AzureHowl Origins
During my years of making episodes for AzureHowl, more than frequently people would ask: "What inspired you? Why did you make this series?" People have been curious about what all inspired me to bring AzureHowl to life. This page is dedicated to those that are curious, and it will tell you all you need to know about how AzureHowl came to exist, and what inspired me to come up with this story as a child.
How it all began
As a child, I was full of imagination. I would sit down, dreaming endlessly of magical creatures and dragons going on adventures and quests. I loved writing stories more than anything, and I liked to play with animal figurines living in some kind of special world just the same. I always loved colors as well, which might explain the bright and colorful patterns the canines in AzureHowl have. Even though I changed a lot of elements in the story over time due to errors I made in it as a child, I always wanted to stay truthful to the original concept of this story and the original looks. Even to this day, I love colors, and when making a story there is nothing better than feeling all the magic around it. Though many of the designs were altered, they mostly stayed true to their original looks.
To understand to how it all began, we have to take a look at the very beginning, the story called "Azure Dragon Clan". This story was created before AzureHowl, and at the same time is the reason AzureHowl exists. Azure Dragon Clan featured a girl as a main character. The world existed out of unique tribes and humans some featuring powers and other not.. This old story featured both a white animal spirit with the nickname "Ruuza" and Matt, who were later on kept to the new idea for a brand new story. Now, what brought me to make a story about Azure Dragons? The answer is a game called "Heroes of Might and Magic III".
Heroes of Might and Magic III was a game released for the PC around 1999. My two oldest brothers, who both shared one PC, had bought this game to play it together. It wasn't long before I noticed it. I was only 6 years old back then, but seeing all the magical creatures in the game ranging from unicorns to dragons and much more, I wanted to play this game so badly (I had a huge love for dragons at that point). When playing around to give my unit its own set of creatures, I noticed this one blue dragon that just stood out from the rest. This dragon was called the "Azure Dragon" and that's where both of my dragons Seiyru and Seiryu were born. I was in love with my army of Azure Dragons in this game, I was inspired by their look and power, which brought me to the idea of blue acid-like flames that would melt down and kill the opponents. Of course, when making this dragon, it took a little bit of googling to figure out more, since the Azure Dragon originated as a Chinese constellation which represented two seasons. From there on, I found the Chinese symbol standing for Azure Dragon, which of course became the main markings for both of my dragons in the story.
Heroes 3 definitely inspired me, but not only because of the Azure Dragon. It also had the possibility to create your own personal world of fantasy, which was fun to make. For hours and hours, I would make different worlds of fantasy and nature. This aspect is where not only Heroes 3 was an inspiration, but also a game called "Age Of Empires", released in 1997, which I also played around the age of 6 or 7. This game allowed you to make maps as well and to go all out in fantasy on the map. A desert here, some snow there, and anything else you you desired. I always based myself on islands, and the main inspiration of the map of AzureHowl was a map I made back then, but sadly due to this map being on an old pc, I never retrieved any pictures to show. But like I said, I created a map that had all the areas I desired for the dragons that took place in my story, and this very map was altered and used for the the story of AzureHowl. Both of these games, even to this day, have always been my favorite. I love them and they allow you to go beyond your dreams by making a world that can only exist in your head, or, in this case, animated story. These two games were definitely my biggest inspiration for the story that eventually became AzureHowl.
The game "Zelda" is still one of my most favorite games when it comes to game-play, characters, story and more. The early Zelda games were on the Game Boy, which I was sadly never interested in, but we had our Nintendo 64, and the game "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" was released around 1998. My brothers loved to play this game, and the first and only reason I wanted to play it was purely because I wanted to ride Epona. But later on, the adventure in the game just got me amazed, collecting items and trying to beat each temple. The game became one of my most favorite games in no time. The maps and worlds were fascinating to me as they would often feature snowy areas, desert, plains, and forests. In AzureHowl, I wanted my character to have some sort of adventure as well, and even today I still get inspiration or new ideas when playing Zelda. Zelda is an amazing game and for those of you that never played it... PLAY IT. When you look at the map of AzureHowl you can find elements similar to that of maps from Zelda. With area's consisting of different environments such as the desert or the ice cold lands.
