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Introducing my new ‘sona, Satsuma! I’ll be now officially retiring my old sona, Kiki. Kiki was active from 2013 to 2021 but for the past few years I had been trying use more of my own likeness in my branding. Turns out that it was difficult to design a cartoon version of myself that I was happy with and I’ve yearned for an original character that I can just use as my avatar.

Reference sheet for Satsuma. I plan to design some outfits for her to wear.

I considered redesigning Kiki and while her design at this point seemed too bland for me, I also didn’t want to stray too far away from her original design. I felt that I had just outgrown her since she’s a reflection of my younger, teen self.

Since 2019 my go-to username has been SatsumaSaga. “Satsuma” had a nice ring to it when combined with my real name, both of them starting with the same first two letters. Besides, I’ve never had a nickname for my already short and rather strange name (growing up I kinda disliked it and having people ask how my name should be pronounced, even misspell it, sometimes frustrated me).

Of course for my username to make more sense, besides my liking to citrus fruits, I have named this new sona Satsuma. She’s a nekomata which is why she has two tails and can stand up, and she’s a tortoiseshell cat because that’s my favorite coat pattern in cats!