Today Jojo draws Unico.

Thanks for all your suggestions yesterday. Don’t be surprised if you see more of them pop up over the coming weeks. We decided to go with Unico, the relatively obscure manga/anime unicorn/child because Jojo and I have a special place for him in our hearts.

We both grew up watching Unico cartoons, but Jojo kept her VHS and re-watched it over the years. I, on the other hand, forgot what the show was called and was unable to find any proof that it ever existed. I spent twenty years of my life saying,

“No really! There’s this little unicorn and the gods want to kill him because he makes people happy so some wind lady saves him but she has to keep him on the move so whenever he starts to make people happy again, he has to leave and there’s this evil puppet that’s turning people into stone statues to build a tower and there’s a bunch of monsters who got turned to statues and the baby monsters were crying! Also the little unicorn can turn into a big unicorn! Wait, why are you walking away from me?”

Then I met Jojo, she explained to me that I was not losing my mind, and we’ve been friends ever since.

Today Jojo draws Tuxedo Mask!

Sailor Moon week concludes, with the only character I knew anything about before we started this. It’s a real testament to the need for good female characters in action shows, that when I watched Sailor Moon as a young boy, my attention and interest went right to the only male character. I can only imagine what it’s like to be a girl watching any other show.

I am actaully familiar enough with this character to judge it, and this is pretty close. She left off his cape, and his mask should be pointier Also, he wears a fancy vest thing, under his jacket. Not just a shirt.

There’s something wrong with him that’s more pressing than his wardrobe, but Jojo called herself out on it, saying:

“haha, stubby leg! it made me laugh so i kept it in. i was also drunk at the time.”

Today Jojo draws Sailor Chibi Moon.

We’re more than half way through our Sailor Moon week, and I’m starting to pick it up. This is Sailor Moon’s daughter from the future. She’s basically Cable. Great. Got it. This looks about right to me, if we ignore the, truly horrifying way Jojo draws anime eyes (which I can not, never in a million years, they haunt my dreams so.) Let’s see what Josie “Sailor Moon Expert” Campbell has to say about it.

Josie: “Oh god. Those EYES.

Ok, now we’ve gotten past that: while Jojo set out to draw Rini what she actually drew was Sailor Chibi Chibi Moon (if Chibi Chibi, you know, stole a Powerpuff Girl’s feet). Judging it as Chibi Chibi Jojo just needs to give her white boots, make her odango heart shaped, add a bow to the back of the skirt, and change the color of her skirt and sailor bib from pink to blue.

However, as Jojo set out to draw Rini, I have to judge it that way and point out that Jojo left off the bow on the back of the skirt again, the front bow should be red, she should have two shocks of pink hair coming out the bottom of her odango, she should have a pink choker, and she should be wearing pink boots (she also left off the white jewel things that go along with Rini’s red jewel things. I don’t know what they’re called). But as Jojo’s drawing reminded me of the existence of Chibi Chibi AND, for the first time, Jojo remembered the Sailor Scouts all wear tiaras, I’ll let that slide.

Now go back to staring at those eyes. THOSE EYES.”

Today Jojo draws Sailor Venus!

This week, Jojo is drawing characters from Sailor Moon. It’s been tough because I don’t know anything about Sailor Moon, and Jojo does. But she’s Jojo, so her memory is very spotty, whereas I am a geek and can absorb information and trivia about any dumb thing! I feel I’ve just about met Jojo in the middle, and by the end of the week I expect to know more about the franchise than she does!

Today I asked her to draw Sailor Venus, the original Sailor Scout, who used to go by Codename: Sailor V.

Jojo was not sure which one was Sailor Venus, and spent the whole time she was drawing, muttering and cursing herself for not being able to remember, making herself more confused. When she gave the drawing to me she said,

Jojo: “I don’t think this looks like Sailor Neptune.”

Me: “Well, that’s good because you were supposed to draw Sailor Venus.”

The real lesson is, Jojo should have more faith in herself. This DOES look like Sailor Venus, almost exactly. However, I will now turn the blog back over to Josie Campbell, Sailor Moon expert, to tell us what Jojo got wrong.

Josie:”For this being the picture that made Jojo doubt both her memory and her sanity, she’s pretty close to the real Sailor V. Jojo continues to forget to put a tiara on her sailor scouts, as well as the sailor bib part of the uniform, the orange choker, and the bow on the back of the skirts. The front bow should actually be blue, the gloves are supposed to have three orange bands on the end and go to her elbow, the shirt sleeves are tiny and white, and she’s supposed to wear high heels, not ballet flats

However, Jojo did remember Mina’s zest for life, as evidenced by her party-dance pose, so the hour we spent watching Jojo dejectedly curse herself while drawing picture after picture trying to get it right was well worth it!”

Today Jojo draws Sailor Mercury!

This week, Jojo is drawing the Sailor Scouts. I asked her today to draw the “sailor scout with short hair” and she drew this, saying:

“Sailor Mercury? She’s the smart one right? I’m disappointed in myself because the smart one with short hair is my favorite and so I shouldn’t have to ask these questions.”

