It seems like almost every week the cast of Soul Calibur IV gets a little bit wackier. First we had the Light and Dark sides of the Force, then came a fencing elf, a cosmic bearer of destruction, and a sword-wielding ninja dominatrix. All of these new characters have been designed by manga artists - Yutaka Izubuchi (Record of the Lodoss War), Yoshizaki Mine (Keroro Gunsou), and Hiroya Oku (GANTZ).

Today, they're joined by another of their peers - Oh! Great, the artist behind Tenjho Tenge, Air Gear, and, uh, Silky Whip. His design contirbution, revealed in the latest issue of Ultra Jump, is Ashlotte, a rather unhealthily pale young lass with long hair, an armored dress (?!), and a huge ax... staff... thingamabob. Whatever it is, I would not like to be hit with it, thankyouverymuch. I must say, I love her ornate, regal design, but I can't help but be shocked at how subdued she in the bosoms department. I mean, this is Oh! Great. Doing a design for Soul Calibur.

While I applaud Namco's effort to bring new and original character designs into the game by involving many different artists, something still seems lacking. When can we have Hirohiko Araki do a character design, guys? We've already got enough girls, how about some gay manly characters to balance things out a bit?

(Source: ANN)