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thekusabishatThis is mainly about character design and relations between the Hinasakis.
This one was really, really awkward for some reason, so parts of it may be weird-sounding or incorrect. I suggest taking some parts of it with a grain of salt, just to be safe. Original page here.
Warning: this has absolutely NOT been reread since I wrote it!
Zero ~zero~ Anthology Part 2: Miku and Mafuyu
Interviewees: Jin Hasegawa (CG team), Makoto Shibata (director)
An unprecedented game... and thus Miku, an appropriate character, was born
---Let's talk about Miku's image first.
Hasegawa: Chasing her brother into an abandoned Japanese manor, the girl fights ghosts. And besides the camera...I thought, "What on earth kind of character would that be?", and at first it was really hard to settle on the perfect image. There were designs where she had a sword, or used magic, but that wouldn't really be a game that could set a precedent.
---At what stage was the Miku character decided upon?
Shibata: Right away I decided that the Japanese manor, ghosts and a camera would be elements of the game, but the protagonist was unclear until the very end. In the dreams I had each night, visiting Himuro Mansion from my own perspective, I never saw a protagonist. Even though the rest was easy, since I saw it all so clearly...
---Then the main character wasn't settled upon at the beginning of development?
Shibata: Right, since the character is always on the screen, and quite often appears alone in dark rooms, I thought we should keep working on it until we could agree on something.
---Regarding Miku's design?
Hasegawa: We first got the director's image from written documents, and designed from there. You lose some of the fear if the design is too surreal, so we had to make it realistic. However, since it's a game, we couldn't make it TOO real or it would be dull. It was difficult to maintain the balance.
Basic ideas for the character
From the main character outline
The premise...
The protagonist has a sixth sense, and can see thins that other people can't.
Sharp sensitivity...
Sensitive to the workings of the minds around her.
When exposed to negative emotions, such as anger, hatred and sadness, she feels it more than other people. Even though she's seen ghosts many times she's still not used to it, and so that they can speak directly to her mind, the ghosts' hatred and grief appear as a ball.
About having a sixth sense...
She sees things other people don't, and so she's afraid of other people she sees as different.
In addition, since she has no friends, deep down she feels lonely.
As a result of this, even though she wants to speak she doesn't, and it gives her classmates a sense of frustration.
About her brother...
Her older brother has the same sixth sense as her, understands her since he sees the same things she does, and is the only one she can open up to.
Since both of their parents died, he has acted as a father and a mother to her.
At the time of modelling: physical features
From the main character outline
Body...
To show that the protagonist is not a belligerent character, her body is slender.
Impressive eyes...
To show that she has a strong sixth sense, she has big, wet, black eyes.
Here, it's best to give off a fleeting feeling.**
Since it's the main character, it's like the core of her strength can be felt somewhere in that gaze.
**(I do NOT know for sure what this sentence means. For reference: ここで、はかなそうな感じが出るのがベスト。)
Hair ornament used as a feature...
To represent her strong sixth sense, it was decided that she would have long hair.
It reaches down to her back. However, since she hates her sixth sense and wants to hide it, she ties her hair up with a red, cord-like hair ornament.
Preferably, when the hair is tied up, I would like it to be asymmetrical (directed using a mirror, to make it clearer).
Clothing colour...
The game is set in around 1986, but this is only because there were no mobile phones then, so I don't want you to worry too much about the fashion of that time.
Also, in the season the game takes place in, clothing gets more chic in early autumn.
I want to use colours that don't get lost in the dark building, but avoid anything too bright.
Ideally, I want to use a high-contrast colour scheme, with black and white clearly divided.
Hidden secrets of Miku's costume
Hasegawa: She's so slim because the director said, "That way, you can see she has a strong sixth sense", and she was designed with that in mind.
Shibata: Also, she still looks young, which gives her the image of a strong sixth sense.
Miku was created to look younger than she actually is.
Also, though it becomes clear in the game, since she has trauma relating to her mother I wanted her to be a character with a kind of dark past.
---Was the area around the hair ornament significantly modified?
Shibata: In the end, her hairstyle became symmetrical.
I thought it was easy to understand, looking in the mirror, but it turned out to be a really weird hairstyle. We dropped the design.
