The worst character design advice

Glitter, belts, ribbons and spice, I call upon the 90's for bad character advice.

A character's visual appearance must not only embrace but give away 100% of their personality, because readers don't want to spend time figuring out who they are. A magical girl should only wear one colour in her whole outfit, preferably pink, avoid 'cool' colours because they are not as feminine, but it's ok if it's a tough tomboy character or a bookworm. You can further emphasize their personality by giving them Japanese names that directly mean their colour or elemental power! Try "Hikari", for a light themed or yellow magical girl, "Midori" for your tough green tomboy or "Sakura" for a pink/ love themed main character.

A main hero should have big spiky hair, it makes him visually distinct from the whole cast because we see many main protagonists that look this way. If you want your audience to fall in love with him, you can consider drawing him one of two ways. Maybe he is fighting for the love of his life, who is a maid, because a soft feminine maid makes the audience feel very sympathetic. Make sure to draw her a lot with her hands clasped around her chest, which will show that she's innocent and pure. He should look stoic and uninterested, but he actually isn't, you just can't tell past the constipated face because his life is really hard because the maid keeps getting captured and he's ready to retire and become a jaded alcoholic, the sequel. The other way I suggest is to make him really cool and happy and friendly, this is great if you don't want pretend he has a personality.

Villains need to show they are obviously villains, otherwise readers might be confused. Put some hard jagged edges and tatters in their clothes because villains are allergic to looking good. Unless he is rich, though. In that case make him look like a handsome prince but with a sinister smile, so you know he is up to no good. If you want to emphasize his character more, give him a tesla cybertruck and an instagram influencer entourage. You know he is lonely and miserable this way, because the models are being paid to be there.

"blindly follow trends and do what everyone else is doing when it comes to characters design"

I was coming to say that! I think this is really the worst for me; I don't mind awkwardness or illogical choices so much; but all these characters looking the same because it's exaggeratedly inspired by a few trendy comics... Rhaaa!

Make sure to add gleams on big tits. As if they've been drenched in vegetable oil. That's how they all look irl.

I just choked on my coffee. Thanks.

Characters are templates, never try to expand beyond them when writing, nor drawing. Thats too complicated and make readers confused. Stick rigidly to these templates
Fat-will talk about eating for 90% of their dialog, the other 10% are them saying their tired from physical activity like walking up the stairs

Tsundere-twin tails, copy of the design of your most popular animu, Violent and always accuse the MC of being a pervert and physically assault him like its 2000 all over again. Should be the main love interest despite the abuse which will not stop even with a confession.

Yandere- pink hair, once again copy design of your most popular animu. Same as tsundere just with more stalking and illegality. If male, dark hair, no facial hair and with with a shit ton of money that will be poorly explained on why he has it.

MC- only matters with genre. In romance make them so in uninteresting design they might as well be a background character with a personality being none existent (your audience will be distracted by the personality making them unable to insert themselves, that is not good). In any other genre make their design the most complex and overly complicated because as I said your readers are dumb and will never know whose the main character. Sprinkle in flaws that have actually no effect on anything whats so ever.

Emo, I mean "depressed"? nah everyone else sees them as deep and wise. Short tempered? nah they only lose thier cool to those who deserve it. Have a freakish trait like......Wings*gasp*? Nah everyone else finds it sexy.

Stick to these templates and never explore anything else outside of these. Design and writing should be copy and paste of things more popular.

Make your characters likes and dislikes an obvious given, vague, and can apply to anyone

-Example-
Likes: Food that tastes good, fun things
Dislikes: Boring things, feeling sad

But seriously, I see this a lot in character descriptions

Overthink every single (useless) detail.
Make a huge character description sheet detailing every tiny detail.

Height, weight, favourite this and that, blah blah.

I'm sure it's more interesting to read those long paragraphs instead oh, say, showing the character's personality through the comic/novel itself. It's not like readers need to understand how the characters act through actions. No, they need a large block of text repeatedly telling you how awesome/kind/whatever that character is.

Complexity = Great design

If your characters don't all look like somebody you'd like to have sex with, you're clearly doing something wrong. Don't be afraid to just have every single person in your cast reflect your own personal desires and even fetishes, even if it means they all have the exact same face and bodyshape! It's your comic after all, and what other reason would you create characters other than to fulfil your own fantasies?

