Why do ANIME characters have such large eyes?

Question

Surely these characters would be derived from the Japanese culture. Lets admit it, Japanese eyes aren't huge and round....Is this style a hybrid? If so when did the style start to take shape.

Thanks heaps & Sincerely everyone.

Answer 1

Well the large eyes apparently were greatly influenced/invented by Dr Osamu Tezuku who is known as “the father of manga” and even “the god of manga.” The distinctive large eyes style that characterizes almost all Japanese animation is credited to Tezuku as the creator. However he was also influenced by cartoons of Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop by Disney. The Large Eyes style also serve a very practical purpose, it allows animators to more easily and better express emotions of their anime characters.

Answer 2

Well it's not also about style. Well... half of it is, I guess. With style, it's really the artist's way of drawing. If they find it cute to draw big eyes, then they draw it. But with some anime it's also about purity and innocence. Ever notice that all sheltered kids in anime have big eyes, but most adults have smaller ones? It’s because it's a way the artist can show that these characters are innocent. If you were reading/watching a manga/anime with a solider, warrior, or someone with a traumatic past, you can take note that their eyes are smaller then the more 'pure' and more sheltered characters.

Over all it's a way that the artist can show that this character has seen things, has been through ordeals that can scar a person. Or it can say that this person is not naive about the world. Or that they know that life is not fair so to speak.

Take, oh let's say Yu-gi-oh for example. I know, I know, you might think it’s a lame anime, but for the sake of the argument hear me out. Take Yugi and Yami (the Pharaoh) for example. Yugi has WIDE big eyes while Yami has narrower eyes, and they are practically the same person. It's just physical evidence that Yugi is more innocent and pure than Yami. While Yami has been through a lot more troubling experiences in his life. Who wouldn’t' after running his own empire and losing it in a previous life and remembering it?

I hope this answers your question. I don't really have any source to back up what I just said, but with my own observations about the characters.

Answer 3

Japanese animation is limited when it comes to facial expressions of their drawn characters. However, they defend back with, "the eyes alone can express infinite volumes of emotions--and we amplify such feelings" (yeah, right-o!)

Japanese animation has a long way to go; they could use some serious lessons from animation masters like Ralph Bakshi.

And Japanese cartoon story writers all seem to have been flying on a higher octane dose of crack; Pokemon and DragonBall Z are senseless and senselessly violent.

Answer 4

According to some books I have read, the larger the eyes on an anime character, usually, the younger the charactor is. If you notice, most adult anime characters have more narrow eyes than the teenagers or children. I think that the large eyes are cute on anime characters and I, personally, don't have a problem with them.

Answer 5

the following is truly what i study about it :) the guy who created the first anime (Astroboy), Osamu Tezuka, had keen to make his characters have large eyes. This replaced right into a sensible decision, because anime eyes frequently portray the finished emotion of someone, in case you look close adequate, no matter if some thing of their face would not educate it. for instance, you should work out a very attractive-searching female, all smiling, and her eyes should be completely useless (no scholar, iris or shine). it is meant to portray possession- extra typically than not even as a personality has that gradient look of their eye, they are possessed or being manipulated. even as each thing is exaggerated, the artist has extra freedom with the way the nature will look, besides. they could do some thing they needed to with the eyebrows, for instance, to make the emotion clearer while not having it look strange. often, the large eyes will portray innocence, cuteness and sincerity, and smaller eyes will portray slyness, melancholy, or evil. i wish that helped :D

Answer 6

that is the way of anime right there, to over proportion characters features to enhance or focus on certain things. Not all anime characters have large eyes, only some. Some are small and short...it's just the style.

Answer 7

Its not derived from culture directly, its about manifesting the society's believe and perceptions of what is beautiful....most asian cultures promote the eyes as the window to the soul and that the eye is the life behind any portraits... thus in anime, the eyes are exagerated to give more impact and also connect to the subconsciousness of the mind of the people who believes that having bigger eyes is more beautiful...

Answer 8

they aren't derived from Japanese culture, or at least not fully. Why are they blond and blue eyed? Why are some of them really white. Big eyes makes it easier to show emotions, plus it makes the character look cuter.

Answer 9

In many cultures, american/white people are seen as
exotic. They make the characters much like an asian
american hybrid. There are certain things like, how girls
in my country lighten their skin with special cream so that
they look more white. Big round eyes are typical for this
western european and american look. It is seen as exotic
and beautiful. Like how americans think we are beautiful
what ever is exotic is always desired.

I hope this answers the question.

Answer 10

We respond to both intuitive and "culturised" signals in responding to others. Large eyes are the universal signal of infants or children, and we are programmed to intuitively respond positively to them - whether it's dolly-birds or puppies (don't ask why - it may have something to do with species survival!) We also tend to respond to "other race" signalisation - to features different from our own culture (though not always, so it's a bit unpredictable). In a society where most women are dark, men respond to blondes, and so on (long legs in girls are a symptom of sexual maturity, and therefor attractive to males, and hence high-heeled shoes and digitally enanced female images in magazines). So the ANIME figures fire off the responses to baby-faces, and also, for the Japanese perhaps, the "other race" signal of large eyes. Eyelid operations to make eyes rounder are popular in Japan, I understand.