virgo, western, zodiac

"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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