SoraNews24 —Japan News—

With the recent premier of Sailor Moon Crystal, anime’s most famous magical girl is back in action. But while the basic premise is largely the same as it’s always been (klutzy girl and her friends team up to fight evil while wearing pleated skirts), the characters look noticeably different than they did in the previous anime from 1992, as we recently saw in a side-by-side comparison.

The new artwork does look a lot closer to creator Naoko Takeuchi’s original manga, but not everyone is taken with the extremely willowy proportions and super-long shins of Crystal’s character designs. Thankfully, if you’re one of those left cold by the new look, you can always crank out a few Sailor Scouts of your own instead, with the awesome Sailor Senshi Maker.

Part of the Doll Divine series of virtual paper dolls, the Sailor Senshi Maker has been around for a while now, but it’s getting a fresh batch of attention from both fans new to the Sailor Moon franchise and those nostalgic for the classic animated designs. Artist Drachea Rannak’s extensive selection of parts clearly takes its primary inspiration from the 1992 anime, and the linework is so clean it almost looks like it could be a reference sheet from Toei Animation, the producers of the show.

The system is relatively simple to use, but getting started can actually be a little tricky. The initial screen doesn’t present any options for your Sailor Senshi herself, but rather for the background. The top two rows have a variety of pictures to choose from, and for some the color can be changed by clicking on the circles below. There’re also outline effects and decorations that can be added with a click, and removed by clicking them once more.

Most people will want to jump right into customizing their Senshi, though, and to do that, you’ll need to click anywhere on the character’s body. This will bring up the first of many, many screens worth of options.

▼ Underneath the hairstyles, the top row is the main hair color, and the bottom is for highlights.

Once you’ve got everything to your liking, click on the folded page corner to the right of the word “smaller,” and you’ll get even more hairstyles to play with. Clicking each tail, bun, or braid will add it, and clicking once again will get rid of it.

▼ There’s no limit to how many you can use, either.

Once again, clicking the bottom right page corner will send you to the next category of accessories, while clicking to the left of “flip” will send you back to fiddle with previous selections. Next up you’ll be picking out your Senshi’s costume, with tons of variations on ribbons, gloves, boots, and more, all of which can be colored to your liking.

There’s even a modest arsenal of wands, mirrors, moon sticks, and even daggers, in case you’re less into hearts and flowers than you are straight up shanking.

The system is so detailed, it even lets you alter the shape of the Senshi’s tiara, choker, and chest emblems, plus her earrings.

Finally, there’s a selection of background items you can drag and drop. Most of these are similar to the options that you’ll have already seen by this point, with one very important exception: a mentor cat.

And with that, your Senshi is done! Clicking the “B” in the bottom left of the same box the character is in will take you back to the background selections, which should be a little easier to work with now that you have a completed heroine and not just a blank silhouette. Alternatively, clicking the words “bigger” and “smaller” will increase the size of your character, and “flip” will change her stance to its mirror image. “Remove” will wipe your Senshi clear away, though, so be careful with those clicks!

By this time you’re no doubt starting to feel a little attached to your creation, and you can save a copy by clicking either the full or half circles above and to the left of the character. The full circle will capture both the Senshi and the menu settings to her right, while the half circle will save just the character herself.

Finally, just in case the Sailor Senshi Maker hasn’t distracted you from work or school enough already, the program has one more trick up its sleeve. See that button in the lower left, the one with a plus sign? Clicking it will add another Sailor.

Sailor Moon does have an ensemble cast, after all, and you wouldn’t want your freshly created magical girl to have to stand alone against the forces of evil, so why not make her some companions? You can freely move the characters around by dragging and dropping them.

Hmm…you know, all this time spent staring at cute anime girls has got us thinking. As much as we love, respect, and fear our always photogenic correspondent Mr. Sato, maybe our site could do with a more feminine face. So allow us to present Sailor Rocket.

We think she’d make a fine mascot assuming, of course, she doesn’t bankrupt us with her massive shampoo bill.

Related: Sailor Senshi Maker
Source: IT Media
Images: Produced by RocketNews24 using Sailor Senshi Maker