Why do anime characters have big eyes even tho Japanese people have small eyes? Shouldn't the anime character look Japanese like how manhwa characters look Korean?
| I am not trying to be racist or anything. I mean if you look at Korean Manhwa then the character's eyes kinda look Korean. I mean the characters in Korean Manhwa do not have very big eyes.  Now, let's look at Japanese anime  What are your thoughts on this? Edit:- Here's a anime guy with big eyes  |
swirlydragonJul 18, 2017 8:31 AM
 Join Emilia's self-proclaimed knights club if you are a fellow Emilia fan |
| anime draws its character designs from betty boop and the like |
 |
| if I remember correctly from psychology class it has to do with the part of the eye that can change size depending on certain situations and it is seen as showing interest at times when becoming bigger. So for example you can be mistaken in thinking the person in question is taking an interest in you because that part is so much bigger than normal causing you to maybe have in turn an interest in them back. |
 |
Deknijff said: if I remember correctly from psychology class it has to do with the part of the eye that can change size depending on certain situations and it is seen as showing interest at times when becoming bigger. So for example you can be mistaken in thinking the person in question is taking and interest in you because that part is so much bigger than normal causing you to maybe have in turn an interest in them back. Or maybe Japan has a big eye fetish. Who knows man... |
| You're comparing a male character to a female. Everyone knows that males in anime have smaller eyes. See the difference? Also, it's a matter of art style. |
| It's a fucking animation with exaggerated features, look up more realistic styles. But even then, not all japs irl have such small eyes either. |
 |
| Manhwa eyes look korean? What? I'm sure the drawing standard for manhwa is not Noblesse. |
 |
| Because they're influenced by old cartoon styles like bambi and betty boop, and those eyes show more emotion, and they aren't supposed to look like real ppl |
  |
EcchiLordMamster said: So basically, blame Disney's direct but unknowing influence on then.Because they're influenced by old cartoon styles like bambI and betty boop, and those eyes show more emotion, and they aren't supposed to look like real ppl Also pretty boys that are supposed to be really treated as handsom and mysterious often get that treatment, thouhjnthe anime they're in is made so that such a thing wouldn't feel out of place.. |
CodeBlazeFateJul 18, 2017 8:17 AM
| Being wrong is just an occupational hazard. Follow me on twitter. I have an anitube channel so feel free to check it out and subscribe if you like what you see. |
sasalx said: Indeed man. You never truly know in that regardDeknijff said: Or maybe Japan has a big eye fetish. Who knows man...if I remember correctly from psychology class it has to do with the part of the eye that can change size depending on certain situations and it is seen as showing interest at times when becoming bigger. So for example you can be mistaken in thinking the person in question is taking and interest in you because that part is so much bigger than normal causing you to maybe have in turn an interest in them back.  |
|
Romandy said: Japanese anime is lightly inspired by Disney... who also uses big eyes in their character designs. Almost all cartoons uses big eyes in their character designs. Why? Because big eyes is considered cute. Not really. Bigger eyes make it easier for the artists to portray emotions. |
 |
| Because, like, uhm... I'm bad at explaining things so just bear with me, Swirly. They are mostly used to like show more emotion in the character, you know? |
BellJul 18, 2017 8:31 AM
| This can apply to westrn animation as well though. |
HoodWeeb said: Because, like, uhm... I'm bad at explaining things so just bear with me, Swirly. They are mostly used to like show more emotion in the character, you know? So are Japanese people implying that small eyes can't show emotions? That's being racist to yourself :\ Askorti said: You're comparing a male character to a female. Everyone knows that males in anime have smaller eyes. See the difference? Also, it's a matter of art style. YayaChibi said: Plus, guys in animes normally have smaller eyes because IDK.....? There is usually a huge style difference between the male and female faces depending on the style of the artist. I just uploaded a anime guy pic Also, there are some anime girls with small eyes too, but Japanese people mostly prefer to draw big eyes.  |
swirlydragonJul 18, 2017 8:48 AM
Join Emilia's self-proclaimed knights club if you are a fellow Emilia fan |
| That's like saying characters in Asterix shouldn't have ridiculously large, round noses, lol. They're cartoon characters. It doesn't matter. |
swirlydragon said: HoodWeeb said: Because, like, uhm... I'm bad at explaining things so just bear with me, Swirly. They are mostly used to like show more emotion in the character, you know? So are Japanese people implying that small eyes can't show emotions? That's being racist to yourself :\ Not the same rules apply to a drawing than to reality. |
| Because Japanese anime art styles were based on old Disney movies which used to have big eyes. And big eyes make it easy to convey emotions. Also, the eye shape keeps changing in different art styles. Comparing every Korean manhwa with Noblesse isn't fair. |
