I was looking around youtube again when I chanced upon this very short but funny clip. I watched it and realised that in Japanese animes, the artist makes use of the character’s eyes to depict their thinking and emotions. Though often exaggerated, it is very useful and helps bring out the emotions and the idea of what’s happening at that time.In this short clip, the girl with the two long pony tails, Asuna, is playing a banjo and trying to compose a song about chupacabras (a kind of mutant robot in the anime series magister negima). Her facial expression looks as if she’s really into her song composing and is paying a lot of attention to herself. In a way, she is very absorbed into her chupacabra music-making process. Her eyes are shut and in a very slight ‘U’ shape. In Japanese anime drawing, a slight ‘U’ shape for eyes is used to represent either a sad or serene expression. Her eyebrows are slanting downwards at the sides which, coupling with the ‘U’ shaped eyes, further emphasizes either the serene or sad feeling. Thought both her eyebrows and her eyes give the serene or sad feeling, her mouth is drawn in such a way that one side of her mouth is tilted or jolting upwards. The combination of these three expression changes the whole feeling that Asuna gives to her viewers about herself. Instead of sadness and serene, she actually looks deeply engrossed in her own music-making but because the combination of facial features also looks rather awkward, the exact meaning of her facial expression is depicting that she is engrossed in her music-making, thinking that she is doing a very good job but in actual fact, her singing is bad and so are her lyrics.
In the next few seconds of the short clip, her friend is seen sticking her head out from behind the door to peek at what she’s doing. Upon hearing Asuna’s song, her friend gets a bad shock. This emotion is brought out by the music inserted at that instant. The inserted music sounds as if a sword is drawn and this brings about an emphasis on the instant she suddenly realised that the song is going to be their theme song for chupacabras. Her facial expression looks as if she is shocked, stunned, and looks as if she just heard grave news about an impending doom. Her eyes are drawn in huge ellipse with thick black circumference. This gives her the very blank-out look. her brows are slanted downwards which give her a very frustrated look when coupled with the thin stress lines the artist has included (look around the area at the start of the brows) Furthermore, her mouth is of a huge trapezium which further emphasizes the shock she experienced listening to Asuna’s song.
To enjoy a cartoon, one must be able to understand what is going on and to be able to relate to the characters’ feelings. By exaggerating the facial expressions of characters, Japanese anime artists are able to make their anime engaging and fun. Without all these good use of exaggerated expressions and technique of using different geometric shapes and manipulating normal human behaviour such as the slanting of the brows as a non-verbal cue, the artist is able to deliver the emotion and thinking of his character freely and effortlessly.
ps. click here for the short clip to judeg for yourself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zESZmcdnJPA&feature=related
facial expressions convey a lot. its like creating a picture with our faces. and as what they always say, a pictures paints a thousand words, i guess the same goes for those that we form with our faces =)
omg.. good work, man