Mio and Sumika

FIRST AND FOREMOST:
Sumika's pose is based on a rough sketch Bou, one of the Âge artists, did in LD3: Code Rebellion. I loved the pose and wanted to make a clean-lined and coloured version of it. Then, I decided to add Mio in and this picture was born.


Takanashi Mio is the main heroine from Owarinaki Natsu, Towa Naru Shirabe. Now, being more-so of a novice in Japanese, I cant quite understand why "eien", 永遠 ("eternity"), is pronounced "towa" in this title. It's funny to me, since Kiminozo, another title in this series, uses the same kanji with the pronunciation as "eien": Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. I know that 永 can be pronounced "to" when used in names, but I cant find any information about 遠 being "wa". 遠 can also be pronounced "tou", so that makes it more confusing for me. Additionally, I dont see any pronunciation that would make "onritsu", 音律 ("rhythm", more or less, and "melody" if you want to get poetic about it), be "shirabe". Now "shirabe", 調べ, can also mean a tune or "shirabeo", 調緒, can be a tone, so both of those work here, but those are the only kanji combos I know that fit that pronunciation and are synonyms. 

Kagami Sumika is from Akane Maniax and is the main heroine of 4 of the first 5 Muv Luv games.

Despite how these characters look, Mio is actually quite a bit older than Sumika. I just had them as their appearances in their respective games.

Owarinaki Natsu takes place in the Unlimited/Alternative timeline probably before the events of Kimi ga Ita Kisetsu would have taken place in the normal timeline. Thus, Mio is probably 5 to 8 years older than Sumika.


I've talked a lot about Muv Luv and Akane Maniax in the past, so this time I'll talk about Owarinaki Natsu. In the events of the game, the BETA haven't yet reached Japan. Thanks to that, it's relatively peaceful. Being a prequel, it's like the halcyon of the series.

The main focus of the story is on music. The main character, Toma Takumi, is going to a small (very small) music school. I see this as really calming, given that just about 5 years later the human race is basically endangered and losing the planet. But it makes you feel like music is the last beautiful thing on earth the BETA cant take away.