When people ask me if Pokémon was my main inspiration, I sadly have to say no, though it is on the list because did inspire me for some small factors. The reason why many seem to think Pokémon inspired me is for one reason only: The wolves have powers. This isn't meant to burst anyone's bubble, but games and stories have almost always had creatures and monsters placed in a category of elements, even way before Pokémon existed! The idea of an animal spitting fire or water isn't hard to come up with on your own. When you see nature at work, it isn't hard to combine this with a fantasy creature, and if you think about it, even stories in the Middle Ages features fantasy creatures with magical powers. What Pokémon and Digimon mostly inspired me with was the awesome colors and their colorful characters. I always loved colors and seeing the cool creatures they created just grabbed my attention at a very young age. Loving colors as a kid and even now inspired me to go on with my story and my own fantasy creatures. Aside from that, Pokémon and Digimon mostly inspired my due to their concept of evolution. The idea of creatures changing into different animals truly inspired me, and here I can give you a little spoiler, namely that evolution will definitely take place in AzureHowl. Other than that the idea of traveling and adventures every single time was something that caught my attention when I was young, something I wished to bring in AzureHowl. The game Golden Sun also had amazing creatures and colorful designs, especially in the sequels of this one called "Tales of Symphonia". If I had to give credit to one story being my biggest source of inspiration, then Tales of symphonia/ Golden sun definitely win the spot. Till this day, I dare to call them some of the best stories in games of all times. A direct inspiration can be seen on Tales of symphonia which features just like Ruuza is, a "Chosen" character.
One question I received a lot: why wolves? Honestly, this was only due to the time and moment the story was created! As a child, from what I remember and what my mother tells me, I would have these so-called "animal periods" where one moment, I was playing a cat for weeks (the photos are hilarious) and then, suddenly, weeks later I was running around as if I was a horse. I have always loved animals more than anything, and I loved to imitate them. Wolves came a bit later in my life, as an animal I loved mostly due to the movie "Balto", before that I just liked them for their howling and how they looked. But when watching that movie, I became interested in wolves. Whenever I had these moments of fascination for an animal, I would end up studying and learning about them. Back when AzureHowl was brought alive, wolves just happened to be the animals I picked. It could honestly have been any other animal, seeing as how the original story was mostly about dragons and all sorts of animals. In the end in AzureHowl, I did bring many dragons into the story and many different types of animals will also take their place in AzureHowl. As much as I love wolves, most people in real life know I'm really close to felines, having grown up around felines since I was a baby. This, in a way, also caused me to use wolves, which might sound odd. Because I knew we weren't going to have a dog at home, I felt like making a story about a canine was a way to replace the idea of having a dog, and even now I know that I'll probably always have cats. Wolves are amazing animals and just like cats, ravens, walruses, snakes, elephants and many others, they are one of my favorite animals. Aside from this, the original story was about shapeshifters. This idea was eventually dropped because I had no interest in the idea of using humans. Even when I was younger and watching animated movies, you couldn't do me a favor by showing Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and the Beast... I never enjoyed such movies. I would watch Lion King without an end or LittleFoot and his friends, basically any movie that contains mostly animals. This is why I went for an animal story rather than a human one.
Believe it or not, Jurassic Park 3 became one of the second biggest inspirations for the Azure Dragons. The movie I was dying to see, Jurassic Park 3, released in 2001 in our cinemas. I was 8 years old, a cute sight you could say, as I was always walking around like a dinosaur because I loved them. The T-Rex was always my favorite, but in this movie a new favorite arose, The Spinosaurus, and wow did I fall in love. Originally, the Azure Dragons differed from the look they have now, since 2015. But when seeing this movie, I just wanted my dragon to have some spino like features. The movie just made me fall in love with this gigantic dinosaur with its unique looks.
