Please note:  the original image was done by You Shiina.  I found this scan on Minitokoyo.  *I need to get this art book...

Original Current progress with Mesh
Original by You Shiina.  Scaled down  

 

I know it's hard to actually see what meshes can do from the smaller version of the image, so I'm zooming in the area I have worked on it.  Namely, it's the Palm, and her shirt, sleaves, and the back side of the cape (background) that have meshes.

On another note, you can probably see at this resolution that the buttons for her cloak are not really done.  I will have need to use Live paint for these objects.  But Live Paint (in CS 2) does have it's draw backs.  As you add more lines to an existing image, it starts to simplify the equations, often creating artifacts in the paths and other nasty things.  This is the primary reason I've not been using stroke pen widths with Live Paint, to minimize the junk it may create.