Hasegawa: In the early stages, the hair ornament was a really important accessory.
It's not only a memento of her mother, but also something that's been in her family's possession for generations. It becomes an item symbolic of her ties to spiritual power.
---Then what's the story of this hair ornament?
Shibata: Hmm, this was meant to be included in the original scenario. Unforunately, since we discussed so many things, I didn't mention it.
---Also, I've been wondering about that choker around her neck.
Shibata: I wanted her and her brother to wear some kind of matching jewellery, so I requested it.
Hasegawa: From the upper body shot, I wanted to know what it was.
Shibata: If you've played the game you'll probably already understand this, but the black line around the neck... It has a deep meaning within the story.
---How did you decide what kind of clothes Miku would wear?
Hasegawa: To look good in the darkness, we decided to use high contrast. Starting from the top, her black hair, white face, the red one-point on her chest, white jacket, black skirt... The colour scheme is sort of like "white, black, white, black".
Shibata: I originally wanted her to wear dark clothes from head to toe, but it would be hard to work out where she was on the dark screen.
Hasegawa: From that design came two versions.
Shibata: One was a kind of Taisho Roman-type gothic outfit. (**I believe that this is some kind of combination of Taisho-era clothing (12th century or so) with 19th century European romantic influences.**) We assumed that the era would be older than the retail version. The outfit was head to toe velvet, with a long skirt. She would wear red velvet nderneath. The edges of the material were decorated with lace and such.
The other, quite similar to the current one, was also quite focused on the black and white contrast, and though it had the same red one-point it was simpler.
---And you're fine with the current design?
Shibata: Right; it turned into a design that suits the screen.
Hasegawa: Actually, things like this decided a lot of small details with regards to Miku's physical characteristics.
Shibata: I think you can actually feel that in the game.
---And Mafuyu?
Hasegawa: Just like Miku, he's got that distinct black/white contrast.
Shibata: We decided that the same maker made his and Miku's clothes.
About the main character's name
From the main character outline
Miku Hinasaki (雛咲 深紅)
The main character is put under a curse which tears apart the human body, and a surname (Hinasaki) was picked to give the image of the main character's soft body being torn apart. We also wanted to give the main character a distinctive colour, so we chose 深紅 (meaning "deep crimson"). From this we got the name Miku. That deep crimson character colour was used for the hair ornament and accessories, etc. to create an effect on the monochrome screen, leaving only a faint crimson glow. The blood-like shade of red looks quite good on the screen.
Hasegawa: Although we had many difficulties with the design, the protagonist's name was decided really quickly in the very early stages.
Shibata: At first, since the kanji has a difficult reading, the staff didn't like it, but I kept insistently calling her that and eventually we kept it. Well, the naming is still just like the concept colour.
---Is it in black and white?
Hasegawa: Come to think of it, the whole thing was originally planned to be in monochrome.
Shibata: In fact, that was the first version, back then. I imagine that always playing in monochrome with the strong contrast, as it appears in the game's flashbacks, would be good.
---Only the introduction, playing as Mafuyu, is in monochrome?
Shibata: It's all a flashback to something that happened in the past, so it's in black and white. When Miku sees these past events, from when Mafuyu is controlled during the introduction, it also goes monochrome.
---Do you think that, if it were all in black and white, the atmosphere would be quite different?
Shibata: With the old version, even playing as the creator, I was really scared by it. Maybe because of slowdowns and frame-rate drops the ghosts were motionless, though they still made me tremble with fright, but there was no real fear while looking through the viewfinder. I was worried that we might not be able to sell it like that.
Hasegawa: In that version, you moving Miku around was the scariest part.
Shibata: In the end it was too tiring to play, so it couldn't really be sold.
Hinasaki family structure
Father - Masato
A researcher working as an archaeologist.
All year round he flew around the country, examining ruins, and rarely went home.
He died during his research.
Mother - Miyuki
A student who married Masato.
She once worked as Masato's assistant, taking photos of ruins and pottery.
She got married, and became a housewife.
She doted on the children, but her husband paying no attention to home gradually ate away at her mind.
