User blog:Silvershepherd/Inspiration

If any of you have found me on Instagram @Silvershepherd, you would know that I am a huge fan of Yoshihiro Takahashi's "Ginga" series. You may have seen the many pictures and clips from the anime I have posted. I created and started developing  Adrian and Blaze a long time ago, when I was finishing elementary school, in fact. I believed that dogs were not given serious enough roles in comics and/or television. Years later, I discovered Ginga and my heart lept.

I continued working on Adrian and Blaze while watching and reading Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin and Ginga Densetsu Weed. As I was doing this, I made a promise to myself.

I have a lot of respect for Mr. Yoshihiro Takahashi. Out of respect for this manga genius, I have promised to NEVER copy his drawing or writing style in my own work. My Japanese character, Shiro shares the same name as Riki's father from GNG. Of course, my Shiro was created long before I even knew what Ginga was. He is actually based on a Wikipedia image and his name was chosen from a list of Japanese dog names.

Yes, I'm still a fan and still inspired by Takahashi's work, but I will never use anyone else's style as my own. I'm strongly against it. There are also many other things that have inspired me to keep doing what I do. Cartoons such as The Legend of White Fang and films like Beverley Hills Chihuahua are two other examples. I was really obsessed with Disney's Bolt around the time my series was created. I'll admit that these sources helped me to set the basis for my characters and their interactions with each other. Delgado the German shepherd inspired me to include police dogs in my series. The personality Blaze will develop as he gets older is loosely based on his.

P.S. I dream of meeting Mr.Takahashi in person so that I can tell him how much I love and appreciate his work.