Forum - View topicStudents in anime look older than their supposed age?
|
|
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
spikespiegel98
Posts: 93 |
|
|||
|
i notice for a while that in some of my favorite anime such as gto and slam dunk that the students in the anime look a bit oldier than their supposed to be. I mean in gto the students are supposed to be 14 years old, but to me they look like they are 18 or so. also i sslam dunk the students are in high school but students like gori look so old and like everyone can dunk!! another example would be the delinquent main character in school rumble. he looks like he's in his late 20s lol. anyone else notice this? whats the purpose of making students look older?
|
||||
|
||||
Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
|
|||
Fanservice and plausible deniability 
|
||||
|
||||
Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2174 |
|
|||
|
Age < 10... drawn pretty accurate
10 < Age < 16... they will be drawn like they are no less than 5 years older than their age if they are a girl. If they're a perverted boy, then they'll be drawn to look about 2-3 years younger than their age. If they're a normal boy, they'll be drawn accurately. 16 < Age < 24... they will look 24 to 17, in that order. 24 < Age < 55... they will look 24-30 years old. If their hair is white, that means they're supposed to be in their 50s. 55 < Age... they will look about 70. |
||||
|
||||
John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
|
|||
|
Ever seen Shakugan no Shana?
Yeah. |
||||
|
||||
Justin Bailey
 Posts: 221 |
|
|||
|
The students you refer to, and other examples that fit your perception, are generally engaged in violent or unsavory activities that are depicted in an uncouth manner. The most frequent example would be a shounen fighting series. This is a compromise between conflicting goals:
1. The artist wants to appeal to its primary demographic, which is often in the middle school or high school range, by having characters in that age range as the protagonists. 2. The artist does not want to remind its readers too much of the fact that the story is about young children engaged in violent, illegal, and/or otherwise unsavory activities. Thus, a compromise of middle to high school age children who look like adults. Note that the explanation only applies if the series adopts the general character design for its characters, e.g. Great Teacher Onizuka. It is not true of shows where characters usually have appearances at or below their supposed age, but there is a character who looks much older, e.g. School Rumble. The opposite trend of making high school students look like they're just entering middle school is also quite common and frequently complained about. You can find more on this opposing trend in topics about moe. |
||||
|
||||
Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
|
|||
|
Part of why Harima of School Rumble looks significantly older is because of his facial hair and sunglasses. There are a couple scenes when he is clean shaven, and he looks just as much like a kid as any of the rest of the class.
In general cases, I imagine fanservice is a motivating factor (refer to one-third the cast of Negima), or that it's what the artist feels most comfortable/familiar with drawing. |
||||
|
||||
The Mask
 Posts: 90 Location: Philippines |
|
|||
|
I noticed this in Prince of Tennis, at least in my point of view. I used to think Ryoma's senpais (forgive me for the spelling) were around 16-18 years old. I was surprised to know that they're actually around 14-16 years old, since they really looked older than that.
I can't really figure out why that's the case, though. It's probably just the style of the artist. Or probably it's aimed at making the character look really cool and mature for kids and teens to look up to yet remain in the typical teenage age range in order to become a shonen or shoujo series. Well, that's my take. |
||||
|
||||
|
PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
|
|||
Indeed, to make Margery Daw look so young when she's at least 100. What were they thinking? On topic now, the styles of characters vs. age is something I gave up on trying to figure out. Sure, there's the whole "let's not let the viewer know they're still watching an underage girl" element, but really, they are just cartoons after all. I don't think I can ever be surprised by anime ever again. After watching Nanoha and finding out this was a show directed at older males, there was no point in trying to make sense of any of it anymore. If I continued trying, my mind would shut down trying to wrap itself around Fuko from Clannad as she dons a high school uniform. |
||||
|
||||
Kruszer
 Posts: 7991 Location: Minnesota, USA |
|
|||
|
Because they're drawings and not real people? Or because they're drawn by people who aren't infallible? Why this matters at all to anyone is the real question. Besides determining someone's age is not an easy thing to do. Lots of people look younger or older than their actual age. For instance I'm nearly 30 and people say I look like a high school kid.
|
||||
|
||||
egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
|
|||
Err, perhaps he's talking about Yuji's parents? His mom looks at best 22, but I bet she's like 35. The only thing that really differentiates older(up to 40) from younger is a line under their eyes. That line usually makes them look ill, not old. |
||||
|
||||
bahamut623
 Posts: 1463 |
|
|||
|
It's the same thing in the US. Most high school characters in our movies and TV shows are played by people in their 20's.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Dorcas_Aurelia
Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
|
|||
Similar, but I think that's somewhat a different situation. In the case of live-action, older actors are preferred because one would assume more experience and training means they're better performers, whereas making animated or drawn characters look older than one would normally imagine them is purely an aesthetic choice since the voice actors themselves aren't seen. |
||||
|
||||
|
Reaper gI
Posts: 299 Location: UK |
|
|||
There's also issues with using child actors, if it's anything like it is here that means they have to have shorter work hours, and everyone else needs all the criminal records checks for working with childeren not to mention the issues with paying them. You might notice you don't get many child voice actors either, for similar reasons. As a general rule anime characters of the same gender as the target audience will be acurate. Those of the other will shifted to look more atractive, or to a stereotype (18-25 year old little sister would be a little odd). Also how many series are set in a school solely for fanservice reasons (as an excuse for uniform, gym kit, and school swimsuit shots). |
||||
|
||||
kawaiibunny3
 Posts: 534 Location: Houston, Texas |
|
|||
|
I think the only anime that has that, that really kinda bothered me was Utena
I mean, Utena and friends are like 14 and 13 (and a few older sempais about 16-18) yet they all have fully matured bodies and they're all experiencing "adult" situations in every other episode (in the later arcs anyway) I understand this is part of Utena's symbolism/message about the stage of adolescence and that controversial relationships and risque behavior is part of Utena's charm but when you step back and think about their supposed age. Its kinda...strange (And yet its one of my favorite shows ever made, but whatever  )
|
||||
|
||||
|
John Casey
Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
|
|||
Uuuugh......... *facepalm* You're kidding, right? 
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group