Look of manga characters.

In my opinion manga characters look more like Americans/Europeans that like Asian people. I mean big eyes, (in anime) every hair color imaginable... is there a reason for this? I don't want to offend anyone.

Oh God, here we go again (80 millionth time). FAQ time.

* It's a STYLE thing. I can think of numerous explanations. The only WRONG explanation is that they look like Westerners. It's not because they aren't drawn in the way you think an Asian should be drawn that they aren't Japanese. Rest assured, when an Westerner is drawn in a manga surrounded by Japanese, you WILL notice the Westerner even when they all have big eyes.

* You must not have read a lot of manga, because there are many artists who don't use the big eye technique. Again, it's a style used by some.

* Have you already looked at the eyes of a common Japanese (or other Asian for that matter)? Heck, they don't all look like Yakumo (Sazan Eyes), you know.

* The human eye is the window of the soul and is very expressive. Emotions and expressions play a big role in manga, so the use of big eyes is a natural way to express this.

* Big eyes look cuter (Disney...), Japanese are high on cuteness, so...

* Manga are black/white (most of the time). To get a better balanced page layout, an important technique is not inking the hair of some characters and only leaving the outlines. Again a style thing. Differentiation between characters is also easier. Out of this technique followed the further use of all colors for hair in anime. Do not draw ANY conclusions out of this, or I'll have to ask if you have already seen a lot of western people with purple or pink hair???

* Some manga DO take place outside of Japan. In Manga that takes place in France (like some shoujo), the use of European people seems normal, no?

* I never considered ENORMOUS eyes to be typical for Americans/Europeans. Look at your own eyes in the mirror, they aren't the size of tennis balls, are they? If you think they are, contact the world, because we want to see it.

And no, I'm not offended. Only tired. I was going to say 'look in the FAQ', but I don't see this in the r.a.m. or r.a.a faqs. Should be in it.

I agree with Peter, but maybe this can be understood better by looking again at the faces of the characters in anime and manga.

You've brought up the large eyes and the hair colour. Peter has already responded to that.

But did you notice the way the noses are shown in manga and anime? Very often, they aren't shown at all. In other cases, just a tiny shadow indicates that there is indeed a nose between the eyes.

Try to fit that into your 'Manga looks European' statement!

If however Manga artists really try to depict European characters, they will probably do so by giving them larger noses. The hair colour and the eye size or eye form is totally irrelevant to this.

Did you ever notice those little dots that appear right beneath each eye in many mangas? This is a question of style of course, some artist use them, other don't, but you've got a good chance to stumble across those little dots (or lines) that almost look like an extenstion to the lower eye-lid.

Those are dots marking the cheek bones!

Why should they want to give a special prominence to that facial