You know him, you love him - appreciation post time for our favorite succulent in this house, Li'l Cactus!
While our shy little cactus normally stays put in his flowerpot in the bedroom, a couple of quests show him moving about, as he plays a role in "Daddy's Broom" (as an accidental jerkass lol) and in his own starring quest, "Li'l Cactus."
He also makes an appearance in "Fluorite" as part of Florina's dreamscape - because it happens in the desert, so I think this is the developers having fun, haha.
As far as concept art goes - surprisingly, for a relatively simple character design, Li'l Cactus had a couple of possible designs.
Nao Ikeda also designed Li'l Cactus, and as can be seen here she made at least 7 designs with different design elements. Probably the only thing they have in common is having a flower on top and being a cactus!
I'll start with the lower and bottom notes here:
I drew a variety of different types in accordance with Inoue-san's instructions that he should look more suspicious than cute.
Originally, I got the order to make "a cactus that looks more suspicious than cute," so I did some trial and error with that idea in mind. But in the end, Ishii-san liked it and said, "I wanted him to have something unique, but I guess cute is better," so we went in that direction. [laughs] (Ikeda)
Koichi Ishii is the Mana series' creator, while Nobuyuki Inoue is the writer for Legend of Mana. It's surprising to find that the original vision for Li'l Cactus was "suspicious" rather than the cute one we ended up getting, but that's how thing goes, you want a concept but find out something else works better in practice. It's why I like reading developer logs, it's rather comforting to know things change, and mostly for the better, and even years after, as the audience, I still love Legend of Mana, so I know their decisions back then worked.
Nao Ikeda's specific notes for the designs are:
Flower is inverted (number 1) Chattering, ripped paper body (for number 3) Standard Halloween style (for number 5) The main character is like a samurai, so he fills a supporting role as a ninja...(for number 7)
Of these designs, number 7 is pretty similar to what we eventually ended up getting. If I had to guess, the comment on the main character being like a samurai might be because Mr. Kameoka designed the male hero's lower garment being a skirt-style hakama, but I'm not sure. It's funny to think about though, a samurai Shiloh and ninja Li'l Cactus, can you imagine?
For the revised design, we have this other collection of illustrations and notes:
The final version of Li'l Cactus shares the space with the concept art for Faeries and Pelican, but they will be discussed in their own posts in the future, this is long enough as it is.
The bottom note regarding Li'l Cactus:
Li'l Cactus went through a lot of twists and turns from his first design on the bottom left. He's a cute character, and I felt that his expressions were unique. In the actual game, his cheeks became much simpler.(Ikeda)
It seems great care was put into Li'l Cactus's eyebrows especially, there's another note specifying and even giving a sample:
The tails of the eyebrows are higher than the ends of the eyebrows and are called "bat brows."
The final art in game is made by Shinichi Kameoka, and his commentary on another page in the art book says this:
I wanted him to have a funny face, so when making his design, I gave him a wide forehead and set his eyes apart.
Like Nao Ikeda mentioned, in the final design Li'l Cactus lost the cat whisker-like patches on his cheeks, and he doesn't have quite the same Pikachu eyes in Nao Ikeda's design.
Li'l Cactus also has the honor of making appearances in other artworks for the game:
I don't know where this illustration has been used, as my first time seeing it is in the art book. If I had to guess, some magazine or other publication that was Japan-only. Hmm...I checked with the unlockable gallery in the HD version of the game and this illustration wasn't included, but there IS a stand-alone illustration of Li'l Cactus writing on his diary in the game gallery that isn't in the art book.
Archiving official art is a pain when they're scattered like this - and I can't screenshot the gallery because the game disables the screenshot button there. I did take a picture with my phone and try to edit it so there's less warping on the screen, though.
I'm sure many others have seen this other illustration, you can find this one in the gallery for the HD version of the game.
For comparison I took a picture of that one, too. The art book version is VERY small, and it's kinda hard with light bouncing off the page so I compensate by taking pictures in less harsh lighting, but it does have the side-effect of darkening the page instead.
Fun fact, according to Mr. Kameoka's commentary on this illustration, it was hard because he didn't know the final sizes of both Li'l Cactus and the female protagonist would compare in the final game.
Now, for other art appearances - Li'l Cactus, like majority of Legend/Dawn/Children of Mana's cast, also appears in Nao Ikeda's special Mana anniversary art! (she designed characters for all those three titles)
She included his cheek patches and Pikachu eyes.
The art book also featured congratulatory messages for the Mana series from its main illustrators over the years, and yes, both Shinichi Kameoka and Nao Ikeda included Li'l Cactus in their messages.
It's rather heartwarming to think that the humble little cactus is beloved by both of the major illustrators for Legend of Mana, huh?
While he was designed for Legend of Mana, Li'l Cactus also makes appearances in other Mana media and is a mascot of sorts for the series alongside Flammie and Rabite. An official account for the Mana series, Seiken_PR, occasionally shares artwork with captions in line with Li'l Cactus's diary writings. Here's the Valentines' illustration made this year!
So cute - you know, I always loved that the Mana series gets such good art.
I think L'il Cactus also appears in Sword of Mana as far as game appearances go, but I can't remember for sure and it's been such a long time since I played the game on emulator, but I haven't finished it...really should get back to it someday, though.
