Board Thread:Wiki Discussions/@comment-4704473-20140416230513/@comment-945885-20140604101140

Elveonora wrote: @Foxie, Raiga was most likely Kishi's original character. I doubt he went like: "Oh, I'm totally gonna scrap my vision of a swordsmen member and use a filler character instead" Seems doubtful, as Raiga was the only member of the Swordsmen of the Mist whose name doesn't fit the naming scheme, and his design generally deviates from the rest (no sharp teeth, no vertical stripes). I think it's more likely that the whole point of that panel was to show him as a nod to the anime, as Kishimoto had previously made Ameyuri the wielder of Kiba.

Keep in mind that the anime has its own character designers, Tetsuya Nishio and Hirofumi Suzuki.