Great Samura Blade of the Immortal Schoolgirl "Cosplay" Pic

[chomiji]

I was looking for some examples of Hiroaki Samura's art work for the discussion of manga in the comments of my previous post, and I came across this picture (set up to pop in a separate window or tab), which is frickin' adorable! The only thing is, I don't recognize all the female characters who are shown in school costumes. From the left, I see Hyakurin as the teacher, then Rin, Makie, and Doa, but who are the other three?

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*that is possibly the most perfect Hyakurin ever...now I want to see Giichi as a teacher*

Hmm...I think the one beside Doa is O-Ren, and the other one standing is Machi. The one who's crouching...hmm...possibly Master Sori's daughter? I'm not sure. Then again, all three could be characters who haven't shown up in the US releases yet.

[chomiji]

Except I can't see Giichi teaching anything but, like, shop or gym. (Although I suppose one could do a wonderful mindf*ck and have him turn out to be a secret lover of great literature, and teach that ... .)

Yeah ... the girl with the ciggie is definitely ringing a bell, but I can't remember why. Presumably she was smoking a pipe in the manga. I need to go back and read the last several over again. I lost track of what happened to everyone but Rin and Manji (and Doa and the big guy, of course, since they're with Rin).

This reminds me of that modern-day AU SDK picture, more than anything - the one with Yukimura in a trench coat, Benitora as a sk8er boi, and Kyo smoking a cigarette - or maybe that SDK "Samurai Gakuen Academy" extra ... especially that one group shot of virtually the entire cast, including Saishi and Saisei, in school outfits. Except that I have to admit that Samura is a better artist, in the pure sense, than Kamijyo.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, I don't think Giichi liking literature or being good with young people would really be all that left field. He may be a gruff, coldblooded killer, but he's a good guy underneath, he's just been handed a really sucky hand, and it doesn't seem like he's really been given the opportunity to be good at anything besides being a killer. In a lot of ways, he really just needs someone/s to take care of, and to be given a purpose, and tends to become rather lost without that. (Thankfully-I think-he does get that again in the collection that'll be out in a couple months.)

Hmm...other female characters...there's also Anotsu's wife, though she doesn't fit anyone, and the woman Shira tortured in front of Rin, not to mention the woman who helped Rin get past the checkpoint...

[chomiji]

Oh, I agree that Giichi's a decent guy at heart. He makes me think of the tall, bald ex-Marine who taught a class on User Needs Analysis I took long ago - this enormously tough-looking guy talking about all these touchy-feely human issues ... .

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yup. And in case we've missed it so far with the staying up through Hyakurin's nightmares and worrying about Rin and not REALLY wanting to kill Manji, Samura drives it home bigtime in the next book. (Ah, how I miss Dark Horse's monthly comic book installments...)

[emungere.livejournal.com]

...That is the best picture ever. Except, what, no Anotsu as a school girl? He'd be perfect!

[chomiji]

LOL! Yeah, he's decorative that way, isn't he?

Now you've given me an evil desire to see a fic about schoolgirl!Anotsu in Hyakurin-sensei's class. She gets in trouble with sensei for her arrogant attitude and has to stay after school for a special one-on-one session ... .

[emungere.livejournal.com]

Hee! You should totally write that.

[chomiji]

Errr, I don't know if I'm far enough along the path of pr0n-writing perdition to do it justice ... I'll have to think about it!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me that we already know Anotsu isn't opposed to dressing like a girl if it suits his purposes, and that he can apparently do a decent job of it.

(Course, everyone there but Doa pretty clearly has breasts...unless there is stuffing involved...)

[chomiji]

(Almost completely OT, but brought on by the icon: at our family Passover seder last weekend, when we got to the point where the kids open the front door to - supposedly - let the prophet Elijah come in and take his mystical sip of wine from the cup in the middle of the table, I noted that Elijah is "very sneaky, like ninja!" and got a big laugh ... .)

[emungere.livejournal.com]

A good point! I'm sure he wouldn't stop at stuffing if he was already wearing the dress. Or uniform.