Creation and Conception
Watsuki said that he used "no specific model" and "no specific motif" when designing Kaoru. He said that if he had to name one model, he would point to Chiba Sanako of Ryōma no Koibito. He wished to include the "commanding" quality from Sasaki Mifuyu (佐々木 三冬?) of Shōtarō Ikenami's Kenkaku Shōbai (JA). According to Watsuki, Kaoru became a "plain, regular girl" despite the "commanding" quality. By the compilation of Volume 1 in Japan he believed that the character model worked and stated that many female readers of Rurouni Kenshin identified with Kaoru. He had not decided at the time on whether Kaoru should be Kenshin's love interest. Watsuki wished that he could design Kaoru "more cutely" and to be "more fashionable" but decided to tone down those qualities as he felt that she needed to express "down-to-earth" and financially "poor" characteristics as well. Watsuki described her ponytail hairstyle as "de rigueur" for a girl who practices kendo. Watsuki says that he enjoys drawing Kaoru and that filling in her hair is "sometimes a pain." At the end of Rurouni Kenshin Kaoru gets a new hairstyle. Watsuki felt that Kaoru would not look like herself without her ponytail, but that her original hair style did not appear like what a mother would wear, so he created a variation for the ending.
When some female readers told Watsuki that they could not decide whether Kaoru exhibited strength or weakness as a fighter, Watsuki responded by saying that Kaoru is "quite independent for her age" and could easily "hold her own" against many dojo masters in town, making her a national-level champion at least, although even this level appeared weak compared to Kenshin and Sagara Sanosuke.
Read more about this topic: Kamiya Kaoru
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