She was friendly to everyone, with thin nerves and a weak body.
She had a sixth sense as a child, but after graduating from elementary school it was almost gone.
As she had struggled with being an outcast due to her sixth sense, she was distressed about having passed it on to her children, and persuaded them not to tell anyone about it.
When she began to get ill, she started taking photos as a hobby.
From that time onwards, Miyuki's spiritual power gradually returned, and she began to take strange pictures.
At the same time, she began to be tormented by her sixth sense.
She died in "that incident".
Miku's sixth sense has blossomed greatly since then.
Brother - Mafuyu
A pale, thin young man. He's kind, and his appearance is a lot like his mother's.
Since he's Masato and Miyuki's first child, he takes a character from his father's name and inherits his mother's image, and so got this name.
He knows of Miku's abilities and sympathises, and is the only person to do so.
Since he is gentle and kind, and reminds Miku of their mother before she became ill, he took on the important role of mother and father after their parents died.
His concept colour is white. 23 years old.
After graduating from university, he took a job at a publisher.
In an informational magazine a little out of season, he was entrusted with doing a little research for a horror feature, and he visited the area that became the setting for this game.
Hasegawa: The finer details aren't mentioned in the game.
Shibata: Like I mentioned in the costume section, the brother has the image of a faint, floating white shadow in the darkness of Himuro Mansion. In the design, I wanted to recreate the feeling of the Mafuyu from inside my head. Since he hides the same spiritual power as Miku, in his gaze you can see that he's hiding a dark past, and he gives off a cold and dignified aura.
---Were these two involved in incidents in the past?**
Shibata: I did consider it like Kagerou (Deception 2).** But, somehow, I don't really think so... In any case, in Mafuyu I wanted to create a character combining strength and kindness. That has an important meaning within the story, and is enjoyable while playing.
**(I believe they mean as in using these two characters in a later prequel, showing events that happened prior to Himuro Mansion.)
This one was really, really awkward for some reason, so parts of it may be weird-sounding or incorrect. I suggest taking some parts of it with a grain of salt, just to be safe. Original page here.
Warning: this has absolutely NOT been reread since I wrote it!
Zero ~zero~ Anthology Part 2: Miku and Mafuyu
Interviewees: Jin Hasegawa (CG team), Makoto Shibata (director)
An unprecedented game... and thus Miku, an appropriate character, was born
---Let's talk about Miku's image first.
Hasegawa: Chasing her brother into an abandoned Japanese manor, the girl fights ghosts. And besides the camera...I thought, "What on earth kind of character would that be?", and at first it was really hard to settle on the perfect image. There were designs where she had a sword, or used magic, but that wouldn't really be a game that could set a precedent.
---At what stage was the Miku character decided upon?
Shibata: Right away I decided that the Japanese manor, ghosts and a camera would be elements of the game, but the protagonist was unclear until the very end. In the dreams I had each night, visiting Himuro Mansion from my own perspective, I never saw a protagonist. Even though the rest was easy, since I saw it all so clearly...
---Then the main character wasn't settled upon at the beginning of development?
Shibata: Right, since the character is always on the screen, and quite often appears alone in dark rooms, I thought we should keep working on it until we could agree on something.
---Regarding Miku's design?
Hasegawa: We first got the director's image from written documents, and designed from there. You lose some of the fear if the design is too surreal, so we had to make it realistic. However, since it's a game, we couldn't make it TOO real or it would be dull. It was difficult to maintain the balance.
Basic ideas for the character
From the main character outline
The premise...
The protagonist has a sixth sense, and can see thins that other people can't.
Sharp sensitivity...
Sensitive to the workings of the minds around her.
When exposed to negative emotions, such as anger, hatred and sadness, she feels it more than other people. Even though she's seen ghosts many times she's still not used to it, and so that they can speak directly to her mind, the ghosts' hatred and grief appear as a ball.
About having a sixth sense...
She sees things other people don't, and so she's afraid of other people she sees as different.
In addition, since she has no friends, deep down she feels lonely.
As a result of this, even though she wants to speak she doesn't, and it gives her classmates a sense of frustration.
About her brother...
Her older brother has the same sixth sense as her, understands her since he sees the same things she does, and is the only one she can open up to.
