Toboso Yana and Twisted Wonderland

Inside the Twisted Wonderland game app Toboso Yana is credited as the creator of the game’s concept, the main scenario creator, the character designer and the creative director for everything overall (this information was removed from EN server. More here ▶︎)

Table of Contents

The Creation of Twisted Wonderland


In a 2020 interview Yana said:

“I create the scenarios and I write the main story. I am also in charge of drafting, writing, and directing the events and vignettes. On the graphics side I do all of the character design including designing the chibis, all the card illustrations and designs for the props and backgrounds.” – Toboso Yana

Above: Toboso Yana, 2020/3/18 (source)

Yana also explains how she went into her initial meeting with Disney expecting to only do the character designs, but in the end was made responsible for the basis of the entire game.

“For the main story, first I create a rough plot and submit it to Disney for approval. After that, I discuss with the development team what elements we want to introduce per scene: ADV, rhythmics, battles, etc., and complete the scenario as a whole.” – Toboso Yana

Yana is the creator of the plot of the main story and wrote the lessons in dialogue, on the home screen and when leveling (together with a writer from her personal studio).

“The dialogue in lessons, on the home screen, and when the cards are leveled was created jointly by myself and a scenario writer from my own studio, D-6th.” – Toboso Yana

Yana retracted Riddle’s original, Disney-approved design (which was also of her own creation) in favor of the Riddle that we have today (source ▶︎).

As stated by Yana in 2024, she is the creator of the Main Story of Disney’s Twisted Wonderland (source ▶︎).

Yana provides regular updates on her involvement, saying that she is still in charge of the main story (as of 2025/8/22, the newest update to the Main Story as of this writing: Book 7.5) (source ▶︎).

Yana explains that she did the scenario, original artwork for the SSR cards, directed the vignettes and was in charge of character design for Books 1 to 3 (source 1, source 2).

Yana also shared that she was in charge of creating Books 4 and 5 of the main story (source 1, source 2).

Yana also shared that she was in charge of creating Book 6 of the Main Story (source).

After thanking Walt Disney Japan and US for their supervision of the delicate subject matter of Book 6 that Yana herself wrote there was some misunderstanding within the fandom that Yana herself later addressed (more here ▶︎):

The process of scenario completion -> English translation -> supervision -> revision is always followed without exception, so it’s not just about Chapter 6.

Yana also shared that she was the creator of the content of the story and original character art/character designs in Book 7 of the Main Story, with some prop designs and background visuals by her studio (source).

Yana has shared that she expected her idea for Crowley in Book 4 to be rejected by the game development team, so it is possible that her concepts will sometimes be compromised by the limitations of the visual-novel format (source).

Yana has also approved the English-language localization of the unique magics (source).

Card Art

Yana was in charge of all of creating all the cards available at the time of the game’s release, including dorm uniforms, school uniforms, gym wear, lab uniforms, and ceremonial robes (source).

The gym clothes and school uniforms (the original batch of R cards) were special: Yana says she did them all by herself from start to finish, including doing writing a few of the vignettes (source), as they were going to be most people’s first introductions to the characters (source).


We do not know too many details about the team that is helping Yana with card illustrations but we know they have been there from the beginning, with the English-version of the first visual book (called “The Official Art Book” in English, more here ▶︎) providing translations of Yana’s notes to the colorists for the ceremonial robes and labwear art.

(Above: hand-written notes seen on Kalim’s labwear and ceremonial robes base art) 

Toboso was responsible for all the original drawings of the art included in this book. This is the first time the original drawings (line art) are being made public. (source)

On the subject of the second visual book Yana posted:

I participated in the supervision of ‘Disney Twisted Wonderland Official Visual Book 2 – Card Art & Line Art Collection – Event 1st.’ The rough line sketches, which were well-received last time, and my drawing notes are also included. When placed side by side, the sketches I drew with the intention of finishing them myself really do look rough… (source)

She also references a graphic artist in her 2020 interview for the Magical Archives:

“As for the illustrations, this was my first time having my original drawings cleaned up by a graphic artist. I am a very rough draftsman by nature, and I make overall corrections before a piece is complete. No matter how careful I am in my original drawings, sometimes details get confused, so whenever I receive a draft back from the graphic artist I become a useless original artist who is constantly going back to say, ‘I am so sorry, but can you please make these corrections?’” – Toboso Yana

We received a rare comment with the release of Ortho’s Cerberus Gear, where Yana shared information about a member of her team who is a former background artist for “a certain, extremely famous robot anime,” and who now “oversees a lot of the background art designing” in Twst, including the background for Ortho’s Cereberus Gear card (source).

