Irises (and pupils) in anime

[zimlord]

[Barinax]

^That's scary.

[Action_Bastard]

WHOA! :eyepop:

[Zaque]

^ seconded

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

Watch Bambi. The anime eye borrows a lot from the way Disney portrays animals eyes.

you're correct

nearly all of anime from its humble beginnings through the 1970's were some kind of copy from Disney animations

@ zimlord, lol

[Iron Rooster]

Thank you Zimlord! That's a perfect, yet bizarre, example of just what I'm talking about!

I understand the big eyes in anime. It makes it so easy to convey emotions through characters. Now, large irisesin relation to the large eyes, I dunno. As far as I know, not all animators choose that style.

[Formless One]

Is there even a real reason beyond style? I mean, think about the memetic mutation that can happen when one series uses that style for reasons that get lost to time, but the series is successful. Other creators see the success and imitate. They get some success with their audience, and someone decides they like eyes with small to nonexistent pupils, and their show includes it. Keep going, and eventually it just becomes standard for a type of series to make that stylistic choice. The original reason for the choice gets lost to time, because of copying and stylistic evolution.

A good example of this are western series that use anime style and aesthetic, thinking they are going to cash in on the audience, and not knowing that the style originated in Disney films, not Japan.

Just keep that in mind. Someone may know the original reason for it, but I think a lot of it is just imitation.

[Mr. Tines]

The big-eyes thing harks back to Betty Boop and her ancestry.

What is interesting is the variety of renditions, from just flat disks of iris-like colour (e.g. Utena), through various grades of shading and pupil.

PS: Apart from Sui Saeki(whatever) from Rozen Maiden, are there any other characters in anime with Heterochromia?

Both Boku (aka boatlights-chan) and Desu; there are others (go ask on /a/, they'll fill a thread with examples -- I'm drawing a blank apart from one weird glimpse of Aaeru in Simoun ep 4, which is not relevant).

[Sailor Star Dust]

So apparently with eyes in anime or at least in Eva when Shinji freaks out, his eyes dilate instead of contract or vice-versa? Why the screw up? Should it just be chalked up to "it's only anime"?

[Zaque]

^ "dramatic effect that gets the point across" :P

[SeanTucker]

The guy's eyes are Haruhi's eyes from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

The hamster's eyes are Boota's eyes from TTGL.

Yes, I'm a nerd.

[zimlord]

you forgot the glasses and the mouth. that's 2 out of 4. 50 PERCENT!!! A WINNER IS NOT YOU!

[The Imperialist]

Well, aside from a style that got embedded after decades of manga (aside from the 'gekiga' style which is more realistic) what I think is defamilirisation from reality, and as a kind of emphasis of its uniqueness.