Never research even a little any profession or craft to ensure accuracy in terms of clothing and equipment. Who cares? What are you, a nerd? Just go with whatever you remember or guess about that it from stereotypes and pop culture. Doctors wear white coats and those forehead mirror things and have a stethoscope around their neck all the time without exception. Same goes for any cultural group! Remember: ALL americans are cowboys. They all wear stetson hats, shirts tied up at the front over a bikini, daisy dukes with chaps over them and cowboy boots with spurs, and... of course, a belt with a big buckle, in which is holstered a big shiny revolver. That's just what they look like, and anyone who says otherwise must be an SJW trying to ruin comics through censorship.

I remember some actual bad advice I was given. I was looking for a critique once on an hourglass figure I was trying to draw, and someone linked me to an anime character saying I should follow that for drawing hourglass women....

It had no hips. :c

No one should be responsible for their actions especially if they are the main character. Cause we already have that in real life, so let's make the story and the MC as chaotic as possible and hurt everyone and still be the victim

Everyone KNOWS it's crucial to start the character creation process by making a deviantART-style ref. First and foremost make sure you list absolutely no personality traits, instead only list your characters likes and dislikes. Because personality is WAY less important than your characters adoration for strawberry pocky.

Also, it is imperative that your character be an orphan no matter what race, age, or gender they are or what background they come from. Yes, that also includes sparkle dogs. Your sparkle dog MUST be an orphan to supply the means for their tragic back story. And we all know their tragic back story is what causes them to have a kawaii-desu neko side AND a crazy, toothy-grinned side with blood draining from their black and red eyes.

Your character should also always have edgy hair swept to the left so you never have to worry about drawing the other eye (pro tip) in your comic. Don't forget, everyone LOVES an overpowered protagonist with NO flaws or weaknesses. And they LOVE when they single-handedly take down the enemy with no problem, because who cares about the supporting characters anyway? Similarly, your character should always score the biggest hottie because your character is flawless and definitely more attractive than any other character. Trust me, if you do this people are SURE to fangirl/fanboy over your creation.

Still not satisfied? Well wait, because I'm still not done yet. There is so much more you can do to make your character even MORE perfect! Here's a list of things to pick and choose from (though I recommend choosing all of them, simultaneously, without paying any attention to the fact that they may clash)
- Give your character a Japanese name in a fantasy land where Japan doesn't exist.
- Make your character the "chosen one", because obviously such a title must go to a perfect being and is absolutely necessary to progress any story.
- Give your character an alternative form like those seen in DBZ, minus being cool aesthetically.
-Pick a beloved character from a well-established property and add minor adjustments to personalize it, because this guarantees people will like them.
- Make your character gracefully weild a gargantuan sword that defies gravity and logic. Alternatively, a bow and arrow where your character NEVER misses their target.
- If there is a cool line to be said anywhere, make sure your character says it.
- Immortality and Regeneration, because plot convenience.
- Make your character have the golden pipes of a fucking angel, so when that glorious evanescence song comes on, you can pretend it is your Character singing it. Because obviously they identify with the lyrics SO much. Also bonus points for making an AMV later!

And my biggest, number 1, most IMPERATIVE and CRITICAL piece of advice in character design and creation that far surpasses any prior recommendations in importance:

Make them a furry.

That remind me of more bad character design advice:

"Make sure the people who disagrees with the MC (and by extention the author) are either ignorant, dumb, evil or all of the above........

They are either converted by the MC or suffer an horrible fate that they definitively "deserve" no matter how sympathetic is said character."

Can't believe the most important piece of advice hasn't come up yet:

Never ever forget all male bad guys must also be sexual predators. How else will we know that they're really really evil? But don't forget to make them the bad kind of sexual predator, not the romantic kind, obviously. And remember that if the bad guy' hot, it can be forgiven because him and his victim will fall in love because it's so romantic. If he's ugly he'll have to have to have brutal punishment from the men in the victim's life.

Keep in mind that if they are not related, the leading male and female MUST end up together. No friendship. No exceptions. Even if you think their personalities won't work, it HAS to happen.