porterwitch @ Hoyolab

[crosspost from Hoyolab]

Going to talk about my useless art history knowledge: This is a reference to Katsushika Hokusai's most famous painting The Great Wave off Kanagawa but it's done in an Impressionist art style. While it might be easy to think they did this to bypass censorship of anything Japanese-related, this is actually a really cool nod to Hokusai's European influences!

Hokusai was alive during the Edo period, which was a time of great artistic and cultural development in Japan. Although relations with foreign countries were pretty tumultuous, the Yoshimune shogunate started relaxing isolationist policies between 1716-1736, which allowed the importation of European art. The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (1831), became a cultural touchstone because of how it blended Japanese and Western aesthetics, such as landscape perspective and the use of Prussian blue. Hokusai is most well-known for producing woodblock prints or ukiyo-e (浮世絵). The word ukiyo-e means "pictures of the floating world", which characterizes how woodblock prints sought to capture both the ephemeral and beauty of the natural world. This was a quality that artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec sought to capture in their work, inspiring a whole art movement across Europe called Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Topics include: Revue Starlight, Japanese modernism, Hungarian military fashion, Hankyu Railways, history of Takarazuka Revue, Rose of Versailles, otokoyaku and musumeyaku, Jeanne d'Arc, and Princess Knight

I cite several references. If you like to read my thoughts on some of these books, you can read them on Bluesky:

Jennifer Robertson as an academic voice on Takarazuka Revue

My frustrations with "A History of the Takarazuka Revue Since 1914"

By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga

If you read an earlier draft version of this on Hoyolab, this post has since been edited to be way less of a stream of conscious! I've also added new photos of Himeko Nova which you can view below the cut:

[crosspost from Hoyolab]

White roses are coming up a lot for Himeko so I figured it was worth analyzing. Before anyone comes at me, I know that they're using white roses because they're associated with death and are commonly used at funerals. I know because I'm a whole Chinese person, and have a strong memory of my dad getting extremely offended when my mom's friend tried to gift her white roses for her retirement.

However, I want to offer another explanation. I've always been struck by how Himeko's Character Stories connect her to the sea. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born from sea foam. It is said that when she was born, white rose bushes sprung from the ocean spray and the earth where her feet touched. With the implication that our current Himeko incarnation and/or Motoko was "born" at the place where the Astral Express crashed, I believe this might be an intentional parallel. HSR mythology uses Aphrodite as a basis for Idrila, which is why Argenti is associated with roses and Aglaea is associated with Beauty and inherits the Coreflame of Romance. Some scholars argue that Aphrodite originated from the Hindu goddess of dawn, Ushas, and both are associated with the colors of red, white, and gold. Aphrodite is also believed to be a Greek adaptation of the Mesopotamian goddess of war and love, Ishtar. Both Himeko Nova and Rin are being released in the same patch.

Another reason for my theory is that there is actually a lot of debate about Aphrodite's origin story. Because there are other conflicting accounts from Homer and Sappho, which asserts that Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus. Famous philosopher Plato had an explanation for this contradiction. His explanation is that there are actually TWO Aphrodites: Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos. (This sounds familiar.) Aphrodite Urania has the sea foam birth story and draws her "heavenly" aspects from the sky-god Ur****, her "father". In contrast, Aphrodite Pandemos is associated with the mortal realm and common people. There's even a third incarnation of Aphrodite called "Areia", with more warlike qualities and is believed to be traced from her original connection to Ishtar. (Aphrodite was given many other titles, but we're dealing with possibly 3 Himekos, so let's just stop there.)

Going back to the story about my mom, white roses have a meaning of "new beginnings" in Western culture. Himeko Nova's Chinese name is "姬子•启行" (jīzǐ • qǐxíng). 启行 means to "set off", symbolizing a start of a new journey. Himeko Nova wears a white rose on her chest. As a symbol of her finally breaking free from the Weathering Curse, white roses have gone from meaning her certain death to a "rebirth". And I think that's beautiful!

[crosspost from Hoyolab]

Yeah it's a reference to Junko Enoshima, although Junko's outfit is also in the Goth Punk style as well.

I mentioned in my Himeko Nova design analysis post that Sparxie's outfit is a fusion of Japanese and Western elements, a nod to how the Gothic Lolita fashion subculture combined Victorian frilly dresses with the aesthetic of Japanese punk rock. However Gothic Lolita started becoming too commercialized for people's tastes, and so a new counterculture was born: Goth Punk.

The whole Gothic fashion movement was in response to the pervasive "kawaii" culture in Japan. In a way, this makes Sparxie a great contrast to Evanescia. Evanescia infantilizes herself by claiming she's a "high school girl" and loves to accessorize such as owning a Labubu Tamagotchi. Both the Japanese and Korean dubs make the choice of having Sparxie's voice more high-pitched, suggesting that she's also putting up an infantile act. Her standard outfit is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which became popular in Japan because its heroine is pure, independent, and honest in a refreshing way for a little girl. Girl adolescence is romantized because it's the stage before women become objectified as housewives or domestic workers as adults. This sentiment isn't exclusive to Japan, as there was a Chinese influencer who became viral a few years back for saying: "I just turned 18" in a high-pitched, cutesy voice.