Forum - View topicAnime Character Eye Size
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Wolf X
Posts: 93 Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado |
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I have always wondered why anime characters usually have such large eyes when many times the ethnicity of the people they represent have very small or narrow eyes? Is it a cultural identity issue or is it similar to the way people in the US and Western Europe edit girls in magazines to fit a certain criteria for beauty?
I did a search through the forum archives but didn't come up with any relevant results, if anyone knows where I can find this thread please point me in that direction, otherwise I would like to here your input. 
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NGE1113
 Posts: 1081 Location: Alexandria, VA. |
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It's not such much an issue of cultural identity as it is influence and a way of displaying emotion. Part of the issue of eye size comes from the influence that Disney's animation had (reference Mickey Mouse, for example, and his large eyes) on Osamu Tezuka, which came across in Tezuka's own works. In addition, Tezuka's hand in the growth of the anime and manga scenes in Japan led to other artists copying his tendency to draw characters with large eyes. Another part of this is something that can be best described through the phrase "The eyes are the window of the soul." By that, I mean that studios discovered that it was easier to depict a character's emotional state by using the eyes to reflect this. As a result, it helped enforce the stand of large eye size in anime today.
I've also felt that the eye size is also a way to measure a character's innocence and/or purity. Also, if I'm off on anything, I'm open to corrections. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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I've noticed that the younger a charcter is or if the character is female and a "pure soul" like the Sailor Senshi, for example, they will have big eyes. If the character is an older (teen +) male or a villinous sort (male or female) they will have smaller eyes. The smaller, the more villinous.
Naturally there are exeptions to the rule: Kenshin of Ruroni Kenshin does have big eyes but if I remember correctly, they become smaller when he's really pissed off or prepping for a big fight. And like NGE1113, I'm open to corrections. |
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Iwatch2muchanime
 Posts: 1291 |
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I always thought that the big eyes were just a MUCH easier way to show emotion. With big eyes come less difficulty in having to show squinty eyed people squinting more when they cry.
I've never really thought about it beyond that. I just really like the big eyes. |
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omar235
 Posts: 1572 Location: Florida, Jacksonvile |
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NGE1113 pretty much nailed everything...at least he said everything I was going to say. People with big eyes are usally more innocent, at leat that is the effect they want to get. Characters with narrow eyes, are usally cunning, the same could be said for characters with constantly shut eyes. The ones with constantly shut eyes are usally very cunning or very stupid. Just in case you were wondering. As you see those with narrow eyes are usally evil, while those who are innocent EX. children, women, or just childish characters, have big eyes. As someone said in a thread about narrow eyes, it shows that the character with big eyes has nothing to hide and is open. Sorry I can't remember who said that.
Last edited by omar235 on Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:37 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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LydiaDianne
Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Or they can be very old and wise such as Grandpa Hino in Sailor Moon or Scar's Master in Fullmetal Alchemist. Of course, in Grandpa Hino's case, he is a bit of a lech... |
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Wolf X
Posts: 93 Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado |
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That makes sense but then why do many animators make the eyes very large and then the nose and mouth very small and disproportional?
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LydiaDianne
Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Well, there is only so much room if you want to make the heads proportional to the bodies. And with small mouths, it is somewhat easier to disguise that the lip flaps don't always match the dialog. |
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omar235
Posts: 1572 Location: Florida, Jacksonvile |
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Well small noses with cartoon charactes is common, I agree with LydiaDianne on the rest. And yes narrow eyes are also used to show one as being wise.
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MorwenLaicoriel
 Posts: 1617 Location: Colorado |
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This is a bit of shameless self-promotion, but I've talked about the subject on my blog before, with some images as examples. (It focuses more on the pure = big eyes concept.)
As I guessed in that blog entry, too, I wouldn't be surprised if sometimes anime characters are given large eyes because it feels a bit like a sort of 'exotic' beauty--the same way we might see asians here in the USA. I think it has more to do with emotion like others have guessed, though. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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There was a thread that had a similar topic that I posted some information about, but the preference here is to start a new thread if the topic has not been talked about in a while even if it's exactly identical. One thing I wanted to add about the cultural implications of characters faces in anime/manga is that, to artists, the importance placed on making characters look ethnically "real" is low compared to the mechanics and stylishness of the design that anime characters traditionaly have. Since character development is so important in anime compared to Western animation, larger eyes is just another one of those shorcuts that allow differences between character's appearance to be more noticable (ie eye color and shape - in addition to other aspects like hair and clothing). Typically, also drawing a character with a large nose is a way to indicate that the character comes from a Western ethnicity. There's a scene in Samurai Champloo where a Japanese man was disguised as Hispanic by using a fake large nose. When he was knocked over his nose popped off and everybody said "hey he's Japanese!" Japanese people do have rather small noses so it is something that is occasionally depicted in anime when it matters to the storytelling. Last edited by P€|\||§_|\/|ast@ on Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:20 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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bllanosr
 Posts: 212 |
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In my Japanese class, we were told, that a lot of the younger Japanese people like to look like westerners. Having big eyes is one of the biggest thing in Japan. Some teenaged girls even get eye enlargement surgery for their birthdays, graduation, or acceptance (to a major university) from their parents. It's like how some Koreans get the eye lid fold surgery for their birthdays as well. Also teenaged girls are also into tanning. I've seen some pictures of teenaged Japanese girls that spent way TOO much time in a tanning salon. They also like high end western clothes like Gucci, Armi, Versace and stuff. We even watched a pop singer (Utada I think) being interviewed and they asked her if she got eye enlargement surgery or if she was considering it if she didn't have it done already. We thought it was weird, but then our teacher retorted back, by saying how American girls get breast enlargements for their birthdays.
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sykosteve
 Posts: 356 Location: columbus, ga |
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Someone mentioned disney...I remember reading somewhere that a primary influence was betty boop.
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Cloe
Moderator
 Posts: 2728 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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The Fleischer Studio in general was a big influence for Tezuka, as it was one of the top producers of animation in the 1920s and its popularity even rivaled early Disney in the 1930s. Disney animation was a much bigger influence for Osamu Tezuka, however. (He was a huge fan of the movie Bambi and is said to have watched it over 80 times.) |
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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aka Sakura Kinomoto and just about every anime kid or female -- although there are some characters who have big eyes and yet they're actually evil like some of the villains from Rurouni Kenshin
The only one I can think of right now is Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi.. He's very wise, you know (a poor imitation of Chichiri's catchphrase -- english version) and maybe Yamazaki from card captor Sakura..
but not everyone.. Tamahome and Tasuki both have narrow eyes but they're not evil.. Then there's also Touya from card captor.. I think a lot of anime males have narrow eyes.. It makes them look more manly -- and I'm saying this from experience.. when I draw male anime characters, I make sure not to make their eyes too big because it makes them look too girly.. |
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