Anja May

[CondorTalon]

Name: Anja May
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: Senior
School: Southwest Red Rock High School
Hobbies and Interests: Anime and manga, video games, cosplay, pixel art, singing

Appearance: Anja is 5'4" and weighs 125 lbs. Her build is squarely average, with her mass evenly distributed throughout her body. She is Caucasian, specifically German, and her skin is rather pale most days of the year. Her wavy hair is naturally blonde, but she dyes it pink with a maroon peekaboo layer. She generally keeps it flowing down past her shoulders. Her eyes are blue, and sit behind a pair of glasses used to treat her myopia. She has an upturned nose and full lips, and her ears are pierced, though she generally doesn't wear earrings.

Anja's sense of fashion is eccentric, and she likes to wear clothing that resembles or is reminiscent of the outfits that her favorite anime or video game characters wear, or at the very least clothes that feature anime or video game designs. On the day of the abduction, Anja was wearing the outfit of Riina Tada, a character from THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: A dark grey hooded cardigan over a white tank top with the words ROCK OF MIND written on it, a studded belt, a dark red plaid skirt, and a necklace with a crown-shaped pendant.

Biography: Anja was born to Jacob and Andrea May on October 14th, the youngest child of four. Her older siblings are, from oldest to youngest, Josef, who is ten years older, Tobias, who is eight years older, and Katja, who is two years older. The family is squarely middle-class, with Jacob working as a dental hygienist, and Andrea working as a real estate agent. With their jobs keeping them away from their children, the Mays relied on Jane McInnes and Gregory Shack, two family friends, who would take turns watching over the kids in the parents' stead. Because of this, Anja doesn't feel close to her parents. Her relationship with Jane and Gregory is a lot closer, and she considers them the main parental figures in her life, but the person in her family that she is the closest to is undoubtedly Katja, who shares many of her interests.

As a child, Anja preferred to keep to herself. She tended to prefer playing with small groups of friends, and tended to avoid bigger crowds. Because of this, Anja generally made friends with the shyer or more introverted kids. It was one of these introverted kids that got her interested in anime and manga. When Anja was eight, she found her friend in a corner of the schoolyard during recess, reading manga. She had heard the term manga before; Katja was an avid fan of manga and anime, and so when her friend explain what he was reading, Anja was intrigued. She was especially drawn to the art style, and when she got home that day, she asked Katja to explain more about the medium. Katja, elated that her little sister was interested in something she'd been a lifelong fan of, began lending her some books to read, as well as introduced her to anime. They began watching anime together, starting with some of Katja's personal favorites. As they grew older, though, they began to watch new anime together as new episodes were released.

Not long after that, Josef and Tobias, who weren't intent on letting Katja hog all of their little sister's attention, introduced Anja to video games. Katja did play a few games, but Josef and Tobias were true gamers, and wanted to introduce Anja to the activity that they loved. They eased her into the hobby by regularly getting all of the siblings together for party games like Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., and Mario Kart. By the time Anja was twelve, her brothers had introduced her to many different genres of games. By this time, Anja had firmly determined her favorite genres, namely turn-based strategy games, role-playing games, and rhythm games. She enjoys thinking things out and planning ahead, which is what attracted to the former two, and the timing and precision of rhythm games lets herself get into a flow or immersed state with the music.

At about the same time that Anja was really getting into rhythm games, she also began to get into singing. Anja had always enjoyed listening to music, but until she began to get better at rhythm games, Anja never went out of her way to listen to it. Rhythm games were the primary thing that expanded her musical tastes and got her to listen to music more. Anja started out by singing and humming along with the songs she played, but soon she began to search up other songs by her favorite artists, moving to albums and branching out from there. Anja has recorded a few covers, mostly anime songs, but hasn't yet shared them with anyone.

When Anja entered high school, one of the first friends she made was a fellow anime fan: Gemini Jones. It was Gemini that planted the idea to get into cosplay into Anja's head. Anja had known about cosplay, but she always considered herself an outsider to that part of the fandom, happy to simply appreciate other people's cosplay photos. However, as the two became closer and closer, their discussions about anime would also lead into tangents about conventions and cosplay. Although Gemini never directly pushed Anja into getting involved with cosplay, her enthusiasm for the craft nevertheless spread to Anja. With Gemini's help, as well as that of Jane, who was a retired costume designer, Anja began to make costumes of her favorite anime characters. Anja mostly cosplays in private photoshoots, but sometimes attends conventions with her friends. Anja avoids attending conventions without having a cosplay to show off, as her preference for smaller groups never really went away; being in costume allows her to put herself into a persona, and her enthusiasm for the costumes themselves, both hers and others, allows her to be a bit more comfortable with larger crowds.

In Anja's junior year, she felt like getting into another creative art. She began to get more into retro video games around this time, and she was fascinated by how these old 8-bit and 16-bit games could have evocative graphics. What started as idle watching of pixel art tutorials and other pixel art videos on YouTube soon turned into a concerted attempt to learn and make pixel art. By the end of junior year, Anja had become a decent pixel artist, focusing mainly on portraits and typography. Anja struggles to make backgrounds as well as full-body pieces, especially of non-human subjects, though she hopes to improve in those areas as she moves into post-secondary education.

Academically, Anja is not a great student. She excels mostly in creative classes like art, but struggles in other subjects, especially in math and science. Anja finds it hard to wrap her head around the concepts introduced in the harder sciences, and finds it difficult to solve problems and memorize facts and formulas. Anja pays attention in class as best she can, but her mind tends to wander to other places, especially in the aforementioned difficult subjects. As a result, Anja's grades often range from low C's to high D's, with the exception of art class, in which she consistently gets A's.

Even in the present, Anja mostly prefers to keep her social circle small. Outside of her friends in the anime and video game clubs, Anja doesn't really socialize. As such, she is relatively unknown around Red Rock. Those who are close with her, though, know her as a cheerful girl. With the exception of conventions, Anja tends to shrink into herself when in large crowds, becoming quiet and detached. Those who have only interacted with her in these scenarios may see her as a loner.

Anja has applied to several art schools for post-secondary education, hoping to get deeper into art theory so that she can apply the principles she learns into her pixel art. Besides that, Anja has started to send out her portfolio to several video game companies, specifically those looking for a pixel artist.

Advantages: Anja has a small but trusted friend circle that she could rely on on the island. Her work with pixel art has given her a good eye for detail, especially for finding small things that may look wrong or out of place, which could translate to her being able to spot such details on the island.
Disadvantages: Outside her circle of friends, Anja is a relatively unknown girl with not that many attachments to others. This could cause some to be wary of her, and make it harder to form alliances. This could be exacerbated if she finds herself in the middle of a large group, causing her to become distant. Anja is not athletic in the slightest; she could be easily overpowered by anyone even slightly physically fit.