The Azure Dragons changed from year to year, eventually resulting to their final look in 2014. The body was shaped to look like that of a spinosaurus, the spike under its chin was removed, just like most of the accessories aside from the thick neck band, carrying the symbol as an amulet and the ring. The wings changed slightly, and the spikes became longer especially on the back where they go larger to form a sail. The claws eventually became sharp nails. And so, the Azure Dragon was born. In AzureHowl, Seiyru and her mate Seiryu are both the Azure Dragon gods who had send their children towards the island to affect the land.
Many things inspired me to make AzureHowl, maybe even things I might have forgotten. But one thing I haven't forgotten is that real life events gave me inspiration as well. Even though AzureHowl might look peaceful or hasn't shown real brutality yet, the story itself might turn out darker than expected. Corruption in religion, politics and countries and states have left me to create a group in AzureHowl, a wolf pack ruled by their queen and the pack itself is named "The Hero Clans". They stand for all that is corrupted in this world, serving as wolves of justice who prevent evil and do the best for their people in any way possible - or so it is said. They rule in the shadows as well, being corrupted without their own kind knowing it, working together with horrible individuals and packs, and spreading rumors that are false. A trip to their prison almost equals a trip to death. They work together with whoever they have to to gain more status and power, and this is something I wanted to resemble on the existing society humanity has always known. Even though not all politicians and rulers are bad, many have shown themselves to be corrupted and many societies have proven to be focused only on power and money rather than ethics. A big inspiration for the Hero Clans was of the state and religion it self.
Slavery, which was accepted widely a long time ago, was a big inspiration as well. For people of my time, it's still hard to believe something like a slave actually existed. The thought of people being sold and traded as if they were items is still so hard to believe, yet all of this was happened. I brought this into my story mostly because it's something people believe doesn't exist anymore, while slavery is still a very real thing even in our modern society. This, however, is usually called "human trafficking" nowadays. Corruption allows such practices to continue even in our world, which is why I brought this into AzureHowl as well.
Another inspiration is World War II. Only a handful of AzureHowl fans so far have been able to figure out that I was inspired by this event as well. Slave camps were made to resemble concentration camps. The demonizing and slaughter of a society with child testing also happen in AzureHowl. Episode 4 mentions the Dark Cities which were demonized by both Hero and Shadow Clans and rumored to be possessed by evil spirits, after which the slaughter of that society began, causing the deaths of many wolves and many children to be enslaved and tested on. In my family, we lost 7 children due to the gas chambers, and when some people tell me such events shouldn't be remembered I just can't agree...Such events should never be forgotten because once forgotten they might return. Many people think such things cannot return but seeing how horrible stuff goes on in the world today it isn't hard to believe things like this can return.
Anyways, I hope it was interesting for all readers who were curious about what inspired me to make AzureHowl and what happened to make this story what it is today. This page might be edited in the future as I might have forgotten some details, for now I hope you enjoyed it.
Slavery, which was accepted widely a long time ago, was a big inspiration as well. For people of my time, it's still hard to believe something like a slave actually existed. The thought of people being sold and traded as if they were items is still so hard to believe, yet all of this was happened. I brought this into my story mostly because it's something people believe doesn't exist anymore, while slavery is still a very real thing even in our modern society. This, however, is usually called "human trafficking" nowadays. Corruption allows such practices to continue even in our world, which is why I brought this into AzureHowl as well.
Another inspiration is World War II. Only a handful of AzureHowl fans so far have been able to figure out that I was inspired by this event as well. Slave camps were made to resemble concentration camps. The demonizing and slaughter of a society with child testing also happen in AzureHowl. Episode 4 mentions the Dark Cities which were demonized by both Hero and Shadow Clans and rumored to be possessed by evil spirits, after which the slaughter of that society began, causing the deaths of many wolves and many children to be enslaved and tested on. In my family, we lost 7 children due to the gas chambers, and when some people tell me such events shouldn't be remembered I just can't agree...Such events should never be forgotten because once forgotten they might return. Many people think such things cannot return but seeing how horrible stuff goes on in the world today it isn't hard to believe things like this can return.
Anyways, I hope it was interesting for all readers who were curious about what inspired me to make AzureHowl and what happened to make this story what it is today. This page might be edited in the future as I might have forgotten some details, for now I hope you enjoyed it.