Hey Kara! You might have talked about this before, but I was wondering if anything in particular inspired the costumes for the Magica Riot girls?
Yeah a few things! Though I think the final look is due to @ambisweetiepie using real Design Skillz to interpret my mishmash of influences 😅
The basic idea was blending classic magical girl fashion with punk & rock fashion, and it kind of spun out from there. I had a handful of specific Vibe References I sent over that got incorporated into things.
For one, there was definitely a bit of a biker jacket thing going on. Amber and I had already done a trial run of this when coming up with the design of Narumi from New Melody Project, though for Magica Riot we specifically wanted the look and feel of cloth rather than leather, for movement purposes.
This is also where you see the influence of the boots coming through.
But I didn't want it to be too much just straight-up rocker/biker fashion. There needed to be flowy frippery and festoonery, and a distinct anime influence. So we pulled from things like "military lolita" outfits, Takarazuka-inspired costumes, and idol costumes. (The µ's Final Live outfits were a specific reference point for the design of the Magica Riot skirts, especially Claire's and how it angles from front to back, and how color accents are used.)
And everybody has individual takes on it, like Sara's costume leaning more into a "girl prince" sort of regal vibe, or Nova's being the most revealing as befitting the loudest girl.
And from there you add in the requisite magical girl bows and ribbons!
But one thing I wanted to do differently was the color scheme. Usually the heroic magical girls in shows dress in bright colors mixed with a lot of white or pastels. I wanted to carry over the punk aesthetic for Magica Riot and have our heroes dressed in black with colorful accents, and Amber ran with that including black jackets given a colored tint. It's a way to differentiate what Magica Riot is doing from most magical girl stuff.
