...we shall see each other once more.



...It's DONE!!!

This was another one of those all-consuming pieces that ate my life for no less than six days... Gah! So, it's a Chrono Crusade fanart. And before I start talking about it--

SPOILERS AHEAD

For those of you who have read all of the Chrono Crusade manga, you will recognize this as the very final scene of the epilogue. My motivation for depicting this--at over forty hours of work--is that I finished reading the manga at 1:00 early Friday morning last week. The ending came as a suprise. I was honestly expecting Moriyama to pull a happy ending out of the hat where somehow once Chrono got his horns back Rosette would get back the lost years of her life. After all, that sort of thing is pretty common in this sort of love story. I wish I could convince myself that Rosette and Chrono ran off together, but I know that's not true. Azmaria talks about the expression on Rosette's dead face, and we see the funeral. So when Moriyama gives us a moment of joy by reuniting Rosette and Chrono in the final pages of the comic it's so bittersweet it makes my heart burst. Rosette undoubtedly dies at most minutes later, after waiting and fighting off death for eight years.

END SPOILERS

I was weeping--yes, weeping--for at least the last twenty pages and a good ten minutes after. Few things make me cry. Less than five movies have achieved that honor. The only anime to do so is Fushigi Yugi. This is the first manga, and quite possibly the last manga, to make me cry. And for that, for having such surprisingly complex characters and plotlines, (which you could never tell from just the first book--I waited for three months to buy more because I wasn't that taken with it at first) I love this manga.

Soooo, having made that lengthy eulogy, I'll talk a little about the picture. The lineart took about twenty-four hours to complete--by far and away the bulk of the picture. I think it took so long because I'm rusty in perspective, and I decided to switch the pews around twice. To put it simply, I never want to draw pews again. The coloring went quickly enough, although it was complicated. I had one color picture to reference for Rosette's outfit, but I just had to guess with Chrono's. Moriyama was also all over the place with the lighting. It's clearly sunset, but the light filters into the church like it's broad daylight, especially when Chrono opens the doors. More guesswork. I'm not really sure if the coloring's done though. I feel like this picture isn't as amazing as I want it to be, but I've also been staring at it for way too long.

Lastly, I need to make a shout out, although I'm sure it will surprise her. I have to thank *Eldanis for her lovely fanart of Chrono: [link] This picture was my introduction to Chrono Crusade, and it intrigued me enough that I looked into the manga and eventually bought it. Thank you so very much, dear! Without you, I may never have discovered this wonderful series!

Lineart: [link]
References: Chrono Crusade vol. 8, photos of sunsets
Applications: Illustrator CS3, Photoshop CS3
Time taken: 42.5 hours