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about "black cherry"

Black Cherry was created for the Girl Mode Shrine Challenge at Amassment. The challenge asked participants to create a brand new character shrine dedicated to a female personality. It took me a while to pick a character I was interested in building a shrine to, but eventually I settled on the somber Soho Reina — a character I found intriguing. The shrine itself was uploaded on December 31st 2009.

The title Black Cherry comes from the 2003 single/album by electropop group, Goldfrapp. It was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Wil Gregory (see wiki). Despite being a simple song highlighted by Goldfrapp's cloying voice, the actual lyrics seem to reflect on a relationship break up and its aftermath (though Goldfrapp herself declines to discuss the content, suggesting that it is about "personal stuff"). Long story short, the song made me think of Reina (with her black cherry hair) — a woman defined by a past relationship she has been forced to leave behind. Even the sweetest cherries have their pits, don't they?

why reina?

I have to be perfectly honest, Reina isn't my favourite Witchblade character. She'd definitely make my top three, but Takayama and Masane are sadly ahead of her. So why build a shrine dedicated to the woman? There's something ever so engaging about Reina's struggles. She's only a minor character but over her *~nine episodes~* you really come to appreciate her strength, her hurt and her eventual goals. Reina has been handed a pretty bad lot in life, but she never complains or gives up — Soho Reina is all about getting the job done and moving forward.

Despite her cold exterior and inability to understand her own humanity, there's a lot in Reina to be admired and, above all, respected. I really wanted to convey this through an online dedication. Perhaps she is not the most loveable character ever created, but there's value and intrigue to Reina's characterisation none-the-less. And so, a shrine was born.

resources

This site wouldn't have been possible without several considerable sources. These include:

• FUNimation/Top Cow's Limited Edition R1 Witchblade DVD releases. All quotes, screen-captures and in-series canonical references can be attributed to these DVDs.
  
• The Witchblade Visual Fanbook and Uno! Uno Makoto Illustrations for images.
  
• Witchblade.jp for data unavailable elsewhere (including product information).
  
• Photoshop CS2, Notepad and Dreamweaver CS3. Durr my design skills.

link in

If you are interested in directing a link back to black cherry then you are encouraged to save and upload one of the following banners to your own server. Please point your links back to this address: time-stranger.net/reina.

links out

There aren't a whole lot of online resources for the Witchblade anime series, but I've tried to compile a fairly comprehensive list regardless. Please click around and enjoy.

• Witchblade.jp - Official Japanese website for the anime series.
• Witchblade @ FUNimation - Official English language website.
• Witchblade @ Top Cow - Official Witchblade franchise website.

 

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