Hisashi Kagawa - Drawing Fantastic Female Fighters: Bringing Fierce Female Characters to Life (With Over 1,200 Illustrations)

Manga & Anime Masters

DRAWING FANTASTIC

FEMALE FIGHTERS

BRINGING FIERCE FEMALE
CHARACTERS TO LIFE

Hisashi Kagawa &
Yoshihiko Umakoshi

From Hisashi Kagawas Portfolio
Fresh Pretty Cure!

CHARACTER DESIGNS

Fresh Pretty Cure!

Original: Toudou Izumi
Series Director: Shimizu Junji, Zako Akifumi (Episode 16 onwards)
Series Writer: Maekawa Atsushi

Animation Production: Toei Animation The sixth Pretty Cure series. Along with a distinct new look, the series features more close-ups of the Pretty Cure family and a villain general who becomes a Pretty Cure herself, among several other fresh concepts. ABC A Toei Animation

In order to distinguish this from previous Pretty Cures series, weve made the characters taller and adjusted proportions accordingly. Three charactersPeach, Berry, Pinehave been created.

Love Momozono/Cure Peach

She isnt into sports or academics, but shes the kind of girl who, when the occasion calls for it, burns with compassion and thinks of others before herself. Her catchphrase is Grab your happiness!

This character was conceived as the basis for designing all the rest. Her hair was initially colored both pink and yellow but since theres quite a bit of volume to it, we settled with just yellow, so that it doesnt look too heavy.

Miki Aono/Cure Berry

A stylish and perceptive second-year junior-high student at a private academy, she also models for magazines. With her catchphraseThe power of perfectionshes driven, a hard worker with her goals always in sight. She lives with her mother who runs a hair and nail salon.

Using Cure Peach as the basis, the other characters are variations on this design. Cure Berrys two-piece costume design reflects her sharp, smart and svelte style.

Inori Yamabuki/Cure Pine

A student at an academy. She joins Cure Peachs dance group in an effort to transform herself.

Here were going for a softer, rounder image with the looser lines around her hips.

Setsuna Higashi/Cure Passion

The fourth fantastic female fighter was born in a labyrinth when a great general made a wish for happiness from the very bottom of her heart. She can be awkward, but shes always earnest. Her catchphrase is Ill do my best!

At first we dressed her in the same type of costume as Cure Peach, but then she didnt stand out enough as an individual, so we mixed things up. It didnt seem right for this one to be seen in anything skimpy, so we favored a more conservative design.

Eas

Setsuna before she becomes the fourth Pretty Cure.

Devoted to the supreme leader of Labyrinth, Moebius, she wore down her life span over and over again in her fights with Pretty Cure, until in the end she was killed at Moebiuss own hand.

Miyuki Chinen

She gets to know the others and becomes their dance tutor, at first mistakenly thought to be the fourth member.

A character designed to be a red herring and mislead viewers into thinking, Could she be a Pretty Cure? She shares a lot of similarities with Cure Passion, such as their color schemes. Shes modeled after the singer Amuro Namie.

We wanted to make these characters stand out, so we opted for pants with low waistlines.

USING DETAILS IN DESIGN

By adding highlights to her eyes and more emotion to her face, we make her look warmer, more human.

Chiffon

A mysterious little fairy who becomes the subject of repeat abduction attempts.

This character was originally meant to be a rabbit, but we thought it was supposed to look like a panda or a bear.

Tart

He hangs in the backgroundhe cant fight to save his life!acting as our heroines emotional pillar.

Tart was also created with merchandise in mind, so from many possible designs we settled on a ferret-like look for him.

In designing the parents, we wanted them to resemble their daughters in some way and to match their general color scheme. Fundamentally, we designed the parents in sets, starting off with a sweet stay-at-home mom.

This father is an office worker at a wig-making company, so his hair is drawn in a wig-like style.

A bearded, broad-shouldered man in stark contrast to her demure mother. All the mothers were designed to suggest in part older versions of their daughters.

We gave her glamorous curly hair. Her look and coloring match her daughters. Such similarities in appearance are rare in reality, its something we can only indulge in an anime world.

Kaoru

A man of many mysteries who runs a doughnut caf. Despite appearances, hes a kind man, and a key person who often gives tips or words of advice to the Pretty Cure.

The request here was to design a character who was kind of shady and suspicious, but ultimately a quirky uncle figure you could rely on.