One of the things that really ticks me off is that most of the people who don't understand anime have either never watched it, assume that all anime is hentai (e.g. tenticle rape, etc), or base all their opinions off of anime from the early 1980's.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>"most of these anime chicks have very bazzar proportions (if you don't believe me, go check out Lowtax's guide to making anime)..."[/quote]
Allow me to run through Lowtax's little guide (yes, I know it's supposed to be satirical, but bear with me)...
STEP ONE: The Waistline.
Female waistlines should be between 1/2 and 3/4ths the size of the subject's shoulder width. The really "hot" Anime girls that many people still living in their parent's basement will masturbate to have a waistline that can only be measured by an electron microscope. Generally speaking, a good Anime woman should look like her entire upper torso will snap and fall off if she tries to turn around or a particularly strong wind blows by.
Let's take a look at a typical anime girl. I'll use my previous picture of Rei to demonstrate, as it's a nice front shot...
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Rei_waist.jpg
Doesn't look too disproportional to me. According to Paint Shop Pro's ruler, her waistline is only about 1.5 cm shorter than her shoulders. That means that her waistline is roughly 5/6ths of her total shoulder length. Close, but no cigar. Strike one for Lowtax...
STEP TWO: The Boobs.
The female breasts are, of course, the focal point of any Anime character (except the men, whose bulbous and bloated necks draw all the attention). The boobs should be at least twice the size of the head and should be so big that they could conceivably contain enough Anime action figures to supply the next Gencon. When working on the breasts of your next female character, ask yourself the following questions:
1. If this person existed in real life, would she have such chronic back problems from supporting her breasts that she would be begging for somebody to put a bullet through her skull? (ANSWER SHOULD BE "YES")
2. If this character were wearing a loose shirt, would there appear to be two 90-pound, gigantic, bloated ticks hiding under it? (ANSWER SHOULD BE "YES")
3. Are the character's nipples drawn in such a fashion that they appear to be tiny volcanoes made out of pink flesh? (ANSWER SHOULD BE "YES")
It doesn't matter if you go overboard and make the boobs too large, as no Anime fans will likely realize it. If they do manage to notice, they sure as hell won't complain, as it's difficult to type curse words with only one hand.
Now I'll use the second picture of Rei to demonstrate, as it's a semi-side view...
http://www.animeinn.com/gallery/E/evangelion/pics/Rei/rei074.jpg
Those sure don't look like "two 90-pound, gigantic, bloated ticks". They're not even "twice the size of her head", as Lowtax suggests. Is this a rare case? No. It's quite common, actually. A lot of people seem to share a common misconception about anime, and that is that it's nothing more than young girls with obscenely large breasts prancing about in outrageously tight outfits purely for the benefit of horny teenage boys. That couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, not one of my favorite characters has overly-large breasts (hell, most of them are d*amn near flat-chested). I guess that's strike two for Lowtax...
STEP THREE: The Legs.
The legs and thighs should make up roughly 75% of the entire vertical build of your character. This allows your character to run really fast and wear skirts with a hemline shorter than a pencil eraser. In an ideal world, women would simply be two large eyeballs lumped on top of a couple gigantic breasts resting on 8-foot tall legs. All the other nonessential parts, like the ribcage, arms, and neck, can be safely discarded and used on your next drawing of the uber-demon bent on destroying Neo-Tokyo2.
Again, let me use my first picture of Rei to demonstrate...
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Rei_legs.jpg
Gee, according to my ruler, her legs look to be about 5/4ths of her upper torso, or just slightly over half her total body length (and that's measuring from the very tops of her thighs all the way down to the tips of her toes). That's almost exactly what it should be. Geez, strike three for Lowtax...
STEP FOUR: The Eyes.
Female eyes should be disproportional to the entire width/length of the face, and should be large enough to contain the nose and mouth inside each eye. Wide eyes are usually a sign of innocence and childhood, and since the legal age for consensual sex in Japan is "anytime after the zygote stage," this is a big turnon. Grotesquely large eyes are also characteristic of various bugs and insects, and many Japanese businessmen probably wouldn't have a hard time engaging in sexual intercourse with those either, assuming somebody put boobs on them.
No pictures this time. I don't need them.
Yes, anime characters have very large eyes. It's what makes anime anime. Do you know why they have large eyes? Because, like Lowtax said, they're a sign of youth and innocence. However, whereas Lowtax tries to villafy these traits by comparing them to child pornography, I prefer to think of it this way. Everyone loves puppies. Do you know why? Because puppies have large features. Big eyes, large paws, over-sized ears. These things are seen as being cute. If puppies weren't cute, their parents wouldn't want to take care of them. It's the same way with humans. Over-sized features (especially facial features) are seen as being cute. It's hard-coded into our genes. As a result of this, to make anime characters cuter, they're given overly-large facial features. What's the harm in that?
STEP FIVE: The Hair.
Hair should NEVER be the color of normal human hair! NEVER! This would insinuate that some small aspect of human beings are actually attractive, and this is shunned in Anime. Acceptable hair colors include neon pink, neon green, neon blue, neon neon, fluorescent neon, orange, and any color you can find by opening a random cannister of Kool Aid in your local grocery store.
In addition, the hair should not behave as normal hair would. It must have the consistency of an asbestos quilt and be able to pull off remarkable stunts like standing straight up or maintaining the exact same position for days.
There are plenty of anime characters that have perfectly normal hair. Don't believe me? Observe...
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Belldandy.jpg http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Naru.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Suu.jpg http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Skuld.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Sakura.jpg
Nary a neon-colored hair in the bunch, and that's just out of the very select group of my favorite characters. The fact is, for every green, blue, purple, or pink-haired anime character in existence, there are literally ten times that number with black, brown, yellow, or red. Oddly-colored hair isn't exactly unrealistic either. Let's not forget that some people dye their hair all sorts of colors. I've seen quite a few people walking down the street with bright green, blue, or red hair.
Well, it seems I've successfully proven that Lowtax doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, and it appears that my rant is almost finished as well. For those of you wondering why I would waste my time writing this message, the answer is simple:
1: I like to debate things, especially when the topic is something I enjoy.
2: It gives me an excuse to flash more anime picures.
3: I just generally enjoy hearing myself talk.
Thank you, and goodnight.
-Keiichi
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/Sig01.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/morisato_81/
[This message was edited by Keiichi on Jan 14, 2001 at 02:32.]