 |
jal90 said: swirlydragon said: So are Japanese people implying that small eyes can't show emotions? That's being racist to yourself :\ Not the same rules apply to a drawing than to reality. Yeah, I agree on that matter. What he said. |
BellJul 18, 2017 8:43 AM
swirlydragon said: I am not trying to be racist or anything. I mean if you look at Korean Manhwa then the character's eyes kinda look Korean. I mean the characters in Korean Manhwa do not have very big eyes. Both styles are too cute to be realistic. If we're REALLY gonna be accurate, all our anime would look like this:  It's a great movie with great characters and a great story, but at first glance it would turn many viewers away. That's why animations and cartoons are embellished with big eyes and glossy colors. You know real female tits don't shine so why do they shine in anime? I get put off every time I see a shiny booty cause I know my ass don't shine like that. But that's why it's a cartoon. It can be as fakey as you want.  |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
Kami-Koto said: Manhwa eyes look korean? What? I'm sure the drawing standard for manhwa is not Noblesse. Here's another manhwa Look at the design of her eyes  |
Join Emilia's self-proclaimed knights club if you are a fellow Emilia fan |
Uhhh.... Since we've been looking at webtoons, here's one for you.  But hey, if we're trying to be more representative, let's look at some Hwang Mi Ri stuff.  |
|
And why it should looks like Japanese people in anime/manga? This is their art style. The more "natural"/"realistic" art is, the more boring it is. Japanese artists found a perfect balance between "natural" looking and something which is appealing/attractive. Not mentioning about the fact that you compared comic to anime. And? Yeah, Japanese art looks a lot better. And btw I don't believe that all Korean drawings looks like this. |
rsc-plJul 18, 2017 9:07 AM
| Dub = fake crap. Always. |
Well all of them don't look like this, but most of them are similar |
Join Emilia's self-proclaimed knights club if you are a fellow Emilia fan |
The sole reason anime characters have big eyes is because the GOD OF ANIME Osamau Tezuka was obsessed with these types of huge eyes in old cartoons and incorporated them into anime.  |
 |
| > Why do anime characters have big eyes even tho Japanese people have small eyes? Shouldn't the anime character look Japanese like how manhwa characters look Korean? 1) Japanese don't actually think they have narrow/small eyes. They think europeans have big noses. Something about the way we recognize faces - apparently, there are no major actual differences in eye size, but other facial features make it look like that. 2) Eye width for cartoon characters is proportional to naivette and openness. Millenia-old vampires have narrow eyes, schemers don't even bother opening their eyes, while innocent princesses have huge eyes. 3) Baseline population in anime doesn't have national features. Non-baseline people do. For example, in a work set in Japan, americans would have distinctive blond hair (and likely blue eyes and an actual nose), but if a work is set in USA, americans would look like generic anime people. Note that Japanese don't have national features in their own eyes, except for hair and eye color (the only Japanese character in a western setting would always have realistic dark hair and eye colors). |
| I mean, if you think about it, it depends simply on art style. Not to say certain places don't have a standard look in what they draw but it's not always gonna be the same features. |
 |
| Overcompensating is the obvious answer. |
| Betty Boop preexists that (1930) and all Disney feature films. Heck Mickey Mouse goes back to the 20's. Aetherzel said: Tezuka popularized it for anime and made it a common trait for anime. Without Tezuka it wouldn't be a common character design trait for anime characters.Uh, No. Big eyes already existed before OsamuTezuka, way before he started to make anime in 1961. |
DrGeroCreationJul 18, 2017 10:46 AM
|
| Why do anime characters have big eyes you ask ? it's simple really... you can't do ahegao with small eyes. |
 |
swirlydragon said: I am not trying to be racist or anything. I mean if you look at Korean Manhwa then the character's eyes kinda look Korean. I mean the characters in Korean Manhwa do not have very big eyes. What are your thoughts on this? That I nearly believed you and that people should always document themselves before believing anything.  This is a South Korean Character in that same manhwa you're talking about. His eyes are as big as any male character in, for example, Bleach.  Wait, Ichigo (a japanese character in a japanese anime) 's eyes look even more asian that that other South Korean character. Funny, eh? |
| Are these cherry picking threads like a new trend on MAL? |
Aetherzel said: Yes I do. In all information about Tezuka it is always mentioned how he popularized the big eyes in anime. It existed before (cartoons started it first before anime) but wasn't super common in anime until Tezuka.Except you don't know that. It already existed and I don't see why they would suddenly have abandoned big eyes. |
|
Is that from ToG or is it something else? |
 |
Yup, it's ToG. #characterlimit... |
|
| I can ask you the same with cartoons. Look at Family Guy. Their eyes are round and big. Americans don't look like that. Cartoons and anime just have their own art style that's it. |
 |
