NDMC Mary Ann Arkham Outfit Design Analysis
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Character outfit design Analysis under cut, long read, you have been warned.
Character Design Critique:
As an artist and lover of the arts I actually have a lot to say about her main outfit. All her other outfits in the show are based off of her game counterparts and don't worry, one day I will be critiquing them as well. But because this design originally comes from the show I figured this was the best place to analyze what I am looking at.
So for starters what is this outfit? It is her Darkcom soldier outfit. It is equipped with rocket boots and I believe some utility pockets or slots or something, I don't really care. The design is based off of another Capcom IP called Captain Commando. I am breaking down my analysis of her outfit into a few parts. First will be functionality, the second will be silhouette, the third would be color choices and the fourth section will be me talking about how I would change the outfit.
First, functionality. I think this outfit is okay for functionality but it has some very obvious flaws. Let's start with the breast plate. I am all for a breastplate and give kudos to Studio Mir for giving her one, the thing is, that I don't know if it goes down far enough to protect much. It will obviously keep her heart and part of her lungs safe but not all of the important organs which makes me think this outfit is more about mobility. And if this outfit is more about mobility, which makes the most sense given the rocket boots, I am confused about the shoulder pads. I love a good shoulder pad but it looks out of place. Shoulder pads are used for multiple of reasons, typically aesthetic when it comes to fashion and military clothes, but if it is on a football or rugby player, than it is used to help push people and add some padding to not hurt yourself. But Mary is shown to be quite petite in height compared to others so she most likely isn't throwing her weight around. Also if you have ever worn shoulder pads, they are not the easiest to move around in, including holding your arms up. Not impossible but a lot more difficult than if you didn't have them on. From what we have seen of Mary's fighting style, she is mostly fighting with her agility, so the shoulder pads should go. Other than that, I am going to briefly mention colors here. Tell me, if you were a blood thirsty monster who lived in the dark, how easy do you think it would be to see this woman sneaking up on you? If this was just a like a special uniform used for parties and events, I wouldn't care but we have actively seen her use it on missions. Just food for thought. Not the worst outfit in terms of utility, her outfit at the beginning of Season 2 when she is infiltrating Makai would have been a better choice for her overall.
Okay Second point, the silhouette. I think it looks fine, I know that is Mary. But my problem with this design is that it could have leaned in more to her being an outsider or different than the rest of the team. I think if they had gotten rid of the shoulder pads, kept the hood, she would have stood out more and shown that she doesn't need protection from hits because she doesn't get hit. It would have given her a mysterious factor and given her a more unique look in general. Plus it would have been cool. I think the choices they made are okay but they could have done better and I believe being stuck with Captain Commando as an influence hindered them more than helped them in character design for Mary.
Now the third thing. This will be the longest section because I will be breaking down colors and their meanings as well as comparing Mary to the DMC source material because believe it or not, it's important. So let's list the main colors in her outfit, Blue, Black, Gray, White, and Gold.
Blue: "This color is one of trust, responsibility, honesty and loyalty. It is sincere, reserved and quiet, and doesn't like to make a fuss or draw attention. It hates confrontation, and likes to do things in its own way." (x)
Black: "The color black relates to the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery. It keeps things bottled up inside, hidden from the world." (x)
Gray: "The color gray is an unemotional color. It is detached, neutral, impartial and indecisive - the fence-sitter." (x)
White: "The color white is color at its most complete and pure, the color of perfection. The psychological meaning of white is purity, innocence, wholeness and completion." (x)
Gold: "The color gold is the color of success, achievement and triumph. Associated with abundance and prosperity, luxury and quality, prestige and sophistication, value and elegance, the psychology of this color implies affluence, material wealth and extravagance." (x)
So with these psychological meanings behind colors in our minds, let us look back at Mary and see how much these colors reflect her or the organization she works for. We will go from most prominent color to least because there is importance in that as well. Prominent doesn't mean the color there is the most of, though the balance of this outfit is sure something.
Does Mary truly embody what the color blue stands for? Is she calm and thoughtful? No not really. She is loyal to a fault but she isn't loyal to her ideals. So to me the color blue doesn't work.
Does Mary embody the color black? No. She is pretty vocal about herself and her past. I don't think the color black suits her but I do want to say that black is a more neutral color, and given that black in her outfit isn't a true black, we can probably let this slide given that black just looks good on everybody and it doesn't always have to represent anything.
Does Mary embody the color gray? Yes! I think gray suits her just fine actually. I think she is detached from her feelings to the point that she only feels anger and resentment, I think she is impartial and indecisive. This is the one color mixed with black I would have loved to see more of. Gray can represent a morally gray character and I think she fits that very well.
Does Mary embo-? No. Not at all. Let's move on.
Does Mary embody gold? No. Also move on because I think gold looks tacky on this outfit. It isn't a good accent color for this outfit.
