TOP KARIN SKINS

 

It’s a shallow dip top ten or top ten on the spot for the game designs or ‘skins’ of Karin, second top girl of Blue Archive and part of the top duo of the game with Asuna. All art is fair use for the purpose of depicting the skins as they appear from the official game designs featured in the fan wiki.

Also yes – I had to cheat a little to get as many skins, albeit not quite enough for her top ten skins, although I probably could have found fan art designs to bring them up to the latter. Like Asuna, Karin only has three official skins – indeed matching those of Asuna – although there does seem to be other designs as reflected in merchandized art or figures. The latter effectively rounded out the balance of my top skins and for those designs I’ve used what appeared to be game-sanctioned art or figures.

 

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

 

(1) BUNNY GIRL

 

Of course, her top skin was going to be her bunny girl version, as it was for Asuna – just look at it.

 

ART & COSPLAY

 

As I stated in my introduction, my iconic feature image is the design as it appears in the game’s fan wiki.

 

ART – SCIAMANO & DANDONFUGA

 

Whoa! Karin’s bunny girl design actually does better than Asuna in art, at least by my favorite artists – scoring both Sciamano and Dandonfuga rankings for their art of her in that design. Cosplay, on the other hand…

 

COSPLAY – HANE

 

Cosplay, not so much – although she does score a Hane ranking for Hane Ame’s cosplay, in almost all Karin’s skins but foremost among them the bunny girl design. Hane Ame’s cosplay of Karin, particularly the bunny girl design, is some of her best cosplay.

 

 

 

 

(2) SCHOOL

 

Next up is her school design, again matching Asuna.

 

COSPLAY – HANE

 

No art from my favorite artists – my iconic feature image is from the fan wiki – but her school skin scores a Hane ranking among Hane Ame’s cosplay of Karin’s various skins.

 

 

 

 

(3) STANDARD (MAID)

 

Once again matching Asuna, in third place is the standard maid costume that is the signature design of all the girls from Millennium School’s Cleaning and Clearing (as a secret agency under cover of cleaning maid service).

No art or cosplay by my favorite artists or models (other than of course the fan wiki art in my feature image). As much as I like the design, I can see why – I mean, the bunny girl skin is right there!

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

 

 

 

 

(4) NURSE

 

Hello, nurse!

From here on, we’re looking at skins that don’t appear to be official game skins but seem to have some quasi-official status, at least in terms of commissioned art or merchandise. Hence I’m ranking this art design by Dishwasher1910 (for whom Karin appears to be one of his favorite subjects) in fourth place after Karin’s three official game skins, largely because it seems to have gained semi-official status in art and cosplay.

Also from here on, we’re no longer matching Asuna – Asuna does have an unofficial nurse art design, that might also originate from art by Dishwasher, but I rank Karin’s nurse design higher because of its more prolific frequency in cosplay, either in comparison to Asuna or in comparison to Karin’s other skins apart from her official game skins. Which brings me to…

 

ART & COSPLAY

 

I’ve used an edited version of Dishwasher’s art as fair use to identify this variant appearance of Karin but in such a way if you want to see the full-length version you can look up Dishwasher’s art for yourself.

 

COSPLAY – HANE

 

Yes – Karin’s nurse design scores a Hane ranking for Hane Ame’s cosplay of it.

 

 

 

 

 

(5) MUSE

 

Another art design by Dishwasher1910 which again seems to have gained semi-official status – and back to matching Asuna with her muse design in fifth place. Like that of Asuna, I’m calling this her muse design because she has some stringed musical instrument but it might also be called her formal design for the dress she wears – or alternatively her Dish design.

 

ART & COSPLAY

 

Again, I’ve used an edited version of Dishwasher’s art as fair use to identify this variant appearance of Karin but in such a way if you want to see the full-length version you can look up Dishwasher’s art for yourself.

 

 

 

 

(6) CHEERLEADER

 

Another design that is not an official skin but appears to have some quasi-official status in the form of merchandized art, as in the image from my feature image. It’s very similar to the cheerleader design for Asuna but I rank it lower for Karin due to the lack of fan art or cosplay.

 

 

 

 

(7) ALTA X DISH

 

Wrapping up my top Karin skins with this version is one matching a similar design by Asuna in figurines for sale online and which seems to originate in another art design by Dishwasher1910 – hence the Dish in the title although I don’t know the origin of the Alta part. It’s a little too risque for me to place higher or even feature, except from behind. You can guess how the design goes from the front.