Shadow Stalker X Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 (edited) I saw them mention that the character art was done by an artist named Hidari, and of course Studio Khan handling the animations. A quick Google check didn't show me any results that helped, so I'm curious as to what either one has done in the past. EDIT: Originally thought the artist was Hibana, saw it was actually Hidari. Fixed that. Edited January 18, 2017 by Shadow Stalker X Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elieson Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 It's actually Studio Khara, not Studio Khan. I typod >.< They worked on Evangelion, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Persona 4, just to name a few. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
December Knight Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 It's actually Studio Khara, not Studio Khan. EDIT : Ehh, never mind this part. The art is done by Hidari, not Hibana. Hidari has worked on three Atelier Ayesha games and Toukiden : The Age of Demons. Hidari has also worked on some anime (although the only one I know off by hand is Fractale). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanethedragon Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 12 minutes ago, December Knight said: idari has worked on three Atelier Ayesha games and Toukiden : The Age of Demons. Hidari has also worked on some anime (although the only one I know off by hand is Fractale) All titles I liked to some degree. I'm super hyped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiddon Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Hidari is a female illustrator, mostly known for her illustration work on novels. Fun fact, "Hidari" means "left side" in Japanese due to her being left-handed. Studio Khara is an animation studio founded by Hideaki Anno, the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion. They've done work on anime like Persona 4, Gargantia, Wolf Children, and The Wind Rises, but they're best known for doing the Evangelion Rebuild films (which are on hiatus for the moment due to issues with Gainax). FE Echoes will be their first game work if the Gravity Rush animation isn't counted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirokan Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Yep, I came to say what many others have said about Hidari and its meaning and such. I like her style, feeling it's slightly more fitting for FE than Kozaki's, so I approve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Odinson Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 I'm not easily impressed by art and I'm impressed with the art I've seen so far, both in technique and design. I'm excited to see more of Hidari's work here. Can we keep her if we ever do judgral remake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shengar Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 (edited) Thank God you're asking about Hidari because I'm going to give a lecture on her works. Old fans in modern times might get sceptical over IS choice of lead artist for their considering what we got in FE Awakening and Fates. I could understand that, especially with FE Fates being overtly obnoxious with sexual appeal on its design (though I personally blame the art director than Kozaki since his design by default is realistic). Will Hidari be the same? Isn't she the artist who handle Atelier Dusk Trilogy where the series presumably sold only to otakus? Worry not because she's probably THE BEST artist for Fire Emblem in our day. Let me show her design for the main characters in Dusk Trilogy: Spoiler The most striking aspect to her artstyle is her water-ink like washed out color. It gaves her artwork a special vibe where everything feels kinda dark or depressing, but with a certain beauty outside of it. So it's no wonder that she was chosen as the lead artist for Atelier Dusk trilogy. Because that game is about a dying world and how the main characters try their best to prevent the inevitable. But her art isn't just about the color and the bleak beauty its represent. Hidari's drawing of character could be extremely detail. But in doing so, her artwork never become too busy with detail as her style of color greatly blend those details into the character. So they might look simple at a glance, but if you look them closely you will see how she put so many details into her character. Honestly, she's like Kozaki in that way but with her art style lean more to painting like as opposed to Kozaki whom by default is fairly more realistic. Spoiler What makes her ultimately different from Kozaki and have me mumbling to myself "she's going to be PERFECT for FE" everytime I see her artwork on the Dusk Trilogy is her practicality. Her characters are all beautiful in their fashion but in doing so she makes them looks plausible. Her details on their clothing is not something frivolous or gratuitous that we are usually seen in many ridiculous design of JRPGs. There's always sense to behind why this character wear that particular clothing, or having some small pack strapped to their waist. When she have absolutely to make her character sexually appealing, she'll make sure that they look beautiful and feels like it's indeed the character themselves who choose to wear their clothes instead of being forced upon by the artist. So far I've only show her