How To Design A Character the Square Enix Way
| Ever wonder how Square Enix approaches character design? Check out this revealing tutorial after the jump. |
-Jenni Chasteen
Tags: art, character design, featured, Game Design, parody, Square-Enix
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December 4th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Unfortunately, the Japanese idea of male beauty isn’t much different than female beauty. To them, beauty is conveyed by “innocence”. A male with long and flowing hair is considered more attractive than the western version of short hair and enhanced masculinity (sturdy jaw, short hair, muscles, a little gritty, can rip your arms off, etc.)
Square Enix has made some “westernization” of their pretty boys by giving them slightly larger muscles and some exposure of a “six pack”. However, the facial features remain just as feminine, especially the super long hair blowing in the wind look.
Since the style of Anime is purely Asian, good luck on having a western style. Frankly, if you want a western style of animation, then look to the likes of Disney, Warner Brothers, and Amblin.
Frankly, I’d love games with the Don Bluth (Disney-esque) style of animation set to an epic story like in a Square Enix game. Instead of the usual Japanese mythology centered stories of demons and bus-sized super swords, the more western styles of mythology are always relegated to the likes of WOW and Oblivion style games, which is a shame.
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Rinz reply on December 7th, 2008 7:03 pm:
Something you have completely overlooked, SuperSparky, is that originally, anime was directly influenced by western styles, such as Betty Boop and Walt Disney cartoons.
So the “style of Anime,” as you call it, isn’t purely Asian. At all.
(protip, know what you’re talking about next time you open your mouth.)
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Paul reply on December 8th, 2008 3:32 am:
“(protip, know what you’re talking about next time you open your mouth.)”
If you’ve an opposing point of view, why not give try to get it across in a slightly more grown-up fashion?
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Motion Graphics Dragon reply on December 9th, 2008 9:09 am:
Aside from the smarmy side comment, he’s right in a lot of ways. But the “Style” itself is very much based on Japanese ideals. Even if they idea of it came from older American ‘toons.
You can tell when an Anime is reflecting “American”, as they make their Characters bigger, taller, more bulky, and less “refined”. *chuckles*
Also another example of American influence is the Lodos Wars style of Enix/Square characters.
hehe. That was specificly based on a DnD game that the creators were exposed to on a trip to the US. So like all good gamers, they had to tell all about “their characters”. heh
But then some purely American animation has adopted the anime style because of its popularity. Look at Teen Titans for example. Talk about a girly physique on Robin.
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Tom Nook reply on December 23rd, 2008 11:40 pm:
“Unfortunately, the Japanese idea of male beauty isn’t much different than female beauty. To them, beauty is conveyed by “innocence”. A male with long and flowing hair is considered more attractive than the western version of short hair and enhanced masculinity (sturdy jaw, short hair, muscles, a little gritty, can rip your arms off, etc.)”
So WHAT?? It’s a CULTURAL difference, if you don’t like it stop buying Japanese games that feature these characters. But you shouldn’t expect the Japanese to change FOR YOU! That is CULTURAL IMPERIALISM!
For your information, FEMALE characters in Western games or comics (and movies sometimes too) often look MASCULINE or MALE and/or UGLY to the Japanese eye. The women of American comics are musclebound too and from a Japanese viewpoint that’s NASTY. And even Western “sex-symbols” like Lara Croft or Pamela Anderson are considered to be effing ugly, that’s why Tomb Raider was never popular in Japan.
BTW, Japan isn’t the only place where “feminine” males is the ideal of beauty, google the WOODABE, they are a people in Western Africa whose males get mirrors and makeup when they enter adolescence, because in their culture males are pround of their looks or something and they think they’re the most beautiful people on earth or something and it also gets them the (woodabe) chicks. They also have MALE beauty pageants where the makeup wearing men dance in front of the ladies, and then the ladies choose the man they find the most good looking.
Secondly,
You DO realize that Japan is the number ONE market for Square-Enix?
They still sell more Final-Fantasies in Japan than they do in the US or in Europe…
Outside of Japan represents something like ONLY 20 or 30% of sales last I read, and I bet FF is most of that chunk.
So why should their games feature a character design more suited to the tastes of markets that are secondary in sales?
For example, FF12 sales:
Japan 2 millions + 380.000
USA 1 million + 680.000
Europe 1 million + 100.000
And both the US and Europe are more peopled than Japan. The US is 2.5 times more peopled than Japan, Western Europe the same. So Japan truly is the HOMETURF of Square-Enix, whether you like it or not.
I don’t see people lamenting the fact that most US games don’t adopt character design that suits Japanese tastes, WHY should Japanese game designers be expected to then???
If you don’t like it, PLAY US GAMES. It’s only normal that a Japanese game is made to accommodate JAPANESE tastes first and foremost.
American games and movies are made with the American audience in mind too!
“Instead of the usual Japanese mythology centered stories of demons and bus-sized super swords, the more western styles of mythology are always relegated to the likes of WOW and Oblivion style games, which is a shame.”
No, it’s NOT a shame, it’s NORMAL! Jeezus… WHY should a Japanese developer make a 180 shift by adopting a character design and story aimed at westerners, when they DON’T KNOW if that change will be profitable enough???
It’s way easier to sprinkle 1 or 2 bulky characters for the foreigners than to transform all the characters in Master Chefs, because they’d risk alienating the JP audience which is their biggest market!
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lol reply on April 4th, 2009 7:09 pm:
I TYPE IN CAPS TO GET MY POINT ACROSS!1!1
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metonyms reply on April 9th, 2009 3:25 pm:
rofl.
Chill!
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Alex reply on March 29th, 2009 5:04 pm:
Cloud > Marcus Fenix
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Chris reply on May 10th, 2009 8:31 pm:
When it comes to being an emo faggot, sure.
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December 4th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
You do realize that anime was based off of Disney styled animation right?
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anon reply on December 4th, 2008 1:47 pm:
still doesn’t change the fact that it sucks.
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correction reply on December 4th, 2008 10:01 pm:
while anime was certainly influenced by disney animation (as im sure you got that from wikipedia). Charles Schulz’s Peanut cartoon in the 50s and 60s was probably a bigger influence. The cartoon was extremely popular in Japan and many artists in japan emulated and modified the style.
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shirokiryuu reply on December 7th, 2008 7:04 pm:
That’s possible, but the “modern” anime style was influenced by Osamu Tezuka, who was influenced by Disney. (i.e. the large eye style etc.). Tezuka didn’t “invent” manga, but his style was very influential. (Tezuka also published works in the 40’s-50’s as well)
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Someone reply on December 23rd, 2008 5:38 am:
How about we just say that we were never there when anime/manga was “invented” and we don’t know what was going through the artist’s brains and stop trying to act like we know how it started. We don’t. So….. It was invented, influenced by other styles, as most art is, and created.
End of story. Bye.
Don’t reply, I’ll never see it. No, really… I won’t.
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argus reply on January 23rd, 2009 1:40 pm:
I suggest you go educate yourself before you talk.
Long before Disney ever existed, the japanese were already making the first drawings (go learn history, will you?) so your “US is the birth of comics” theory can go to the trash.
Never saw a more absurd discussion, born out of sheer ignorance of the participating parts.
“Anime” style was born in Japan and the influence that Snow White had on anime, was simply that of animation techniques (to reduce costs) while the typical “oriental” style of drawing remained. Need flashing arrows to understand this? NO DRAWING, JUST TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE COSTS! DUH?!
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December 4th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
The bodybuilder type, like Stallone or Schwarzenegger, is a gay stereotype in Japan. For an example of this, just look at Jean Armstrong in the third Phoenix Wright game. This tends to be how they see ALL big muscular guys, not just the ones who wear pink.
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Leandro Correia reply on December 4th, 2008 2:32 pm:
Even better, search for a game called Cho Aniki (Youtube has videos about it).
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Covarr reply on December 4th, 2008 4:10 pm:
I’ve played Cho Aniki, but it doesn’t seem to be quite as mainstream as Phoenix Wright, thus my example.
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anon2 reply on December 8th, 2008 1:13 am:
even better, buy it on the wii shop. =O
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Tom Nook reply on December 23rd, 2008 11:45 pm:
Yes, that is 100% TRUE!
When Japanese see a guy with bleached hair they don’t think “gey!”. They think more that guy is a delinquent (coz in Japan hair bleaching has connotations of being done by delinquents/thugs, that’s not very gay is it?)
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December 4th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Lol. I love Final Fantasy games, but this is so true.
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December 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
The Final Fantasy games are fun, but this tutorial is pretty true. I agree with Super Sparky though, an epic tale of Dragon’s Lairian proportions would be pretty bad ass. I Stumbled this by the way.
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December 4th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Thoze old disney flicks are all photoshopped anyways
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Benji reply on December 5th, 2008 8:04 pm:
Its true, I can tell by looking at the pixels.
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December 4th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
penis is always optional
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December 5th, 2008 at 1:55 am
How come you can spell asymmetrical but not midriff?
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Jenni Chasteen reply on December 5th, 2008 5:39 pm:
Because I’m an ignorant gamer. Seriously, thanks for the catch.
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December 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
you forgot about the horrible, horrible, horrible, voice acting
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TetraGenesis reply on December 7th, 2008 8:46 pm:
That’s usually true, but the voice acting for XII was phenomenal. Especially the voice actor for Balthier. I remember thinking multiple times, “Wow. That’s great voice acting.” I would literally stop and be actively impressed. Balthier’s character also didn’t fit the usual SquareEnix mold. He wasn’t the feminine archetype like Vaan, yet he wasn’t the “hardened” archetype like Basch, he fit a new kind of category for those games in all honesty. He was sly and charming, but definitely not feminine.
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Tom Nook reply on December 23rd, 2008 11:51 pm:
The horrible horrible voice acting is only in the American versions.
The original Japanese versions feature much better voice acting.
But they have to dub the game because most Americans will complain otherwise.
Unlike Japanese who will and do play games with foreign voice acting, Resident-Evil and Silent-Hill are two Japanese game series that feature English voice acting even in the original version.
I’ve never ever seen a US or European game set in Japan or a Japanese influenced environment with only Japanese voice acting.
Many Japanese users of the international versions (released in Japan) of FF games complained of the bad English voice acting, which doesn’t even sound like they’re acting, especially in FF10, sounds like they’re just reading their text…
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Matt reply on February 18th, 2009 8:23 pm:
how is having 40-50 year old women being voiced by 10 year old Japanese girls who sound like they’re having an orgasm “better”?
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Bleu reply on May 3rd, 2009 6:29 pm:
I don’t know if you realize this, but Japanese isn’t taught in American schools like English is over there.
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December 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I always felt this way about Square’s character designs. That’s why I hate playing their newer games because they make me feel like I’m at a gay bar (they work hard and play hard). Why do they need to make them look like that? Japanese style my hind leg. They just want them to appeal to women or metrosexuals.
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Secre reply on December 6th, 2008 12:48 pm:
Read Sparky’s comment, the first comment made. It’ll answer that question.
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December 6th, 2008 at 12:04 am
The reason that they make the characters so feminine is the same reason that they did the same thing in that fucking Twilight movie. It’s so that all the little teen ditzes go “ZOMG! He’s so cute! Awwwww!” and don’t realize that they just look and act very feminine. Guys just want to beat the game mostly. This isn’t true for everyone, but all they want is to appeal to the greatest amount of people even if they really piss off a select few enough to where they don’t wan to play.
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December 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
My mommy worked for Don Bluth Studios! If you’re ever watchin A Land Before Time, my mommy coloured in those dinosaurs! Well, not all of them obviously, but some of them! as you can imagine when I was a child this was the coolest thing in the entire world to me, especially seeing her name in the credits, so when I saw someone mention Don Bluth I thought I’d share.
Now so that this comment isn’t entirely spamalicious I’d better give my opinion on the post - funny and true, but I find the androgynous style of male beauty so much more attractive than the butch style that I hope Japanese design principles never change.
There’s a mildly interesting theory that women are becoming less and less attracted to dominant, alpha-male types in a sort of evolutionary attempt to restore the power balance to women.
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Midnightbrewer reply on December 7th, 2008 7:33 pm:
First of all, the more feminine design is very Japanese, and very teen-idolesque for Japan (look at any given boy band in Japan and you’d think they’d been designed by Square Enix). Japanese men have traditionally favored longer hair, and being muscular is not part of the traditional beauty stereotype at all. I teach at a Japanese high school, and all the cool guys have longer hair and are as skinny as a rail.
FWIW, I think the Western butch look appeals more to other men than it does to women, so perhaps the Japanese equation of muscle guys being gay isn’t so far off after all.
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Motion Graphics Dragon reply on December 9th, 2008 9:17 am:
There is also a physical basis to the cultural ideal. For generations before now the Asain peoples tended more towards thinner more athletic types. Their woman were petite like dolls. (Generalization here, mind you.)
With the introduction of many Western Food products and culture, many of the woman there in this day and age are starting to look more like Western Women. More shapely with larger breasts and hips. But the genetic basis for them is still a smaller frame, leaner muscle, more whip-cord-like build. Its changing, to be sure, but it is still there.
Thus their ideal is different from ours, culturally speaking.
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Tom Nook reply on December 23rd, 2008 11:59 pm:
But Western women were less shapely in the past too! It’s the modern diet. Western women weren’t that more curvy than Japanese women in past centuries.
And people in Western countries were very small too. For example in Dutch, where people ate the biggest of Europe now, in the 19th century the average man was 150cm, that is not much bigger than pygmies, and it is smaller than the average Japanese height of both genders.
And if you look at Victorian ideals of femininity, they liked frail women who looked sickly…
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pooh reply on April 26th, 2009 10:06 pm:
Not necessarily true. You’re forgetting about Latin women who have historically always been curvier, albeit shorter.
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December 7th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Wow, this is actually a really helpful guide. Thanks.
I’m liking the androgyny in these designs.
Cheers
Eric from Wheels and Wood
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December 7th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Nice drawings…
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December 7th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
This definitely trended more towards the actual implementation with Nomura’s designs but Amano’s male characters are every bit as androgynous as Nomura’s are. Tween girls and gay men are also not the exclusive demographics for whom this design aesthetic appeals too. Even beyond the previously mentioned Japanese cultural ideals for attractiveness it’s still perfectly valid for North American’s too one doesn’t need to be from some kind of distinctively “other” outside group to prefer this to Capt. BurlyArms von Faccestubble.
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December 7th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
When you say the belt part, really emphasize the belt part. Like belts coming out of mouths, ears, and a penis belt.
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December 8th, 2008 at 1:30 am
A witty and fun post that turned into a ‘I know more than you do because I’m obsessed’ in the comments.
Very entertaining tho
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December 9th, 2008 at 12:12 am
This is the coolest guide ever made. not only shows the truth, but shows how asians are fucking fags. Seriously, why not making the eyes more realistic? fuck!
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Aplopsy reply on December 9th, 2008 7:13 am:
And you my friend, show us how blatantly racist you are.
Look at yourself in the mirror and look at your own flaws before you start accusing others based on your preconceived prejudices.
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Jason reply on January 30th, 2009 6:43 pm:
Who would have thought a witless, trolling kid, calling themselves “stupeed” would be the biggest douchenozzle around?
Though I am grateful, that you called yourself something so indicative, as by the end of reading your screen name, I kind of knew that I was in for an intellectual hemorrhage.
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December 9th, 2008 at 9:23 am
This is funny to be sure. Reminds me of my room mates and they jokes they made on their own character designs.
Random belts, bits, bobs, and dangling things for mages that seem to have no purpose aside from giving the animator a brain hemorrhage! Massive guns, swords, and various other weapons of mass destruction that by physics laws would never be able to be picked up in the first place. The Elvish “massively long ears of doom” (as also seen on WoW). Monsters that have less items but some how more lines and details!
and more. heh.
Ah yes. Memories.
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December 9th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
lol wow i can’t believe gpara.com featured this.
http://www.gpara.com/kaigainews/eanda/2008120901/
i find it quite funny. :3 your tutorial is very true~
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December 11th, 2008 at 1:17 am
This is Japanese yungman!!!
http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/imgs/b/1/b1e54def.jpg
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December 11th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
NOT ENOUGH BELTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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December 12th, 2008 at 2:41 am
We all know that they got the idea for a “gun blade” from the western worlds of SPORKS
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December 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
making animated movie is lot easier than making games..
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December 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
You know it’s good satire when people are thanking you for drawing tips.
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January 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Why does anime have so many ninjas? Yes, feudal japan was relatively not so long ago, and the country stays traditional in expressing their interesting cultural past, but nearly every anime styled ‘toon or game is flooded to an almost pervasive level of martial arts and katanas and shurikens; even the cyber-punk sci-fi end of the genre relies heavily on moves heavily inspired by martial arts. I know I’m criticising unfairly here, there are many clichéd formulaic storylines in Western animation and film (scooby-doo syndrome, anyone?) and this may be the roleplayer in me (I’m not a big fan of omnipotent characters; Superman is the bane of my existence) but it would be nice to see an anime that wasn’t so driven by historic culture. I mean, aside from Oregon trail (and Fallout 3, if you’ve gotten Abe’s Repeater) I have never seen a flintlock musket in a Western style game. Maybe as a country of immigrants we are quick to relinquish past tradition in search of new culture.
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anon reply on March 14th, 2009 10:27 am:
And that is why many people say that america is “culture devoid”. They mean this in terms oflong standing tradition, architectural styles and history of course, not in that they have no theatre, literature or music of course; but there is something to be said for europeans (not so much the japanese, as it is stilla culture shock for them) to find america very culturally dead, a bland amalgamation of Irish, English, Scottish, French, Spanish, Portugese, German, Scandinavian, Italian culture etc..
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Jeremy reply on March 15th, 2009 1:54 am:
Yep because white people have absolutely no cultural background do we you arrogant weeabo. Come by New England over this next week and see what Irish culture is all about, just because we don’t scream KAWAAIIIII!!! and have six hour goddamn tea ceremonies don’t make us culturally-devoid.
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Your mom reply on March 17th, 2009 4:38 am:
All those WHITE people in AMERIKKA make me sick to be a pasty, fat white man too. You and me are so close to ridden ourselves of our gaijiness. We too shall be kawaii desu ne, Anon-chan! ^_______^
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pooh reply on April 26th, 2009 10:20 pm:
Americans have culture is just so rich and varied and already pinpointed as “someone else’s” that ppl don’t realize it’s there and that it’s theirs. The real problem here is the way of thinking. Just because italians are famous for their spaghetti it doesn’t mean that they invented it. It was actually a chinese invention, yet it would be totally unfair to say spaghetti isn’t italian. People have to understand that there is no such thing as a “pure” culture with no outside influences. It wasn’t true millions of years ago and it certainly isn’t true now with globalization and all. just sharing my small tidbit since i study anthropology and thought this was interesting. and btw, im not american.
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January 30th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I don’t know if the tutorial is lampooning the femininity of the characters, so much as how damn derivative they are. Though Western art direction isn’t exactly winning any awards for originality.
As for the pure-Japanese style? My ass.
Where do you think Nomura get’s his influence? Mid-80’s American Punk. His words.
Punks were skinny, androgynous at times and wore makeup. He just dresses Gackt in Joey Ramone’s clothes.
That throbbing head vein anime thing? Russian cartoons.
Many of Japan’s fads are based on European/American culture.
That’s a good thing too, it’s always nice to see cultures give and take from each other.
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Jason reply on March 14th, 2009 10:31 am:
cept America just takes.
and Russia ain’t part of Europe, Europe ends in Western Russia at the Ural Mountains, so only Muscovy and Novgorod are part of Europe.
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Your mom reply on March 17th, 2009 4:41 am:
America gave the world weeaboos though. Weeaboo, the gift that keeps on giving.
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Your mom reply on March 17th, 2009 4:44 am:
“Though Western art direction isn’t exactly winning any awards for originality.”
Bullshit, you’re just not looking hard enough.
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April 9th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
NEEDS MORE BELTAN ZIPPAN
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April 16th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
ok so since you guys wont shut up about
A.)cultural differences
and B.) guys being more Feminine
I am going to throw in my logic:
First:
Clearly Japan has left its mark on the Videogame industry and so has the U.S. SO JUST LET IT GO ABOUT HOW STARTED WHAT!!!!!!!!
second:
In my opinion they have made videogames to fit all points of view Kingdom Hearts for example. Guys would play it more for the story and their need to be the hero (Sora)and save the girl(Kairi).Girls would play it for the Story and to see the guy who is determined to save the girl because he LOVES HER!!!!!!!!!!!
so that was my philosophy mof the day enjoy
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bob reply on April 21st, 2009 2:17 pm:
I type RANDOM words in CAPS and ADD an unnecessary amount OF PUNCTUATION!!!!
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May 12th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Come on dude, these facts* and proof* i mean who is posting* lol
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June 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
First of all, LOL @ the original article.
Second, I am utterly clueless about anime, manga, and whatever
else you’re discussing, but it sounds like you’re saying that in Japan,
looking girly is attractive, and being toned/built is thought of as gay?
Just asking, OK?
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July 3rd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Even though there was a big argument above, I still think that the article is funny.
Besides, they release the game first in Japan, then everywhere else, THEN Australia, lol.
I think getting everything last sucks, but you can’t help it. I never really noticed that the male characters are more girly. But I guess that the next time I play a Square Enix game, I’ll have a closer look.
(Penis Optional.)
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Saeran reply on July 3rd, 2009 6:24 pm:
OH! Just remembered Vaan. Man, was he a chick, lol.
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