Subject: [Off-Topic] Why don't anime characters look Japanese?
From: [email-masked] (Wei-Hwa Huang)
To: [email-masked]
Date: 1 May 1996 06:25:35 GMT

A few people seem to be interested in this topic, so I thought I
might expound on my theory.  Please ignore this message if you
are looking for something directly Ranma-related.  It ain't here.

The basic tenet of this theory of cartooning (by "cartooning" I mean "the
art of using 2-dimensional drawings to simulate reality") is:

"All main characters are drawn the simplest."

It's not a hard and fast rule, but it makes sense.  All Rumiko Takahashi
main characters have similar eyes, nose, mouth, and head-shape, while those
odd butlers, shopkeepers, henchmen all look strange and different.  Sailor
Moon and Sailor Venus have the same head with different hair, but the bad
guys they fight come in all shapes and sizes.  Peter Parker and Matt Murdoch
look normal, Wilson Fisk and Arcade don't.  Tenchi Masaki can be drawn with
10 or so strokes, Noboyuki Masaki can't.  Calvin is just two eyes, a nose,
and a mouth with spiky hair.  Mrs. Wormwood would make a good study of
caricature.  Tintin is no more than a stick-figure face.  And take a close
look at Charlie Brown.

Now, why?  There are two good reasons.

(1) The main characters are drawn the most, and are necessarily simple.  Even
 if they started out complicated, the cartoonist would eventually simplify
 the appearance as time goes on.

For the most part, this is true.  For example, Happosai.  Or Kyoko Otonashi.
Or Garfield.  But I'd like to focus on the other reason:

(2) The main characters are those that the reader is intended to associate
 with, and a simplified drawing helps greatly.

Think closely about how you see the world.  When you're talking with someone,
you notice their hair, their eye color, their mouth moving, the mole on their
left cheek, their glasses, their earrings, etc.  

But what about yourself?  Are you constantly aware of your hair?  Your eye
color?  Your mouth?  The mole on your left cheek?  Your glasses?
Your earrings?

No, of course you don't.  You live with those things constantly, and you're
only really reminded of them when you look in a mirror, or you look at your
own photograph.  And you're usually pretty apprehensive about the whole thing
anyway, because it's hard to believe that that's the image you give to the
world, and you're not used to seeing it.  In fact, it seems like what you
are aware of as "you" is nothing more than perhaps two eyes, a nose, and a
mouth.

And that's why main characters are so simple.  Sure, they have something
distinguishable, like Ranma's pigtail or Superman's hanging curl, but WE
are intended to be in that body, to understand its motivations, its
emotions and drives.

Granted, we usually aren't aware of this.  Most cartoonists aren't aware
of it consciously.  But I believe it's there.  And that's really why anime
and manga characters don't look "Japanese;" they look human.  American
animated characters look human.  French animated characters look human.
To an Oriental person, they look Oriental; to a Caucasian person, they look
Caucasian, because that's what "human" means.  If you're not convinced,
read the next section, which is a diversionary example.

But now a corollary.  What about other characters?  Especially if they're
of another race?  Well, their appearance is different, and we definitely
have to show those differences somehow.  After all, people of other races
DO look different.  One good way is skin color.  You can easily draw a
comic book with people of different skin color...unless the comic book
is in black and white.  You can probably still get the distinguishing
features of an African or an (Asian) Indian, but between Oriental and
American?  That's hard.

Well, how do we handle it from an American standpoint?  Orientals...hmm...
well, their eyes are "slantier," they have less facial hair (almost no
sideburns), and they're shorter.  Well, that's enough distinguishing
characteristics.  There are probably more, but that's enough.  Draw
a man who has slantier eyes, is shorter, and has less facial hair, and
voila!  You've got yourself an Oriental.

How about from the other side?  I'm a Japanese artist, and I want to
incorporate a Caucasian in my story.  What are the distinguishing
features of a Caucasian?  Did you say "less slantier eyes"?  Bzzt.
Wrong answer.  What does "less slantier eyes" mean, anyway?  My eyes
are normal and round and big (because of convention), so what is "less
slantier"?  That doesn't make sense.  So, you can notice, that when a
Caucasian foreigner is drawn in a Japanese manga/anime, the shape of the
eye is THE SAME!  The distinguishing features for a Caucasian are:
taller height, lighter-colored eyes, bigger noses, and squarer jaws.  
Try finding some examples.  You'll see what I mean.

End of corollary.  Now think more about the first part of the message.
Does it now make sense that the characters don't look Japanese
to Americans?  They shouldn't.  They should look Japanese to Japanese,
and it's perfectly reasonable that they look like Americans to
Americans.  Their actions and social decisions might distinguish
them objectively, but their appearance is subjective with regards to
the viewer.

End of long dissertation.  Congratulations on reading this far.  Most
people probably aren't willing to listen to all this, though; and the
next time someone asks you, "Why don't anime characters look Japanese?"
don't give them this answer unless you want them to fall asleep of
boredom.  But it's true.

-- 
Wei-Hwa Huang, [email-masked], http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~whuang/
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