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If you're working on drawing your own manga or even if you just want to write a fanfic for your favorite anime or manga, you'll want to make a character who is interesting and makes people want to read your story (without becoming a Mary Sue!). wikiHow can show you how to write interesting characters, as well as teach you how to draw them! Get started with Step 1 below or check out the Table of Contents above for more specific help.
Steps
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Decide their blood type. Blood type is seen as a common indicator of personality in Japan. You can use this as a way to help decide what you want your character to be like. The blood types and associated personalities are:- O - confident, optimistic and strong-willed but also self-centered and unpredictable
- A - creative, reserved and responsible but also stubborn and tense
- B - active and passionate but also selfish and irresponsible
- AB - adaptable and rational but also forgetful and critical
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Decide their birth date. The Western Zodiac or the Eastern Zodiac can both also be used to determine personality. You can use this to choose your character's age or birth year and their birth date.Advertisement -
Use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you really want to get an idea for a fully formed personality, you can check out the Myers-Briggs personality test. These personality types, based in the study of psychology, can be helpful in fleshing out your character's personality. -
Use a personality balancer. You'll also want to be sure to balance your character's personality. A balance of positive and negative traits is necessary to create a compelling, believable character. Count up your character's negative traits and positive traits and try to make the negative traits slightly outnumber the positive ones. By the end of your story, your character will have developed to overcome a few of the negative traits. Example negative traits include:- Manipulative
- Often lies
- Insults others
- Uncaring about their impact on others
- Focused on only their own goals
- Has poor impulse control
- Frequently resentful, even of small or accidental slights
- Is usually reckless or impulsive
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Give them a great name. Many people also believe that someone's name can affect their personality. Studies show that having an uncommon name can lead to bullying and the personality issues that result from being bullied. There are also people who believe a name can determine your whole personality (called Kabalarians). This, whether true or not, can help you decide on a name.- Try to avoid using really unusual names in an otherwise realistic setting. This makes your character seem out of place.
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Identify your character's ending goal. It is important to know what is driving your character, what motivates them, and what is standing in between their desire and achieving it. Where do you want your character to end up? What do you want their lesson to be over the course of your story? What do you want them to have learned or changed? You can use your character's ending state to figure out how to portray them in the beginning. -
Identify your character's beginning. Once you know where they end up, decide where you want them to start out. This should follow logically from where they end. For example, if you want a character that learns to appreciate others, you want to show them not appreciating the people that care about them in the beginning. You probably also want to show why they think they don't need people.- The backstory can make the character deeper, but it is not always necessary. You can only hint at it instead of elaborating in detail.
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Decide how they get there. Think about where you want them to start and end. Now, what would lead someone to change like that? This is where you can get some great ideas for your story, because the things that happen to your character to make them change makes for great plot or subplot. -
Avoid the clichés. Their girlfriend gets killed. They were orphaned at a young age. They grew up the perpetual new kid. These are all clichés meant to jump start your character's development. And because they're clichès, they tend to be boring. Try to avoid them. Work to be original in your character development. This will make people more interested in your character and want to follow your story.
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Choose a style. Different types of anime and manga are often drawn in different styles. You can just use your own natural style or you can emulate the look of classic artists for different genres. Shojo and shonen anime and manga are the two most common genres. -
Draw the character. Keep in mind that cute characters usually have wide eyes while cool characters have small, slanted eyes. Check out these resources on how to draw your character:- Here's how to draw an anime character
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- An anime boy
- An anime face
- Anime eyes
- Here's how to draw a manga character
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- A manga head
- A manga girl
- A manga girl’s face
- Manga hair
- Here's how to draw an anime character
:
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Take design cues from your character's personality and history. Add clothing and accessories. Let your choices help reflect your character's personality and history. For example, if you have a female character who tends to be very practical, put her in flats rather than heels. If you want to hint at a character's past, think of things that they might wear or keep that are significant to them. For example, in The Legend of Korra , Mako wears his father's scarf at all times. Be creative!
