The Birth of Shana

Shana is a character designed by BikoWolf but created by me. First introduced in Volume 2, I envisioned this golden fox as the ideal rival for the main character. The two references I had in mind were Toriyama's Vegeta and Kishimoto's Sasuke. I've always had tremendous respect for these two authors, especially for creating such interesting and profound characters. Sasuke Uchiha and Vegeta have in common the fact that they are rivals of the main character in their respective series. This is the most striking characteristic of both and the reason why the reader can both love and hate them. They exist not to kill the protagonist, but to oppose them. And it's important to emphasize that they must compete with the protagonist to be the best. At the same time, it's precisely that rivalry that allows these characters to evolve, to change and to become better people.

Thinking of Shana, I wanted exactly the same thing. I wanted a Vegeta. I wanted a Sasuke. I wanted, in other words, someone capable of standing up to Himari, always competing with her and always critical of her. However, I wanted the character to be appealing. Every part of her design was conceived to achieve that goal.

 

Her name, Shana (シャナ), is a tribute to the homonymous protagonist of Shakugan no Shana, a series written by Yashichiro Takahashi that I watched when I was in high school. To create her, I decided to combine various elements collected from other characters in different series. But I didn't go haphazardly. In fact, I chose all the characteristics I liked or that I thought would make Shana more memorable, at least aesthetically. It wasn't easy, because I wanted to avoid cluttering her design with unnecessary details. When I was still a student, I loved drawing characters with stupidly complex costumes that were incredibly difficult to remember (or explain). My creativity, now, was directed towards the intent of making something simple, but that would attract the reader's attention.

 

The first thing I wanted was a fox girl. A kitsune, to be more precise, and I took inspiration from one of my favorite characters from the Fate franchise, Tamamo-no-Mae (designed by Takashi Takeuchi and the talented Wada Arco); however, I chose to make her blonde with blue eyes because, honestly, when I think of a princess, those characteristics come to mind.

Later, I decided to give her a closed eye, marked with a scar. In this case, I took inspiration from Kakashi Hatake, one of the most interesting (and cool) characters in the Naruto series. In Shana's case, too, the hidden eye is red (but it's not a Sharingan!). Still taking inspiration from him, and also from Sasuke Uchiha, I thought of giving her the power to manipulate lightning as well.

Finally, regarding the dress, you can immediately notice that it's a very revealing kimono. In this case, I wanted to take inspiration from a character from Senran Kagura (an ecchi series created by Kenichiro Takaki) called Yumi.

 

As for the story, I wanted to make a character of noble lineage, with an aristocratic dignity, but also with a traumatic past (as shown in Volume 3).

Just like with Himari, I outlined her four main characteristics:

1. Shana is a proud and haughty woman due to her high social class and her awareness of being a powerful mage.
2. She judges everyone as inferior.
3. She's an extremely cold person, but she also has a hidden emotional side that very few people know about.
4. Shana is the opposite of Himari; she's aware of that and consequently extremely critical of her.

If I were to define Shana's personality in a few words, I would point to the Mos maiorum, the code of conduct for men in ancient Rome. Its meaning is "way of the ancestors" and is characterized by: pietas, or respect for family and homeland; disciplina, or self-control; fides, or sincerity and consistency; and finally virtus, or the ability to distinguish good from evil.

 

Shana with Geydoss activated

 

 

 

 

Renewed artwork