Why the japanese cartoons (anime) have a strong tedency to depict his characters (specially the young ones) with big, perfect and expressive eyes, instead of the characteristic almond-shaped eyes of Japan people? Is this the product of an “ethnic prejudice” or is a behaviour that obeys to, say, higher issues?
You can thank Osamu Tezuka for the creation of big eyes
From Anime History:
Osamu Tezuka, the ‘God of Manga’ was only 20 years old when his first work New Treasure Island debuted in 1947. Due to Tezuka, direct and stage-like manga erupted with action and emotion, adopting techniques from French and German cinema. To lend poignancy to a single emotional moment, a scene unfolded slowly over many pages. He taught an entire generation of artists to draw kinetically. His greatest impact was his characters. Based on pre-war Disney cartoons like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Tezuka drew animals and humans with huge, expressive eyes, and round heads. Although the features seemed simple and cartoonish, they allowed diverse emotions from love to seething hatred. Later manga and anime artists adapted Tezuka’s flexible characters, leading to simplified facial features and frisbee-sized eyes. Sailor Moon, Speed Racer, and even Ash Ketchum owe their looks to Tezuka. Tezuka’s great success in manga directly impacted post-war anime.
Simply put, he used a style of art to bring more expression out of his characters. Since Eyes are ‘the window to the soul’ he drew them big and expressive. Young kids are good at showing expressions so they tend to get the big eyes in anime (you will find certain females with younger, bubbly personalities have the same treatment on a regular girl body…thereby giving her a kid like appearance)
Its still evolving in anime and there is less impact of “big eyes” in some features (some comedies have even lampooned big eyes…I remember a great episode of Lum where there is a thing called “The Big Eyed Virus” going around and enlarging peoples eyes, scaring the hell out of people around them. Guys were catching it and people were falling in love with them whether they liked it or not. Quite hilarious)
When people ask this question I always wonder what they think the eyes of Japanese cartoon characters should look like…little slits? It’s not as if the rest of the facial features of (stereo)typical anime characters look like real Japanese people, or normal human beings of any race. Their eyes, like everything else about them, are highly stylized and cartoonish looking.
Ok, but the real answer to the question was given by TigoleBitties. I didn’t say that should look like little slits. But IT IS a tendency to depict them big and expressive.
It’s cute.
I had read in a textbook from UMBC that most Asian cultures had attributed sight as the most important of the sense and having larger eyes depicted this. Stupid textbook.
Then I cannot emit any opinion about the depicted size of their genitals. 
I had always assumed that it was because of the fascination with American culture, and that the eyes were supposed to look caucasian. Am I totally off-base on that?
No, that is quite correct to a point. Notice that Tigolebitties mentioned Disney. The Disney connection is very important - and Tezuka really believed (and was at least partly correct) that Western influences would be important and good for Japan. Remember, this was right after WWII, as well, so this had a special significance. The eyes are supposed to look a little bit “Caucasion”. You’ll also note the skin color of most anime characters is distinctly a lighter hue than Japanese have.
I really don’t think this is true. They may be meant to resemble Western cartoon characters, but I don’t think they are meant to resemble real Western people. If they are, they’ve failed miserably, since I don’t known any Western people (or human beings of any race) with eyes that look like that.
I’m certain this is not true. I don’t know what you think Japanese people look like, but most are light-skinned. I have known many who were lighter than the average white American or European.
I’m certainly no expert, but I have read quite a lot of comics from both Japan and China. In my experience, the Chinese comics depict characters that look recognizably Chinese (or at least Asian). They tend to have yellow skin tones, black hair, and the aforementioned almond-shaped eyes. Japanese comics, on the other hand, tend to depict characters that look… well, I’m not really sure WHAT they are supposed to look like. Not only are the eyes and skin tones decidedly non-Asian, but there’s that whole fascination with blue and green spiky hair.
When I was young, I remember watching various cartoons such as “Speed Racer” and (later) “Star Blazers”. I had no idea at the time that these were actually Japanese cartoons that had simply been dubbed into English, since none of the characters looked remotely Japanese to me.
My Chinese friends have told me that (a) Japanese people are, in general, incredibly prejudiced (especially toward other Asian people) and (b) Japanese people think that their eyes really are bigger than those of other Asian people (as an aside, my wife – who is Chinese – tells me that in China “big eyes” are considered to be a sign of beauty, as well as pale skin). I have to take this theory with a grain of salt, especially since I know that many Chinese people are very prejudiced against the Japanese in the first place (something to do with the whole invasion of China by the japanese, and the subsequent raping, looting and pillaging that went on, I’m sure).
Anyway, I don’t know if there’s any truth to the notion that Japanese people think they have bigger eyes than other Asian people, but I think it’s likely that the Japanese culture values big eyes (and pale skin) the same way that Chinese culture does. As a result, it would be natural to show “idealized” images of beauty in cartoons that have big eyes and pale skin. Where the blue hair comes from is anybody’s guess, though…
Just a thought.
Barry
My understanding was that the hair color is used to make characters more distinguishable.
Ultimately, I think that pizzabrat has the right explanation. Even if anime characters have big eyes due to the Disney influence, the reason that Disney characters have big eyes is that they’re cute. To elaborate, humans, like any other species which cares for its young, are pre-programmed to regard babies, and babyish features, as cute. Now, think about what (aside from size, of course) makes babies look different than adults. Their fingers are relatively short and stubby. Their heads and faces are round. And relative to the size of their heads, their eyes are large. Now look at any animated character, or at least, any animated character which the audience is supposed to like. Short fingers, round heads, and big eyes. We like Mickey Mouse and his friends, because they look like babies.
Well, speaking as someone who is sitting in Japan right now, I would say that most of the many Japanese people I have seen around here do have darker skin that that which is depicted by most anime characters; of course, in anime, most Japanese characters do tend to have darker skins that any American or European characters that show up.