| To categorize something good or bad, you first have to know its function. Then you can tell if it succeeds or fails. The same can be said for character design. So, what is the function of a character design? Look pretty or cool? It can be that, but it's never just that. There are four basic things a character design needs to be successful: Appeal Information Recognizability Uniqueness 1- Appeal: Appeal can mean a lot of different things, depending on the field of art. It's not looking pretty or cute. A character can be considered ugly and still have appeal. In character design, appeal means catching people's eyes and making them curious about the character. However, people are attracted to different things, so character design also involves working for different demographics, with different ages, genders, hobbies, etc. That's why character design is remarkably different between shounen/seinen and shoujo/josei for example. And even within those groups there are more sub-sections.  Appeal also varies depending of the genre. For example, if you put a super scary girl on a moe anime, it won't work. Sure, it will catch people's eyes, but they will disappointed after watching the anime, because you offered something you didn't give them. So, to sum things up, you have to ask yourself the following questions: -What is the age of the target demographic? -What is their gender? -Does the design attracts people's attention? (Like, would it make you stop in the middle of the street to look at it?) -Does the design makes people want to learn more about the character? If the character design can successfully attract attention of its target demographic and make people curious about the character, then it had appeal. Appeal can make a lot of people interested in the work. Most of the times it's what makes them check out the synopsis. It's probably happened to you. It certainly has to me. For example, Gochiusa. I was checking an anime chart back then when I saw the promo poster. That time I had no idea what a "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" anime was. It caught me my attention. The girls were really cute, and there was a special charm to it, specially Chino. And the rabbit. I read the synopsis. Uninteresting, seemed very dull and boring. So, I didn't try it. Some time later, I got familiar with the CGDCT genre. Guess what's one of the first animes I tried watching? Yep, Gochiusa. No one recommended me, I didn't read any reviews. Those designs were stuck in my head the whole time. Just a single trigger was needed to make me watch the show. See what I'm talking about? In that case (and in most moe anime), cuteness plays a big role in the appeal. It's certainly not all of it (I've seen plenty of other cute girls), but it's a requirement for success. 2- Information "The face is no index to the heart." That's true IRL. But not really in character design. One of the goals of character design is to inform the reader about the character. This is something very related to archetypes, but it can be far more than that. The design must match the character. A good design will fit perfectly with who the character is, and anyone who sees the design can guess what kind of character that is. Why is this important? Because the way the character is will shape how you see him. As actors aren’t used to portray animemanga characters visually, the way these are drawn will be part of their “performance” (in the case of anime, animation and VAs will also be part of it). So, the more the characters look like themselves, the more believable their performance will be. It also helps recognition. The most basic information a character has to give is his role in the story. Is he the hero? The villain? The love interest? The sidekick? This helps viewers place characters in the story, and build certain expectations towards them, which can also be broken. In some special cases, a character mustn’t look like he exactly is, but how you want him to appear to the viewers. If you want to surprise them, for example, in a plot twist in which the sidekick is actually the villain; the sidekick must look like a sidekick (there can also be some hints and foreshadowing, that make things even more interesting). Other necessary information is the personality. Tsunderes have to look angry and scandalous, kuuderes have to look cold, danderes have to look shy, etc. This is especially interesting in anime, because fans of specific archetypes will look for girlsguys that look like what they’re looking for. Deeper aspects of personality can also be conveyed, such as altruism, courage, intelligence… And some stuff that is even deeper, such as backstory, can also be portrayed, or at least hinted. It’s not meant to instantly spoil the viewer or even tell him something in the beginning. Sometimes, it can only be understood when it is revealed in the story. For example, a shounen hero guy wears a pink ribbon in his wrist, that doesn’t match his clothes at all. Some viewers may think the character designer was drunk when he put that there, or that it’s just something to appeal for girls. But, later it’s revealed his sister died and that ribbon was hers, and that she’s the reason he keeps fighting. Got it? Next time, I’ll talk about the two remaining functions: recognizability and uniqueness. |
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| Appeal and information are different, but an informative design is very important in order to be appealing. The reason Rias is sexier than any other girl in DXD is because her design is more informative. The confident look in her eyes, the figure, the RED hair - all of it screams sexuality. The other characters don't embody their personalities that way. They don't really have any. Koneco is a cold loli. Asia is a nun. Akeno is nothing. Rias embodies an idea, a type of person and her look and posture always points to it. |
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TheBrainintheJar said: Appeal and information are different, but an informative design is very important in order to be appealing. The reason Rias is sexier than any other girl in DXD is because her design is more informative. The confident look in her eyes, the figure, the RED hair - all of it screams sexuality. The other characters don't embody their personalities that way. They don't really have any. Koneco is a cold loli. Asia is a nun. Akeno is nothing. Rias embodies an idea, a type of person and her look and posture always points to it. Well, in order to have an appealing 'character', then, yes, information is necessary. However, using your example, what if Rias was a very shy and introvert girl who didn't even know what was sex? Her design would still have appeal, because people would look at her and be interested in the series, but it would not be informative or believable. Her "character" would not have appeal, because her image would contradict who she is, and her 'acting' would be lacking, as character design is one of the elements of acting in anime. Besides, viewers would feel tricked, because they were expecting something, but got something else entirely. The series wouldn't even be successful, probably. It would appeal to the wrong people, who like more outgoing and sexual girls, and those people would probably drop it. So, a character design can be appealing without being informative, but the 'appeal' would probably be towards the wrong people and the 'character' itself would lack appeal. |
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