Task 2

  Now you know a lot about anime emotions and expressions. As you see, it's very convenient - all emotions in anime can be expressed by definite symbols. If you know this sybols, you can easily understand the emotional state of the hero. Now I'll give you a picture. You should look at it carefully and try to understand all the emotions expressed on the faces. Write your variants with your own explanation.

If you want to have some play or to revise, please, use it before you start your homework:

http://www.umich.edu/~anime/fun_emotional-yukino.html

Emotional Iconography

What does it mean when an anime or manga character gets a bloody nose, or grows a giant sweatdrop next to her face? All these are uniquely Japanese symbols used in anime and manga, intended to communicate a particular emotion.

Embarassment Blushing is a common way of showing embarassment or romantic feelings in any culture. In anime and manga, however, various forms of blushes are used liberally to signify almost every grade of feeling. A slight embarassment might be indicated by tiny red lines across the cheeks, a more deeply felt embarassment might provoke a thick red line across the nose and cheeks, and something really embarassing might cause one's whole face to go red!

Yukino blushes just a little bit.		Yukino blushes a lot.

"Blushing" in blue still carries the connotation of embarassment; however, this usually indicates embarassment mixed with anger. It seems to indicate that the person is almost frozen with embarassment! This is frequently accompanied by evil-looking eyes, and perhaps a sweatdrop or an anger vein.

Yukino is angry and mortified.

In other situations, sweatdrops might form beside a character's head. These sweatdrops also indicate embarassment, the severity of which is determined by the size of the sweatdrop and, sometimes, the number of sweatdrops. This generally indicates a less severe sort of embarassment than the blue blush and a less romantic type of embarassment than the red blush.

Misty is extremely embarassed.

Emotions

When a character gets extremely mad at something, a stylized vein might appear on their forehead or fist. These "anger veins" can be used liberally, though not necessarily realistically. Curtis Hoffman writes that "...this gets carried to extremes, as in the manga where an identical vein pops up three different places on the back of a guy's hand."

Yukino looks very scary.

A bloody nose doesn't mean that a character is actually injured - rather, it means that he (the afflicted character is seldom a she) is thinking lustful thoughts and/or looking at a beautiful woman. But what does the bloody nose have to do with lust? Gilles Portras, author of The Anime Companion, wondered the same thing: "So I asked a few Japanese and got a variety of pseudoscientific, and occasionally embarassed, explanations about humidity and blood pressure. But the best response I got was from one fellow who simply recounted that when he was a child he was told by his mother that if he stared at a pretty woman he would get a bloody nose."

Takeo envisions two of his friends doing whatever he wishes.

When anime and manga characters cry, they -cry- . One form of crying comes in "tear lines," where two wavy lines are drawn from each eye to the bottom of the face and filled with white to indicate that the character is crying. A more exaggerated form of crying takes the tear lines off the two-dimensional space of the face and arcs it out into the sky, making it seem as if the character is crying whole waterfalls. These forms of crying are not generally serious; in serious, dramatic situations, the crying is much more subdued.

Tear lines are used frequently...		...and tear waterfalls show even more misery...		...but extremely emotional moments don't need waterfalls.

Eyes

Tezuka Osamu, the father of anime and manga, drew the eyes of his characters large so that they could express more emotion; to this day, the eyes are the most expressive parts of an anime character. The eyes of someone good and innocent are large and childlike, while someone who is more conniving and sneaky will have smaller eyes. Evil characters have the smallest eyes of all. When an anime character is expressing emotion, the eyes can do several different things to reflect their mood.

Nuriko is quite innocent...		Yui is less innocent...		...and Soi is not very innocent at all.

A normal anime character can get "evil eyes" when thinking evil thoughts or reacting angrily to a situation. The evil eyes are often accompanied by a blue blush, an anger vein or a sweatdrop, depending more specifically on the case. Happy eyes, however, are much more common. The anime character's eyes turn into two thick half-circles, giving him or her an extremely cute, delighted look. Both male and female characters can have that form of "happy eyes"; peculiar to females are the starry-eyes. Females with otherwise normal eyes will suddenly have their pupils grow to huge sizes, and stars and dozens of little white spots will appear. This signifies extreme happiness, and is also a parody of eyes in some shoujo manga and anime, where the eyes of all the girls are drawn like that, all the time!

Ash's mother is very proud of him!		Misty looks very happy and cute.

Super-deformation

Super-deformation, when a character is drawn "deformed," with much less detail and much more cuteness, has no real catch-all meaning. It might be done to make the characters seem cute, or to indicate that they're not being serious. It might be used when they're embarassed, or when they're happy. If one had to assign a specific meaning to super-deformation, one could say that it means the characters are being playful and not all that serious, but it is impossible to pin it down completely.