That is one of the artists that Yana is referring to when a design is attributed to D-6th.

So it does seem that Yana created all the props and backgrounds in the early days, but now there is at least one artist on Yana’s team who is in charge overseeing backgrounds.

Book 7 Card Series

Card design and finishing for Cerberus Gear Ortho (source), General of the Right Lilia (source), Eternal Knight Armor Sebek (source) and Savanaclaw Dorm Rook (source) is attributed to both Yana and D-6th.

・Mermaid Fin Jade and Floyd: Card art creation attributed to D-6th (source)

・Ivory Cliff Ruggie: Costume design, card art creation attributed to D-6th (source)

・Qasr Sultanate Kalim: Artwork and Color design attributed to Toboso Yana (source)
・TricKing Jacket Cater: Card art creation attributed to Toboso Yana (source)
・Queen’s Chef Coat Trey: Costume design, card art creation attributed to Toboso Yana (source)
・Dawn Armor Silver: Card art creation attributed to Toboso Yana (source)

Clubwear Card Series

Pop Music Club Kalim, Cater, Lilia: Design and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3)

Basketball Club Jamil: Costume design and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
Basketball Club Ace, Floyd: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

Science Club Rook: Costume design and card art direction by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)
Science Club Trey: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Track and Field Jack, Deuce: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

Spelldrive Club Ruggie: Costume creation, card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
Spelldrive Club Epel: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
Spelldrive Club Leona: Styling and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Mountain Lovers Club Jade: Costume, card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
Gargoyle Research Club Malleus: Card art, costume direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Boardgame Club Azul: Costume creation, card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
Boardgame Club Idia: Direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Equestrian Club Silver, Sebek: Direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)
Equestrian Club Riddle: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Film Club Vil, Ortho: coming soon

Faculty Card Series

Raven Jacket Crowley: Original card art and finishing by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)
Rich Fur Coat Crewel: Card art and scenario direction by D-6th (source)
Strict Suit Trein: Card art direction by D-6th (source)
Handsome Jersey Vargas: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Grim Card Series

・Striped Ribbon Grim: Original art and direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Labwear Grim: Multiple staff members (no credit details) (source)
・Ceremonial Robes Grim: Original card art and finishing by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)
・Platinum Jacket Grim: Card art creation by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)
・Apprentice Chef Grim: Drawn by Toboso Yana (no credit details) (source)
・Blazing Jewel Grim: Costume creation and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Guest Character Card Series

・Council Robes Rollo: Card art by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)
・Playful Dress Fellow: Card art and scenario creation by D-6th (source)
・Nightmare Suit Skully: Card art creation by Toboso Yana (source)

Rerun Event Character Card Series

・Silk Adorned Vil: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Apple Pom Jamil: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Lion’s Garb Deuce: Card art and costume design direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Rabbit Wear Floyd: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Outdoor Gear Ortho: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)

Birthdays

(image: source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6)

Yana has been consistently credited with art direction for the various birthday series since 2020 with occasional exceptions for Ortho’s designs. Details:

・Birthday Gear Ortho: Design and direction by D-6th (source)
・Union Gear Ortho: Gear design, card art direction, room base settings by D-6th (source)
・Bloom/Broom Gear Ortho: Card art direction and gear design by D-6th (source)
・Platinum Gear Ortho: Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source)
・Relaxing Gear Ortho: Card art direction and gear design by Toboso Yana (source)

Birthday Boy Series

・Art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Union Jacket Series

・Art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Bloom/Broom Series

・Art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Platinum Jacket Series

・Art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Relaxing Series

・Costume and art direction for Ace, Rook, Idia, Malleus, by Toboso Yana, art direction for Jack, Trey, Jade, Floyd, Lilia, Cater, Azul, Sebek, Vil, Ruggie, Epel, Silver, Deuce, Kalim, Leona, Riddle by Toboso Yana.

La Bonbonnière Series

・Art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

Events

With the release of the event-design-based “Design Note” artbook Yana posted:

This book was mostly drawn by me and two of our company’s staff, so as I flip through the pages, I’m reminiscing and thinking, ‘Wow, we drew a lot.’ I’m happy it became a book. (source)

・Happy Beans Day (EN: Beanfest): Event/vignette scenario creation, costume design, card art creation/direction for all rarities (including finishing for R Cater) by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5)

Happy Beans Day is really memorable because I was allowed to handle everything: the scenario, the costumes, and the cards. Usually another writer handles the event stories, but since it was the first event I was able to write it.