Since both of their parents died, he has acted as a father and a mother to her.
At the time of modelling: physical features
From the main character outline
Body...
To show that the protagonist is not a belligerent character, her body is slender.
Impressive eyes...
To show that she has a strong sixth sense, she has big, wet, black eyes.
Here, it's best to give off a fleeting feeling.**
Since it's the main character, it's like the core of her strength can be felt somewhere in that gaze.
**(I do NOT know for sure what this sentence means. For reference: ここで、はかなそうな感じが出るのがベスト。)
Hair ornament used as a feature...
To represent her strong sixth sense, it was decided that she would have long hair.
It reaches down to her back. However, since she hates her sixth sense and wants to hide it, she ties her hair up with a red, cord-like hair ornament.
Preferably, when the hair is tied up, I would like it to be asymmetrical (directed using a mirror, to make it clearer).
Clothing colour...
The game is set in around 1986, but this is only because there were no mobile phones then, so I don't want you to worry too much about the fashion of that time.
Also, in the season the game takes place in, clothing gets more chic in early autumn.
I want to use colours that don't get lost in the dark building, but avoid anything too bright.
Ideally, I want to use a high-contrast colour scheme, with black and white clearly divided.
Hidden secrets of Miku's costume
Hasegawa: She's so slim because the director said, "That way, you can see she has a strong sixth sense", and she was designed with that in mind.
Shibata: Also, she still looks young, which gives her the image of a strong sixth sense.
Miku was created to look younger than she actually is.
Also, though it becomes clear in the game, since she has trauma relating to her mother I wanted her to be a character with a kind of dark past.
---Was the area around the hair ornament significantly modified?
Shibata: In the end, her hairstyle became symmetrical.
I thought it was easy to understand, looking in the mirror, but it turned out to be a really weird hairstyle. We dropped the design.
Hasegawa: In the early stages, the hair ornament was a really important accessory.
It's not only a memento of her mother, but also something that's been in her family's possession for generations. It becomes an item symbolic of her ties to spiritual power.
---Then what's the story of this hair ornament?
Shibata: Hmm, this was meant to be included in the original scenario. Unforunately, since we discussed so many things, I didn't mention it.
---Also, I've been wondering about that choker around her neck.
Shibata: I wanted her and her brother to wear some kind of matching jewellery, so I requested it.
Hasegawa: From the upper body shot, I wanted to know what it was.
Shibata: If you've played the game you'll probably already understand this, but the black line around the neck... It has a deep meaning within the story.
---How did you decide what kind of clothes Miku would wear?
Hasegawa: To look good in the darkness, we decided to use high contrast. Starting from the top, her black hair, white face, the red one-point on her chest, white jacket, black skirt... The colour scheme is sort of like "white, black, white, black".
Shibata: I originally wanted her to wear dark clothes from head to toe, but it would be hard to work out where she was on the dark screen.
Hasegawa: From that design came two versions.
Shibata: One was a kind of Taisho Roman-type gothic outfit. (**I believe that this is some kind of combination of Taisho-era clothing (12th century or so) with 19th century European romantic influences.**) We assumed that the era would be older than the retail version. The outfit was head to toe velvet, with a long skirt. She would wear red velvet nderneath. The edges of the material were decorated with lace and such.
The other, quite similar to the current one, was also quite focused on the black and white contrast, and though it had the same red one-point it was simpler.
---And you're fine with the current design?
Shibata: Right; it turned into a design that suits the screen.
Hasegawa: Actually, things like this decided a lot of small details with regards to Miku's physical characteristics.
Shibata: I think you can actually feel that in the game.
---And Mafuyu?
Hasegawa: Just like Miku, he's got that distinct black/white contrast.
Shibata: We decided that the same maker made his and Miku's clothes.
About the main character's name
From the main character outline
Miku Hinasaki (雛咲 深紅)
The main character is put under a curse which tears apart the human body, and a surname (Hinasaki) was picked to give the image of the main character's soft body being torn apart. We also wanted to give the main character a distinctive colour, so we chose 深紅 (meaning "deep crimson"). From this we got the name Miku. That deep crimson character colour was used for the hair ornament and accessories, etc. to create an effect on the monochrome screen, leaving only a faint crimson glow. The blood-like shade of red looks quite good on the screen.
