PRINCESS RACCOON - romance

Yay, another fanart of a completley random semi-obscure foreign film! And one I haven't seen yet, to boot!

This piece is inspired by the two main characters from the new Japanese musical (!) film, Operetta Tanuki Goten, a.k.a. Princess Raccoon. All I know for certain is that it's about a tanuki princess (Tanukihime) who falls in love with an exiled human prince (Amechiyo, played by Joe Odagiri)), causing a lot of mush and ecclectically-styled musical numbers to ensue. The art style, from what I've seen, is FABULOUS, and the music rocks, too.

One of the coolest tidbits about the film is that Tanukihime, is played by Zhang Ziyi, and her character sings and speaks in Chinese while everyone else speaks/sings in Japanese (but they can understand her and vice-versa). Hooray for bilingual musicals!

The kanji character at the top means "tanuki", BTW. And that thing at the side is Tanukihime's tail.

The official website is here: http://www.tanuki-goten.com/ :)

I had quite a bit of trouble with Tanukihime's face while painting it in. The original coloring was only a bit paler pink than Amechiyo's face, but the black of her hair bled onto the skin tone. I decided to make her uber-pale, which sort of makes her seem more supernatural (kind of appropriate, since she <I>is an animal spirit and all). I keep thinking she looks sort of vampiric, rather than a regal lady with a very powered face. Oh, well, can't win 'em all, I s'pose.

Tanukihime, Amechiyo, story, etc. © Suzuki Seijun
Art © Carrie-ko