Ask John: Why Are Unattractive Characters So Common Now?

Question:
What’s up with the “unattractive” character designs in anime recently? Like Lain from Serial Experiments or Saya from Blood, who look so average and somnolent. Is this a result of evolution in anime art? What happened to all the super models- girls who looked like Cindy Crawford and guys who look like a young Sean Connery, common during the early to late 90s? The only anime that had unattractive character designs during that era was Akira. Although this questions is subjective, it is undeniable that a lot of recent anime has had less than visually appealing characters.

Answer:
It’s only natural to expect anime to feature highly attractive characters. After all, anime is fantasy, and it’s simply more entertaining to fantasize about beautiful characters than about characters that look like your next-door neighbors. It’s not exactly accurate to say that “unattractive” or highly realistic characters have only been introduced into anime recently, though. Careful consideration will reveal, in fact, that this is actually not even a genuine trend at all. As far back as the 1960 and 1970s creators including Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori and Leiji Matsumoto made a point of including short, wrinkled, big-nosed old male characters in their anime. In the 1980s, beside the realistically depicted Japanese of Akira and Otomo’s segment of Manie Manie, Talos of Crusher Joe has to be one of anime’s favorite unattractive leading males. Mamoru Oshii, whose output seems to vary between classic characters such as Lum & Lupin and highly realistic character designs, brought “unattractive” or realistic characters to life in his 1987 OAV Twilight Q Part 2 and his 1989 and 1993 Patlabor movies. In 1998 Serial Experiments Lain introduced a cast of “realistic” looking characters. Two years later Blood: The Last Vampire and Jin-Roh again brought highly realistic looking characters to anime. Even more recently, the 2001 Grappler Baki TV series made a point of introducing a large cast of burly, macho, “unattractive” men.

These handful of examples spaced out over a number of years seem a bit few to establish a true trend, though, especially when compared to recent series including Vandread, Noir, Love Hina, Hand Maid May, Kokoro Toshokan, Steel Angel Kurumi, Happy Lesson, Najica, and Galaxy Angel which, just within the past few years, have made a point of featuring large casts of sexy and beautiful young anime girls.

“Unattractive” or highly realistic anime characters have always been a part of anime. They exist to bring a sense of realism to their respective programs and create a degree of artistic and intellectual legitimacy. Unattractive characters make viewers look beyond superficial surface beauty and focus on story and theme instead. However, the number of attractive male and female characters in anime is virtually overwhelming, and far, far exceeds the number of exceptions.