So fairly recently, Arina Tanemura (initial character designer/drafter for IDOLiSH7) was interviewed by Comic Natalie. While I won’t translate the whole interview (since those aren’t usually my focus), I will go through some of her design comments.
First up: Arina Tanemura’s favorite three illustrations.
1st: “IDOLiSH7: TRIGGER -before The Radiant Glory-” Cover Illustration
I ended up deciding my favorite simply by the hue, so I like this illustration because I think I was able to do the best on the hues. I wanted to show TRIGGER’s erotic side, so in the initial rough draft I thought about having women’s arms and legs coming from outside the border, and having the members kiss them. But still, they are idols......so if it was a hand, people would probably be curious, wondering “who is that woman!?” So I went with a picture where the members were entangled with each other......and so I drew it with that thought, but people who saw the finished illustration said things like “how indecent.” Idols are very difficult.
2nd: “IDOLiSH7: TRIGGER -before The Radiant Glory-” Pinup
It was difficult because of all the things I had to draw in, so this gets a vote for the most tiring. This is a photoshoot for a magazine, done in the image of a pajama party. So rather then putting them in their actual pajamas, I went with a cute design for the room and items, to bring out the feeling of a real photoshoot. But I wonder if it’s a bit too cute? During the drafting stage I thought about using black and white pajamas, but since TRIGGER has so many illustrations that put black at the forefront, I decided to make it cuter so we could see Ten-kun give a different expression. In the picture book, you can see King Pudding meeting a divinely glowing Kinako at the end of his journey......a truly magnificent last scene.
3rd: “IDOLiSH7: TRIGGER -before The Radiant Glory-” Pinup
I drew this wanting to see a sexy TRIGGER. Ten-kun was also more undressed in the rough stages, but since he’s underage I thought I should make him wear more clothing. Also, I think Ten-kun is sexier when he doesn’t undress! The different shapes of Gaku-kun’s and Ryuu-kun’s belly button is the main point. I looked up a number of things about muscles while drawing this, but the more muscles you put on, the more horizontal your belly button becomes. I think Gaku-kun’s muscles come more from being an idol, while Ryuu-kun’s come more from forging them in his daily life. Like the kind of person that would unconsciously train on the train or in an elevator.
