Sneaks in by the back door. My thanks to those who can keep an objective eye even though Koshini may not qualify for your 'cuteness' or like box. We all have preferences. As an Artist community we all should realize that not everyone is a fan of Post Modern Expressionism, Pointalism or even the entire Rococo Style movement. I myself am not a fan of Picasso's Non-Blue periods, but I admire his skill and imagination and understand that he liked it, that was what was important. Why Koshini? Well first and foremost I think I should say as the creator, I didn't make her for the world, I made her for me. I wanted a model based off of my own art style for cartooning/caricature (www.ladylittlefox.com if you haven't seen my stylistic preference). I wanted a 3D version of my art style, and I couldn't get any of the existing models out there to do it. So I had to build her myself.. had to learn Lightwave to do it which was no picnic. It wasn't until several people wanted her too that I even considered selling her. Based off of Bratz? Well it's possible she is inspired by them to some extent. My artstyle has been influenced by a great number of totally unreleated art themes most of which predate the Bratz, not the least of which being Anime, the Jenny Doll, Wendy Pini, Aimee Major, Shawntee Howard, Junko Mizuno and my teacher, the late Mark Wallace (Baron William Blackfox to you SCA folk). There is no one classification that encompasses all of my style so calling it Anime is actually rather limiting, just like calling it Cartoon. It's everything that inspires me when I sit down to draw, so does it really need a label? Here is a list of just some samples of what inspired me to develope this art style. Decide for yourself where Koshini fits.... http://www.aimeemajor.com/fanart.html http://www.jennynet.com/01/j02_00_00_00.html http://www.geocities.com/xenif/extinctioners.html http://daveandheidi.com/pages/fita/ http://www.wefitfine.com (under Fine then under download and Junko WARNING: CUTE BUT GOREY IN PLACES. NOT FOR EVERYONE! PARENTS! CAUTION) http://ladylovelylocks.manonyapari.com/gallery_puzzle10.html http://thefinalfantasy.org/games/ff9/char.shtml http://www.mobygames.com/game/covers/gameCoverId,5871/gameId,3556/ http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Bridge/8890/screenshots.html (characters 1 & 2) http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php/cPath/90/products_id/119 http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php/cPath/90/products_id/118 http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/pics/wd02.gif http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/pics/hy02.gif http://www.ffartwork.com/contributions/images/$Eddie!s!You$-ff7-rinoa_and_squall-20030411.jpg .... Why do other people like her? Well I cannot speak for everyone but the large majority of emails I receive back from customers have actually been from Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, and Grandparents who are now thrilled that they have suddenly become not just family but the great wielder of the cuteness maker. For those of you who do not have children, especially little girls, there is no way to really explain the pre-teen to early teen girl child to you. She is a hormonal and firmly of the belief that her parents are stupid and uncool to the point of public embarassment. It is a very difficult time for parents to find /ANYTHING/ in common with her, muchless something that they both like rather than suffer through. And now to have something that the parent enjoys (Poser) that suddenly caters to the her (Koshini is very similar to a great many of their stickers, tshirts and dolls that are currently in vogue) it has been the cause of many not-so-great-technically pieces of artwork of which the parents are incredibly proud. Suddenly they're not uncool embarassments, they're passing on what they have learned about poser and their children are not just suffering through the lesson with much rolling of eyes but are enjoying learning and becoming interested in their parent as 'cool' again. So why is Koshini popular with these folk? If you still have to ask, wait till your older... the answer will come to you. As to the rest of us who enjoy the cuteness that aren't doing it for kids... Something appeals to our likes or dislikes, why try to explain it or put numbers to it.... kinda defeats the purpose of art and expressionism if it must rigidly conform to reasons and logic. Littlefox