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Playing around with ink & pen nib a bit.
Some interesting images from rurousha.blogspot comparing two of the real-life Hikawa Shrines in the Tokyo area.
As you may know, the manga Hikawa Shrine and the anime Hikawa Shrine draw inspiration from two different real-world shrines. There is also a third Hikawa Shrine where they shot some scenes for PGSM.
The top two images are of the Hikawa Shrine in Azabu, Tokyo, sitting atop Sendai Hill, a place where five roads meet. This is the inspiration for the manga’s Hikawa Shrine. As you can see, it’s actually incredibly small. It’s also overshadowed by the surrounding buildings and city scape.
The second two images are of the Hikawa Shrine in Akasaka. This is the inspiration for the anime’s Hikawa Shrine, and it is my favourite. The anime didn’t feature a secret base under the Crown Arcade, so the shrine became their home of operations; and you can see the difference when you compare the two. Akasaka’s Hikawa Shrine is huge, secluded and beautiful. It is enveloped in trees and greenery and takes up a huge area, making it very secluded. I could definitely imagine the girls being able to talk about secret Sailor business without being disturbed. If anyone goes to Japan with the intention of seeing a Hikawa Shrine, I vote for this one.
There are many more photos at the source if you want to get a really good feel for the shrines.
Extra trivia: These real-life Hikawa Shrines are spelled with different kanji than in Sailor Moon, but pronounced the same. In the real world, the kanji pronounced as “hi” actually means “ice”. In Sailor Moon, it is changed to a kanji which means “fire”. The more you know!
Happy Mother’s Day! Here is Ikuko in the suit she wore when dropping baby Usagi off at school. It makes me wonder if she was a career woman before she settled down as a homemaker? Maybe she was still working when it was just Usagi, but when Shingo came along she decided to stop? I wonder if she worked at the same magazine company as Kenji. I can see these two as office sweethearts.
I dunno how to explain this without sounding pretentious. I’ve been fiddling a bit with how I want to draw my own comics in the future (as in, not derivative of any other work), which has included a lot of fiddling about with face shapes and features. I thought I’d apply the same fiddling process to Sailor Moon, because I have a medical condition where I can’t stop doing that.