So what am I saying with all of this. That this outfit isn't made with Mary nor her game counterpart in mind but strictly made to reference Captain Commando. I also decided to put Mary through a gray scale just out of curiosity and it just doesn't look good. Like the color value of her outfit is practically all the same. Nothing is interesting to look at when she is on screen besides maybe the gold and the breast plate but that is because of how light the breast plate is to the rest of outfit and how ugly the gold is. Her outfit desires more contrast in color hues and less contrast with the color choices such as the gold and the blue.
Oh I forgot to talk about whether the outfit represents Darkcom. Well given that Darkcom is suppose to be a secret government association and they have soldiers walking around in flashy outfits like this. It's safe to assume that no, no none of those colors really represent Darkcom as well. If the outfit was all gray or black then we could talk.
WARNING! NEXT SECTION WILL BE COMPARING MARY TO THE GAMES.
Damn can't escape it huh? Well here I go. Every character in the game has at least one color they are associated with. Dante red, Vergil blue, Nero turquoise, Sparda purple, Trish black (no not Gloria) and Lady is white. Yes some characters have more than one color as well as share colors with others. Dante's secondary color is silver and Vergil's secondary color is gold. I'll link a youtube video which goes over their secondary colors in depth it's actually fascinating stuff. So if we go by this logic, Mary in the show should have the color white because her game counterpart has it as her main color. I would argue against that. Mary and Lady are two different character's with two different pasts. Mary lost her childhood innocence a long time ago by the point we meet her and is a different woman entirely. Lady in the game lost her mother in the last couple of years (a year if we go by the DMC3 Manga) hence why her wearing white/school like uniform (ew) still represents her naivety and innocence that she is still holding onto bitterly. So why am I so very much against Mary wearing the color blue if white doesn't represent her well...
Vergil has entered the chat. Vergil's colors, blue and gold represent a lot of who he is and what his mindset is at the time. He is a cold, calm, calculating man, on the surface. (why is there reddish orange in the inside of his jacket? Beats me lol /s. God I fucking love symbolism.) He is the blue Oni. The red and blue Oni is a fairly well known Japanese story and if you want to know more and how it relates to devil may cry I implore you to look it up. I have a video somewhere explaining it but can't find it right now. If I find it, it will be posted at the end of this post.
"Okay Mana. Then what would you have done with this design?"
I would have not based it off of Captain Commando that is for sure. I would have used gray, black, and a little bit of white with a smidge of red, since red is Lady's secondary color in the games it would have worked better. Yes there is a bit of red in this design but it is minimal and clashes even more with the already established colors. I would have given her an Assassin Creed like hood all the time except when she needs to talk to people personally, I think a slimmer shoulder to show off her guns would have been a little sprinkling of sexy that this outfit desperately needs. And I would have given her a proper utility belt. She can keep the rocket boots even though it's not my favorite idea but sure, why not.
As for her other outfits through the show. I liked her stealth outfit in episode 1 Season 2. Her DMC5 outfit was okay, her school uniform outfit was okay. I didn't like the biker costume but I have never been a fan of that outfit for color blocking reasons. I prefer it to her Darkcom uniform but it doesn't fit this Mary character as well. Then the all white uniform mimicking said biker outfit at season 2 finale is meh. Actually I almost forgot about the last outfit she wore in S2. I think it's my favorite so far. It feels like something Mary would wear willingly.
Now I know I am going to get comments saying, that there is in show reasons that her outfit is like the way it is. I don't care. She is the only important character in this outfit. This outfit should represent her or the organization she is a part of. Neither is achieved. Her and her crew all together looks better than when she is alone and I get that is kind of the point but it also is just a reference to Captain Commando because the writers just want to make a reference to another capcom series as a way to say, "Hey look at us making a capcomverse." It's cheesy and cringe and doesn't look great. We see her get a beret in season 2 as homage to Jill Valentine from Resident Evil. That I liked. It's a subtle reference and it is done well. I don't mind references but they need to be done well and with some thought. Most in this show are not.
Anyways thank you for reading. I know this is a lot to read but I appreciate those who get to the end. Let me know what you think about her outfit and what changes you would have made.
Here are links to the video's I mentioned:
Dante and Vergil: Silver and Gold in Devil May Cry - Alchemical Symbolism, Character Analysis
I haven't watched the next one quite yet but I trust Elayza with my life when it comes to DMC lore and symbolism, might not be fully related to what I have talked about but it is a good watch I am sure.
Red on the Left, Blue on the Right: The Motif of Devil May Cry 3 and 5, Hidden in Plain Sight
The next video is short and is a version of the blue and red Oni story. I am unsure how accurate it is since it is being framed to fit a narrative in a gacha game but the core elements I have seen from other telling's of the tale is there. At least if you aren't familiar it will help. Wish I had the actual analysis I saw analyzing this tale with Dante and Vergil in mind but hopefully you are literate enough to connect the dots from this video.
The Tale of the Blue and Red Oni: A Timeless Story of Friendship and Sacrifice
