Fanart of bsd ladies based on the latest (i think) official art from Harukawa
Ada!
For Yosano, I picked a simple wrap top and sarashi wrap. I didn't really have much of an idea with what I was thinking other than 'i think she'd like wrapping a lot, and she'd probably use a katana for injuring people' and I just really wanted to draw her with a short side ponytail.
For Naomi, I couldn't really think of much at first because I can't really discern much of her. But then I just decided that I can't just ignore the little I do know of her just because I don't think it's that deep. I thought that she was a vapid and shallow schoolgirl character.
But then I remembered that anime schoolgirls are genuinely so awesome and probably the backbone of anime and manga. Why should I look for other traits to give Naomi when she already has the legendary status of being an anime girl in highschool?
Remember a few years back, there was this whole trope of schoolgirl exorcists/Miko? I remember seeing a decent number of them. I mostly remember Kagome from Inuyasha even though she's not really called an exorcist, but I know there was definitely more. Like...twin star exorcists and blue exorcists and more.
Considering that in the official art, Atsushi has tails, Dazai's looking like a kitsune, Akutagawa has a dragon on his clothes, and Chuuya has snakes on him, I think-- Naomi's gonna solo them all. Ranpo has a panda so he'll be spared.
So yeah. That's why Naomi's wearing Kagome from the anime Inuyasha cosplay.
Pm!
For Higuchi, I tried to translate her simple suit and modern guns to something more traditional. I'm not sure why, but I associate light blue with Higuchi. I think she'd wear clothes traditionally meant for men when working but wear more traditionally feminine clothes out of work. She'd probably have a legend made of her for being able to put her hair in a bun despite it being so short.
As for Kouyou, yes I used my beloathed Exhibit E as the heavy inspiration
The dis-knees...the chest window... The weird position...the air making her bangs like that... Looking at it still makes me :|| but I still used it for reference because I think the coat looks cool.
The Kunikida tag talk interlude!
I saw this one person make a really lovely fanart of Kunikida in the same style as the official art because he wasn't a part of the line-up and I remembered feeling bummed none of the ladies were in the line-up too so I thought 'oh right, I can try doing that too' so I drew what I drew. The artist is @/benetnvsch here on Tumblr but I'm not going to tag them because I realised that if you tag someone, they'll feel inclined to look at what you're tagging them. This is probably how I'll give credit from now on.
The official art rant!
This one official art that looks to me based on mythology from and/or fantasy based on East Asia, but most people focused on for buff Chuuya and the pretty boys looking neat. I honestly think this is one of my favorite official arts from her.
The tassels that are used a lot in traditional fits, the design on Dazai's shirt looking like how water/air was depicted in old Japanese paintings, the designs looking like designs likely to be used in traditional clothes, Akutagawa wearing a changsam and Ranpo wearing a tattsuke bakama--
I saw some people talk about whether or not she used ai. I guarantee that if ai was used for this, this whole picture would just be so vague and just a hodgepodge of uninspired 'asian-looking' elements served as too mindless and heartless to pay respect to any culture.
But no, there are 'asian elements here' that you can actually see and go 'oh that's actually a thing!!!' And unlike the other people that so easily fall in the pitfall of thinking that the epitome of mixing modern and traditional is just putting a chest window in a cheongsam, the modern touches she added here actually help give the traditional clothes a new spin!
The boots, the inside of clothes having a different color inside, the tassels being integrated in ways they usually aren't, and the modern accessories.
If you ask me who here did it best, it'd be Akutagawa because I see him and I immediately get that he's supposed to be a mix of both. Since Kitsune is a more widespread concept now, it'd be easy to just think Dazai's just dressing up as kitsune anime character. Chuuya looks like a model doing a photoshoot based on. Ranpo mostly has traditional elements with the only modem thing on him being his sunglasses. Atsushi looks like a sweet kid performing at a school event celebrating a cultural festival.
Not that they don't look any less wonderful, I just want to hammer down that even without the context, you could tell Akutagawa's wearing the mix. He's on top, but literally everyone here looks gorgeous and has a great fit.
Anyways. It'd be nice if we got official art of the ladies and girls from Harukawa, but bad self fanart is all I can do for now. That's all. Whew.
