As always when working on a book, with A Mortal Song I went looking for character “models” early on to give me a solid visual of the major characters. They may or may not be how you pictured them too, but here’s a quick look at four of them through my eyes. 🙂

Sora

 
My model for Song‘s protagonist was originally a different actress, but then I saw Aoi Yu perform in the movie Hana and Alice—particularly this dance sequence—and I knew she was my Sora. I had the picture on the left above open on my computer most of the time I was drafting the book, and it’s part of the reason Sora ends up in a green shirt.

Keiji

 
I knew right away that my Keiji was going to be Tatsuya Fujiwara, who I mainly knew from the movie Battle Royale. He spends most of that film looking pretty serious, but you can see he’s got a playful side too.

Chiyo

My “magical girl” was the most difficult character to cast, because I had a clear picture of what she looked like in my head… but she’s a pretty unique figure inside and out, so finding a real life person who matched her was tough. I turned to the JapaneseStreets website for inspiration. The girl on the left has the right vibe and general look (though Chiyo would be younger), and her hair color is like the girl on the right (without the green streak).

Takeo

And here is my stalwart warrior, represented by Takeshi Kaneshiro. With that intense gaze, he would have fit the role perfectly.

What do you think? Do my models fit the characters as you imagined them?