Discussion Do anime characters to anyone else elicit a sort of weird "protective" vibe that Western animated and live action characters just simply don't?

[EzraIsShy76028]

TL;DR At the bottom.

It's somewhat hard to describe in a way that makes sense, but a lot of anime characters have this sort of "innocence" and "purity" that Western animated and live action characters just simply don't.

Not sure exactly why I feel this way. Maybe Western animated characters just have designs that are too simple for me to take seriously. Like eyes that are just white circles with black dots in the middle, or having only four fingers. And for live action characters maybe I see them as more the actor portraying them than the actual character. Bad live action acting can also completely take me out of the story.

But anime characters...they generally look way more complex than Western cartoons, though at the same time they're generally a far cry from real live action actors. But it's like anime characters are the perfect middle. Complex enough to take them seriously, but also stylized enough to look different from real actors.

And anime characters seem to be sort of a combination of a general human figure but also having the traits of human babies/kittens/puppies. It's probably mainly all in the eyes, which all those three categories share. Kittens even more so though, as kittens have smaller noses and smaller mouths (when closed at least) which are very similar to anime characters.

All in all, all of these things combined make me feel REALLY bad when something bad happens to the anime characters. With Western animated and live action characters it's usually just sort of "meh," but with anime characters I genuinely wanna protect them and not see anything bad happen to them.

Not to say that I straight up like anime better than Western animation and live action. I like all three about equally. But in terms of the protective vibe I only get it from anime.

I will mention though it's more or less a "flaw" how the vast majority of anime characters tend to all kind of look the same. You can argue that "the perfect design doesn't need to be changed, no need to change what's already perfect," but variety is always nice.

TL;DR It's kind of hard to put into words, but I guess it's a combination of how Western animated characters look too simple for me to feel true empathy, and how for live action characters I tend to see them as more the actor than the character. Also most anime characters tend to have adorable puppy eyes, and I feel really bad when something bad happens to them.

 

[Forecast]

Western animation stopped caring about beauty pass the 90s, thats why. The switch from 2D to 3D made most animated characters ugly and these days only the Japanese really use the 2D animation form more.

 

[EzraIsShy76028]

Western animation stopped caring about beauty pass the 90s, thats why. The switch from 2D to 3D made most animated characters ugly and these days only the Japanese really use the 2D animation form more.

I think you are probably correct. Before the 90s characters in Western animation used to look more "pretty," like in the old Disney movies and stuff like that. However, in the 90s they introduced stuff like The Simpsons, Spongebob, Ren & Stimpy, Hey Arnold, etc, which though I don't personally think are bad shows the character designs themselves are pretty ugly. Since the aforementioned shows are comedies them being ugly might actually work in their favor, but still, ugly is ugly, lol.

And ah yeah. 3D animation can look good sometimes but a lot of the time it just looks soulless and cheap. Like the Pixar stuff (Finding Nemo and The Incredibles come to mind) usually looks pretty good, but not the generic looking shit that Illumination (Sing and Hop come to mind) and a lot of other companies make. 2D animation usually has a lot more personality. And 2D animation also ages better than 3D animation. The 3D animations made in the 90s which were considered amazing at the time look absolutely horrible today. However 2D animations made as far back as like the 1920s still hold up really well even up till today.

 

[Indrid]

It's somewhat hard to describe in a way that makes sense, but a lot of anime characters have this sort of "innocence" and "purity" that Western animated and live action characters just simply don't.

And anime characters seem to be sort of a combination of a general human figure but also having the traits of human babies/kittens/puppies. It's probably mainly all in the eyes, which all those three categories share. Kittens even more so though, as kittens have smaller noses and smaller mouths (when closed at least) which are very similar to anime characters.

All in all, all of these things combined make me feel REALLY bad when something bad happens to the anime characters. With Western animated and live action characters it's usually just sort of "meh," but with anime characters I genuinely wanna protect them and not see anything bad happen to them.

you're just describing moe

 

[Enju]

Yes I want to protect my waifus

 

[EzraIsShy76028]

you're just describing moe

Hmmm...not quite. I've seen this type of artstyle in a lot of anime that's not moe. Including a lot of mainstream anime (including a lot of shonen anime) and even some more mature and serious anime aimed at older audiences. In moe it's more intensified but from my experience it's far from only moe.

