Super deformed

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For the nuclear physics topic, see superdeformation.

Ryu drawn in a super deformed style, from the arcade game Pocket Fighter, known as Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix in the United States.

Super deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in a very exaggerated way. They are typically drawn as small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads.

The style is called chibi by some fans, though chibi is a different concept that refers more to a person's stature rather than the art style. Many amateur anime artists enjoy drawing super deformed characters because the style is considered cute and is relatively easy to draw.^{[citation needed]}

1 Japanese media
- 1.1 Proportions
2 List of examples
3 Images
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Japanese media

Promotional sign for the Japanese armed forces auxiliary

The super deformed style is part of Japanese culture and is seen everywhere from advertising and subway signs to anime and manga.

It is often also used on anime and manga in brief interjections to show an extreme or exaggerated emotion, such as anger or surprise, that would be difficult to portray or would seem out of character if expressed on a more realistic face. They are meant to be cute and are often used in humorous diversions from the storyline.

Recent trends in anime have shifted away from super-deformed character designs, yet the traditional anime character designs remain.

[edit] Proportions

In life, heads are usually one eighth of a person's height.

The head of a super deformed character is normally anywhere between one third^[1] and one half the character's height,^[2] often a golden ratio (38 percent), with the eyes taking up much of the space on the head. Some artists may use alternate proportions. There are other exaggerated proportions (such as the 1/5th proportion, as used by Tales of Eternia, etc) that are popular in anime, but are not considered SD.

[edit] List of examples

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In Gunbuster, characters appear in super deformed style at the end of an episode to explain the pseudoscientific aspects of the episode.

The Capcom fighting games Puzzle Fighter and Pocket Fighter featured characters from various Capcom fighting games, all portrayed in the SD style.
Several SNK fighting games on the Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld devices employed SD style, including Nettou King of Fighters, Nettou Samurai Spirits, Gals Fighters, and SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium.
Mortal Kombat: Deception's Puzzle Kombat copies the concept introduced by Puzzle Fighter, including the super deformed characters. These SD Mortal Kombat characters return in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's Motor Kombat.
Sega's Virtua Fighter Kids is Virtua Fighter 2 with the characters in the SD style.
Final Fantasy VII was the first in the Final Fantasy series to implement three-dimensional super deformed character models. However, in the battle mode and in many of the pre-rendered cinematic sequences, the characters were much more realistic. It is argued, though, that the use of SD animation in the game was not intentional, but instead necessary because of technological constraints on the polygon count. Likewise, many of the earlier, 2D sprite-based, games in the Final Fantasy series used SD character animation, as this was the only way to produce visible facial expressions on the small sprites. In the PC Version of the game, Unfinished models of Cloud and Jessie have been found inside the models file, suggesting that they didn't finish newer models intended for the game, this could have been due to time constraints
SD Snatcher is an RPG version of Snatcher where the characters are drawn in such style.
The Nintendo 64 fighting game, Flying Dragon, created by Natsume and Culture Brain, features two playing modes, one of them being the "SD Mode", where all the fighters are super deformed, showing happiness when they win or land a super move successfully, and showing pain when they are hit.
The recent television show Teen Titans uses super deform.
The Super Robot Wars series typically features various Gundams, Super Robots, and other mecha as super deformed versions. Close-ups of the mecha during attack animations in later games in the series, however, are proportioned normally.
A special series of Gundam animation was produced, called SD Gundam. The series was popular enough to land their own games and merchandise and also include itself to the Super Robot Wars Series.
Most of the characters from the anime Getbackers will morph into a child like form to express their emotions in any situation. Getbackers is unique in that characters are acknowledged to have transformed by their companions, causing other characters to try to exploit their smaller stature to perform specific tasks: In one episode, Ginji transforms into his super-deformed state while caught in a net with another character, who then tries to force the smaller Ginji through the holes in the net.
The title of Syd of Valis for the Sega Genesis is a mistranslation of "SD Valis", as it presents the events of Valis II in a super deformed style.
The well-known MMORPG Maple Story uses super deformed character models.
The online community Gaia Online gives each user an icon/avatar in the shape of a super deform humanoid that they can personalize themselves.
DVDs of Avatar: The Last Airbender, include shorts featuring super deformed versions of the characters, which later aired on television.
Spyboy made use of super deformed versions of its characters at the close of each issue. The Spyboy/Young Justice crossover featured super-deformed versions of both teams (created by villain "Annie Mae") as separate characters in the story itself.
Fushigi Yuugi makes regular use of SD for humorous touches, especially with the more comedic-relief characters Chichiri and Tasuki.
Ouran High School Host Club often uses the super deformed style to show emotion
Through the input of a specific move code, it was possible in Samurai Shodown II to transform your character into a Super-Deformed shape for a short amount of time. The character would be unable to perform any special moves, but was short enough to avoid many projectiles without moving.
One of the OVAs of Fullmetal Alchemist (commonly named "Chibi Party") features the Super Deformed forms of the characters that appeared in the movie "Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa"