View from the Flying House: Coquette Warrior-Princesses

Since two months now, I have been seized by this powerful urge to draw and paint characters and backgrounds which I haven't allowed myself to do since I was a kid. Naturally, these characters, very cute and frilly girls, are relics from my childhood. There was a period in Japanese animation and manga art that was popular in the late 7o's, and consequently became available to me, when I was in grade school in Saudi Arabia, through the medium of animated TV series and their various paraphernalia.
One very popular type of paraphernalia was the "puffy-vinyl-cover" pencil-cases that snapped shut with magnets, and had compartments on both sides of the box. These pencil-cases were made in Japan, and featured drawn anime girl-characters with large sparkling eyes, candy-striped ribbons in their blond or red locks, frilly dresses and, of course, surrounded by a ludicrous bouquet of flowers. One very popular TV series that boasted such a heroine was known in Quebec as Candy Candy. I had a "puffy-vinyl-cover" pencil case that featured Candy Candy wearing a frilly cream-and-pink dress, surrounded by strawberries and wild-flowers. (I brought the pencil-case to school with me and was the envy of my classmates for about a week, until one girl stole it from me during lunch-break, then had the gall to show it off in class two days later!) The highly dramatic background of giant flower-bouquets owes its existence mostly to Lady Oscar (Bara no Berusai) 70's Japanese manga and anime series.

Here I must point out that what is know as Japanese 'anime' and 'manga' today is very very different from what was produced in the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Because there is such a
stylistic distinction between what was produced then and what is being produced now, various names for the different epochs in anime and manga's history have come into being. The 'type' of 'girlie-girl' anime and manga universe I am referring to here in my story and artwork is apparently known as classic shôjo manga (girl manga) used to describe that particular period in anime and manga in the late 70's best summarized by Lady Oscar and Candy Candy.

This still doesn't explain the weapons that my girls are brandishing in these illustrations.

Well, I had read and re-read Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind graphic novel about a dozen times now, and a big chunk of my childhood was spent watching the animated TV series that he produced, dubbed in Arabic of course. Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight was also part of my staple childhood-animation diet. As an adult I've seen all of Hayao Miyazaki's films made so far. Miyazaki is my biggest source of artistic inspiration. The women/girls that he portrays often display warrior-like qualities, and in some cases are out-and-out fighters (Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke). But he never shows them to be excessively "girlie" or coquettish. In the classic shôjo manga universe, there is an unabashed full-out celebration of everything "girlie". So, I wondered what would happen if I merged the two worlds; that of Miyazaki's strong women-warriors with that of the frilly-frocked Candy Candy and the dazzling flower backdrops of Lady Oscar? The result: Coquette Warrior-Princesses!