LUMi Interview #1 Reveals LUMi’s Design!

As mentioned in our article about LUMi’s reveal, there’s an interview series of five interviews. While we knew the first interview would be of her illustrator, Fugin Miyama, we didn’t know when the interview would be released, but it’s finally out now! The interview reveals LUMi’s design as well as previous concept art.

The Concept

This interview talks about designing LUMi as well as her basic character concept. It includes character illustrator Fugin Miyama as well as AVA Yoshizawa Kaoru. Yoshizawa Kaoru was LUMi’s planner and designer.

The “Feeling” of LUMi

According to this first interview, LUMI’s representative keywords are: “Buddhism,” “Jellyfish,” “Shrine Maiden,” and “Kamakura.”

LUMi’s view of the world is based on Buddhism, which helped to create her design.

She’s a very fleshed-out character with quite the story and interesting details. If she becomes too injured, she’ll die and turn into the form of a jellyfish. However, she’ll regenerate to her human form in time.

Originally, the image of death was rather strong in her design. However, she now has a much lighter appearance. Now she’s based on giving light to those in pain and using that light to bring resolution. According to Miyama, LUMi is now “life.”

However, the theme of LUMi as death is still present, so he believes that LUMi is now representing “death for life.”

The Keywords “Buddhism” and “Jellyfish”

Yoshizawa Kaoru of AVA, who planned LUMi, was the one who decided on LUMi being connected to Buddhism. He originally imagined LUMi being a Bodhisattva, a person who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so out of compassion in order to save suffering beings.

While searching for creatures that could be visual motifs, he found the perfect inspiration: the Turritopsis nutricula or Benikurage, as it’s called in Japanese. Turritopsis nutricula are called “immortal jellyfish.” Whenever the jellyfish is injured, sick, or dying, it reverts back to a younger form. This allows the jellyfish to live forever! As long as nothing eats it, of course.

Change of Concepts

Original Concept Art

LUMi’s initial design was different from her current one. The previous design was based on a jellyfish imitating a human’s form. She had no eyes or nose.

However, Miyama realized it would be difficult to establish such a character. Instead, he decided to approach her slightly differently. He added a bit of a high school girl theme. However, he made sure to keep the balance between her jellyfish design and her human features. According to Miyama, you can see the delicate balance all over her design.

Hopes for LUMi in the Future

Miyama hopes for LUMi to be successful in the future. He is looking forward to seeing what she’ll accomplish. In addition, they hope that LUMi will experience many things and be able to save lots of people.

More Information

Stayed tuned to VNN for more information as it surfaces! LUMi’s trial is set to come out on June 3rd. Hopefully, we’ll have even more LUMi news by then!

You can check out our original LUMi article for more information about her.

In addition, you can read the full interview (in Japanese) here.