Okely-doke. Today, we will be learning how to create the lead role(s) in your (hopefully) EPICSAUCE manga. Character creation is a WHOLE lot more than just winging a person and hoping they work, especially when you are making the lead roles in the tale. In today’s lesson, we will be acting as if there is only one main character. To produce this protagonist, we have to answer some questions:
What does the protagonist look like?
What kind of a person is our protagonist?
What is our protagonist’s name?
Those being asked, let’s get cracking!
What Does the Protagonist Look Like?
We will need to determine a few things to find out:
How old the character is.
What species the character is.
The kind of past the character has.
For example, we will look at Naruto.
Naruto is 12 in part one.
Naruto is a human with the Kyuubi sealed within him.
Naruto has been shunned by the villagers and has no friends.
You can see that he is 12 (think about how Kid Goku is 12, and this kind of sets the 12 year old standard in shonen).
The fox within is apparent due to his whiskers. His humanity is obvious.
It is clear Naruto has a troubled past because he is sitting alone on a swing, making a depressed face.
What Kind of Person is Our Protagonist?
The personality of our character can even set the theme of a series, such as how Naruto’s perseverance keeps him trying to bring Sasuke back.
We now will be looking at Killer B (Bee) from Naruto.
As a child, B was always smiling. Even when Hachibi (The 8 Tailed Beast) was sealed in him, his smile never faded. He tried to be a great brother for Raikage A, and became his Killer B.
His always nonchalant disposition is apparent in his picture (Sorry, B is not a protagonist, but hey).
What is Our Protagonist’s Name?
The name of the protagonist is what it is: The name of the protagonist.
The name needs to characterize the character’s personality.
For example, Naruto likes ramen A LOT. The little floaty thingies in your ramen are called naruto.
Tada? Reflects Naruto, right?
Or, let us try Sakura. Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom. Sakura’s hair is pink. Tree leaves fall gently and easily. Sakura is put in danger very easily in combat (Think of when she attacked Sasuke with the poision kunai in volume 52).
Tada! You’re on your way to manga-ka stardom!
