LAUAN501 : Animism animation

LAUAN501 - Study Task 5 : Practical proposal

For my practical answer to the research question, I intend to create a character design that in theory, would have the most appeal to Japanese male audience. Apart from being a topic that is the closest to my future career aim (Concept artist and character design) which I’m extremely keen on, Japanese media culture has always been a fascinating and appealing subject for me, given my roots allowed me to grew up under that cultural influence bubble. The activities included in this practical answer would include at first , some slides in my visual sketchbook to support some theoretical assets in my essays i.e The difference in aesthetic and culture between Western and Easter media, case studies of Vocaloids or Japan’s obsession with school girls , idols, anime and games.

After this initial pages, I would start the design process almost like your are creating a game character , where I would present  a series of “base models” – from which you can choose and move on to select from a variety of options for hair, limbs, outfit , personality,… all being supported by theories of bishoujo, moe , and even theoretical examples of Japanese beauty trend. Perhaps, I can even put up a poll online to see how the internet would create an appealing character. Overall, at the end of the process, I’m looking to have a, or a series of characters ( which can be either presented in artboards , turnaround or any other way). Whether it’ll actually looks good, or it will turn into a grotesque Frankenstein experiment. That will be interesting to see

LAUAN501 - Study Task 4: Overview Triangulation

Final question at hand : What consideration is taken when designing a female character for the Japanese male audience.

General information : design of a appealing female character make use of "bishojo" features which stems from the contemporary standard of beauty for Asian women in general, but also make use of cultural trends/ fetish such as the fascination for highschool girls or idol to inject the "moe" factor into the character which is truly what make them popular with male fans. Moe means a burning passion for something and the word itself balance between innocence/purity and sexualisation/fetish.

Core text:

-International perspective on shojo and shojo manga : The influence of girl culture ( Masami  Toku)
-Recreating the Japanese man - Sabine Fruhstruck, Anne Wathall
-Beauty up : Exploring contemporary Japanese body aesthetic 
-Understanding Manga and anime
-Moe manifesto: An insider look at the world of manga, anime and gaming
-The art of drawing manga and comic book characters 

Case study : Vocaloids - Digital idols
=> An example of how popular can a digital design be in the context of Japan, where these digital idols combines bishojo and moe traits to create a sense of endearing , caring and protectiveness over millions of fans world wide => Often enough , the sense of pure , innocence and youthfulness

Practical work
- exemplifying some Japanese design compare to their Western counterparts
- Breaking down the characters by body parts to, in a Frankenstein kind of way , finding out what aspect for what part have the most appeal and in the end putting it all together to create the most " appealing" character of all.

LAUAN501 - Study task 3 : Images and Theories

Selected terms :

Bishoujo : "pretty girl", the characteristically Japanese style of design beautiful-looking female characters which made up much of the majority of the current anime / manga media

Moe: meaning a burning passion for a particular subject , that subject here being the characters
=> a slightly abstract series of design traits that make the character more appealing to a particular group.

These 2 concepts are created and geared toward the Japanese/ Asian audience in mind , as it aligns more with what many Asian culture considered as the "standard" of beauty, however it has start to slipped more and more into Western media as well

   

 

 Typical examples of "bishoujou" characters : 2B from Nier Automata and Asuna from Sword Art Online. Although designed to be in different mediums (3D and 2D) they all share the same "bishoujou" traits that again are considered real-life beauty standards in asian culture :

+ Big eyes

+ Slender figure / arms and legs 

+ V-line jaws

+ Petit mouth/ nose  (particular for Asuna and other 2D characters

+ Smaller more petit bodies => larger heads. 

Age is also an important aspect, as bishojous are typically very young characters or if are designed to look younger than there actual age, which relates to the controversial topic of the obsessiveness of Japanese culture with young girls / schoolgirl, which you can observed from mangas to Idol groups.

This also tides in with the concept of "Moe" as younger characters like the above usually invokes in the audience a sense of protectiveness and loving - similar to how you would react when seeing a cute puppy perhaps => the design/ characters are regarded as very Moe.

The fact that how Japan and Asian cultures have becomes such avid supporter of and where to lines when it comes to political correctness , feminism, Western ideals and difference in culture can be an interesting theoretical debate, while on a more practical aspect, we can ask how effective this style is in creating an appealing characters. 

 

Sentient Landscape