Anybody noticing a pattern with the designs of the latest characters?

In Ten Desires there are about three to four really interesting designs (Miyako, arguably Kyouko, Seiga, and Mamizou; though at least Futo is far more adorable in fanworks), and the remainder are kind of bland (Yuyuko, Kogasa, and Nue are rehashes; Tojiko and Futo's designs aren't that impressive, IMHO; and Miko didn't really look all that awesome to me until she got the cape). Same here (Kagerou, Sekibanki, arguably the mermaid, and Seija are the only ones whose designs really stand out to me), and this is speaking as someone who was a big fan of the story of Issun Boshi, so Sukuna's somewhat plain design is something fo a disappointment despite her very interesting backstory. And I'm getting Seiga-vibes from Seija (the name doesn't help on that front any).

If this game was supposed to revolve around tsukumogami, did we really need all three new ones based on instruments? I was kinda of hoping that Zun would do something unprecedented and give us three EX bosses; tsukumogami based on each player character's items (one seperate boss for each player character). Sakuya's knife as a tsukumogami would have been interesting to say nothing of the mini-hakkero becoming a youkai. Instead we get a mix of Kogaga (and without Kogasa's youkai moe) and the Prismriver sisters.

Oh, well, maybe it's just me. They seem to be popular enough, so maybe I'm just spoiled by Zun's past games where I usually ended up liking a nearly all of the new characters.

Keep in mind ZUN takes alot of his character's "birth's" from already standing japanese myths. While ZUN does take creative licenses with them, he still wants to keep the spirit of those myth's and legends alive in a way that japanese people would recognize. Very few of his characters in fact are "original" without taking anything from japanese legends/myths such as Reimu and Marisa.