She Is Now Shoujo Crimson (Also, the Anime Informing Shining Tomorrow)

Shoujo Crimson (Illustrator: Jalen Myles Crymes)

I’ve done some thinking on the main character of Shining Tomorrow. Using the previous name for the character, Shoujo Red, might be cutting it a little too close regarding trademark. While Shoujo Red isn’t trademarked, it’s too much like Shonen Red, an in-universe fictional character from Sega’s Sakura Wars franchise (who is actually played by a woman.)

As a result of this, her name is now Shoujo Crimson, and all references to her have been altered to reflect that change.

But I have more to say as well. (Spoilers for Gundam Wing ahead.)

Much has been made of replacing famous male characters with females: Ghostbusters 2016, (an all-female Ghostbusters team in place of the original film’s all-male team), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Rey as a female do-over of Luke Skywalker), Oceans 8 (the thieves were all guys in Oceans 11), and so on.

However, I’ve noticed that all throughout the Gundam anime franchise, there has never been a female Char Clone. Char Aznable is from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, a masked antagonist who fought against main character Amuro Ray but had motivations of his own besides fighting for his nation — namely, avenging his father’s death. “Char Clones” are the characters that were modeled after him in the Gundam series that came afterward.

Which is where I come in and strike a blow for diversity.

Shoujo Crimson, Irma Kaneyasu’s superhero identity, is intended to play the same role that the Char Clones play in the various Gundam series: a rival to the main character with a mysterious identity.

“But Rawle, you just said Irma was the main character, and Shoujo Crimson literally is Irma.”

And this is where I alter the usual approach. But first, let me summarize what is usually done.

In the series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, there is a major secondary character named Relena Peacecraft who strives to forge peace amid the warring factions. Committed to an ideology of total pacifism, she strives to end war throughout the Earth and the space colonies, no matter how bad the situation gets, and she maintains a distinctly ladylike elegance throughout. She has a brother, Milliardo Peacecraft, who goes by the nom de guerre Zechs Merquise, who wanted to bring peace through overwhelming force and defeat the five Gundam pilots who opposed him. Like the Char Clones before him, he wore a mask and lots of red an played the role of the mysterious Ace Pilot rival to series protagonist Heero Yuy.

Relena Peacecraft (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing © Sunrise)

Relena inspired similar characters in later Gundam series, such as Lacus Clyne (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED), Marina Ismail (Gundam 00), and many others, as well as Princess Euphemia li Britannia in the unrelated series Code Geass. However, none of them have been main characters.

Milliardo Peacecraft, holding his Zechs Merquise helmet (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing © Sunrise)

In Shining Tomorrow, I make the Relena archetype the main character instead of a major secondary character.

But I also make her the Char Clone. Her arc will be about her trying to reconcile her desire to be womanly — she wants to become a “good wife and wise mother” — and her desire to strike down those who hurt her friends and family; she regards violence as a masculine trait, unfit for girls. She doesn’t want to be Shoujo Crimson, but circumstances force her to be, and she regards Shoujo Crimson as something utterly alien to her, an assault on her very identity.

Yet, it is every bit a part of her as her hands and feet. She can’t cast it off any more than she can cast off her own skin.

Now don’t be afraid — there’ll be plenty of superpowered action in the book. But I also wanted to point out how to reinvent a character archetype the correct way, without trying to tear down what came before or acting immature.

For the Shining Tomorrow!