・Fairy Gala: Event scenario creation, card art (including finishing of the R cards), direction, costume designs by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3)

・Ghost Marriage (EN: Phantom Bride): Event scenario creation, card scenario creation, direction, costume designs by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

・Wish Upon a Star: Deuce SSR creation by D-6th, scenario and wish concept creation, SSR Deuce (until finishing for pre-groovy, original art for post-groovy), pre-groovy art for R and SR cards assisted by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

・Master Chef (Culinary Crucible): Setting creation and direction, card-art direction, costume designs by Toboso Yana (no sources available for Jade/Lilia or Trey/Kalim) (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6, source 7, source 8, source 9)


・Vargas Camp: Setting creation, card art supervision, costume and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

・The Scalding Sands’ Al’ab Nariya (Firelit Sky): Setting creation, costume design, background art, by Toboso Yana and D-6th. Character design by Toboso Yana. Worldbuilding, storyboards and artwork for the OP and ED by D-6th (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

・Sam’s New Year Sale:
– 2022: Costume design and art direction by Toboso Yana (source).
– 2023: Card art direction by Toboso Yana, costume creation by D-6th (source).
– 2024: Costume design, art direction, event scenario by D-6th (source).
– 2025: Costume design and card art direction by Toboso Yana (source).
– 2026: Costume and card art direction, background art by D-6th (source).

・Harveston Village’s Kelkkarotu (The Harveston Sledathon): Worldbuilding creation, character setting, character design, costume design, card art direction by Toboso Yana. OP and EN storyboards and artwork by D-6th (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4)

・Fairy Gala IF: Costume designs, original art and finishing for SSR Ortho, art direction for S and SR cards, story concept by Toboso Yana (source)

・Guest Room: Furniture direction and character commentary support by Toboso Yana (source)

・Tsumsted Wonderland:
– Part One: Pre-Post groovy art by and card art direction for other rarities by Toboso Yana (source)
– Part Two: Card art for SSR Azul/SSR Kalim and card art direction for other rarities by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)
– Part Three: Card art direction for all cards by Toboso Yana (source)

・Port Fest: Original art for SSR Jack (including post-groovy) and card art direction for all other cards by Toboso Yana. Costume design and background art by D-6th. (source 1, source 2)

・Sunset Savanna’s Tamashna Muina (Cloudcalling on the Savanna): Costume design, background art, direction and art for OP/ED storyboards, character design by D-6th (source)

・Queendom of Roses’ White Rabbit Fes: Worldbuilding, background art, card art direction, character design, costume design by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)

・Lost in the Book with Stitch: Costume design, scenario creation, background art, original illustration and production for SSR Lilia/SSR Floyd card art by D-6th. SR and R card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

・Land of Pyroxene’s Tapis Rouge: Setting production including worldbuilding, costume design, styling, character design and Direction for card art, scenarios and background art by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)

・Lantern of Wishes, Road to Freedom (A Radiant Reenactment): Costume design and card art direction by D-6th (source)

・The Coral Sea’s Eternity Float (Trials of Rowmance): Character design, costume creation, card art, background art, worldbuilding direction by D-6th (source)

・Happy Popcorn, Welcome to C&D Diner: Costume design and overall direction by D-6th (source)

Halloween Events

・Scary Monsters! – Screaming Halloween Show (EN: Terror is Trending): Event story creation, opening art concept creation, card illustration creation for all rarities pre- and post-groovy and direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3)

・Scary Monsters! – Endless Halloween Night (EN: Spectral Soiree): Original concept creation, scenario creation, card illustrations for all rarities, all art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2, source 3)

・Glorious Masquerade – Fire Lotuses and the Bell of Salvation: Event concept creation, Rollo Flamme character design, scenario creation, SSR card art (base illustrations and finishing), direction of all card art by Toboso Yana. Costumes and mask design, background art, OP/ED storyboarding and art by D-6th (source 1, source 2, source 3)

・Stage in Playfulland – Dancing Puppets and the Theme Park of Illusion: Character design, scenario creation, costume design, background art, OP/ED storyboarding by Toboso Yana and D-6th. Card art direction by Toboso Yana (source 1, source 2)

・Nightmare Before Christmas – The Start of Halloween: Character design, event scenario creation, costume design, SSR art production and SR/R art direction, background art by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source 1, source 2)

・Nightmare Before Christmas – The First Christmas: Character design, costume production, background art, scenario writing, art direction, etc., by Toboso Yana and D-6th (source)

Voice Actor/Sound Direction

Yana writes notes to the voice actors and the sound director, influencing the vocal performances in the game (source).

