Sister Claire

An anonymous poster asked me on tumblr:

“Hey there! So I’m finally reading Sister Claire (been following you for months) and right off the bat I noticed a few similarities between it and Panty and Stocking (the style, bits of the humor, etc.). Since your comic came out beforehand, do you think PSaG was inspired by Sister Claire at all?”

While I’m really flattered by the suggestion, and I do find the combination of the art style and the religious theme to be oddly coincidental, I honestly don’t think so.

Even though the anime came out after Sister Claire debuted, it was in production for years before (possibly predating the concept stage of “Sister Claire”) and I believe the PSWG style was heavily influenced by (or possibly created by the same people as) “Ojamajo Doremi” and “Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z“, both of which were big influences on my own artwork and came out well before “Sister Claire.”

1999:

2006:

2010:

Sister Claire shows its references pretty transparently.  Along with the previously mentioned titles, the style was chiefly inspired by the original Powerpuff Girls and Junko Mizuno’s work: