TRSE: How To Draw Tutorials: Difference Between Realism and Anime

TRSE: How To Draw Tutorials:
Realism in the Arts of Anime/Mangas


Deedlit	Rei A.	Wufei	Ogami

<=== less realistic ] [ more realistic ===>

     The term "Anime" is short for Japanese Animation or any animated ("ANIM-ated") films commonly produced in Japan. "Manga" is a Japanese term given to the Anime-like graphic novels/comics and, so there is only difference between Anime and Manga: Anime is in form of animated films while Manga is in form of graphic novels (where original drawing styles are). Realism is a term given to what we see around in the real world.
    Anime/Mangas, as in matter of fact, use varying degrees of realism in respect to the varying drawing styles & preferences of the artists. Some characters in several anime series would look more realistic than some characters in other series, so any anime/manga series can be from 99% realistic to 1% realistic ("Super Deformed") just like North American cartoons.
Even the degree of realism can vary over the body of a single character, and an example is the rest of the character's body being more realistic than the head.
    "Super Deformed" (Chibizied) is a term applied to the adult characters that have been "deformed" to look like children as in case of this picture of the chibized characters from Records of the Lodoss War.
    There are some Anime/manga series containing the characters in realistic proportions, and a great example is the Lone Wolf and Cub mangas (see the picture of Ogami up there) by Kazuou Koike (writer) & Goseki Kojima (Japanese manga artist) which is most realistic Japanese manga I have read sp far. Such realistic drawing style is somewhat rare, because more realistic the drawing style becomes, more time it takes to carry out that drawing style.

Here're the examples of the characters from well-known anime/manga series
and observe how each character look different from others.
.


Usagi (Sailormoon)	Akane (Ranma 1/2)	Relena (Gundam Wing)	Hikaru (Rayearth)

Mamoru (Sailormoon)	Spike (Cowboy Bebop)	Goku (Dragonball)	Heero (Gundam Wing)

Deedlit (Lodoss)	Asuka (Evangelion)	Sasami (Tenchi Muyo)	Naru (Love Hina)

Tenchi (Tenchi Muyo)	Dwarf Cleric (Lodoss)	Ranma (Ranma 1/2)	Shinji (Evangelion)

Washu (Tenchi Muyo)	Sakura (Cardcaptor)	Bulma (Dragonball)	Lone Wolf & Cub

.
Also, here's the links to the full-figure pictures where you can check out the characters' varying body proportions in accordance with the artists' styles/perferences.

    -Characters from Ranma 1/2.
    -Characters from Cowboy Bebop.
    -Characters from Tenchi Muyo.
    -One more picture of Characters from Tenchi Muyo.
    -Deformed Tenchi Muyo characters.
    -Asuka & Shinji of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
    -Guys from Gundam Wing.
    -A shot of Goku from DragonballZ.
    -Deedlit & Parn from Records of the Lodoss War.
    -Four girls from Love Hina.
    -Kiss of Mamoru and Usagi (check out their rare realistic necks!).

You can see that the drawing styles and realism vary very widely due to the artists' style preferences, and the way they learned to draw. I once got this comment about "Pseudo-Anime" and that almost made me laugh. Considering such wide variety of those anime/manga series, there are no such thing as "pseudo-anime". ^_^;;;

The images are obtained from Anime Inn Archives and Anime Shrine and they have been modified to fit the contents of this page.