Forum - View topicINTEREST: Light Novel Author Explains the Lack of "Ugly" Characters In Manga, LNs
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everydaygamer
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Haha that's fair. I never thought about it before but you do kind of have to go out of your way to make a character look ugly.
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zero-r
Posts: 34 |
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This was a nice insight on the creation a character designs (manga/LN).
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Juno016
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I mean, if you're trying to create an off-putting character or something, drawing realistic dimples, hairy moles, etc. might take slightly more time, but if this is about diversified body types for the main cast that you might draw regularly (as I assume this is about), then as an artist myself, it's a horrible excuse. Especially considering there ARE artists who do some REALLY detailed work and there used to be a lot more diversity in casts in decades past. If there's a problem with knowledge regarding how fat or skin folds for different people work, then that's probably more of an industry-wide issue. I think he's right that the main issue is lack of demand. Either people don't care to see the characters or, imo more likely, the artists just don't care to draw them, which probably isn't great, but is something you see in all media, not just "anime" art.
Diverse body types are probably a bit lower on my list of things I'd like to see change in the industry today, though. Still, the time and efficiency aspect doesn't convince me at all and just sounds like he was looking for an excuse to convince himself when he noticed/recognized the issue of a lack of diversity in "anime" art. Notice he said "ugly people" as if that's just a normal way to talk about anything outside the norm? Kinda reveals the underlying issue here. I'm not going to tell him what to draw, but if he actually cares about the issue, why not exemplify the solution? |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 859 Location: PA |
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Just a wild guess, but "ugly" characters don't sell the product? If your product does not move, you don't get paid.
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scott194
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I get it. Adding wrinkles, different posturing, and girth is easy enough, but you should also think of ugly characters as unique. That means you have to specifically take time in order to design them, more so then conventionally beautiful characters.
Plus the added features means more time is consumed for them. Remember, some of these are weekly serializations, and beauty equates to cookie-cutter characters. That isn't to say that mangaka won't include "uglier" characters, it's just about making a deadline as these chapters are drawn (at the earliest) the previous week it was released. Look at One Piece, all the characters that are prominently featured are mostly good looking, with the occasional chubby or roided out character, this frees Oda-sensei to focus more on story. Though he has included trans/queer characters as far back as Mr. 2, so he's aware. I'm all for a diverse cast, but I'm willing to cut the appropriate amount of slack for any specific situation. |
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MasterKingJC
 Posts: 380 |
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That makes no sense, because the amount of time taken to draw unconventional clothing and props would be just as long or longer than the time taken to add extra details in a character's face. Some of the replies to the tweet even show that it's very possible to draw characters with unique faces without even using a whole lot of lines.
Honestly, it truly comes down to the individual speed of the artist and how quickly they can complete a drawing. Some artists can be both time-efficient and mindful what they want to sketch out from their mind's eye to paper. |
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Chris Handsome
 Posts: 317 |
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Jojo sells like hotcakes and is chock full of ugly, gross, disgusting designs. Even among it's protags. Those gigantic lips and cheekbones.
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2419 |
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The time justification makes a lot of sense. A lot of the artists/animators are already overworked to cram things in for deadlines.
I don't see much value in less attractive characters unless that is being used as a plot point, and I'd say that about live action as well for both men and women. Now diversity for race, gender, sexual orientation, etc, absolutely important. But "stop hiring/drawing so many good looking actors/actresses" not so much. |
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Gem-Bug
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I really appreciate artists like Inio Asano who draw a huge, unique assortment of people in their works.
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Top Gun
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They could have saved a lot of words by just stating "Because fans don't want to **** ugly characters."
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OncelostLu
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Ding Ding Ding Ding |
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livin_large
Posts: 107 |
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This is something a lot of modern American artists could learn from. It's strange how people have become so adverse to attractive character design. |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 516 Location: Kyoto |
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I cannot disagree more with assertion that ugly too hard to draw. No ugly characters for same reason there are no ugly people in TV/movies. People want TV pretty. When there are ugly people, or old, or fat, or etc, are always portrayed in bad light. For all western PCness, media still fat/ugly/plain-shame. Normal people and below does not sell. Anime/manga/pop culture about escapism, people do not want to see people like themselves.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6338 |
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No it’s strange that it’s 2022 and people still think the problem with character design in American produced works is people hating “attractive” character design. The problem is and has always been over-sexualization of female characters. |
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 778 Location: North America |
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More likely that Hollywood and cartoon publishers do not want attractive characters - would we ever see character designs such as those from OreGairu from them? Not likely.
Correct for Hollywood, but much less so for British television. |
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