WHY do japanese cartoons(ANIME)characters all have HUGE eyes?

Question

is this some sort of sick joke???????????????

Answer 1

Not all anime does this. The more mainstream type you see in cartoon network and more "seinjei" style will, because the girls are meant to look cute, arouse a man's pleasure senses. If you watch more serious anime, usually this isn't the issue and they look more normal.

Answer 2

No it is not some "sick joke". The is what wikipedia had on the subject.

"A common approach is the large eyes style drawn on many anime characters, credited to the influence of Osamu Tezuka, who was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse and from Disney's Bambi. Tezuka found that large eyes style allowed his characters to show emotions distinctly. Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.[1] When Tezuka began drawing Ribbon no Kishi, the first manga specifically targeted at young girls, Tezuka further exaggerated the size of the characters' eyes. Indeed, through Ribbon no Kishi, Tezuka set a stylistic template that later shōjo artists tended to follow. Another variation of this style is "chibi" or "super deformed"; which usually feature huge eyes, an enlarged head, and small body."

(end quote)

Answer 3

The Japanese believe the Eyes are the windows to the soul. Through the eyes true emotion can be displayed and larger eyes will grape your attention to the face so that the emotion can be displayed. If they are going for a more real life look the eyes are usually more normal looking. It is a tool to grab audience attention but sometimes is over exaggerated and loses the effect. This has been used for years in animation and is not peculiar to Japan but has been used else ware. It has just been more blatant in Japanese animation.

Answer 4

it's the most common type of drawing style (in many countries u've heard the term dat the eyes r the windows 2 a person's soul so the characters hav it 2 express something bout their character) some ppl actually sue others cuz they copied their eye style or somethin
not all anime characters hav HUGE eyes, there's actually bout 3 main types: one is the roundish huge dat takes up half the head size, 2nd is squareish and 3rd is like a very slanted triangle and the smallest size

well, i hope i helped and it's not a sick joke it's just the way ppl draw

Answer 5

Not all the characters have huge eyes, silly.
For example: Kurau Phantom Memory, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop...
And because huge eyes characters are cute (but I can't stand ridiculously huge eyes characters)

Answer 6

I think that it's because the Japanese typically see eyes as the windows to the soul, and draw them larger to enhance the effect. For example, ususally when you're gone from someone a long time and they don't look the same, if you look into their eyes, you can usually see that it really is that person.

Hope this helped

Answer 7

that's because japanese believe that the eyes are the gateway to one's soul and this reflects the characters personality in an anime, that's why animators draw huge and dramatic eyes.

got it? (.^___^.)

Answer 8

Maybe they are selling anime to the americans. The big eyes. Just a guess.

Answer 9

Too see you better with. I have noticed that before, I really dont know, maybe to capture the young audiences that watch it. and to see how and what their eyes in the cartoons are doing.

Answer 10

No one knows the real reason,but it was the time when Betty Boop(she had huge eyes) came out when they started drawing like that,and Japan loved that show.But no one knows the real reason.