Ignore this if the minor Kou princesses don’t interest you, I’ve just been trying really hard to come up with a half decent reference for Kourin, (and maybe even the others) trying to nail the style also meshed with the Imperial Chinese influence? I just want to recreate or figure out how her hair works in the manga image....
So I’m thinkin I can’t really trust the anime’s portrayal of the princesses to go off of just because they’re so simplified, at least the ones in the back row because the ones in front that are shown every once in a while are a bit more simple like this:
is relatively accurate to this, just a bit simpler as I suppose one would expect from an anime:
as well as this princess who shows up in a few reaction shots:
compared to this:
These two were portrayed fairly accurately: probably because their hair is easier to draw.
BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE ONES IN THE BACK..... they have more complicated hair ornaments besides Kougyoku that really were captured poorly.
Manga:
Anime:
There is no plate on her head... and also no flower beneath it or earring (plus the hair is behind the ear instead of before)
I’d say this one was given the least justice in the anime portrayal:
I know Kourin’s head is kinda blocking it but if anything that’s a loop of hair (like Kougyoku’s loops but on the side with some ornament beneath it which is more obvious from the back: (bad quality sorry I zoomed) And from that angle she looks nothing like the anime version
And Kourin too is totally simplified, not even the same piece on the bottom but I guess it’s better than nothing.
She might not even have bangs.... and it’s easier to see that her hair might not be in solid buns but could be loops like the previous princess when looked at through the back.
I dunno, that’s probably where they got the idea to do the anime version and now that I look at it, it’s not super consistent with the first image
I JUST REALLY WANT THEIR IMAGES CONFIRMED PROPERLY... but that’ll never happen.
I’m super happy to see it when people redraw them but I’d rather someone nail the manga style even though it’s way harder since we don’t even see most of them at a decent angel and have poor/few references.
And.... that’s what I’ve been trying to do for Kourin: figure out exactly how her hair works and how relative it is to the Chinese influence. I’m gonna try to throw together some art based only on the one good image in the manga and the other two blurry/low-quality ones which will require extreme speculation.
I’m doomed