Of course mrstickball; we had already concluded that; but now we are looking at 'anime' that's not so focused on Western sales.
The two most obvious characteristics of the Japanese (and other North-East-Asians) are their eyes and their smooth, always falling down black hair. And it's exactly those two features they turn upside down many times in their ways of art. Striking, big eyes, and up standing hair, in many forms; and I actually love it. And maybe it's not only because of European influence, but it's really their 'fantasy', cause we can not test, what kind of artstyle they would have developed if they would never have come in contact with other people. So maybe Europeans THINK the Japanese draw characters somewhat like them, because of them, but it might be just the way some Japanese artist see 'the altered Japanese'.
But, there are of course many forms of anime, and if you only look at anime-style we, outside japan, see on average; than you might get a wrong picture of the whole anime arts. There are countless Japanese characteristics things in it, and only 1 shot of an anime, just a still picture, is easily recognizable as being anime. I must give the Japanese a lot of credit for having made such a big and beautiful fantasy world of manga and anime, unlike any other country has. Superman stops trains, en breaks down buildings, Goku destroys moons and can break down the galaxy. It's genius.
But what about the women? Let's talk games. For FF7, 8, 9 and 10 we can say, that those girls actually all had dark hair (Tifa, Rinoa, Garnet, Yuna). And I tell you, one of the things that makes FFVII so stand out in the series, is that it's the only true anime FF. The FF's before it couldn't be like that because of at least hardware limitations. And the ones after it, just didn't have the anime style it has. Midgar is like Neo-Tokyo, racing with your bike reminicent of Akira. Shinra, The Turks, with their Chinese leader Tseng (Tseng seems Chinese to me), the crazy Hojo and the lovely Yuffie and her ninja family. And from Wall Market to Gold Saucer, it's one big anime, and the characters in battle are easily the best Nomura-san has given us. And don't forget the mature humor FFVII had. Never saw it back since.
''Hadouken!''
