Of the girls, Jinko was my initial favorite. She's very much the sort of character I tend to come up with; pure, intelligent, slightly unbalanced and/or otherworldly, and with some connection to the supernatural. And who can help but sympathize with unrequited (or semi-requited) love? I wanted to focus in on her eyes, since Diana described them as particularly intense, and I wanted to depict her in a traditional sort of way. I wanted sort of a soft look, but I didn't want to give up any detail, do colored pencil seemed to be the best choice as far as media went.
I make no promises as to the cultural accuracy of the costume. To be honest, I took the style from Diana's reference drawing with the fireworks and a book on world religions I have. I did as much research as time allowed. Unfortunately, that wasn't much. Although I did make a special trip to the local botanical gardens to get a good look at some cherry blossoms, which is what Jinko is holding and has in her hair. I drew the red-orange torii gate behind her using a photo in the aforementioned world religions book for reference. There's something about the grass that bothers me here. I wanted to put more of a variety of plants in the background, but it wasn't the focus of the picture and the garden fell where I wanted to put the haiku anyway, so I sort of fudged it, but I'm pleased with the overall results regardless.
The meaning behind the haiku is a little complicated, and I have a feeling if I try to expound on the philosophy it represents people will just get bored and not look at my other drawings, so I'm going to clam up here. Let's just say I found it interesting that Jinko was the only main character with absolutely no divine/supernatural blood. Humans have such a fascination with the supernatural. Sometimes I wonder if the supernatural are as interested and curious about us.
Jihi 
Character copyright Diana, 2002
Image copyright Bridgie, 2002
