Dearly Departed - Protagonist
This is my story about Death and putting the concept of it in a new light.
The story begins with a young girl named Hiroko Maeda who wakes up in the Beyond she doesn’t know or understand. Upon meeting the Angel Adriel she realises she’s actually dead, and she doesn’t know how. After this experience she’s angry, frustrated and can’t seem to enjoy anything of the positive energy the Beyond has to offer. Her chosen Imp, Guntang, tries to answer her questions, but he doesn’t have the power the Angels do. He is merely a guide and has no knowledge of her past life, and can’t help her so he tries to comfort her (which doesn’t help). Hiroko wants answers and demands to know more about her death.
Hiroko comes to realise a lot of people do have memories from their past life. After bothering many different people and imps she finds Adriel again, and demands their help. Adriel sends her on a journey through the Beyond to meet many other Angels, who might have answers for her.
The protagonist of the story, Hiroko. She's a strong-willed girl who likes to have control over everything in her life. Needless to say- in death she has much less control, which frustrates and confuses her.
For Hiroko’s design, I started with practicing faces and deciding what kind of face shape I wanted to give to her, I tried until I had the desired shape to match her personality. I went with number 5.
My design choices on her ‘’dead look’’ are based on multiple 'dead'' looking characters from different types of media. i didn't want her to be too creepy or lose her facial features too much, so I went with the last one.
Cempasuchil flowers and petals are scattered everywhere to lead the deceased through their journey and to their graves, These kind of flowers are also used during Dia de Los Muertos to create a path from the doorstep to the deceased’s altar or grave.