Numbah 3 - Kuki Sanban

Soooooo...it's not something for Inuyasha, is it? I'm actually doing fanart of another series. Codename: Kids Next Door to be exact. I must admit, I'm quite surprised at my growing attraction to this show. Not on the scale of my adoration to Inuyasha, but still one I'm quite enamored with. I have discovered that if I find a cute paring/OTP then I start to watch that show ...makes me wonder what psychological issues lead me to this... So anywho, it's Kuki Sanban (Numbah 3) & Wallabee Beetles (Numbah 4) that have hooked me to the show, but I'ma 2/5 & 1/Lizzie shipper, too.

About the pic, I'm quite fond of this one. Right after I started to watch the show, I drew this (& one of Wally that I'm working on) & it sat on my harddrive, inked & ready to be colored, forever. I had put base colors down, but I wasn't satisfied with the palette I'd chosen. I wanted green to be a significant color because that is Kuki's main color, but all green was blah & nothing else I thought of was working. (Each character has at least one color associated to them.)

So a couple days ago I felt the bug again & pulled up this pic (especially since I haven't really worked on any others, either) & thought about how Kuki is also a lover of all things cute, lovable & pretty...an all around girlygirl. So I decided on pink to offset her green a bit, but keep that sweetheart element.

I have drawn Kuki as a teen/adult here because I have an image of each character as such and this is one of a set of 5 that I plan to do for each of the main characters. They will all still be KND members, I haven't really decided why they aren't decommissioned for this series of pics & prolly won't. I suppose I just wanted a reason to draw them older, but still operatives.

Also, Kuki is Japanese & while such a sweetheart, she is quite dangerous when she needs to be. I always imagined her growing up to learn to use a katana. So that will be her weapon of choice. The phone: because in the KND logo for the show, she is shown holding a phone & these pictures I'll be doing are also inspired by what the characters are doing there.

So, I think that about wraps that up. Enjoy!

EDIT: I knew I'd forget to mention something. Kuki's haircut is directly inspired by Masemune Shiro's characters Major Motoko Kusanagi from his Ghost in the Shell series. (Specifically SAC & SAC: 2nd Gig for me, cause that's all I've seen for GITS.) Kusanagi is a woman who can kick your ass & expect you to thank her for it. While my drawing style is heavily influenced by anime, I purposfully gave Kuki the haircut of a character from an anime as another throwback to her Japanese heritage.

Kuki Sanban/Numbah 3/KND (c) Tom Warburton
Art (c) Me