I watch a fair amount of anime and I remember one of the things I got a few months ago had a prep for westerners to get into anime and such. And in this short video they explained the exact same thing as has been explained here, that it all comes from the influence of early American animation. This was actually hit home to me in the vert first Dragonball epsiode where this big cat runs of a cliff and does a typical looney tune eye take in that they popped rightt out of his head and got real big, something I’ve never seen in other such stuff. But damn I wish I could remember where I saw that video.
Hm, I think I saw that clip as an introduction to <i>Venus 5</i>. Or, um, something that doesn’t make me like a pervert.
Yeah, that’s precisely what I don’t like about it; the action doesn’t flow, it overextends itself. It’s like a a damn soap opera.
In any case, its popularity is just incredible here in Costa Rica. When DBZ was on, every one watched it; heck, people even brought their portable TV’s to the movies to see the show during previews.
You are exactly right, my sample is rather small and therefore lacking any significance whatsoever. I am not trying to criticize it as an art form–or whatever you fans of the genre call it, I only wanted to be enlightened as to why it causes such a devout following among people when–from my “uneducated” perspective–it’s not that big of a deal.
On the other hand, I omitted mentioning in my previous post how much I like “Knights of the Zodiac”(literal translation from the spanish version, no idea how it is oficially referred to in English). So, it’s not that I don’t like anime per se, it is more not comprehending why people like it so much (what incredibly “seducing” elements does it incorporate in order to cause so much mass appeal) what astounds me.
I can’t believe no one has brought up that not all anime characters have “those huge freaking eyes.”
A trend in recent years, especially with more serious anime series or movies, is to draw the eyes normal-sized and slightly stylize the reat of the face, or just go as flat-out realistic as possible.
A few examples:
From Blood: The Last Vampire http://www.bloodthemovie.com/charindex.html
From Cowboy Bebop http://www.cowboybebop.com/english/session/chara/index.html
Notice that Ed has those huge eyes; that’s 'cause she’s a little kid.
Ever since The Little Mermaid, Disney’s human animated characters seem to have HUGE eyes. Compare any post-LM character with the newly-released Snow White. Ariel and company have freakishly huge peepers, by comparison. I see this as the influence of Japanese anime on the younger Disney animators, who grew up on this stuff.
Eyes do have a big effect on the observer. I spend a good part of a chapter of my book on this.
I’m glad somebody finally got around to pointing this out! You could find lots of examples over the last ten years or so of feature film anime characters without “big eyes.”
Steve Biodrowski
http://www.thescriptanalyst.com
Anime is an abbreviation for the Japanese word animeeshon, which is just a borrowing of the English word animation. When we use the word in English, we’re referring specifically to Japanese animation. When the Japanese use the word, however, I believe it refers to all animation, regardless of origin.
Manga is essentially a comic. Many anime storylines come from a corresponding manga.
Hentai‘is something you’ll here girls in anime say a lot when the guy does something, shall we say, un-gentleman-like, like walking in on them while they’re bathing, or touching them inappropriately. It basically means pervert. In English, the word also refers to cartoon pornography.
As for the question about eyes, I think it has to do with expressiveness more than anything. If the eyes are exaggerated, then it is easy to make the emotions seem exaggerated as well, which in my opinion, make comedy like this all the more hilarious.
Since this is about animation, let’s move it to Cafe Society, a forum that didn’t exist when this thread was started 15 years ago.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Hey, there… you seeing anybody?
It’s interesting to note that in the anime movie Tekonkinkreet as well as several other anime movies the characters actually look Asian. Of course as pointed out before these are basically fantasy characters meant to look cute and have a world wide appeal.
One of my sources said that the “big eyes” effect came from Japanese animators deliberately modeling their style-sheets after Disney’s Peter Pan.
I have no idea if this is true, but it’s a damn fine UL.