I was bored and tried to genderbend Ene of Mekakucity Actors/Kagerou Daze! Okay, actually, I was drawing Ene and noticed how I drew the head, I could go either original or genderbent, and being the huge genderbending fan I was...
I tried to come up with a design that stuck to the idea that Ene’s original design was made to be something male otaku could easily fall in love with/find attractive, all the while seeming kind of active and cute, but not really falling fully into either “beautiful” or “cute”, more like something in between (If I had to say, Ene’s more “pretty”).
Of course, it was a real struggle and I had to get rid of most of the original track jacket (this one’s less thick and more sporty than comfy), since it easily...looks sloppy on male characters, somehow. But I felt it was still pretty important in that, despite all of the Mekakushi Dan wearing some sort of jacket/hoodie, it’s only Shintaro and Ene that match with track jackets. So I tried letting it stay a track jacket, but tried going for something “cooler”.
I didn’t use black tights on its own with Ene’s original thigh high socks design because it creates a rather strange silhouette for the lower body. Stripes really do look much better at the sides of the body. Ene’s original sign seemed kind of sporty-girly (though not too sporty with the skirt and oversized sleeves, really, so I have to admit there’s my personal preference mixed in here //shot). So I went with shorts over tights (the tights are black with them side mint lines, but they aren’t visible here lol). I thought it would create the “boyish” look to contrast Ene’s “girlish” one. It kind of showcases the character’s playfulness and sense of mischief, I think. As for the weird...things at the side of the shorts, I just looked back on how Sidu-sensei’s older character designs (including the era they worked on Kagerou Daze) tended to have clothing designs that look like only anime characters would wear them. It would have been cool if they could be opened and there’s wires/cables inside or something, but Ene’s a cyber being, not a robot..
Ene’s thigh marks were moved up to the arms since I had intended to cover the whole leg area from the start, and the half glove is there to balance it off. Besides, I thought half-gloves give off a kind of sexy feel. If my understanding is correct, male otaku in general are attracted to cute (points if sexy-cute), and female otaku in general are attracted to ikemen (especially so if they’re sexy—just check out all the idol anime characters or otome characters!), so I tried to give him that sort of feel. I hope it worked out.
