Some Mikoto character design thoughts + some analysis
He is pictured wearing almost exclusively cold colors in most of his canon outfits (you could argue his meme outfit is the only one that uses warm colors)
The horizontal split hair is commonly given to characters with a fractured sense of self
His gray eyes are actually an amazing way to show how much surroundings have an impact on him. He's sometimes pictured as having blue eyes (mostly as Mikoto) which is realistic to how gray eyes can look blue in cold and neutral lighting as well as outside in cloudless weather. In double, his eyes have a brown tint, which would happen in a warm light. The brown tint is connected with a worse state of mind and with John. In the prison he's mostly depicted with gray gray eyes, guess it shows that he's sort of stripped of outside influence and we get to experience him more in a vacuum, isolated from the outside influence.
He almost exclusively wears wide clothes. Because well, that helps to depict him as more average and less emphasize his not too big but existing muscles (which are conventionally attractive). He's said to have an average build, but he kinda has a sleeper build really. He mentioned he used to work out
He consistently dresses like someone who really cares about looking attractive and trendy (he's a trend follower, a follower overall)
This might not be intentional, but wide clothes are also commonly associated with bad body image
It's also likely he was malnourished to a level while he was working, so he might have actually been trying to hide that he lost weight
His hand strap (prisoner outfit) seems to signify handcuffs, perhaps because he was caught by the police
The circle in his prisoner outfit is loosely over his heart :) are we doing a heart in prison symoblism here? or just covering his heart? idk maybe it's something else, this one's just a simple pointing out.
Ofc his prisoner outfit falling apart is a result of Kotoko fighting him/him fighting Kotoko. But it does do a good job of showing how his shields are falling apart and the layers are unfolding.
His ahoge is mostly emphasized in the art where he's supposed to look innocent and naive. It does a pretty good job characterizing him as such.
Blue collar. I'll leave it at that.
His split hair color stops being as pronounced after chapter 1, which could be to emphasize how muddled his sense of self became. The lines were blurred, he himself is also blurred. Actually really smart, especially at trial 3 to show how his selves have merged.
His earrings! In a lot of his official art he's posed to cover his right earring (and the right side of his face is usually the side symbolizing Mikoto - when his face is commonly drawn split in two different expressions, the right side is usually the scared one, while the left side is the angry one) It's an interesting way to show that he covers up his true self and that John is way more confident. In his Undercover scene it kind of looks like he's contemplating John.
Both in Double and in the second half of Requiem, he's given clear strands of gray hair. Nope, that's not just an artistic choice. It is a bit funny that they dissappear before the last scene in requiem. I think there's an argument to be made that he plucked them out, which again - when he can, he goes out of his way to care A LOT about his looks. Both points also emphasize that he didn't have the time to take care of himself while working, or even care about his looks, which seems uncharacteristic of him. Him caring about his looks overall seems to tie into how much he cares about how he's being perceived by everyone (people pleaser 🥀)
He dresses all black at the end of reqiuem... you know... like for a funreal... :C
