Character Design Appreciation

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I was playing PoFV and as I was on the final stage with Shiki and I couldn't help but appreciate her design.

ZUN has done an amazing job at making great characters with iconic designs.

Characters like Sakuya have become icons in their perspective categories (In her case, maids).

I want to know what other character designs you all appreciate.

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Kagerou's dress is just very elegant. Yuuka is very eye-pleasing in general.

[Ran_Yakumos_biggest_fan]

idk how to describe it, but i like rans design. she looks like she would give good hugs. idk i just like ran

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idk how to describe it, but i like rans design. she looks like she would give good hugs. idk i just like ran

Even though Ran and Yukari look really similar, Ran has this feeling to her that makes her feel warmer and cuddly (it might be the tails).

It feels like Yukari would snap your neck if you tried talking to her while with Ran I imagine her actually having a conversation.

Kagerou's dress is just very elegant. Yuuka is very eye-pleasing in general.

Ok, I know this is a character design appreciation thread, but both Kagerou's and Chen's long nails disturb me to an uncanny level. Long nails feel very scary to me but they make sense considering Chen and Kagerou both being Carnivora animals.

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Ok, I know this is a character design appreciation thread, but both Kagerou's and Chen's long nails disturb me to an uncanny level. Long nails feel very scary to me but they make sense considering Chen and Kagerou both being Carnivora animals.

I don't like red nails in general, but theirs are rather tame. In PoFV, Mystia is depicted with long green claws. Now those are threatening.

[moons1de_]

I find it interesting how some of ZUN's older Touhou titles like EoSD or PCB have much different interpretations of how characters look compared to modern interpretations. I know this is because of time and how ZUN and the fans tend to alter the character designs partially, but I feel like a good example is Cirno's character portrait, which looks much more different to how she's usually portrayed now, with more wavy-ish hair and challenging look rather than a loveable doofus. Another example being Youmu's sprite in PCB, with her design having red eyes instead of a nice dark blue, and her more fierce look rather than her art-styles in future works. But out of these differences, I find it incredible how some characters can stay consistent yet evolve and develop to be something more unique.

(by the way, sakuya's eosd portrait is awesome and no one will convince me otherwise!!!  )

[jankop]

I really like Nitori's character design from MoF. Also, the first time I saw it I thought that thing on her right hand was a banana xD.
Other great designs that I really like are Mokou's (IN) and Yuyuko's (PCB)

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I don't like red nails in general, but theirs are rather tame. In PoFV, Mystia is depicted with long green claws. Now those are threatening.

What really scares me is the longness of the nails. Long nails feel very fragile to me and scare me a lot just thinking about them snapping. I've never noticed the long green claws on Mystia's design and now I wish I never did my eyes have been tainted.

I really like Nitori's character design from MoF. Also, the first time I saw it I thought that thing on her right hand was a banana xD.
Other great designs that I really like are Mokou's (IN) and Yuyuko's (PCB)

I really like Nitori's dress with all those pockets.
I could fit and organise so much stuff in them!
What's really out of place in her MoF design is the fact that she is holding a cattail and a seaweed. I'd first expect her to hold a wrench or a tool. My personal headcannon is that the things shes holding is part of the "Optical Camouflage" she had setup.

[bermudaesque]

Forgive me if the post is messed up or something, I'm new to forums.

I like both the complex designs and the simpler ones, although I'm sure there's a lot that goes into designing any character.

Big fan of Meiling's design, (and the character in general) all historic and whatnot, and just pleasing on the eyes.

Of course, character design applies to/works in tandem with personality. I really like Seija, her design is cute and cool, and she is also a pretty unique character in regards to personality and role and whatnot.

[nAd]

not a specific design, but I really like how Marisa's outfit changes a little each game, UFO and HSiFS are especially good ones

[Suspicious person]

I generally go by how distinctive a character look when it comes to chara design, and as far as Touhou goes, the girls featured in Bad Apple can be recognized despite everything being in black and white.

As for the big name that is suspiciously absent from Bad Apple, Cirno (yeah, she's not in the PV and nobody and ever remarks that), her chara design is a VERY simple blue and white color scheme plus distinctive crystal wings. There are more adult looking or longer haired Cirnos elswhere, but these few traits just allows one to identify her instantaneously. So yeah, pretty cool chara design (no pun intended) as far as the ice fairy goes.

As fot the more modern girls that are not as simple as the old ones, I just like Toutetsu despite her having a lot of stuff. She's goat the most unique head among the cast what's with the curly horns wit bows, the short and very wavy hair, gremlin piercing on the gremlin ears, the sharp oil-eating grin, and the goat-like "-" in her eyes (whatever these are called), which are suspiciously absent in her ZUNart. Also giant spork.

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I've been looking at Iku's design a lot recently. I really really like how her outfit is a fusion between a flamenco outfit and a Japanese hagoromo. It's one of the rare occasion where ZUN implements both western and eastern into one design. Her white-red colour palette is very appealing to me as well since I just find that colour scheme very interesting. She also has a lot of frills and I love frills. I see a lot of people complain about how ZUN adds too many frills to his character but I don't really see a problem since I love frills myself.

[HartWurst]

Tenshi's character design is probably one of my favourites, but it's mainly because I think her hat looks cool. I mean it's big and has peaches on it.

I find it interesting how some of ZUN's older Touhou titles like EoSD or PCB have much different interpretations of how characters look compared to modern interpretations. I know this is because of time and how ZUN and the fans tend to alter the character designs partially, but I feel like a good example is Cirno's character portrait, which looks much more different to how she's usually portrayed now, with more wavy-ish hair and challenging look rather than a loveable doofus.

Also Cirno's EoSD sprites is one of my favourites ZUN has made. Kinda wish they kept Cirno like that since I really liked how her hair looked and her confidence made her look pretty cool. Maybe being demoted to the stage 1 mid-boss in PCB made her loss that confidence?