Shape Language in Cinderella Boy: An Analysis
Hello, world, I come with an analysis. Also known as more proof that Punko is a genius, in case you were in doubt.
So first of all, we know that violet is a beautiful iconic queen.
Violet's features are very distinctive - all of the keys are very distinctive. She has tall shoulder pads that slim down to a form-fitting dress that wraps around her ankles - in this way, she is shaped more or less like an arrow, pointing downwards.
Now let's look at Buddy's outfits throughout season one.
Violet gives him this same shape, time and time again. He is shaped like Violet is, through the clothes that he wears; this downward arrow sort of look. And it fits both of them; villans are commonly pointy. If you look at many villanous characters in media, you will see that triangles are incorporated into their designs all the time. Triangles are less friendly looking than other shapes - they make us think of sharp, pointy things. And Buddy's outfit contributes to it, too. The way his shoulder pads, fabric layers, and even boob windows are shaped all contributed to this sort of top-heavy, narrowing atmosphere. (It also makes him look pretty, which he is).
Now let's look at Silver.
Silver is less pointy than Violet because her job is the heroine, and when we see round things, we think of them as more comfortable objects - soft, smooth, not prickly to the touch. Friendly. But in addition to this roundness, Silver is shaped like an hourglass, a shape feminine and strong. And if you look at the outfits worn by Chase:
They often don this same hourglass shape. Interesting too because usallly the hourglass is more prominent on the bottom (most obvious in the 2nd image above), which means that if you simplify him, he is often shaped as a triangle with the base resting on the ground - while Buddy is an upside down triangle. They are each other's opposites, not only in archetype and personality, but in their simplest composites: their actual physical shape.
It works for Deacon and Bronze, and Prunella and Goldie, too. The outfits of the keyholders match the shapes of the keys.
Bronze is shaped like a rectangle...
Square shapes are often sturdy and reliable. As the helper, this is Deacon and Bronze's whole job. In addition, you can see that sometimes Deacon also dons a trapezoid shape around his shoulders, with the shorter base on the top and the longer base on the bottom. This is most noticable with the Still Waters and RoBaM arc outfits, and it also contributes to this feel of "groundedness".
Finally, Goldie and Prunella. I think this is the most clear example.
Goldie is not pointy. He is round, friendly, and affable. His smile is rounded, his eyes are round, even the tips of his hair do not sharpen to a point. He has the same roundness that Silver does, particularly in his shoulders (REMEMBER THIS, THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER), and his armor gives him another larger circle to more or less center the two smaller circles. Thus, Goldie is shaped like Mickey Mouse.
And it is very. Very. Very obvious with Prunella.
Because she is a kid. She's innocent, childish, carefree - I wouldn't say playful, nessecarily, but her age alone implies that she is much more of this rounded shape than the older characters.
And these clothes support their personalities. Like a bow or an hourglass-shaped dress, Chase is feminine and cute; Deacon is sensible and grounded, reliable. Buddy is all triangles, he's prickly and triangles also have a proven visual appeal to them that Buddy is well able to match. And Prunella has shapes of circles and hearts and semicircles in her outfits - what I like most about her shape language is that even though I illustrated her skirt as a circle, it is often flat on the bottom, which ALSO makes her seem grounded, just like Deacon's trapezoid.
Buddy's shoulder pads intriuge me most. Because they are all very pointy. Look at his cat outfit, or those over-the-top shoulder pads in Sick Day. All except for one arc.
Because of the way Buddy's outfit is, he still has the arrow shape that Violet does. However, this time, due to the fluff, his shoulders are much more rounded.
Because this arc, this moment, is when Buddy becomes a hero. He stops with the triangle-shaped shoulder pads that have until now been cohesive with villainry, and donned the roundness to his shoulders that the hero archetypes have, via the fluff.
And it's really, really cool.
And what's also cool about it is that it doesn't only extend to these outfits!! Compare Deacon and Chase's houses, for example; there is shape language there. It's everywhere in a lot of media, and it is so cool to me that it was intergrated into Cinderella Boy in this way.
Sadly I already typed this out once before, accidentally deleted it, and had to rewrite it - so I'm going to stop there, lol. I promise the analysis of the Still Waters fit was much more cohesive the first time, but I think the point still gets across
