Ask John: Why Do Anime Girls Have Big Breasts?

Question:
Since you just addressed the idea of nudity in anime, I would like to ask a question about the ridiculously large breasts that you see on some anime women. If anime characters are supposed to depict Japanese people, why do female characters have these huge breasts? Japanese women just don’t have boobs that big! Is this also a part of “fan service” or is there some other objective trying to be made here?

Answer:
I’d like to state first of all that you may be confusing anime with discussions of Barbie dolls and American super hero comics, which are also very often accused of presenting sexist, stereotypical depictions of women. It’s not my point or intention to discuss Barbie or super hero comics, though. The most prominent answer explanation for large breasts in anime is necessity. Anime is, by definition, not real. Therefore animators must draw characters in a way that makes them instantly recognizable. The easiest way to create female characters that are immediately recognizable as female is to emphasize their female characteristics. There are anime characters, both male and female, that are commonly mistaken as being of their opposite gender because they don’t have disproportionately large breasts. Himura Kenshin of the Rurouni Kenshin TV series is often initially mistaken as a girl by new fans. Ran of the samurai drama Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran and Kaori Makimura of City Hunter are often mistaken as being male because they don’t have a large bosom, and don’t act like typical females. Certainly, since so much anime is created for male viewers, many anime girls are given large breasts for titillation factor. But these disproportionately well endowed women are also often much more than mere eye candy. Characters like Miyama Mizuha of Maho Tsukai Tai and Nagha the Serpent of Slayers are intentional parodies. They have giant breasts that serve as a focal point for sight gags and comic relief. Other well built anime girls that instantly come to mind, including the original Dirty Pair, Aika Sumaragi, Captain Tita and Lemnear, Saeko Nogami and Faye Valentine, reveal very capable and intelligent minds and personalities in addition to their more obvious assets. These women are characters and characterizations. They represent a sort of ideal women: a super-model body with a keen intellect and enough physical stamina to beat up men.

And not all anime girls are unusually endowed. For every anime girl with large breasts, there is another with a small, or very human sized bosom. Akari Kamigishi of To Heart, Yawara Inokuma of Yawara, Meow of Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran, Meryl Stryfe of Trigun and Hitomi Kanzaki of Escaflowne are all good examples of anime girls that have very realistic, human proportions. In fact, small breasts are even a running joke for Lina Inverse of Slayers and Kaori Makimura of City Hunter. Anime is fantasy, after all, so you take the good with the bad. Anime does present a lot of female characters with large breasts, but I’d say that this trend isn’t a negative or sexist one, as there are an equal number of anime girls that don’t have a giant bosom, and in most cases, the girls that do have large breasts are rarely minimized to mere sexual objects or stereotypes.