Hello! It's cherry!

Last week I shared
the behind-the-scenes stories of
how the series gachas were made.
Did you find it interesting?

As promised, today I'm sharing
the "Gothic Doll" series, which has
always been a fan favorite.
The Gothic Doll series consists of 11 episodes
in Season 1, and after that, Season 2,
“Gothic Doll - the sequel” has released six episodes.


🌹The Birth of the Gothic Doll
The story goes back about 7 years.
Gothic Doll was first mentioned
in a design planning meeting for avatars…
That's right, it was around 2016
when the series gachas started coming out.
We had a team of designers who wanted to create
a gacha with grotesque avatars
with fantastical concepts that users would love.
One of the designers on that team
had a keen interest in ball-jointed dolls.
These ball-jointed dolls are often depicted
in works with a gothic and grotesque theme.


🌹Gothic Doll’s Universe



You'll never see a smiling face
 in the Gothic Doll universe, as the girls
are always possessed by something.
It's a universe where the story is
always heading into a Merry Bad Ending.
We created empty-eyed avatars
who leave a lasting impression.
And the avatars were always
adorned with roses.


🌹Gothic Doll's Concepts and Details
In Gothic Doll Season 1, the “main color” and “theme"
for each episode were predetermined in advance.
For example,

Episode 1 - Black/Another me reflected in the mirror
Episode 2 - White/Cradle
Episode 3 - Red/ Red thread and an altar

to offer a sacrifice to the devil.
The designers and item planners then
put their heads together to create a story
around these themes.
These are the fantastic stories of Gothic Doll
that we have seen in the Story World.


🌹Sketching and Coloring of Gothic Doll
When creating Gothic Doll gachas,
 we were strictly limited to using colors
other than the main color for items, including the color
of the rose, to represent the unique universe.
Instead of a variety of colors,
there was a strict determination
 to use a consistent color palette to
portray a solid universe.
There were many discussions
even when adding one sub-color,
and decisions were made after considering
whether to use gold or silver
for a metallic texture.


🌹Posing of Gothic Doll Avatars
When a new gacha is released,
avatars appear in PR images.
The posing of these avatars
 is crucial in expressing
the gacha's universe.
At the time, Gothic Doll's avatars
 weren't bright and cheerful like our previous avatars,
 so we had to make them look gloomy and haunted,
with unsmiling expressions and gestures,
and we were worried that they would be
 too different from LINE PLAY’s
bright and healthy avatars that had been established
to a certain extent by then.
It was an experimental attempt to establish
 a unique identity for Gothic Doll avatars.


🌹Gothic Doll Becomes a Legend!
The first episode was
Midnight Girls.
The narcissistic universe of a girl
meeting herself in the mirror at midnight,
was a huge hit with its black color scheme
and nighttime settings,
 and the sequel episodes Gothic Doll 2
 “Birdcage Girl,” with its white color scheme
and Gothic Doll 3
 “Crimson Fruit & Black Temtation,
with its red color scheme,
were also very popular.
Legendary Gachas
with the unique universes that represent
 “innocence” and “additive love” in its theme colors,
were born in LINE PLAY!




▲The banners for episode 1, 2, and 3 of the Gothic Doll Season 1
 
These three gachas are still
considered the top three gachas
in the Gothic Doll series
by LINE PLAY designers.

Riding on its popularity,
"Gothic Doll Makeup" was released
as a Gothic Doll spin-off gacha,
 featuring makeup items in three colors.


 ▲ "Gothic Doll Makeup" gacha's banner

These first three gachas became so popular
 that we had an internal rule to
make sure that all gachas in the lineup
didn't overlap with the rose color and theme
of Gothic Doll, which was released
around the same time.


▲ 11 works that won the Best Award at
the Gothic Doll Illustration Event after Season 1

At the end of Gothic Doll Season 1,
we asked our users to vote
for their favorite Gothic Doll gacha, and they chose
White Gothic Doll from Episode 2 as the winner.
An illustration contest was also held,
where many users submitted their works
based on the Gothic Doll series theme,
and designers were deeply moved and impressed
by the overwhelming participation and love.

I would like to thank you again
for your love for the Gothic Doll gachas.

Gothic Doll gachas are returning
one after another, so enjoy
the unique universe of each gacha.

I'll be back next week
with a new story!

P.S. I look forward to many replies
to my letter in Cherry Diary!!