Music Direction

In the 2025/7/31 and 8/29 episodes of Twisted Radio Station #33 and #34 (source 1, source 2) Twisted Wonderland game music composer Ozawa Takumi and lyricist Aozora Ichika revealed that Yana did uncredited work on the dorm and Overblot Character songs released in 2025 as a part of her responsibilities as creative director for Twisted Wonderland:

“I started making (Obedience) in Spring of 2024. I went in kind of a cute direction with it, and Toboso-sensei told me, “No, it’s not like that. I want you to put more playing-card soldier feeling into it, to make it cooler.” So I changed it to adapt to those instructions, turning it into the ‘Obedience’ that it became.” – Ozawa Takumi

Aozora: “I conferred with Toboso-sensei a lot about the lyrics for this song, about how to put across what is intimidating about Octavinelle in words. “
Ozawa: “She said, ‘Unsettling.'”
Aozora: “‘As unsettling as possible,’ she said. It starts out with “we want to help you” and then at the end it flips it. ‘There is no escape.'”

“It was half and half, while picking words for the lyrics that suit each character. Toboso-sensei went over the lyrics, too.”  – Ozawa Takumi (on the creation of “Far Out”)

“There is a lot of wordplay in the lyrics. We received so many ideas from Toboso-sensei. I wouldn’t have been able to make this song without her. The lyrics were cooler when I started out. She asked me to go in a cheesier direction.” – Ozawa Takumi (on the creation of “Souzetsu Aeon”)

“I struggled with how to put the flaws at the root of Leona’s character into the lyrics and consulted with Toboso-sensei a lot. When his struggles are being shown we have to be careful so that he doesn’t just come across as pitiful when viewed from the outside.” – Aozora Ichika (on creating “Still Infallible Until Tangible”)

“Once I had a draft of the lyrics I had it “Idia-ized” with help from Toboso-sensei. I got tons of suggestions for expressions and ideas, and that’s how it all came together. I never could have written lyrics like this on my own. Toboso-sensei’s word sense is seriously amazing.” – Ozawa Takumi (on the creation of “ggwp”)

“We got input from Toboso-sensei, and she said that she wanted to bring out things like how he will throw a tantrum but then swing back into calmness to show his emotional immaturity. So we were very intentional with the word choices and phrasing.” – Aozora Ichika (on the creation of “Shukufuku”)

Novels

Information from Yana herself (source 1, source 2), multiple articles (article 1, article 2, article 3), and an announcement from GFantasy (source) consistently credit Yana as the artist for the cover, fold-out art and inside illustrations of the two Twisted Wonderland novels, while the only credited author is Twisted Wonderland game app event and vignette writer Hioki Jun.

Hioki Jun is employed by Yana as a member of D-6th, Yana’s personal studio, and is credited inside the novels as “Hioki Jun (D-6th),” possibly implying that she is contributing to the Twisted Wonderland novels as a member of Yana’s studio rather than as an independent writer.

Manga and 4koma

Yana has said that her role in the manga adaptations is overall collaboration, character design and character creation. In addition to creating the basis for Trey’s parents she also designed Riddle’s mother, including her face, but they ultimately left her in silhouette (source 1, source 2, source 3).

It is difficult to tell what Yana means by “overall collaboration,” but she has shared a tweet about drawing the characters out herself for the official artists to use as a reference for their work on, though this may or may not apply to the artists of the Savanaclaw and Scarabia arcs, who are not members of D-6th, Yana’s personal studio (source).

Confirmed Information:
・Yana creates the manga prefects (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6)
・Yana does manga character design (source)
・Yana provided manga composition support for the Heartslabyul arc (source)
・Yana supervises mangaka, overseeing characters’ personalities and mannerisms, depictions of life at NRC, the logic behind magic, and more (source)

Following the release of the 4koma Yana confirmed part of the work she performs as a part of manga supervision (source):

“In my usual manga supervision work, about 80% is checking the characters’ personalities and mannerisms. But with Mochi-sensei, their character interpretation was already at level 100+ from the very beginning, so about 80% of my job became giving in-depth setting explanations for depicting a realistic magical-academy life, things like, ‘The logic behind summoning magic is..’ or ‘Considering where he’s from, the background would be…” Mochi-sensei was amazing!’ [Toboso]

The artist and designer team behind the 1st (Heartslabyul) and 3rd (Octavinelle) comic arcs are from Yana’s studio D-6th, doing background and card art for the Twisted Wonderland game app.

