Ask John: What’s Up With Anime characters and Licking?

Question:
So what’s up with anime characters and licking? Whether it’s in eager anticipation of something or licking the blood off their face or weapon, characters seem to love to do it. Why is it so prevalent?

Answer:
Flexing the tongue is a very sensual visual image. Licking the lips demonstrates a provocative desire; a very tactile desire to touch and stimulate through primal means of either violence or sexuality. Running the tongue around the lips suggests kissing or other “oral stimulation.” Licking the blood from a blade is a near uncontrolled primal urge to “taste blood,” both literally and figuratively. Licking also requires very close, intimate contact. Licking another person’s face or body is an intimate, sensual act. When a villain licks the blood from a character’s face, it suggests that the villain has or desires a very close, personal, intimate contact and relationship – one that involves not just physical contact, but a deep seated connection involving parts (blood, the normally internal wet tongue) that don’t have the boundary of skin between them.

Anime is fundamentally a means of visual expression, so visual imagery like licking and making use of the tongue serves as a highly effective and evocative visual symbol. Just showing a tongue out, or a character using his or her tongue conveys more meaning in an instant than a several minute long monologue does. It’s a powerful image, which explains why it’s only used in select instances in which its symbolic strength is warranted.