Let’s learn how to draw Nikkari Aoe from Touken Ranbu today!
Nikkari Aoe (にっかり青江) is one of the supporting characters of Touken Ranbu anime, manga and movie. Touken Ranbu is based on the video game Touken Ranbu by Nitroplus and DMM Games. He is the 5th sword obtained by the Saniwa in Hanamaru Citadel. Aoe is a tsukumogami, the spirit of a legendary sword, which is depicted as attractive young man.
Nikkari was forged by a blacksmith with the name of Aoe Sadatsugu in the year 1207. The sword was originally 75 cm but was shortened to around 60 cm. That makes him an Oowakizashi. The part that was shortened had his previous owner’s name inlayed on it. Oowakizashi swords are wakizashi (a blade between 30 and 60 cm ) close to the length of a katana. The sword’s length was already considered as an ootachi but to this day it is only qualified as a tachi.
This sword is associated with a ghost story. A samurai was on a journey to slay the monster and had to stay at an inn for the night. At night, a woman and her child appeared in front of him and giggled in an unsettling manner. The samurai demanded to know who they were to no avail. They kept coming toward him, giggling, so he panicked and beheaded both of them. In the morning, there was no dead body. Instead, the samurai saw two stone lamps, the tops of which were cut off, and realized that he “killed” two ghosts. His blade was named “Nikkari” after the incident. Nikkari’s name is a sounds similar to the word for creepy grinning (nikkori). This name was given to him in reference to the creepy smile of the ghost Nakajima Shuuridayuu came across while wielding Nikkari.
Thanks a lot to ??? ??r????? for request. ^_^
Step 1
As always all the blue and green lines are just construction lines and will be erased later so do not push on your pencil too much ^_^ I will try to be super efficient with the text so will only describe steps that require some explanation.
Make sure to leave enough free space on paper for next steps. You can see how much space you will need from the size of the paper on this picture.
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Lighten all the construction lines by “stamping” the kneaded eraser on the paper. Make sure to refer to the picture bellow as you need to ink only some parts of the construction lines.
Step 10
Wait till the ink is nice and dry and erase all the construction lines.
Step 11
To add colors, make sure to sketch the color outlines with the right color or pencil first.
If your goal is to become a real Mangaka and design your own manga characters make sure to try to draw Nikkari Aoe from memory several times. Always compare the drawing to the original and correct any mistakes you see. Do this till you are happy with the result. It doesn’t have to look exactly the same, don’t sweat the details. The point is that you get the main shapes right and that it looks good. This is the best way to build a huge library of manga shapes in your memory that you can use to draw and design your own manga characters ^_-.
Draw with passion! ^_^
Hiroshi (drawing by Bianchi)