designs in the Dusk Trilogy. While the Atelier series is still a JRPG where fight monsters in it, the central theme and gameplay of the series itself is revolved around alchemy so as you can see most of the designs I posted here looks fairly "domestic". They are not exactly what we would see in a SRPG about war and epic battle against dragon isn't it? We've seen her absolutely gorgeous drawing and design with Fe Echoes, but can she fares good when she had to design for a completely new FE game? Worry not about that because Hidari's portfolio in character design isn't limited to Atelier series, but also Toukiden and it's subsquent expansion, Toukiden Kiwami, a hunting action game (or Monster Hunter clone, if you prefer it that way). You couldn't be more battle ready than being within a game where it's all about slaying demon on regular basis. As you can see below, her design in Toukiden Kiwami is practical too, and of course looking beautiful and stylistic at the same time: Ouka Nagi Fugaku Hatsuho Hayatori Ibuki Reki Souma Horo Sorry for just giving out list of link, but I wasn't allowed to post the pictures here without them being horribly compressed, but this makes me easier to point out specific character design so this perhaps a better choice. As you can see, Hidari design in Toukiden Kiwami is pretty much battle ready. While most her character leans heavily on the stylish side, we could see her attention to detail to make them not overtly stylish and have some practical to it. Nagi for example, is your usual big breasted character complete with a cleavage. She used bow and arrows in battle, and as you can see from her outift, she wears what it looks like metal plate on her left chest. I don't know what it is called, but I know that female archer usually wear something like that so their breast are not in the way when they notched and pulled their arrow. This shows Hidari's attention to detail by making sure that Nagi's big rack wouldn't hinder her job at shooting arrow. On stylish and practical design, Reki and Souma have the best vouch for it. Reki have special mention though because while she's having a plate armor on her chest that too conveniently shaped like that, the rest of her clothes are pretty much covering her body. But at the same time though, she doesn't look boring and still elegant in her own way. It shows Hidari design expertise on incorporating practicality and beauty. One last thing that I need to mention is that Hidari's character by default, male or female, isn't sameface. I know Kozaki can draw and design character with huge diversity, look to no other than the No More Heroes character rooster. But if he wasn't specifically asked to make his design diverse, his characters tend to be sameface or to be exact, templated. You can see differences between his character but most definitely you will see repeating pattern of similarity between some characters. To my observation, this mostly happened because Kozaki didn't varied the default expression of his character just enough to make them different to each other (which is why the reason why Maribelle feels so stand out in Awakening, since her "haughty" and "prideful" default expression is no one else have in the game). Hidari on the other hand always make her character default expression to be different. While the face shape of her character isn't that varied, but the expression that each character make is different enough to not make the viewer confused them from one another. And it's not like she isn't able to draw characters with vastly different shape face AND default expression though. Toukiden Kiwami's characters are exactly that, with Reki being the most stand out since her face is oval shaped, something that very rare from Japanese animanga aesthetic this day. I'm going to end this lecture. In short, Hidari is great and there could be no more perfect artist for FE beside her. If IS not going to make her the lead artist in FE Switch, I'm going to fly to Japan and set their office on fire. Also it's Studio Khara, and they're known for the Evangelion movies. EDIT: Oh damn, I forgot to include her artwork that being used as cover for Civilization Revolution 2 PS Vita release to show her ability in drawing different characters: Edited January 19, 2017 by Shengar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klegor Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 The art for Echoes (both the character art and cinematic art) looks so much better than Fates' and Awakening's art, especially Fates' whose character design was so over the top to the point it was appalling. They really did a good job for Echoes and I hope future FE games have a similar art style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthkeeper Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 On 1/19/2017 at 3:29 AM, Klegor said: The art for Echoes (both the character art and cinematic art) looks so much better than Fates' and Awakening's art, especially Fates' whose character design was so over the top to the point it was appalling. They really did a good job for Echoes and I hope future FE games have a similar art style. Elaborate on "over the top", because I personally think most of the Fates characters looked pretty decent. Of course bar the panty cavalier, knight, boob windows, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dap005 Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 On 19/01/2017 at 0:06 AM, Aiddon said: Hidari is a female illustrator, mostly known for her illustration work on novels. Fun fact, "Hidari" means "left side" in Japanese due to her being left-handed. The Tokyo otaku mode portfolio list their gender as male, though I'm not sure it's the artist's official portfolio (though it does look like it): Spoiler I love their work, the style really stands out, you can definitely tell that they've been illustrating for over a decade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masked And Dangerous Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 (edited) On 2/10/2017 at 5:50 AM, Darthkeeper said: Elaborate on "over the top", because I personally think most of the Fates characters looked pretty decent. Of course bar the panty cavalier, knight, boob windows, etc. Maybe the best way to phrase it would be "incongruous" Fire Emblem started with a Record of a Lodoss War art style, and it's pretty much stuck to it through it's run. That means that costumes aren't necessarily realistic, but they hue closer to reality then Final Fantasy or Shining Force on average. Knights wear platemail, sword fighters are in tunics, mages wear cloaks and robes, et cetera. If it weren't for the bright colors, it'd be fairly drab. Awakening and Fates decided to jazz that up. Practicality was given a backseat to looking cool. Female Knights with boobplate and pauldrons, swordfighters in overtly complicated outfits that would be hard to slip into, Tharja. There's a lot appealing about the art, but it does come off overdesigned in comparison to all previous installments, even the Radiant Dawn era of swag promotion outfits. Compare: Spoiler ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hidari's art is a return to form from the overdesigned Awakening art. Simple outfits that add a naturalistic aesthetic as opposed to the more avant gard outfits of Awakening and Fates, which look like they stepped off of a runway in Milan rather then a battlefield. Edited February 14, 2017 by Masked And Dangerous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hasnbaakoajsbakaiaja Posted March 5, 2017 Share Posted March 5, 2017 This artwork is astounding. As an aspiring Japanese animator, seeing new ways to interpret characters through art is awesome. And Hidari is definitely refreshing from the previous styles the series has took. I say this is a step in the right direction and I would rather see Hidari stay over Kozaki. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extrasolar Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 (edited) On 1/18/2017 at 4:31 PM, Kirokan said: Yep, I came to say what many others have said about Hidari and its meaning and such. I like her style, feeling it's slightly more fitting for FE than Kozaki's, so I approve. Very much agreed. I love how much more restrained the costuming is. I do prefer the simplicity of Echoes and Tellius to the flourishes, bells and whistles of Awakening and Fates, personally. 5 hours ago, 1japanfan said: This artwork is astounding. As an aspiring Japanese animator, seeing new ways to interpret characters through art is awesome. And Hidari is definitely refreshing from the previous styles the series has took. I say this is a step in the right direction and I would rather see Hidari stay over Kozaki. I agree. The designs are 100% improved over Gaiden's original designs (which imo were a bit too generic for my tastes, even for Famicom game art). I like Alm's in particular...though his strange metallic...headband thing puzzles me just a bit. Edited March 6, 2017 by Extrasolar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reflex Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 This slandering of Kozaki needs to stop. If the guy was allowed to design his costumes and armor, everyone's tune would change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saisymbolic Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) I'm a big fan of this artist, particularly for the FE series. I don't have anything against Kozaki as I quite like his casual sketches, but I do think a change in art is a good move for this remake game. Edited March 9, 2017 by saisymbolic wtf i put "isn't" instead of "is" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thane Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 I rather like the new style, though I still prefer how Kozaki draws people. I don't mind a change of art style, but I'm surprised by how much flak Kozaki gets for things that aren't even his fault. My only real complaint so far regarding the new art style is how Alm looks; he gives me Roy 2.0 vibes, rather than the more vicious lord I had in mind after playing Gaiden and Awakening's DLC. I hope that doesn't mean they'll make him more like other lords in the series, because I rather like Alm being more aggressive and vindictive since that helps him stand out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extrasolar Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 1 hour ago, Thane said: My only real complaint so far regarding the new art style is how Alm looks; he gives me Roy 2.0 vibes, rather than the more vicious lord I had in mind after playing Gaiden and Awakening's DLC. I hope that doesn't mean they'll make him more like other lords in the series, because I rather like Alm being more aggressive and