How were the Forgers designed?

Anya's design has a documented ancestor. Editor Shihei Lin has stated that Anya was inspired by Ashe, the heroine of Endo's 2014 one-shot Rengoku no Ashe, a gothic witch-trial story; her mind-reading was decided early, and Lin prized it for comedy. The inheritance is visible in the design language: the small figure in dark dress with horn-like hair ornaments, carried out of a dark one-shot and re-lit as the brightest character in a family comedy. The Eden Academy uniform Anya wears descends in turn from the stitched school uniform of Mamiru, the heroine of Endo's 2018 one-shot I Spy.

The adults were designed as a study in registers. Loid's design is the respectable professional, a three-piece suit and a face built to be believed; Yor's is split between the soft civilian clerk and the Thorn Princess, whose black dress, gold rose-patterned headband and needle stilettos are the manga's most deliberate costume. Lin has said the simplicity was learned the hard way: the elaborate costumes of Blade of the Moon Princess were punishing to draw weekly, and the Forgers' outfits are engineered to be drawn forever. Bond completes the set as pure silhouette, a Great Pyrenees whose bulk and bow tie read at a glance.

When the designs passed to animation, character designer Kazuaki Shimada drew the family in the same two registers Endo had built, a severe set for the mission and a warm set for the home, and those paired visuals introduced the anime. It is the design idea the whole franchise runs on: every Forger has two faces, and the art never lets you forget either one.