Who is Mirai Suenaga?
Mirai Suenaga (末永みらい) is the site mascot character for Culture Japan (dannychoo.com) who I developed with illustrator Azami Yuko. Mirai started off as a single illustration in the corner of the site back in 2007 and since then has gained much popularity worldwide.There has been many Mirai collaboration projects with Japanese companies such as Good Smile Company, Cospa, Nitro Plus and more.
The illustration above was done by the Japanese artist KKo-san.
More about Mirai
- Name: Mirai Suenaga [末永みらい]
- Birthday: March 3rd
- Height: 165cm
- 3 size: B86cm W58cm H85cm
- Age: Forever sweet 17
- Blood type: Unknown (has rare DNA)
- Eldest daughter of the Suenaga family
- Honest and diligent
- Bright personality
- Kind and gentle. loves to help others
- Often jumps up and down when she's happy about something
- Always wants to try out new stuff that she's curious about regardless of the outcome. Sometimes will end up dropping, breaking or unintentionally hurting somebody ^^;
- As Mirai is an honest girl, she often believes anything she's told.
- Hobby is collecting Japanese swords and often swings them about in her room while watching samurai movies.
- In the story Samurai Generations and Mirai Millenium, we often see Mirai's serious side as she battles with evilness to protect her younger sister Haruka. Mirai's main weapon in both timelines is the Japanese sword.
- Interests are Japanese swords, cats, archery and taking photos of roadworks.
Loading image notes...
There are 2 story timelines for Mirai - one is called Samurai Generations and the other called Mirai Millennium.
Magma Array involves a system of subterranean caverns that are branched out from 5 kilometer wide Magma Wells that carve deep into a planet. Depths of Magma Wells depend on the size of the planet but usually reach down to the Lower Mantle. The energy harvested from the planets core provides what is being called the next generation energy source.
After many years of research, the United Earth Council finally announced that all fossil fuels on Earth will be depleted within 5 years. After living 14 years on Sorunia, Kounen is called back to Earth to develop a Magma Array near Mount Fuji in Japan. Mirai is to travel back to Earth with Kounen.
While the Magma Array is set to provide a sustainable clean energy source for the planets, attempts at destroying Magma Fields by the Renegades have resulted in mass destruction of Sorunia's planets surface. At this moment in time, it is not known whether Renegades are human or alien but they are of humanoid form wearing Retrograde suits.
Mirai currently attends high school on Sorunia but outside of school hours on weekdays, she serves as a Solar Marine - all citizens living on Sorunia over the age of 15 (men and women included) are required to sign up for conscription.
On weekends however, Mirai likes to go shopping with friends and relax at home. (continued in this post)
As you can see, the Mirai Millennium story is just a wee bit more developed than Samurai Generations ^^;
Mirai Millennium
Story
Through his work, Kounen discovered how to harness energy from the core of a planet using a proprietary technology known as "Magma Array." Magma Array involves a system of subterranean caverns that are branched out from 5 kilometer wide Magma Wells that carve deep into a planet. Depths of Magma Wells depend on the size of the planet but usually reach down to the Lower Mantle. The energy harvested from the planets core provides what is being called the next generation energy source.
After many years of research, the United Earth Council finally announced that all fossil fuels on Earth will be depleted within 5 years. After living 14 years on Sorunia, Kounen is called back to Earth to develop a Magma Array near Mount Fuji in Japan. Mirai is to travel back to Earth with Kounen.
While the Magma Array is set to provide a sustainable clean energy source for the planets, attempts at destroying Magma Fields by the Renegades have resulted in mass destruction of Sorunia's planets surface. At this moment in time, it is not known whether Renegades are human or alien but they are of humanoid form wearing Retrograde suits.
Mirai Suenaga (末永みらい)
A 17 year old girl who moved to the planet Sorunia with her father when she was 3 years old.Mirai currently attends high school on Sorunia but outside of school hours on weekdays, she serves as a Solar Marine - all citizens living on Sorunia over the age of 15 (men and women included) are required to sign up for conscription.
On weekends however, Mirai likes to go shopping with friends and relax at home. (continued in this post)
Samurai Generations
Story
FlameBurst Mirai travels through time and ends up in various periods in Japanese history - Sengoku, Edo, Meiji, Taisho, Showa and so on. But shes not just traveling through time for fun...As you can see, the Mirai Millennium story is just a wee bit more developed than Samurai Generations ^^;
For the Mirai Millennium project, I worked with a designer by the name of Skan Srisuwan who was the lead designer at Square Enix who managed the Front Mission project. This is Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform wearing the new line of Retrograde suits.
The Retrograde suit actually transforms from a little ball mascot - will upload the illustration for that soon ^^;
These 3 images are concept illustrations for Mirai Millenium illustrated by Anin Tofu-san.
Mirai about to head back to Earth after 14 years of living on Sorunia.
Initial designs of the Retrograde suits.
I'm currently working with the game and anime company Nitroplus on producing Japanese learning videos where Mirai teaches the basics of Japanese. More info about this project in the Learning Hiragana post. The first video in the series can be seen below. The voice actress is Utaco-san.
Mirai gets figmatized! Shes currently up for pre-order and due out later in 2011. Pre-order yours now! Details here.
