Senri Kita Character Illustrations

In thinking about character drawings and referencing some of the work from the Fire Emblem game series, I decided to do a little more research into the artist behind those illustrations (research here of course meaning a series of google searches).  The responsible artist goes by the name Senri Kita as a freelance illustrator, and is typically referred to as female (though there seems to be some uncertainty in that regard).  What struck me most about her known work in character illustrations for video games is the incredible diversity that she manages to bring to the characters while making use of the anime-style.  One common criticism of anime characters is that they all look the same: tall, impossibly thin, an abundance of hair in the color of your choice, all perfection and formulaic.  Senri Kita has a much more interesting way of adapting the anime style to a varied and diverse cast.

This is a fairly typical example of the style-- thin, fair skinned, effeminate (this character is male, if you can believe that). 

A little more masculine, somewhat atypical of the style.  Still fairly idealized.

These kinds of characters are the ones that really catch my eye with Senri Kita.  It may sound silly to those outside the industry, but characters from anime, video games and so on -- protagonists and antagonists alike -- tend to be absurdly idealized (to the point of extensive criticism); hence the willingness to make a truly unappealing character is admirable to my mind.

Tomorrow I really ought to get out of the nerd-bubble, huh?