Since the first novel has been published and the new characters have been revealed, I’ll give an insight on how these characters were created in the first place. The descriptions contain spoilers about the novels, so you have been warned.
- Yumiko – This character originally didn’t have a name. While telling my brother the story, I kept on referring to her as “the girl”, and I just used the first name I had in mind at the moment, near the end of my narration. The last name was something picked to look consistent with the name. Her character wasn’t inspired by any particular anime or novel, and I added the details after the basic plot was decided. She was supposed to keep her “dual” nature after the first novel, but it got changed while revising the whole plot.
- Satsuki – Satsuki is probably the character that was changed the most during the whole 10 year creative process. Originally was a side character that appeared as a simple journalist with some occult knowledge just after the latter half of the story. Even her demon form was something more one-way than her being an hybrid. Her relationship with Yumiko was supposed to be a little ambigous, but it was almost immediately scrapped as it was pointless. The first inspiration (which I call V1) was taken from D4 Princess character Doria. The subsequent change in personality and outfit was generated by a drawing made by Stingray. The character finally got her final depiction thanks to Too’s work.
- Ran Mei – Mei was strongly influenced by the original Sakura Taisen character Li Ko-Ran (at one point Mei was called “Ko-Ran” as a tribute to the game). The first draft described her like having a Mai Shiranui-like personality, but that aspect was greatly reduced in the final description. The idea of her being born in Hong Kong was decided from the start, supposedly a tied to another project (more sci-fi like) that was scrapped. The final version also added some depth to a character that was more or less comic relief.
- Sarah Glashow – This character was a nightmare to begin with. First of all, it was supposedly to be a cameo of a person I knew back then, whose name I completely forgot. The early drafts speak of a Castlevania-like character (an homage to the videogame series) and nothing else. The whole backstory was pretty much vague and for years I just toyed with the concept but never did anything. After the decision to publish all three books, I made some changes and added more details. The last name – Glashow – comes from the author of a paper I read while writing my graduation thesis.
- Dario Ravicini - Unlike what people may think, it’s not based on myself or any other Italians I know. I simply wanted to introduce a non-stereotypical Italian character in the story. The anit-terrorist unit mentioned in the novel actually exists in Italy, since 1978.
- Jim Clark - The character was absent in the first draft of the novel, and even his role once added was pretty much secondary. During the revision of the whole story he became a more prominent character.
- Klaus Werner - Klaus was (and still is) a character that was supposed to break the stereotype of the IT guys being “nerd”. The name comes from an episode of a German TV series.
- Jason Derrick - Jason has no real backstory – I created it just because I needed a certain character doing certain things. I can’t really say I’m really satisfied. The name is a combination of two names coming from the Italian adaptation of Captain Tsubasa.
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