vindictive since that helps him stand out. Have you seen him scowling in the trailer cutscenes we got? Seems like we're gonna be getting aggressive Alm going off of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thane Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Just now, Extrasolar said: Have you seen him scowling in the trailer cutscenes we got? Seems like we're gonna be getting aggressive Alm going off of them. Sure but he was fighting; I imagine even Roy looks like that when he's battling. Or are you referring to another scene? I know this may seem silly and I've got no real reason to suspect they'll change anything, but I just like the little we've seen of Alm's character, so I hope that it remains intact. It would be refreshing with such a different kind of lord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruntagen Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 What would be your ideal handling of Alm versus your expectations of their handling, keeping in mind the Rudolf twist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thane Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Gruntagen said: What would be your ideal handling of Alm versus your expectations of their handling, keeping in mind the Rudolf twist? Well uh, first of all Rudolf would need to be made less idiotic for Echoes to have a chance of having a plot that's acceptable in this day and age. I just want them to expand upon Alm's character while keeping his more vengeful streak intact. If the trailer is anything to go by, Alm and Celica will "fight" like they did in the original and then make up, and I assume they'll both apologize while holding up their pinkies to remind each other of the promise they made back when they were kids. Cheesy though that hypothetical scenario may be, it could serve as a nice point for Alm to cool down a bit (and for Celica to become a little less naïve). Edited March 8, 2017 by Thane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extrasolar Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 1 minute ago, Gruntagen said: What would be your ideal handling of Alm versus your expectations of their handling, keeping in mind the Rudolf twist? coughcough shameless self writing promotion Spoiler My Alm is very much an edgelord to begin with. He's a volatile, sort of aggressive young man, incensed with Rigel's invasion and war with Zofia. He doesn't see Rigelians as fully human, but barbaric, bloodthirsty beings out to destroy Zofia. Even though he's living in safety at the beginning of the game, he disagrees with Mycen's claims that they shouldn't get involved, as soon as Ruka shows up, he sneaks away in the middle of the night to join the war with his friends. He doesn't show mercy to defeated or captured soldiers, because "do you think we'd get mercy from them?" and "We have to do what we have to do to end this war." Celica often has to intervene and calm him down and make him see another side of the story. Celica herself is often in danger to due her blind trust in people and naivete, and Alm has to inject her full of some practicality every now and then. They learn to temper one another - you can't always be compassionate, but you also can't always be aggressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vercio Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 20 hours ago, saisymbolic said: I'm a big fan of this artist, particularly for the FE series. I don't have anything against Kozaki as I quite like his casual sketches, but I do think a change in art isn't a good move for this remake game. I think so. This is still a Remake, so there will be a bit of sperimentation in it. I prefer Echoes to be "different" again (as you can name a FE title completely equal to the other), meanwhile the main team is focusing on FE15 for the Switch. It is fair, considering the recent history of IS, that is actually good. I like the fact they are externalizing projects such as FE Warriors and Echoes, because that could signify something good to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saisymbolic Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 3 hours ago, Mr.Vercetti said: I think so. This is still a Remake, so there will be a bit of sperimentation in it. I prefer Echoes to be "different" again (as you can name a FE title completely equal to the other), meanwhile the main team is focusing on FE15 for the Switch. It is fair, considering the recent history of IS, that is actually good. I like the fact they are externalizing projects such as FE Warriors and Echoes, because that could signify something good to us. OMG I meant it is a good move for a remake, but I put the opposite for some idiotic reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reflex Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 If IS didn't want to make GaidenR distinct from the Switch FE, they wouldn't completely change animation studios when they've been using the same for basically years. I'm saying having Studio Khara do the animated cutscenes is a message choice to really make it clear to casual people that it's different all around. What I'm really curious is if they're sticking with Hidari as the "remake" artist or they will rotate artists around to make each Echoes game even more distinct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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