The name "Nekoto" is a bit complicated to explain.
To put it simply, she comes from a character named "Jean" in an old RPG game called "Guardian Sword," which is written as "小珍" in Chinese. The name Jean is sometimes translated as "琴" in Chinese.
I then took the character "琴" and converted it into the Japanese kanji pronunciation "Koto."
Since Jean is a cat-girl in the game, I also wanted to start with the Japanese word for cat, "Neko."
Thus, I initially came up with the idea of "Nekokoto." In the end, I removed one "ko," which gave me the current name "Nekoto."
Though in both Chinese and Japanese, her name's kanji "貓音/猫音" should actually be "Nekooto," I still stubbornly decided to use "Nekoto" as her name.
I also put a lot of thought into her design. In the comic, she grew up in a Beastfolk village. She wears cat ears to make herself look more like one of them.
The rope tied around her waist has one end that’s particularly long, intended to mimic a cat's tail. At the end of the rope, I added two small bells. Although in a world full of zombies, it wouldn’t make sense to have bells on her, let’s just say those bells are specially made and don’t make a sound!
Because she grew up around Beastfolk, Nekoto is highly skilled in combat. As for the names of the techniques she uses in the first chapter, they come from terms used in the game of Go. In the future, you will see more techniques named after Go terminology.
Although she faces a crisis in the first chapter, it’s the result of a long battle. She teams up with Toorei, and in the future, they will make an excellent pair.
Comments (3)
See all