| Seriously? -_- Anime has a wide variety of different art styles, some more realistic than others, you can't just look at a few and conclude that all anime follow that artstyle. Here's some artstyles to prove you wrong, they are ALL from different anime BTW. Boys:     Girls:     |
 My Shoujo, Josei and Female targeted anime adaptations starting from 2017+ stacks: Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9181 Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9195 Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9225 Part 4: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9280 |
| 1) Not all Japanese people have small eyes. Kinda racist to assume that don't you think? (I know that wasn't your intention) Example of an Japanese person with eyes that aren't small: 2) Not all anime/manga characters have big eyes. I could list plenty of examples, but I'll just use Great Teacher Onizuka because I've always thought the characters in the show had a look that really made it obvious they were Japanese. At the end of the day, it comes down to the art style more than anything else. (I'm sure you could find manhwa characters with bigger eyes if you really looked for them) 3) If you look at western animation, characters often still have eyes that are bigger than the eyes of the people that live in the west. Eyes are seen as the dominant facial feature in many cultures and as such, art tends to focus on the eyes of people and animals when portraying them. Example of western characters with big eyes: tl;dr Art has a tendency to focus on the eyes all over the world, it's not just anime that has characters with big eyes. |
| >Animations can't be usually something important about the eyes itself >Neither will be so pleasing or not Take Note with that |
-HippySnob-Jul 18, 2017 5:17 PM
 "Think about that glowing dust That destroys the night sky's dream of Just being nothing"--  -- |
DrGeroCreation said: Aetherzel said: Yes I do. In all information about Tezuka it is always mentioned how he popularized the big eyes in anime. It existed before (cartoons started it first before anime) but wasn't super common in anime until Tezuka.Except you don't know that. It already existed and I don't see why they would suddenly have abandoned big eyes. Anime usually adapts manga. Far before Tezuka, during the pre-war Japan, the shōjo aesthetic already used those "big eyes" everywhere, in fact during a long time shōjo eyes were noticeably bigger than shōnen ones. The main contributors to the pre-war shōjo aesthetic were Jun'ichi Nakahara: And Katsuji Matsumoto: And those guys aren't the first, they were influenced by the Art Nouveau, the Art Deco, the French dolls and others Europeans stuffs like that, partially explaining those bigs eyes. So with or without Tezuka, the big eyes would have been the norm on manga, and thus on anime, at least on the shōjo side. And shōjo and shōnen influence each other anyway. So even without Tezuka, I'm pretty sure that the big eyes would still be here, albeit maybe different, and the evolution would have been different too. Someone would have done it in lieu of Tezuka, considering how common it already was. It is notable that Tezuka said he was influenced by the art of Katsuji Matsumoto among other guys with a more cartoon-style, like Takeo Takei or Ki'ichi Okamoto. Tezuka did contribute to the "big eyes"; beside his popularity, he added the stars in the already big eyes. But that's it: he added something to it. And Tezuka wasn't the sole contributor to those big eyes at that time, the most influential contributor to the shōjo easthetic of that time was Macoto Takahashi who did freaking awesome eyes, influenced by Nakahara: So, he did popularize it, notably on the shōnen side (since the shōjo was already "big big big" everywhere since at least two decades before). But he is certainly not the creator of that trend, not even the main contributor. |
removed-userJul 18, 2017 11:44 PM
| Literally, from typing Different Anime eyes on Google Images I came up with this. There are both big and small eyes in this picture. It most likely isn't a perfect example considering it is fan art, but haven't you just thought that maybe there are different art styles? |
 |
 This 30 character limit is very, very stressful. |
 |
| No korean fucker looks like that anyway |
| > it's easier to draw > it's easier to make expression > it was influenced by western drawing... if you want something more japanese, look ukiyo-e style... but pretty sure it was very rare to get animated... my closest memory is isobe isobee monogatari... > it sell > also korean animation is not that different, you are nitpicking, same can be said with japanese counterpart... so in the end... it's historio cultural, easier and ¥¥¥¥¥ reason |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
More topics from this board
» How Much Does a Show's Rating Mean to You When You Plan to Watch it?Sainda - Jan 5 |
48 |
by KeepCalmAndMal
»»
3 minutes ago |
|
» 📅 Opening of the Year (2024) & discussion ( 1 2 )nirererin - Jan 5 |
95 |
by nirererin
»»
7 minutes ago |
|
» ⚔️ Grand Tournament II ⚔️ ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )Shizuna - Dec 17, 2024 |
575 |
by Mindnight
»»
15 minutes ago |
|
» Anime Endings that will make my head BOPAllAlone8 - 2 hours ago |
7 |
by Prideful_Lion
»»
23 minutes ago |
|
» As of 2025, who is your actual waifu, not seasonal waifu?IpreferEcchi - Yesterday |
27 |
by deg
»»
1 hour ago |