Hasegawa: Although we had many difficulties with the design, the protagonist's name was decided really quickly in the very early stages.
Shibata: At first, since the kanji has a difficult reading, the staff didn't like it, but I kept insistently calling her that and eventually we kept it. Well, the naming is still just like the concept colour.
---Is it in black and white?
Hasegawa: Come to think of it, the whole thing was originally planned to be in monochrome.
Shibata: In fact, that was the first version, back then. I imagine that always playing in monochrome with the strong contrast, as it appears in the game's flashbacks, would be good.
---Only the introduction, playing as Mafuyu, is in monochrome?
Shibata: It's all a flashback to something that happened in the past, so it's in black and white. When Miku sees these past events, from when Mafuyu is controlled during the introduction, it also goes monochrome.
---Do you think that, if it were all in black and white, the atmosphere would be quite different?
Shibata: With the old version, even playing as the creator, I was really scared by it. Maybe because of slowdowns and frame-rate drops the ghosts were motionless, though they still made me tremble with fright, but there was no real fear while looking through the viewfinder. I was worried that we might not be able to sell it like that.
Hasegawa: In that version, you moving Miku around was the scariest part.
Shibata: In the end it was too tiring to play, so it couldn't really be sold.
Hinasaki family structure
Father - Masato
A researcher working as an archaeologist.
All year round he flew around the country, examining ruins, and rarely went home.
He died during his research.
Mother - Miyuki
A student who married Masato.
She once worked as Masato's assistant, taking photos of ruins and pottery.
She got married, and became a housewife.
She doted on the children, but her husband paying no attention to home gradually ate away at her mind.
She was friendly to everyone, with thin nerves and a weak body.
She had a sixth sense as a child, but after graduating from elementary school it was almost gone.
As she had struggled with being an outcast due to her sixth sense, she was distressed about having passed it on to her children, and persuaded them not to tell anyone about it.
When she began to get ill, she started taking photos as a hobby.
From that time onwards, Miyuki's spiritual power gradually returned, and she began to take strange pictures.
At the same time, she began to be tormented by her sixth sense.
She died in "that incident".
Miku's sixth sense has blossomed greatly since then.
Brother - Mafuyu
A pale, thin young man. He's kind, and his appearance is a lot like his mother's.
Since he's Masato and Miyuki's first child, he takes a character from his father's name and inherits his mother's image, and so got this name.
He knows of Miku's abilities and sympathises, and is the only person to do so.
Since he is gentle and kind, and reminds Miku of their mother before she became ill, he took on the important role of mother and father after their parents died.
His concept colour is white. 23 years old.
After graduating from university, he took a job at a publisher.
In an informational magazine a little out of season, he was entrusted with doing a little research for a horror feature, and he visited the area that became the setting for this game.
Hasegawa: The finer details aren't mentioned in the game.
Shibata: Like I mentioned in the costume section, the brother has the image of a faint, floating white shadow in the darkness of Himuro Mansion. In the design, I wanted to recreate the feeling of the Mafuyu from inside my head. Since he hides the same spiritual power as Miku, in his gaze you can see that he's hiding a dark past, and he gives off a cold and dignified aura.
---Were these two involved in incidents in the past?**
Shibata: I did consider it like Kagerou (Deception 2).** But, somehow, I don't really think so... In any case, in Mafuyu I wanted to create a character combining strength and kindness. That has an important meaning within the story, and is enjoyable while playing.
**(I believe they mean as in using these two characters in a later prequel, showing events that happened prior to Himuro Mansion.)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-02 04:07 pm (UTC)There's some pretty wtf stuff in there as well. XD Like Miku's lacy velvet goth outfit - I'd pay good money to see that! And the idea that slimness means sixth sense (by that standard, every female character ever is psychic), and that Hinasaki = her "soft body being torn apart"; even knowing the meaning of the kanji, that is not at all what comes to mind. o_O
I think it's kind of cute how hard Shibata fought for the name "Miku", though. And I'm glad he did!