I Love Crossbow. He's my friend

technically it's not my first, i made a pixel sprite of aika a long time ago. but i never made smth like this. i'm so glad this series exists!!! pretty please i really want the full show to be greenlit <333

(constructive criticism welcome!)

They look so cute and pretty!

It's implied that Aika was raised by Hoshi, they might've been the one to mold Aika into a teenage crime fighter. It's almost sad to think about Aika being brought into such a stressful lifestyle at such a young age and having her future be decided for her by a floating star. Plus Aika didn't get a normal childhood, she's unfamiliar with stuff like cafeteria food, school, or having a normal after school job. I wonder how much estrangement this will cause between Aika and Hoshi down the line.

Note: I edited the official Aika artwork to make this so I didn't draw it.

Originally, I wanted to do an Aika redesign for fun, but she ended up looking like a relative, so I guess I have a new OC now. So, introducing Airi:

Airi is Aika's competitive and bubbly sister who is the captain of the badminton club in her middle school. Airi has that position mostly because she's helpful and well-liked. She loves her sister but can be overtaken by jealousy as she never seems to win against Aika in anything athletic, despite her sister not trying as hard as she does.

Our resident star mascot Hoshi takes advantage of that and makes a deal with her that Airi would become a magical girl trainee in exchange for getting her sister back into the magical girl business. Airi (wrongly) assumes that Aika's magical girl powers/experience is the reason for her talent and wants to overshadow Aika in the work she quit, so she goes along with it. Unfortunately, her recklessness leads to Airi being in trouble and Aika being forced to become a magical girl to save the day, much to Hoshi's glee.

Eventually, Airi genuinely likes being a magical girl. She does a lot of 'research' aka reading magical girl manga in hopes of being better than Aika. She unironically gets into magical girl stories but hates to admit it in fear of looking like a nerd. Sadly, Hoshi is always obsessed with 'getting Aika back' than acknowledging her, but Airi will come to accept that she's not that talented, but her help will make a difference and it's enough for her.

Drawn in hilda style here's the link to the original picture https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd-T1LFoaP8/?stkn=MTJnajg4ajl3cnc1ZQ==

Drew this fanart of Aika and Zira a few weeks ago so thought it would be fun to share here! :D

Hope you enjoy learning the thought process behind my design choices!