Important note -- this Picture dump IS NOT a spoiler in regards to who the bad guys and the good guys are. I'm using both labels very liberally because this book doesn't "officially" have good and bad guys (everyone is good and bad in alternating measures). Like, as most of the book has been so far -- Abihiko is the main "antagonist", but that's not saying much about him or about the MC, is it? So don't worry about me calling some characters "villains" below. They aren't really; I'm just poking fun at them ^^. Some of them will shift their positions with time, along with some of the good guys becoming "antagonistic" later.
But before we get to the meme, let me introduce a few fanart pics of the remaining good guys' side in the story -- plus they will be useful to to you in recognizing them on the meme picture because the meme picture is CHAOS.(°∀° )
Kotone:
Okinaga and Asazuma:
And Mikawa for the Glossary (he finally ascended to being featured in the Glossary! Congrats, Mikawa):
Anyway, @Nozomiishopeless asked me a couple of months ago if I can draw the Doggo Meme in regards to how my book is so overstuffed with characters and their dumb tangled motivations, and I said okay *_*. But it turned out to be harder than I thought because I had no idea how I can put all my characters into that meme pic without completely ruining the gist of it -___-. So anyhow, after overthinking it for about two months, I decided to combat one meme power with two meme powers!
So the pic is a combination of the famous Doggo meme and one of the Pinterest character group references, resulting in this: ^^
And, separately, in this:
As you can see, the chaos and mess is there on the display along with my utter bafflement as to where this is all going and why (the blue bird is supposed to be me because of my userpic if you didn't get that ^^).
But since the pic with all 19 (!) characters is too much to take in and two of these characters have not yet appeared in person in the story (but they were both mentioned) and others are not so important that you would know what they're supposed to look like, here's the breakdown under the spoiler: ^^
Khem-khem, for the ease of looking at this mess -- the breakdown is such:
Upper left corner -- Nagare side both past and present [Kazuragi, Yakabe, Kasuga, Mikawa].
Upper center -- Hira side both past and present [Asazuma, Okinaga, Aomi].
Upper right side -- Izumo side and Hisome side. (The chick in the utmost top right with the pink hair, Haehime, is a minor character who has been mentioned once in Izumo flashbacks. But she has a crucial role in Abihiko-Sakami wedding, so soon you will meet her. She's not very important but I like her because (spoiler -- she's Kotone's girlfriend ^^). [Haehime, Sakami, Suminoe]
Bottom left side -- MAIN Character trio -- Abihiko, Nekohiko, Kataji. Obviously ^^ [+Kotone!].
Bottom center and bottom right side -- VILLAINS. [Morokata, Hibiki, Nao, Iokirihime, Sakai].
The only person who has appeared but without their name shown is Nao (she's the Dark Sister ninja who hunted Neko when he was little. She has a minor villainous role in the present as well). And the weird dude in white furs who looks at Morokata meaningfully -- is Sakai, Lord of Utsuro. He has been mentioned many times but has not appeared in person yet. Soon he will ^^.
Also, apart from these pics that introduce characters to you, here are my usual doodles about the main ones. Abihiko and Nekohiko in their progression of their relationship in Izumo flashbacks, for the Glossary section about their life as kids ^^.
Second Year relationship:
Third Year relationship:
And because I promised a chibi pic from their duel with Morokata, here it is +_+:
And lastly, just because I know some of you are confused about the Great Houses and their powers, here's a kind of a cheat sheet of what they generally represent:
And in case you think I had no idea I put an airplane and a clean energy windmill in Nagare -- I did that consciously! +_+ There simply weren't any emojis that represent flight and wind, so... it's like a metaphor. Or you can imagine that Nagare is an Airline brand and Eco Energy company at the same time ^^. That also works.
And that unicorn in Hisome is also... a metaphor. Like they're so special and unique and fabulous +_+ Unfortunately, there are no actual unicorns in this story. I am very sorry if your hopes got riled up when you saw the unicorn there... (*╯-╰)ノ
Also, a Neko-centric, blank-face emoji:
Well, that's why I call it fanart. It's not official illustrations (partly, because I can NOT stay on model, whatever I do, lol). Your Kotone is just as valid as my Kotone.
But my RL friends also were surprised because they thought Kotone is totally a blonde. And one even thought she'd have a big chest, for some reason o_o.
Just curious -- what is your Kotone like? ^^
@Queenfisher
Friendlier and more oneechan. Your Kotone looks bachstabby and slightly evil. As if she was plotting something.
@Assurbanipal_II
She was a bit smilier in the sketch, but then I thought -- she looks too MILFy now. NO. And thus, I tried to push her away from that ^^.
I doubt that! From so far away, it would just look like a pizza with ALL the toppings on at the same time,
, and SH audience seems to like more coherent and less-crowded pictures.
But thanks ^^. I wonder how many characters would people have recognized without the Name labeling?
@Queenfisher
I like it. The entire rag tag gang together
@Assurbanipal_II