The Legendary Trio

I started a small... Project-type thing, to design some if not most of my pokemon in Heart Gold, and I begun with Raikou. However, I was so happy with the design, that I wanted to create the other two legendaries, even though I haven't acquired them yet. (Entei, you are a hoar. >:C) The theme was simply oriental Japan clothing, since 1. Ecruteak is the first place they are encountered in, and Ecruteak is traditionally styled. 2. They look slightly more regal. 3. Samurai are effing awesome, period.

These are ordered in reverse, so that Raikou was made first and Suicune last. Buut... I'll describe them in the order of the picture anyway.

Suicune's idea was to have sort of a cross-dressing prettyboy who preys on men. He is pretty distinguished from the other two in many regards, namely he doesn't roam the land, preferring to wait for the hero to come around (It's like HE was the leader of the trio, but who knows), and his design is graceful while Entei's and Raikou's designs are more bulky and roary. Plus, he raises the most question of his species of origin (kirin by the way), getting labelled wolf, leopard, cheetah...

At first I wanted Entei to be a samurai too, one with a heavier armor than Raikou, and that full-face helmet with an angry face. I ran into trouble with his posture, balance and anatomy, and eventually decided to give up. (the armor was really detailed too, so it would have been annoying to redo and redo...)
Entei always looked like the leader of the trio, the yellow ornament like a crown. Also, I saw him first in an animated format, the third pokemon movie.

Raikou I like the most. His design is heavily based on a samurai armor I found on google, even down to the staff. I didn't want to go the obvious route and make yellow the main color, because I personally dislike yellow and he would look less... Convincing that way too. At first I incorporated the yellow into the goldish-tinted armor, hoping that it would be enough to say 'Raikou' to people. However, thanks to some criticism from , I added in the yellow belt and made the emblem on the armor bright yellow (earlier it had been white tinted toward beige, the same color as the collar and shoes).
Also, for being such an obvious design idea, the moustache-whiskers went mainly unutilized by the people designing raikou gijinkas... It leaded to a surprisingly individual design. And it proves that not all catboys stay bishie their whole lives.