The characters of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" were designed by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the co-creators of the series. The anime-styled character art based on Shinichiro Watanabe's "Cowboy Bebop", "Samurai Champloo", and "FLCL" ("Fooly Cooly") of Gainax. The original character conception was derived from a sketch by Bryan Konietzko that depicted a middle-aged balding man with an arrow on his head. Studios such as Studio 4°C, Production I.G, and Studio Ghibli, which produced anime-styled cartoons, were also sources of inspiration.