'Mother's Gift' is a concept for a Japanese-inspired comic book and/or animated series. The story beings with two siblings with reality bending powers being forced into a statue-like slumber for over one hundred years in order to be spared death by a virus infecting their village thanks to their mother's sacrifice to their gods.
The plot follows them as they awaken and discover how much the world has changed over the century and make their way through this post-pandemic world, meeting a colourful collection of characters and villains across the way, whilst they try to find out what happened to their mother and about the sacrifice she made over a five year time period.
Above, you can see concept art for three of the villains - artificially produced women using the reality-bending mechanic of this world, each with extraordinary powers. These three women are part of a collective of seven women created by the reigning Queen ('Mother') in order to further extend her own life and reign.
I took heavy inspiration from 90's shōnen mangas, such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Sailor Moon, and more modern illustrations featured in shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender and games like the Pokémon Franchise.
Below, you can see emotion sheets for the two main characters. I wanted this project to be inclusive as many stories depicted in mainstream media for children and young adults seem to steer away from anything that could be interpreted as "controversial".
Both mixed race, I designed one of the main characters to feature visible disability and one to experience non-visible disability; the male lead, Elio, missing their right arm and suffering from blindness in their right eye and the female lead, Yue, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, respectively. In terms of LGBTQ+ inclusion, I wanted my male lead to be homosexual and show how he finds self-acceptance and happiness and experiences romantic relationships in his youth to adulthood.
