Do ugly anime characters turn you off to a good anime?

[Castor Troy]

I liked angel cop and everyone in it was butt ugly.

[Kalium]

Look at it this way, would you have enjoyed the Tomb Raider movie if an ugly woman played the lead? Be honest boys. How many girls would even have watched Interview with a Vampire if the main guys were ugly?

Would Tomb Raider have been anything worth mentioning without Angelina? Probably not.

[Arigatomina]

Would Tomb Raider have been anything worth mentioning without Angelina? Probably not.

Heh, that's the thing. ^_^; I didn't watch it because the only thing they advertised was her looks (I'm a girl, so that didn't interest me). It's the same with a lot of good anime - I only know they're good because the 'looks' caught my eye in the advertisements and I watched enough to know if it was good or bad.

If the looks are bad, who's going to watch it long enough to know how the story itself is? Word of mouth is about the only way around bad visuals -or 'blind' advertising that pushes the story instead of the animation itself.

[bum]

Look at it this way, would you have enjoyed the Tomb Raider movie if an ugly woman played the lead?

I wouldnt have enjoyed tomb raider iether way

But as to your other comments, I dissagree. If its some mindless action flic like charlies angels or tomb raider then sex is probably the most, if only appealing factor in the movie. But honestly, watch akira and then try to imagine some of the female characters being more attractive. For things with a more serios tone having "beautiful" characters for the sake of sexual appeal alone takes away from the realism, esspecialy if its somesuper cute blonde chick. Apparently its easier to draw a good looking character than an average one, so tat may have something to do with it.

[TaranT]

Beauty ideals may be hardwired
Sep 6, 2004

Beauty may not be just in the eye of the beholder after all because a sense of visual attraction is hardwired in the brain at birth, according to a British scientist.

Psychologist Alan Slater of the University of Exeter in south-western England told a British science conference that babies can recognise their mother from as little as 15 hours after birth and also show a preference for looking at photographs of physically attractive people.

"Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder but in the brain of the newborn infant," he told the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

In a series of experiments, he and his colleagues have shown that although babies enter the world visually naive, all their sensory system are functioning.

Infants show several spontaneous visual preferences. They like watching moving rather than stationary objects, prefer to look at three-dimensional stimuli and find faces fascinating.

When given a choice of two facial photographs to look at, babies usually prefer and spend more time gazing at the person who is better-looking.

"Infants prefer to look at the more attractive of two faces," said Slater.

Although a perception of attractiveness may be evident at birth, Slater said experience also plays a role in a person's conception of beauty.

source

[Scintilla]

When given a choice of two facial photographs to look at, babies usually prefer and spend more time gazing at the person who is better-looking.

The problem with this is, who decided which one was "better-looking"? It's a subjective call; certainly an agreement had to be reached by a majority of those involved with the study -- but not everyone may agree with their judgments. We'll never know.
When you combine that with the fact that they said "USUALLY" and the fact that correlation does <i>not necessarily</i> imply causation, I'm still not quite convinced.

[OtakuMan22]

Sorry, just had to comment on this:

Someone mentioned that they liked the first movie's rendition of Major Kusanagi because of the serious nature that she personified.

The ironic thing about that is that in the original manga (a must read for any die-hard anime fan, hands-down!), Masamune Shirow often drew EVERYONE super-deformed at LEAST once if not VERY OFTEN! The tanks with the little girl voices are probably something Shirow originally imagined since it's not a farcry from what's in the manga. (Hell, he even crossed over Annapuma and Unipuma from Dominion Tank Police for a small cameo!)

And here's the kicker! At the end of the manga, when he goes into his deepest most internal monologue about life and death, and evolution, and all that other stuff (you know, when the Major and the Puppet Master are talking to each other), he draws the Major super-deformed MANY times during that conversation between the two in their heads.

I just find it funny that people would like Mamoru Oshii's rendition of the story with the more realisitic and serious character designs over the often super deformed designs found in the original manga.

Course, then again... I wonder what would happen if people were shown the two Patlabor movies (also done by Oshii) and the original Patlabor OAV and asked these two questions:

Which came first?
and which design do they like better?

Hmm, I smell a case study in the making...

~Otaku-Man

[OmniStrata]

Look at it this way, would you have enjoyed the Tomb Raider movie if an ugly woman played the lead? Be honest boys. How many girls would even have watched Interview with a Vampire if the main guys were ugly?