Though I have also seen some anime where the characters look more like actual Japanese people instead of fantasy cartoony characters. Like they'll have pretty small almond shaped eyes, more realistically sized mouth and nose instead of the super small ones, etc. Their hair and eye colors are also realistically black (or very dark brown) instead of multi-colored. Their body type and head size will also be more realistic than exaggerated proportions. And this type of anime was exclusively (or almost at least) aimed at purely adult audiences rather than teenagers or children.

But yeah. From my experience all anime aimed towards teenagers or children will have that similar artstyle despite not being moe, but anime aimed at adults will usually have more variety.

 

[EzraIsShy76028]

Yes I want to protect my waifus

Haha. I wouldn't call them waifus personally but I can relate to the same general feeling of wanting to protect them.

 

[Indrid]

Hmmm...not quite. I've seen this type of artstyle in a lot of anime that's not moe. Including a lot of mainstream anime (including a lot of shonen anime) and even some more mature and serious anime aimed at older audiences. In moe it's more intensified but from my experience it's far from only moe.

Though I have also seen some anime where the characters look more like actual Japanese people instead of fantasy cartoony characters. Like they'll have pretty small almond shaped eyes, more realistically sized mouth and nose instead of the super small ones, etc. Their hair and eye colors are also realistically black (or very dark brown) instead of multi-colored. Their body type and head size will also be more realistic than exaggerated proportions. And this type of anime was exclusively (or almost at least) aimed at purely adult audiences rather than teenagers or children.

But yeah. From my experience all anime aimed towards teenagers or children will have that similar artstyle despite not being moe, but anime aimed at adults will usually have more variety.

I meant moe as a concept, not a genre/art style

 

[EzraIsShy76028]

I meant moe as a concept, not a genre/art style

Oh...haha. Thanks for specifying. I should've figured.

 

[Budan]

TL;DR At the bottom.

It's somewhat hard to describe in a way that makes sense, but a lot of anime characters have this sort of "innocence" and "purity" that Western animated and live action characters just simply don't.

Not sure exactly why I feel this way. Maybe Western animated characters just have designs that are too simple for me to take seriously. Like eyes that are just white circles with black dots in the middle, or having only four fingers. And for live action characters maybe I see them as more the actor portraying them than the actual character. Bad live action acting can also completely take me out of the story.

But anime characters...they generally look way more complex than Western cartoons, though at the same time they're generally a far cry from real live action actors. But it's like anime characters are the perfect middle. Complex enough to take them seriously, but also stylized enough to look different from real actors.

And anime characters seem to be sort of a combination of a general human figure but also having the traits of human babies/kittens/puppies. It's probably mainly all in the eyes, which all those three categories share. Kittens even more so though, as kittens have smaller noses and smaller mouths (when closed at least) which are very similar to anime characters.

All in all, all of these things combined make me feel REALLY bad when something bad happens to the anime characters. With Western animated and live action characters it's usually just sort of "meh," but with anime characters I genuinely wanna protect them and not see anything bad happen to them.

Not to say that I straight up like anime better than Western animation and live action. I like all three about equally. But in terms of the protective vibe I only get it from anime.

I will mention though it's more or less a "flaw" how the vast majority of anime characters tend to all kind of look the same. You can argue that "the perfect design doesn't need to be changed, no need to change what's already perfect," but variety is always nice.

TL;DR It's kind of hard to put into words, but I guess it's a combination of how Western animated characters look too simple for me to feel true empathy, and how for live action characters I tend to see them as more the actor than the character. Also most anime characters tend to have adorable puppy eyes, and I feel really bad when something bad happens to them.

99% of anime is goyslop, how can you watch that?

 

[EzraIsShy76028]

99% of anime is goyslop, how can you watch that?

Haha, "goyslop" is a term I haven't heard in a long time, but it's a good one! But anyway, you're not entirely wrong. Though it seems like in general 99% of everything (be it movies, music, food, clothes, books, etc) kind of sucks, and the good stuff is hard to find. But thankfully I'm a person with pretty low standards anyway. A lot of my favorite things are things that other people (both regular people and actual critics included) look down upon as inferior.