Why Men in Animes Are Drawn as Beautiful as Women

Nowadays, it has gained a lot of popularity manga and anime series, It is an indispensable part of the young age group. However, as many viewers and readers have noticed, the male characters in these series are just like like a woman is being drawn. These characters, who are almost male-beautiful, can sometimes be mistaken for women by the reader/viewer.

In fact, this drawing is done on purpose, even ancient It even has history. We can hear that you are surprised; Don’t worry, we were surprised a lot while researching for you.

The concept of a beautiful man is not a new topic for the Japanese; It appears frequently throughout East Asian history.

The best example of this in history is the woman playing female roles in Kabuki theater. Onnagatas We can give it with . Although these actors are generally people who carefully observe women’s attitudes and behaviors, they are people who are desired by many people, regardless of whether they are men or women.

Moreover Western standard of beauty The fact that it matched Japanese men exactly was also a plus for them, so they could reflect the people they were influenced by from the West in their drawings. It is not like that in our culture, but; In the West, standards such as smooth/hairless face, thinness and having less fat are actually just in japanese culture It matches the standard of beauty.

Although they have had their own standards of beauty throughout their history, it was not reflected in anime and manga before the 1970s. What do you think really happened on that date?

Björn Andrésen

Mangakas (manga illustrators) in the 1970s; David Bowie, Swedish actor Björn Andrésen He began to be frequently influenced by male icons such as. In fact, we can say that Andrésen gave this effect more, because he was almost an international icon it had become. The reason why he appeared as an icon was that, unlike many men of that period, he had a more feminine beauty.

With her smooth skin, golden hair, pure white skin and feminine stance. Japanese mangaka Andrésen, who attracted his attention, actually unknowingly became the subject of inspiration for manga. In fact, the biggest example of this is an old manga. “Year 24 Group” We can give the characters.

Year 24 Group characters.

As we get closer to today’s date, we can clearly see that they still maintain this standard. For example; popular manga and anime series Griffith in Berserk, Alucard in Castlevania, Johan in Monster It is an inevitable fact that many characters that we have not thought of yet, such as Björn Andrésen, were influenced by him.

This style of drawing even has a name today: Bishounen.

Haku character from the Naruto anime.

When we look at the meaning of the Japanese word “beautiful man/boy with feminine features” We can see that it is. These characters, who are generally drawn as tall, thin and have almost no muscles, appear in manga and anime today. In fact, even the voices of these characters are usually women.

We’re not exactly sure what the mangaka are trying to do, but sometimes even we can mistake a character for a woman while watching! In fact, if we talk about the voice actors: In the Attack on Titan anime The character of Armin actually has the same characteristics as we mentioned above. Moreover, the voice of the character Armin is really Marina Inoue It belongs to a voice actor named.

So, it’s best not to form a heartfelt bond with a character, even if it’s not real. If you’re a male viewer, you’ll be the one who gets upset at the end of the day! If you have another character in mind, don’t forget to mention it in the comments.

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