"GRANT ME THE POWER TO BRING WORLD REVOLUTION"
Psssssssssssssssttttt pssssssssssstttttt
OK so, this has been in the works for a LONG time like a month at minimum, I was so happy with the sketch I wanted to do it justice especially since my posts have been so infrequent
And Red Son's hair OH BOY HIS MOTHER FRAGGING HAIR.
Because his dress and hair are the same fowcking color, you couldn't differentiate it from each other all all them lovely curly cues and stuff so I had the idea to make his hair light ablaze right? Like it does in the show?
Well I didn't know how do do that elegantly enough for this specific style I'm going for, especially since the hair IS the light source so how on earth do I sort out all the hues of red and orange when I can't blend or use gradients when using the clean pen style?!
Eventually I thought f*ck it and do something freestyle and VERY simple (at least from what I previously wanted) and my irl friend said it actually looked pretty good so then i felt like I was worried about nothing.
But at the very least yea I can admit it looks aight.
Anyways now that I'm out of my mood I can actually get into the designs and the little bits and bobs of this thing
ok so for the picture specifically, Utena usually uses this black patterned border normally when there's an establishing character shot or the silhouette backstories with the skin of the characters blacked out
And that's exactly what's happening here, in this depiction, there are no faces, there is no skin, only the roles and that's why I made everything so cel-shaded, its flat, its neat, its a spectacle and lacking any true depth as to what it feels like for the characters, only what the audience is allowed to see.
They are not people in this moment, they are roles in the fairytale duels.
For the border I picked a more floral one and like in the anime, there are 4 roses and Utena's appearances always used pink roses, sometimes white which basically mean an unbreakable bond and devotion and such
I used yellow roses because they mean stability, balance, and a message that "nothing will stand between us" but also a platonic friendship.
The yellow roses also have red tips to show that they have a really strong friendship (after some bonding and living together "and they were roomates" style) have blossoming romantic feelings and that they desperately want to be something more but because they believe the other won't reciprocate their feelings due to the conditions of the duels and their living situation, ALSO because of external factors that WILL use any romantic connection of their's against them-
....they can't exactly persue what they want at the moment.
(also helps that there are 4 of those roses and in chinese culture they symbolise death *cough cough* Utena coffin imagery *cough cough*)
And also the sparkles/stars are centered around the staff and not Mk's head directly because he is not the source of his power, the staff is inherited and in this moment, Mk is not fully in control
Also also the point stars around Red's head are also to look like pointy pointy swords and if you watched Utena, you know VERY WELL what lies in fate for the princess-
I suppose I can give an explanation for the fits now:
I didn't want to just tie Red's hair in a bun or braid as it feels a little over done and I wanted to change his front hair poofy plume thing but its so iconic to his design, I wondered if changing it would be too much so I settled for like a coronet braid and a ponytail while the front plume would be pushed back under the crown since it mirrors Anthy's hair being long and wavy but is pinned up (restriction symbolism and such)
The structure of the dress is mostly the same as Anthy's but I gave Red the military prince top with the white panel and buttons because fun fact: Red Son used to be a prince before lashing out and being turned into a princess as punishment and so someone else can use his power 'correctly'
(hmmmmmm I wonder what caused him to lash out hmmmmmmm)
so the top is almost an insult to show like 'this is the freedom you could've had' but the skirt cuts it off like 'but now this is who you are', and I gave it the front white panel and purple swoopy pattern at the hems just to make the design not as top heavy (also the tiny flames look like little candles and its cute :D) and cut through all that red. And he has the ring of samadhi because that is lowkey his insignia (and 'rose duelist rings' and 'ring of samadhi'? Ring a bell?) and a carvat cause its fancy and looks uncomfy which is what the design is also supposed to look like
Anthy has her gold wrap around chain-thingy but I gave red a string of brown beads for another color and also to allude to buddhist prayer beads from his imprisonment and servitude under Guanyin in the actual JTTW.
Jewelry wise I can't take Red seriously in them tiny black glasses so for the purpose of him being in the 'proper prim princess' role I swapped it out for the gold monacle because its more 'delicate' and all that bullsh!t
He has a nosering just like dbk and Anthy already had earings but I also realised like; bulls, domesticated bulls, wear noserings and eartags.
These are not only just ornamentation but also physical signifiers of Red being domesticated livestock at this point in the AU
Ok for Mk, I like Utena's uniform but I wanted to give it more pizzaz so I made Mk's outfit more ornate not only to give it personal flare but also since a large part of Mk's identity issue in this au is that by himself, he is just a peasant boy, another background character/face in the crowd, so for the sudden jump to ornate prince its a bit of whiplash and he kinda feels insecure about his prince identity when all his power is technically borrowed.
He has the lil cloud button and fluff round his boots cause I use clouds as a motif for Mk usually
I wanted his color palette to pair nicely with Red's so some earthy browns and golds with an accent of teal does it nicely
Instead of just the ribbons on the military epillets, i gave Mk the lil beaded tassels since I'm pretty sure I've seen some like chinese statue of a god in armour with those tassels before
His shorts are round and poofy because he is round, bouncy sunshine boy and also harkens back to his desire to be a true prince, hence the puffy fairytale prince shorts
Because he doesn't have Utena's striking flowing pink hair, I needed to give his silhouette a lil more oomph and I've used this before, so I just gave him the circlet crown with the 2 phoenix feathers as an adornment rather than Wukong's proper crown because
its a borrowed power, so he doesn't have the formal thing
Mk is still inexperienced so its off to the side than centered
in fairytale illustrations sometimes the prince wears a wide brimmed hat with a big feather plume rather than a crown and this is to resemble that silhouette
And I find it funny how in media, whenever you want to make a Sun Wukong reference there's always his curved circlet crown thingy as if that was a glorified sign of his royalty and power when it was actually used as a punishment and way to keep him in his place so I'm using it similarly here
Also also, just happy bout how the pose turned out and yea, in this au normally Red would pull the weapon out of his respective duelist (who he's 'engaged' to) via a glowing light their chest and each duelist has their respective 'legends' and thus their own 'divine weapon' but Mk is a unique case since his legend is inherited and has to be pulled from the ear
(hmmmmmm I wonder whyyyy.....)
here's the drawing without the border btw:
Oh and for AU name I've been thinking about the name: "Ring of revolution" or does that sound too on the nose?