The main mangaka behind the Savanaclaw arc is Oda Suzuka (小田すずか) (website), whose other work includes:
・Psychic Detective Yakumo
・Pretty Boy Detective Club
・Danzai no Dragnet
・The Villainess Who Aims to be a Nightingale

The main mangaka behind the 4koma is mochi (website), whose other work includes:
・Shihyakushiki
・Majo no Geboku to Maou no Tsuno
・Kemono Kingdom
・Cuticle Detective Inaba

The main mangaka behind the Scarabia arc is majico!, who also contributed to volume 2 of the Twisted Wonderland anthology manga. Their other work includes:
・Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
・The Irregular at Magic High School – Raihousha-hen
・Probability Investigator Mikoshiba Gakuto
・The Sinner and Tanaka-san

Figures

Yana provided illustration and supervision work for the 1/8th scale figure series featuring the seven housewardens (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5, source 6, source 7).

Yana was also in charge of original illustration and supervision for the line of chibi-style figures released by Aniplex in 2025 (source).

Live Events

For “Disney Twisted Wonderland Exhibition,” which ran from March 2022 to January 2024, Yana supervised the display outfits and staffs for the housewarden characters.

Blazing Jewel concept art, costume designs and promotional artwork direction are credited to D-6th (source 1, source 2).

Anime

On 2025/10/15 Yana shared the following (source):

The TWST anime is produced separately by @DisneyPlus , so it’s a different official team from the game (ANIPLEX JP/US). I know it can be a bit confusing—sorry! But our game & comic team really loves sharing the same surprises and excitement with you all🫶【Yana】

As of this writing Yana has not be credited in any official announcements or materials for Twisted Wonderland: the Animation, with the only returning production member being music composer Ozawa Takumi.


While Yana has said that the anime is not under her jurisdiction, we have an interview with the anime production team saying that they trust the voice actors to know what to do, as the seiyuu know the characters better than the anime production team, and Yana helped with the direction of the seiyuu (source):

“During pre-production meetings with Chief Director Natori we agreed, ‘The voice cast understands the characters better than we do, so we can trust them.’ In fact, for this project, deepening my own understanding of the established characters was more important than directing them.
For example, if line adjustments came up during recording we often consulted with the voice actor rather than giving them instructions, like, ‘I want this character to say it this way; what do you think?,’ and discussed collaboratively.”

– Sugawara Miho (Sound Director, Twisted Wonderland the Animation)
Published in PASH! magazine, 2025 December issue

Assistants

・Hazuki Wakana and Kowono Sumire: Yana explains that Hazuki and Kowono “…are staff members involved in art production for background settings, cards, and more in the Twisted Wonderland app,” in addition to being the illustrator and designer of the Heartslabyul and Octavinelle arcs of the ongoing manga series (source).

There do not seem to be any SNS accounts or other published works associated with the names “Hazuki Wakana” or “Kowono Sumire,” so they might be aliases for use in their work with D-6th.

Yana says that Hazuki Wakana has been working with her on her manga for many years, listed along with Twisted Wonderland assistants Hioki Jun and Sorano Tsuki in the credits for Black Butler.

・7: There does not seem to be any information on the creative assistant using the pen name “7.”

・Sorano Tsuki: In addition to being a Black Butler collaborator and filling an unspecified role in the Twisted Wonderland game app, Sorano is also one of the artists in the second anthology manga. There does not seem to be anything else published under the name “Sorano Tsuki.”

・Bloom/Broom Series: Yana participated in concept design, costume design, and card art direction of the Bloom/Broom series, but the bouquets were designed by a professional flower artist (source).

It is not specified that the flower artist was on the D-6th team and they may have been brought on for the one project. In episode 13 of Twisted Radio Station (source) it was explained that each bouquet is physically crafted and then reference photos are taken, with every petal and leaf individually drawn.

・Osakabe Wataru: Twst’s logo designer / user interface designer / emblem designer / icon designer (etc) (source), Osakabe Wataru designed the characters’ personal emblems and club emblems that can be seen on their letterman jackets in the Birthday Jacket series (source).

They also contribute to the novels (source) and manga (both serialized (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4) and the anthologies (source 1, source 2), other published works such as the Magical Archives (source), all four visual books (source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5), the Design Note (source 1, source 2), and the novels (source 1, source 2), designed the logo for Twst Channel (source), logo and emblem for the Night Ravens music group (source) and anniversaries (source 1, source 2), and have contributed to the banner advertisements in Tokyo Station (source).

Osakabe’s website and portfolio are here ▶︎

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