Mukokuseki

Mukokuseki (Japanese: 無国籍; "statelessness") is the use of ambiguous racial features of characters in Japanese culture. This can be seen more readily in later anime in the fantasy and mecha genres, where characters are given Kabuki-like unnatural hair colors (for example white, red, pink, or blue hair), enlarged eyes, or dysmorphic humanoid bodies (such as Tetsuo and the Espers in Akira). Reasons behind the presence of mukokuseki may be to diversify the character roster and distinguish between individuals, but it can have cultural implications. Other aspects of physical appearance, such as disproportionally large eyes, are used to promote kawaii, or "cuteness", as seen in many shōjo anime.

It has even been implied that the large eyes could have its roots in early influences from older cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Felix the Cat. Astroboy's design is very evident of the influence from early American cartoons like Mickey Mouse and Felix.

References

Napier, Susan J. Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. Updated ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Patrick Macias and Tomohiro Machiyami. Cruising the Anime City: An Outer Guide to Neo Tokyo. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press, 2004.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, June 12, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.