If I'd bothered to finish this meme, Red Garden would have been my choice for this day too. fujijun was the perfect artist to bring on board for character (and fashion) designs, as her talent is quite specifically for creating a blend of the beautiful and the sublime. Each character has their own unique design - not even minor characters (like, say, Rachel's friends) look anything alike.
As you said, this really works in a positive sense for the series because it wants you to be unnerved, to be slightly put off by what you see. One thing that really stuck with me when my design sheets from the series arrived was how grotesque even the most beautiful characters were in fujijun's scribbles. Kate was stick-thin with a pointed, almost alien look about her face. Herve was intentionally drawn without pupils in his eyes. On one hand they looked soft, almost gentle. On the other... like something out of a horror movie.
I would have to agree that Lula is probably the most unnerving out of everyone, though this plays into her ambiguity (as you mentioned above). Do they trust her, do they run from her? I personally think she's quite beautiful, but not at all in a ~traditional~ sense. She's arresting, you really have to look at her whenever she enters a scene because your eyes are instinctively drawn to her. Her exterior is also quite misleading - you think of her as steely, untrustworthy and alarming, rather than as another victim (which is genius). When I think about Lula's appearance I am always reminded of the drama track where they all go to the spa and Lula parades around without a towel on. All the girls can't help but stare... and be depressed about dying as "girls" rather than "women". ^^:
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As you said, this really works in a positive sense for the series because it wants you to be unnerved, to be slightly put off by what you see. One thing that really stuck with me when my design sheets from the series arrived was how grotesque even the most beautiful characters were in fujijun's scribbles. Kate was stick-thin with a pointed, almost alien look about her face. Herve was intentionally drawn without pupils in his eyes. On one hand they looked soft, almost gentle. On the other... like something out of a horror movie.
I would have to agree that Lula is probably the most unnerving out of everyone, though this plays into her ambiguity (as you mentioned above). Do they trust her, do they run from her? I personally think she's quite beautiful, but not at all in a ~traditional~ sense. She's arresting, you really have to look at her whenever she enters a scene because your eyes are instinctively drawn to her. Her exterior is also quite misleading - you think of her as steely, untrustworthy and alarming, rather than as another victim (which is genius). When I think about Lula's appearance I am always reminded of the drama track where they all go to the spa and Lula parades around without a towel on. All the girls can't help but stare... and be depressed about dying as "girls" rather than "women". ^^:
tl;dr THE RED GARDEN DESIGNS ARE AWESOME.