My Redesign Of Katana (Beware The Batman)

My Redesign of Katana (Beware The Batman)

I suppose I've been on a sort of "Beware The Batman" kick recently. Yesterday I redrew the show's interpretation of Anarky. Today, I did the same for my favorite character from the show: Tatsu Yamashiro a.k.a. Katana. Tatsu is easily one of the best characters in the show; a former CIA mole in the League of Assassins who stole the Soul-taker Sword and faked her death when she discovered how powerful it was. She was then hired by her godfather Alfred Pennyworth as Bruce Wayne's bodyguard, a job that she excels very well at. After the League of Assassins made their way to Gotham and infiltrated Wayne Manor, they discovered Tatsu was not only alive but also possessed the Soul-taker Sword, they make it their mission to kill her and get the sword back. Long story short; they fail and Tatsu finds out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, who then takes her under his wing as his new partner in crime-fighting, Katana. Tatsu works very well as a contrast to Batman: stubborn, feisty, a tad arrogant, and more than a little stand-offish. But underneath it all, she is clever, quick-witted, good-natured, compassionate, self sacrificing, and truly heroic.

Though I certainly love Katana, I will admit that she has one truly noticable flaw: her design. I understand that computer animation was different back then (especially when you don't have quite enough of a budget to do more visually), but her design is quite boring. Tatsu never changes her clothes throughout the entire series. She doesn't even really have a "Costume". She just wears the same leather jacket and high-heel boots (which just seem impractical for her), but puts on a domino mask and sword strap when she becomes Katana. So I decided to fix that. My idea wasn't to just give her a samurai outfit, though. I instead took inspiration from her history in this universe as a CIA operative and gave her something a spy might wear. Instead of her outfit being all black, it's a reinforced black leather jacket and pants with red ribbing along the sides to add a bit of color. I got rid of the high heels and replaced them with black combat boots, like Batman. I also added black gloves and a utility belt to her outfit to break up all of the black and red, but also to give it a more tactical look. I also gave her a hair bun, as it just seems impractical to let her hair hang down and wave about during combat.

What do you think? Does it look better or worse? Tell me in the comments.