So this is coming just a tad early. Chapter 23 didn’t really show off the residents of the Sato fortress all that much. , however we will be showing them off a bit more in the next chapter. There were however quite a couple of scenes with the thugs at the beginning. So right now I’d like to show you all some of the production work because I had a particular idea of how I wanted these two groups to look.

A little bit of an ironic thing is despite wanting to make this story take place in Feudal Japan, I actually didn’t really understand what Feudal Japan was, mostly because I didn’t what feudalism was (oops). Upon researching the topic, this is what shaped my idea of how these two groups would look.

During the Feudal era, Japan was ruled by some powerful rulers who clashed for complete and total control as they raised entire empires. The only way to survive in this brutal age was either to fall under the protection of these empires or have enough power to survive on your own. This was something I tried to reflect in the two groups.

As shown below, the thugs have rather tattered clothing, along with a lot of scars, some of which looking rather deformed. While the Sato residents are mostly clean, this is mainly to reflect on the fact that the Sato residents is in fact a (mini) empire. They have an established fortress and enough defenses to stand strong together and be safe from the outside world. While the thugs are of outsiders who simply travel and pillage. This is also reflected in the fact that they all have tremendous scars and deformities, which they essentially wear as a symbol of pride to show their strength and power through surviving battle after battle. It also is meant to show that they lack humanity and come off mostly as monsters. A future update will also show you some more faces and give you a better reflection of their scars.