One of the trendy features for game character shrines is a page in which you track down other characters who resemble your subject. I think it started with either Tifa or Rinoa shrines, because they are secretly the same person. However, as you can see by scrolling down, these aren't all Kaoru - there are surprisingly few kimono- and/or hakama-clad, ponytailed young women in anime, at least not that I've seen. However, much of the Kenshin cast resembles other people, and that's where I come in. I always wanted to do a page like this, because I was the only person I knew who recognized the vast influence the X-Men had on Watsuki's character design. Not the only person in the world, just the only person I knew.

The girl to the left is Sakura, from Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) a strategy/dating-sim game and OVA. I don't really know much about the series (I read a review of the game a couple years ago), but the artwork is pretty, and once, back when I barely knew anything about RK, I mistook a Sakura poster for a Kaoru poster. Sakura wears a ponytail with a ribbon, like Kaoru, and seems to dress in a weird combination of clothing styles - western button-down boots with hakama, but then her top looks like it's a kimono, with the long sleeves and an obi (which is even tied in a bow like Kaoru's.) I don't know when the game came out, or if one character is deliberately based on the other - Watsuki was usually pretty forthcoming about his inspirations for character designs, so it's doubtful that Kaoru's based on Sakura. The ponytail and the hakama are just a necessity for a girl who practices kendo, and the kimono-blouse-thing... ummm... I don't get that part. Maybe they just thought it looked neat. Or maybe she's Kaoru-inspired after all. You can click on her for a better look at the outfit.

Gremio is a character from Genso Suikoden, a Japanese RPG based on an ancient Chinese or Japanese legend. (I really don't know much about the background, although I've played both games... Want to help me out, anyone?) He's the protector of the hero, and he also happens to be an excellent cook. He speaks, in the American version of the game, with a stammer, and is given somewhat effeminate characteristics and mannerisms - basically, he's a mother hen, although I don't know what he was like in the original. I've also heard of a Suikoden OVA in which the hero is accompanied by a transvestite with a scar. And then we've got Kenshin, with his somewhat feminine speech patterns/mannerisms and his talent for cooking... and check out the character portraits. (That little thingy to the left of Gremio is his hair. He has long hair he wears in a low ponytail, like someone else we know.)

Okay, I wouldn't have picked this one up myself, but Watsuki-sensei mentions it in a freetalk... Tsubame-chan is based off Tomoe Hotaru, Sailor Saturn. Does Hotaru hide her face behind her Silence Glaive or whatever that thing is when people talk to her? I dunno. I think he just liked the haircut. You know, Tsubame's the only RK girl from the main cast with short hair.

I believe Rei is the acknowledged inspiration for Tomoe. They both have pretty, feathery hair; they are both spooky, pale, non-expressive and very very quiet; they both freak me out rather than earning my sympathy, and I fail to see the appeal of either one. Well, they're both pretty, and important, but is that reason enough to LIKE a character? Perhaps if you're a guy.