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Study human anatomy. Making characters that look good starts with a basic knowledge of human anatomy. You don't want to make your character look like they have too many muscles or too few, too many joints or too few, a badly disproportionate body, etc. Get a good anatomy book and learn about where our bones and muscles are, how they bend, and where they line up. -
Draw from life. Drawing a manga character requires a basic knowledge of the human body. The more you can draw humans,the easier would it be to draw a manga. So start with drawing (for practice) your friends and even yourself sitting in front of a mirror. -
Practice different, dynamic poses. To draw poses for your character, you can take images of yourself doing those poses and then try to draw your character in those poses with the help of the images. You can also use helpful websites like posemaniacs.com for reference.- Try to keep anatomy in mind when you do these poses. You don't want your character to end up looking like a Rob Liefeld drawing.
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Keep practicing! The more you practice, the better you'll get.
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Sample Character Descriptions
Community Q&A
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QuestionHow do you get it perfect?Community AnswerPerfect is different for everybody. As long as you like it and feel as though you cannot improve it anymore, it will be considered perfect!
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QuestionHow can I draw manga or anime faster?Community AnswerThere isn't really a way to draw or improve your skills faster. You can take classes online or in person, but that's all you can do. Drawing manga and anime takes a lot of time and effort. Practicing constantly is the only way to get better.
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QuestionWhere can I find example pictures of anime characters to draw inspiration from?Community AnswerGo to Google Images and type in the search box, "anime characters". From there, click on subcategories, like "female", "red hair", "shy", or "child", to name but a few. Or, you could search up a certain anime character from a show that you like the art style from. You could even go to the bookstore, library, or Amazon to purchase or check out a book on how to draw anime, or even just a manga book to get a good idea for character design.
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Tips
- If the character seems too bland, that's okay! Get some peer critique from peers or people of the same interest, or if you're creating a character for a published work, get feedback from your audience.Thanks
- Try drawing your character again and again to see what works and what doesn’t; the more familiar you are with the character, the easier it will be to draw him or her in different situations. This will also improve your drawings over time, so don't worry if it looks awkward or strange in the beginning. Also,try to draw your character from different angles.Thanks
- When designing a character's physical attributes and features, try and find out what physical traits people tend to have with certain personalities so you can have an easier time designing their physical traits. This will make your character's personality correspond better with what they look like physically.Thanks
Tips from our Readers
The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.
- If you want to make your character famous, give them a unique name or nickname so people can instantly search them on the internet. Some examples are names like Kirito, Naruto, and Goku!
- Try to sketch out the character first before deciding on their final look. Use light pencil marks so you can easily erase it if you mess up.
- If you want your character to look different, give them a unique fashion style, like gyaru, goth, or kawaii.
- Read fanfics to give you ideas on situations, names, and death scenes. Wattpad and Quotev are my favorites!
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Warnings
- Don't make their weapons huge! You don't want your character to be carrying around five feet wide swords all the time! Make it simple. Just make it big enough so they can defend themselves well.Thanks
- Escaping into a fantasy world tends to drive us away from real social interaction. If you decide to get invested in the anime or manga world, try to join a club to make sure you keep having interactions in the real world.Thanks
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About This Article
Article Summary
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To make your own anime or manga character, start by deciding on a personality, such as cool and reserved, to make your character compelling and believable. Then, draw your character with features that reflect their personality, like long, tousled hair for a carefree male character. Next, draw your character’s clothes in a style that makes sense for who they are, like putting a nerdy female character in flats rather than heels. Additionally, try hinting at a mysterious past or a personal dilemma with details like tattoos or a symbolic accessory. To learn more, like to create a compelling story for your anime or manga character, scroll down!
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- "I'm trying to create a good manga for my friends to read just because I wanted to. The article gave me some good tips that I hadn't thought of before. I've created most of the characters for this book, but I haven't gotten that deep into who they are as people, I guess. This article really did help, I'll try to remember all this when I get the chance to start! " ..." more
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"I'm trying to create a good manga for my friends to read just because I wanted to. The article gave me some good tips that I hadn't thought of before. I've created most of the characters for this book, but I haven't gotten that deep into who they are as people, I guess. This article really did help, I'll try to remember all this when I get the chance to start! "
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"Wow, so helpful. Thanks, I was looking for a step by step like this. Also, this is a great place to start if you don't have an idea where to start. It is also good if you already have a idea, because it allows you, if you have writer's block, to look back and begin to progress forward. Thanks again, really great article."
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