Source: Shinku no Chou guidebook, page 4-11
Deep Crimson Butterfly: Visual Gallery
Original scans by midwinter
Mio Amakura
Mayu Amakura
Director's Comment
Mayu's design was based on the idea that she chose clothes from the same brand as Mio's, but ones that would give her a different silhouette. Since in the game you so often see her from the front, we concentrated on giving her distinguishing features from this angle. The slits were put into the shoulders so that when she moves her arms it looks like the way the wings of a butterfly move. Mayu also always observed the ballet class, doing sitting gymnastics in the corner, watching Mio the whole time.
Mio's Costumes
Director's Comment
Conscious of the way a little light filters through summer uniforms when they're backlit, we worked to make the hem of the skirt, the edge of the sleeves, and the area around the navel and hips semi-transparent. Also, with the bikinis and knee socks, we were aiming for a concept of the utmost limits of what you could or could not see from above or below, and we went so far during testing as to have the bikinis so low-rise that for a moment you wouldn't be able to tell that there was any material there, so we ended up changing them back into how they are now.
Mayu's Costumes
Director's Comment
Since the yukatas are related to an ending we had to put them in as costumes, but since the goth loli I had so dearly loved from Akai Chou gradually became less and less distinguishable from Mayu's normal outfit I tearfully had to delete it. We had problems with which out of the two would be Luigi, the outfit that was put in in its place, but we settled on Mio since in terms of her image she was more Mario-like. Well, I guess since in Minakami Village Mio is the older sister there's no problem.
Testing Models
New/old model comparison: Mio
Top: Shinku no Chou (2012)
Bottom: Akai Chou (2003)
Director's Comment
At Nintendo's request to make the characters a little more mature in this game, we increased their age by two years. In Akai Chou they're 15 years old, but in Shinku no Chou they're 17. Though she's older, I think we carried over Mio's personality in her model. Her shoulders are out now, so we concentrated on the flesh around her collarbone.
New/old model comparison: Mayu
Top: Shinku no Chou (2012)
Bottom: Akai Chou (2003)
Director's Comment
Mayu has changed quite a bit. Unlike Mio her hair feathers inwards, so we tried to make her personality look a little more introverted. From the start we intended to remove the collar and show her throat, to make it easier to see the crimson butterfly that is born in the ending. Her chest is also bigger than Akai Chou's model, but what remains unchanged is that in both versions Mayu's chest is two centimetres bigger than Mio's.
Mio's temporary model
Director's Comment
This is Mio's testing model. At this point she already seemed slightly older than in the original's FMVs, but we also wanted her to have a little youthfulness left. I thought that in order to create their young love as shown in the Crimson Butterfly ending they needed a certain level of youthfulness. Because of this, I think she still looks slightly young in her normal outfit. Also, her skirt and leggings are different in this version. The concept was that the skirt had two layers with Japanese-style patterns, and sometimes you could see through it; the leggings were also supposed to have a Japanese-style design, but neither of them looked too good in the game. We changed the skirt to three layers to make it feel more voluminous, and made the pattern on the leggings reflect the light.
This is a design for Mio's normal outfit that you won't see in the game. Illustrations of the original designs are on the next page.
Provisional costume designs
Director's Comment
This is the very first design we came up with. The overseas staff told us that no one would wear the kind of clothes they wore in Akai Chou, and thought they should look a little more realistic, so we thought of something that looked closer to what you would see if it was made into a live-action drama, with a simpler concept. Based on their personalities, we put Mio in an active-looking outfit made up of a camisole and leggings, and Mayu in a black dress with a Japanese design, making them look fluttery. But their silhouettes looked too different, so they didn't look like twins, and they weren't really very symbolic as costumes, so we went for something different.
Director's Comment
While pressing for a standard outfit with a Japanese design, I wanted the twins' silhouettes to match. Mio has a skirt, too, which matches up with Mayu. Also, they were based on their personalities, so being the sleeve type Mayu's outfit has sleeves. The butterfly ribbons stand out on both Mio and Mayu, and you can see what an emphasis was put on them having matching outfits. However, making Mayu look too dark made her look like an enemy or a bad character, so we also made a brown version, but realising that we had designed things to match their colouring in Akai Chou we decided that their designs should have a sense of unity.
Director's Comment
Based on Akai Chou's design concept of having their colouring match up, we challenged ourselves to designing an outfit that changed the silhouette of their clothes from the original. We were also conscious of the colours, so keeping in mind that deep crimson image we tried to make the red stronger than the brown. At the time we were still concentrating on trying to simplify their outfits, but we thought that seeing them from Shinku no Chou's viewpoint they would look too simple and have no impact, so we tried to make them look a little more detailed.
Director's Comment
This was a provisional final draft. It's close to the final design. With the game's viewpoint in mind Mio's shoulders are exposed, and for example she has a ribbon on her back. Mayu suits black boots after all, don't you think? At this point I wanted to have fluttery lace layered over a Japanese pattern for their skirts, but when the actual models were being created I thought that if it didn't move more it would be no good, so we gave them both multiple layers of lace.
Provisional design collection: Mio
More mature
More normal
Keeping a taste of the original
Director's Comment
With Akai Chou we settled on a design for her quite easily, but for Shinku no Chou we struggled a fair bit with how we would retain the feeling of the original. We created many other versions, of which I will show you a few. Looking at them now is a little surprising... These were drawn in the initial stages of development the designers had been told only to make them look a little more mature, with no direction from me, and they do look quite a bit older.
Provisional design collection: Mayu
More normal
Keeping the atmosphere of the original
Director's Comment
With Mayu, we thought we should think of Mio's design first and base hers on that, and we went back and did these later, so she has fewer designs than Mio. For a time Kikuchi, the producer, was for some reason intent on giving Mayu a katyusha and Mio a barrette, so midway through we gave Mayu a headband. Well, we decided on having hair ornaments as an accessory, so in the end we took it away.
Director's Comment
The basis for Mio's design in Akai Chou was, "Conscious of her predisposition to gaining weight easily, she joined a local ballet class. She came to like the maker of the tutu she bought to use for practise there, and bought clothes from a brand that was in the same keiretsu." Her design in Shinku no Chou, too, follows this, with additions to her back and shoulders to catch the eye.