Well, it seems she was right, this is Sailor Mercury. However, I don’t know anything about the Sailor Scouts and when I critiqued her Sailor Moon drawing, I got some things wrong.  So I now turn things over to our resident Sailor Moon expert, Josie Campbell. Take it away, Josie!

Josie: “For having no other information than ‘the smart one with short hair,’ JoJo did a decent job with Sailor Mercury/Ami. I’m going to judge JoJo’s attempts against the first version of the uniform, ‘cause by the time you get to the end of the anime/manga series everyone’s outfit has gone through like five different tweaks and there’s just ribbons and wings everywhere.

Anyway.

She got the most important aspect of the character down (she’s blue!) and the crazy short skirt sailor outfit (she’s a schoolgirl!). However, JoJo leaves off the details that make the outfits sailor outfits, such as the actual sailor bib. Ami has very short white sleeves rather than sleevless, her gem in the middle of her bow is blue, the bow is bigger, there’s a bow on the back of the outfit, the white gloves have three blue bands on the end, the tops of her boots are white not blue, and she has a blue choker. JoJo also forgot that Sailor Scouts wear tiaras, though knowing JoJo she may just have been tired of drawing the head at that point and just left it off. Also the haircut is slightly off as she has poofy bangs and a bob.

Also the band around her skirt is white, not blue.

Now that JoJo knows I’m just as awfully picky as Marly, back to you!”

Thanks Josie. Please stick around all week. Seriously, all the Sailor Scouts look the same to me.

Oh also, my name is Marly. I guess that’s never come up before.

Today Jojo draws Sailor Moon.

Due to popular demand, this week Jojo will be drawing the Sailor Scouts (although I may also have her draw other characters from the series).

Jojo is much more familiar with the Sailor Moon franchise than I am, but I’ll do my best to catch up. This drawing is basically right, she left off her tiara and some stuff on her belt. Also, he boots should be higher, and pink.

Jojo claims to be a big fan of this show but when pressed, she didn’t seem to remember much about it. I asked her what Sailor Moon’s powers were and she said,

“She has… like these items, that let her do magic, with them…. and… Look, the transformation sequences were really cool!”

Today Jojo draws Frieza (sort of)!

This week, Jojo has been drawing Dragon Ball Z characters. For the final day, I wanted to have her draw a villain who didn’t switch sides and become a hero later (there’re not many DBZ characters like that). I asked her if she knew Frieza and she said, “Is he the man who is also a dinosaur, and also a woman?”

And I said, “Perfect, draw him!”

Well, she drew him… and here’s the thing, based on what she said, she must have seen Frieza at some point. I think she remembered his giant head as a space helmet. And her Jojo-brain interpreted his weird, lumpy, body as a robot body. Basically, “Dinosaur man who is kinda a woman” sounds like Frieza.

What she drew looks like Buzz Lightyear. With a tail.

Today Jojo draws Gohan!

This week, Jojo has been drawing Dragon Ball Z characters. So far we’ve gotten Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo, so it’s only natural that we get Gohan next.

She got the right idea here, although once again, she drew him in the same outfit as Goku. Gohan did wear that outfit for a while but mostly once he was a teenager. This looks like young Gohan, so I’m going to say the outfit is wrong. Also, it’s wrong either way because it’s supposed to have a blue undershirt. In addition, and don’t know why I didn’t mention this sooner, Jojo thinks that everyone in Dragon Ball is barefoot, when actually they all wear boots.

Plus this looks less like an anime character and more like a South Park character.

Today Jojo draws Vegeta!

This week, Jojo is drawing Dragon Ball Z characters from memory. Today I asked her who else she could remember and she said, “There’s a mean one, right? I’ll draw the mean one.”

This is obviously meant to be Vegeta, another villain turned hero (that seems to be a theme with DBZ). She drew him in pretty much the same outfit she gave Goku, even though Vegeta should be wearing either his original Saiyan armor, or his later muscle shirt outfit. It’s hard to tell if she knew he was short or not, since she pretty much draws everyone the size of the paper.

Also, I think she tried to give him a receding hairline but I question whether she knows what a receding hairline is. She gave him THREE widows peaks. C’mon Jojo, you might not know much about anime, but you know how hair works, right?

Right?

Today Jojo draws Piccolo.

It’s Dragon Ball week and we’re off to a great start. Today we get a look at Jojo’s version of that villain-turned-hero, Piccolo. I didn’t ask her to draw Piccolo specifically, I asked her to draw “someone from Dragon Ball” and she handed me back this, saying, “Whoever this is, I drew him.”

She also said, “The first time I saw this guy I thought he looked like someone had sliced off his muscles to make a deli-style sandwich.”

There’s a few things off about her drawing, his outfit is actually purple (Jojo is always sad to have missed a chance to color things purple), he shouldn’t have “deli slices” on his chest, they’re only supposed to be on his arms. Also he actually has very small pupils in his eyes (most of the Dragon Ball characters have tiny pupils but I think Jojo just assumes Japan = giant pupils).

Really though, all I can focus on is his head. It looks like his head is trying to escape from his body.

And it looks like it’s winning.