This was originally drawn for Inktober 2019 on the 8th day.
I really like pretty much everything about Misaki. Her design, personality and story are great. Plus her relationship with Misaka makes for some great stories. I’m really glad they are finally giving her some screen time in the anime. I really like the way they make her life comedic because of the characters and situations she has to deal with. The way Sogiita Gunha stole the spotlight was hilarious and Misakis’ response made it even better.
Of course Misaki just oozes sexiness so I wanted to do a piece emphasizing that.
The whole painting was progressing smoothly, I was quite surprised. The background was done in just a couple of minutes and Misaki just a couple of hours. But the hair was… I need to practice more with blonde hair, it took way too long.
This was probably the hardest one to draw. Not because of the difficulty but because of not knowing how Bulma would look like in real life. In my view she could go either way in terms of looks (Asian or Caucasian). So I decided to do some research to help me decide. Much to my surprise that added more to my confusion. As it turn out it seems that Buruma was meant to represent Xuanzang, the Chinese monk (and protagonist) from “Journey to the West”. One would think that it would all end like that and I would just draw her as a Chinese girl, but after examining the original drawings for what would later become Buruma, I found out that he (Akira Toriyama) had a Western girl in mind
So, did that image still carry over to the Buruma that we all know? I was really contemplating and reaching the same conclusion that it could go either way. And since I pretty much imagine Trunks as seeming Caucasian for some reason as well as seeing her family which is made up of one blonde mom. At the very least she could be half and half. But to not complicate things, I will just make her a white girl. With that in mind I’d say that was probably the only character I feel they casted right in that horrible live action movie (too bad they did not give her the full light blue or in some eyes light purple hair). Of course since it was supposed to be based on the original Dragon Ball then they would need a younger actress (or at the very least, make her look , girlier). Not that the right casting would have changed the outcome of the film…
I also tried to pinpoint the source of the name. That of course would lead me no where. After all, as most fans know, Buruma means Bloomers. And again this would not give me a definitive answer since these are/were widely used in both Japan and Western countries. The origins of the garments would not help out much either. So I scrapped this as a deciding factor.
Any way, that is how I came to the conclusion of how to draw Buruma. I infact did use a model to draw this interpretation (from a picture I found in the internet of course, after searching for hours…). Here is the picture of said cosplayer:
As you can tell I borrowed greatly, and mostly just added the bunny suit, as well changed her hairstyle. I’d say she fits the part perfectly. She not only looks like her but also has that youthful look that reminds me of the early days of Dragon Ball.
I also had some other images in mind of course. Some that I personally preferred and would have used if I decided to go the other way. here are the links:
pic 1
pic 2
And so, there you have it. What do you guys think?