Author notes

BEHIND THE SCENES: Mako Concept

Aaronthewolf

on April 11, 2012

Yeah, I'm not doing so hot this week, so I decided that a nice touch would be to share some of the conceptual art and master sheets with you guys. This is Mako's original character sheet, minus a few random scribbling proto drawings that may show up at a later date. Mako Nonikado is obviously based of of the art style from Cromartie High, one of my personal favorite shows and one of the few animes I enjoy. I've always been really picky with anime, and it takes a really strong one to leave an impression on me. As I'm sure you are aware by reading this comic, Anime is not my strongest skill, both in knowledge and technical ability to replicate but I am constantly working to improve on it. As such I have to keep on myself to make sure I utilize mako properly and don't let his character fall to the wayside over Cameron and Max who are more easy and familiar to me.
Mako fills the role of the studious fellow in the trio. The one who's mission in college is nothing but acedemic. Theres alot of me in that, primarily speaking it was my college experience. I knew from the get go that Mako had to fill this roll, but it worried me that people would assume it was specifically a racial thing. As I mentioned early one problem I found with a show like Drawn Together was that it went for race related jokes rather then treating the cartoons as a unique race. I want to avoid this. There is a difference between Asians and Anime toons, and there is a difference between the way our world works and how things work in the Cartoon Universe. As the strip goes on you will meet more anime students that differ from Mako's "Study, Study, Study" mentality, as well as discover Mako's true motivations for his studious nature. But I don't want to blow all my lids just yet, so thats all you get. See you next week, thanks for reading.