Big eyes, small mouths, and crazy hair!

Let' step back and talk about a topic that is in every anime and provides a pretty big window into Japan: physical appearance of characters.

Here's a group of sisters from Minami ke:

And a group of friends from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:

And a pair of brothers from Mawaru Penguindrum:

What do these (and other) characters have in common?

• Big eyes
• Small mouths when closed, big when open
• Hair shades of browns and blacks
• Light skin colors
• Less noticeable noses

Do anime characters represent the “standard of beauty?”

Anime characters do tend to have very exaggerated characteristics (huge eyes, for example), like any drawing or cartoon might. The aspect of big eyes is indeed a characteristic that Asian cultures tend to find favorable, as well as lighter skin, and they do indeed tend to have less pronounced noses than many other ethnicities in the world, however, I don't think that they really represent what the Japanese “standard of attractiveness” is. In America, almost all of the people on TV and any sort of media are only those that our society has deemed “beautiful”. There is a huge pressure on our society that if we don't look like the models then we aren't beautiful. However, in Japan there is a different approach. There is not a big push to look like the supermodels. Instead, the goal is to look put-together and have a more natural beauty. They focus on fixing themselves up and being healthy (like having clear and smooth skin, long silky hair, etc), instead of focusing on whether or not their hips are too big or their knees too knobby.

A big question that I sometimes get when Americans see anime for the first time is “Why do the characters look white?” And it has baffled me too, once I started to really think about it. However, in trying to figure it out the answer was actually insanely simple. We just couldn't see it until we thought about it from another point of view. Say I draw a stick figure. What race and gender do you assume it is? I'm guessing most Americans would say a white male. How about a stick figure with an afro and a bow? A black girl, right? For most Americans the “standard” is white. Once an aspect is added is it obvious it is something else. That is the same way for anime characters. Since they are drawn by Japanese people, they are drawn like a “standard” Japanese person. There, everyone just assumes them to be Japanese. Not until a big nose, blonde hair, and blue eyes are added will they be seen as a white person. (See my post on foreigners!) How they act and their surroundings are really the driving factor that they are indeed Japanese, though (if anyone is in need of the persuasion). While a character may have green hair, yellow eyes, and white skin they can still be identified as Japanese by the way they take their shoes off when entering a house or by reading a Japanese newspaper.

Language corner!

美人 - びじん – bijin

Beautiful person (usually a woman)

Kanji breakdown!

日本人 – にほんじん – nihonjin

Japanese person

Kanji breakdown!

容姿 - ようし – youshi

(physical) appearance (of a person); one's face and figure

Kanji breakdown!