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.
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