This illustration has become famous on the Internet for having been a top result in Google Images for search terms such as "goth anime girl" back in the 2000s, having been used on many websites, blogs, forums, and the like. The image itself has become individually well-known under the moniker "gothic anime angel". In this article, I would like to dive into the origins of this iconic artwork.

Who drew "gothic anime angel"?

In the current decade, it is fortunately not too difficult to identify the artist of this illustration thanks to image boards! The artist of "gothic anime angel" is none other than Hiro Suzuhira, who is well known for being the character designer for the visual novels Shuffle! (2004) and Yosuga no Sora (2008). She is currently working as a freelance illustrator, and is part of a doujin circle known as "HEART WORK".

Who is "gothic anime angel"?

Although Hiro Suzuhira is famous for her work in the visual novel industry, the "gothic anime angel" illustration does NOT depict a character from a visual novel or a manga, but rather an original character (OC). The character is often incorrectly identified as Yun from the 2004 visual novel Monochrome due to the fact that Suzuhira worked as a character designer and illustrator for the game and also the similarities between the character designs of "gothic anime angel" and Yun such as both characters being angels, dressing in a gothic style, and having long blonde hair.

To further evidence that "gothic anime angel" is an original character: Danbooru user henmere states (here) that according to page 116 of the Girls Girls Girls! E☆2 Illustration Collection artbook by Hiro Suzuhira, "gothic anime angel" was "drawn for E☆2's original figure project (2005, E☆2 Vol.1.)." E☆2 is a bimonthly Japanese magazine published by Mediation that features illustrations by various artists that depict original bishoujo characters (Source).

When was "gothic anime angel" made?

As mentioned earlier, the "gothic anime angel" illustration was created for E☆2's 2005 original figure project.

An article on Anime News Network about "gothic anime angel" claims that the image "has been around the web since at least 2004". Although I was personally unable to find an instance of this image online prior to 2006 (here), I am very inclined to believe that the image has indeed been used online earlier than 2006 and that these older websites that used it are likely now defunct and therefore unable to be accessed in modern times.

A forum post on the discussion of the previously mentioned Anime News Network article stated that when asked, Hiro Suzuhira stated that she never uploaded the illustration online herself (until 2018!) and that the image originated from an artbook. At some point, the artbook was scanned by a fan and uploaded online, from where the image gained popularity.

The Zerochanposts for this illustration have tagged it as appearing in two of Hiro Suzuhira's artbooks: Girls Girls Girls! - 1 (2007, in collaboration with Tony Taka) and Chronicle - Suzuhira Hiro Artworks (2008).

The release dates of these artbooks don't support the idea that this illustration has existed since "at least 2004". However, it is possible that the image was present in Suzuhira's older artbooks, and that the titles of these artbooks may not have been tagged onto the Zerochan posts (which is fair, it's very unrealistic to expect someone to look through 20+ artbooks just for that).

What was the origin of "gothic anime angel?

In the previous section "Who is 'gothic anime angel'?", it was mentioned that the "gothic anime angel" illustration was made for E☆2's original figure project in 2005. Indeed, a 1/8 resin figurine garage kit based on the artwork was released in 2005 at the Clayz Moero Matsuri 2005 exhibition as a collaboration between Hiro Suzuhira and sculptor Miyagawa Takeshi.

Above: Official promotional pictures of the 2005 garage kit figurine (courtesy of MyFigureCollection user ichigosalad)

In 2006, a pre-painted version of the original garage kit figurine was released at the Clayz Moero Matsuri 2006 exhibition. Both the garage kit and pre-painted versions of the figurine were manufactured by Clayz.


Above: Pictures of the 2006 pre-painted figurine (courtesy of MyFigureCollection user dead-wolfwood)

Through accessing an archive snapshot from 2006 of Clayz's online store, the listing for the figure can be seen, titled as "鈴平ひろ先生×宮川武　コラボ作品 キャラ名未定" (Hiro Suzuhira x Takeshi Miyagawa Collaboration Work, Character Name Undecided), further confirming that "gothic anime angel" is not Yun from Monochrome, but rather an original character.

NOTE: I purposely only selected pictures from MyFigureCollection that were tagged as "Official" (official promotional photos provided by the manufacturer and reuploaded to MFC) or "Chan" (pictures from the Internet from unknown photographers/sources that were reuploaded to MFC) to feature on this page because I didn't want to use MyFigureCollection users' personal pictures of the figurines without their permission.