Early Manga Sketches

[Jumping Jehosaphat]

LOL. Rin likes: Hot, Sexy Girls XD. Oh those were some interesting character profiles.

[justicecadet]

it's really funny to see how they've changed, aside from the one shot she made!
i really like shiemi with a bird but i think manga don't need too many mascot animals (aoex already has mephisto and kuro).
shiemi being allergic to pollen is pretty funny!
and shiro stopped smoking 15 years ago. i don't remember if they mentioned that in the manga.... i don't remember if he ever smoked when he visited suguro. either way that's kind of a cute parental gesture.

[NeeNee]

^ He did. He was constantly asking for a lighter, remember?

Here's a better pic of the early story concepts:



As far as I can see, she had three subplots planned:

- something with blood diamonds and a journalist;
- something with 13 keys and a monster;
- something about a captured girl.

I suppose most of I was dropped, but she might have kept some elements. Like, the Impure King had something of a monster sealed away.

I wonder if we'll ever see the diamonds again. As for the captured girl, I hope that one got tossed. I know AnE thrives on clichés, but that's, like, the most overused plot device in all of history. ^^'

[MetallicArcher]

Excuse my ignorance but... what is "Touch"?

[NeeNee]

I suppose she's talking about the manga.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_(manga)

[MetallicArcher]

http://nii-chan-tamer.tumblr.com/post/61168821378/poopertricks-velvetandporcelain-i-still

It seems that Mephisto was originally a mix between well, Mephisto and Amaimon...

LOL, I wonder if the anime scene with Rin seeing their grandmother when he drank Mephisto's soup was a reference to this.

[Midori no Neko]

"bothers chioko"
i wonder who that is. Maybe one of those extra two cram school students that never made it to the manga?

[MetallicArcher]

I searched "Chioko" in Google and all I got was a Tattoo and Piercings house...

What do yo mean by two cram school students who didn't make it to the manga?

[Midori no Neko]

In an early!group photo somewhere there were two extra cram school students who looked like siblings.  It was one of the very earliest sketches involving cram school, I think.

[VacuumTan]

^ Is Chioko their name, then? Because there are no names on the picture, so...

Looking at it again, not-there-megane-girl kind of reminds me of that illuminati-woman, with her facial structure and glasses and all. Well, I don't think it really has been recycled from that concept, but... [I'd much rather those two becoming students one day! >3<]

Still, I want to draw those two people. Problem is that guys always look whacky when I draw them...

[Wikkelsoee]

Mephisto is seen together with the sketches of early!Shiemi. I always assumed Chioko was just her initial name.

[MetallicArcher]

Ok, so I did a little research on "Chioko" as a surname.

This is from http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/, it indicates the popularity of the name around the world (it's most common in Norway):

(click to show/hide)

This is the density of Japanese ascendency people around the world (you will see, Norway is coloured):



So, I tried http://search.ancestry.com/ and found a Chiko marriage in the US:

(click to show/hide)

Finally, when family search pages didn't give me any results, I tried Facebook. What I got:

1 Chioko from Belgica.

and a shitload of Japanese girls named Chioko (that's only people who had their profiles as public)

My idea is that "Chioko" might get added to the Cram School class after the Izumo rescue arc as a consequence of the reorganization of the Japanese Branch by getting moved from whatever other training facility there is aside from the True Cross Academy.

I mean, I know Bon being from Kyoto had to go all the way to Tokyo to study, but Kyoto and Tokyo are both in the island of Honshu. Imagine someone from Hokkaido having to go all the way to Tokyo... or someone from Kyushu?

[NeeNee]

What replaced nii in the early manga sketches?

Wasn't it a bird?

Bird?

[themoonlandian]

Yeah look at this picture, on her head- it was a bird XD When I posted that ''Wasn't it a bird''? I thought maybe I was imagining things, but took a shot at it. Found the proof now though yay~

Please let me know if this is not the correct place to post this. 

Edit: Here's a close-up of the group image - http://www.fyresight.com/ane/early_manga_group_closeup.jpg

[earthforge]

I always found it odd that Renzou looked so shifty in the early manga group sketches. Now we know why, I guess...