I like pretty people in movies because half the point is the eyecandy. I don't want to look at overweight drooping woman showing off the newest clothing on the runway... Blech. Or a sagging flabby man playing superhero. Double-blech.

Sure, I'm shallow, but the looks catch your 'eye' first, the story has to hold you after that. Kuwabara (YYH) was mentioned - I love his character. It took six episodes to make it happen, but they developed him well. The looks caught the eye first, but good characterization can pull a viewer in as well. On the flip side, Aya (Weiss Kruess/Knight Hunters) is gorgeous. And he's overly melodramatic and nauseating - I hate him. The looks caught me, but the characterization drove me away.

Looks aren't everything, but they are what non-blind people "see" first. Take Akira. I've heard about that anime for years, but they're all so darn ugly I'm not paying to watch that. Ew... I'd sooner watch Ninku - at least they're ugly in a realistic way.

If I were reading a book, yes, the story would matter more than the character 'looks' as they're described in text. But give me a poster and...well...yeah. Looks matter - that's all you see in a picture - looks. Until anime advertisements show a black screen and have voice overs telling the story to get attention, looks are going to be what draws viewers in.

Note - viewers = people who look = visuals matter.

I'd have to agree with ya there. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball's [ok, off topic a bit but hear me out] director stated himself:

"This game will appeal because people above all want to see beautiful girls doing active sports. Nobody will want to play a game with ugly girls."

This isn't really a theory. It's a law. Never before have I heard from someone that they want to watch unattractive characters in a media. So sadly, if the characters don't appeal to everyone at once, it's not going to do too well. Thankfully, since tastes vary, this isn't always the case.

I was turned off to Escaflowne due to the beaky designer noses each character was sporting. The "beautiful girls" in Initial D caused me to double take with a hurl... [blech] I didn't watch that series.

Are people shallow like this? Again, sad to say yes. Some say the Love Hina anime designs vs. the manga is like, fat vs. thin. I couldn't stand Ken Akamatsu's take on [thin as a straw] sexy. The so-called "fat" anime babes in the Love Hina anime rawked mah b0x0rs. They had firm curves. Please Teacher, Mizuho, Herikawa and company all had a very defined 'realistic' fluffy shape to them. [whoa, fluffy ]

Knights of Ramune, sure they had huge boobs, but then they were all like 70 lbs. Anorexic b00bs are the toilet feed...

I like 'realistic' curvy ladies. Taraku Uon & Hiroaki Gohda can deliver... [all of the Please Series designs... ^_^]

I'm not quite sure what else to type here but my stance on realistic sexy is moving in and anorexic boobs are getting fewer and fewer, to my gratefulness...

Voluptuous owns j00

[antm717]

no of the nanime charcters look....funny or lookin ugly because who would want to watch an ugly anime charcter. i like the show inuyasha, Ghost in the shell, king of bandiat,gundam,saukai,full metal alchemist, yu yu hakusho, dragon ball gt, dragon ball, dragon ball z, samurai x trust,ruroni kenshin, samurai x reflection, read or die,

[BunofGovt]

When given a choice of two facial photographs to look at, babies usually prefer and spend more time gazing at the person who is better-looking.

The problem with this is, who decided which one was "better-looking"? It's a subjective call; certainly an agreement had to be reached by a majority of those involved with the study -- but not everyone may agree with their judgments. We'll never know.
When you combine that with the fact that they said "USUALLY" and the fact that correlation does <i>not necessarily</i> imply causation, I'm still not quite convinced.

Certainly I'd be interested in seeing the photos shown the babies. I understood that babies were attracted to bright colors and have noticed a lot of black white red yellow baby toys on the market in recent years. I'd like to know if the "better-looking" photos were visually bright and clear. I'll admit that Kurama from YYH is one of my favorite characters, but only before the Sensui arc. During the early episodes of YYH and through the Dark Tournament, the artwork was brighter and easier visually. But in the Sensui arc, the artwork got a heavier edge and (even granting the theme) darker in tone to the point of turning me off. (sigh)

But I am also attracted to all those "ugly" characters because they're more interesting, funny, and sympathetic. Yeah, the lead character should be good-looking, but he/she better have a best friend (or even opponent) who will keep me watching the series.