Super-deformed Yukino enjoys herself.

Task 1

So, you have read about the history of Japanese standards of art in anime and manga and now you know some more interesting facts about that. Please, try to write a small essay in which you'll realise all feelings and emotions you have when seeing anime. Is it differs from our technique of drawing cartoons? Is it good or bad for children? For you? For people in your country?

Have a good luck!

Understanding Cultural References In Japanese Anime And Manga.

Ever wondered why anime characters have big eyes or wear beads? This article gives you an insight into Japanese culture, as seen in anime and manga!

Most Japanese anime is, obviously, made for a Japanese market, meaning American viewers will be unfamiliar with much of what they see. While some of this unfamiliarity adds to the pleasure of watching, some facets of Japanese culture could stand to be explained.

The Eyes:

The large, shiny eyes that have become a staple of anime style are actually more a product of history than of culture. In the past, characters in American and European cartoons, such as Betty Boop and Felix the Cat, had disproportionately large eyes. This style was emulated by Tezuka Osamu, one of the most influential founding fathers of anime. Today, this distinctive eye style has become a matter of the animators' preference. Large eyes often appear on women and young children to make them appear more innocent. Although most American viewers are familiar only with this particular eye style, many of the characters in cartoons shown in Japan possess much more normal eyes.

Various Prefixes and Suffixes:

Although an anime may be dubbed in English, many Japanese "add-ons" are left attached to characters' names. These prefixes and suffixes do not have direct English translations, but their meaning is easily understood.

The suffix -sama is a term of the utmost respect, such as one would use when talking about the Emperor or God.

The suffix -san is used for general politeness.

The suffix -chan is a term of endearment, used only between family members, close friends, or romantically involved couples. The suffix -kun is often added to the end of a young man's name. The honorific o- added at the beginning of names and some common nouns has a duel purpose. It is used as both a term of respect and as a means to "soften" statements and requests that would otherwise sound too sharp.

Strange Hair Colors:

Outrageous hair colors are common in anime, despite the fact that no culture, anywhere, considers them the norm. The reason for this is surprisingly simple. When a manga series (Japanese comic book) or anime has been selected for U.S. release, the characters' hair color is often changed so that viewers will be able to tell the difference between very similar-looking characters.

Cherry Blossoms:

Cherry Blossoms ("sakura" in Japanese) are evident in many anime, including Peacock King and X 1999. In Japan, blossom-viewing parties and picnics are standard fare during the springtime, when the flowers fall as thick as snow. Cherry blossoms are also considered to be a symbol of a life cut tragically short and, for this reason, they are often added during a death scene to give the anime that extra dramatic flair. Sakura is also a very common girls' name.

Money-hungry Women:

In Japan, women are responsible for managing the household budget. Men bring home wages and women dole out allowances to their husbands. For this reason, women are often teased for being either overly interested, or completely uninterested, in cash flow. Nanami in El-Hazard, Lina Inverse in Slayers, and Sakura in Key the Metal Idol were all women out to make a buck"¦many bucks, in fact.

Women with Guns:

Stereotypically, Japanese women are seen as soft-spoken and shy by the outside world. Therefore, many viewers are amazed at the number of gun-toting women characters in anime and manga. Even though Japan is still highly gender-role oriented, what most people fail to realize is that women have a very large, very important position in Japanese culture. Throughout the country's history, many women have been featured prominently for their courage and compassion. By including strong female characters, anime and manga are helping to destroy the misconception that Japanese women are weak, meek, and mild.

Left-handedness:

Although this is relevant only to manga, it is very interesting and has been included (since most anime fans also read, or at least look at, Japanese manga). It may seem that characters in Japanese comic books are all left-handed, which has led many to think that left-handedness is either an extremely common or highly respected trait. It's neither. Just as in America, most people are right handed. And that's the way they are drawn in the comic books. The switch comes when these books are marketed for the United States. Because the Japanese read from right to left, their books open opposite of the way ours do. To put them into a format more comfortable for Americans, the images are switched to their mirror-image so that the book can be read. This means that someone driving on the left side of the road in a Japanese comic book will appear as if he is driving down the right side in the American version. The same is true for any character writing with his or her right hand.

While these cultural references may shed some light on particular anime quirks, some things still can't be explained. For instance, why are women characters so often obsessed with food, and why do so many (seriously, TOO many) men dress in drag?

Hello, my readers! I want to tell you something new about anime and Japan. What can I talk about? Oh, I have a lot of interesting information for you. Let's go?