Mar
26
2008

Why are anime eyes so big?

Offbeat By Shay

So why do anime characters often have such large eyes or corneas? They wear contacts.

At least that’s what a Thai Acuvue contact lenses advertisement suggests.

It’s a cute and pretty fun ad campaign. Throw out all your Tezuka, ‘shows emotion’, and other reasons because it’s in the contacts baby. But then why must some characters wear glasses? A fashion accessory? I kid.

Acuvue Define: Boy
Acuvue Define: Girl

via Ads of the World

47 Responses to “Why are anime eyes so big?”

  1. By Apple on March 29, 2008 at 2:43 am

    Awwww…so kawaii~~
    I like the answer “They wear contacts”…haha

  2. By modemlooper on March 30, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    LOL they should make real anime contacts

  3. By Sillysweetie on April 1, 2008 at 9:04 am

    Hahahahaha so true they wear contacts!! It’s sad those contacts don’t fit my eyes :P

  4. By Shay on April 1, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    Yeah, last time I checked, Acuvue contacts dont look that cool :P I don’t think they’d fit me either ^^

  5. By Bapes on April 4, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    LOL! I have always wondered about that. There eyes always look so huge. I guess I know why now. LOL!

  6. By Nicole on April 13, 2008 at 8:58 pm

    LOLOL oh cool i want one , so i can scare a friend or two

  7. By Mishy on April 13, 2008 at 9:20 pm

    LOLOLOL.
    @nicole: i wouldn’t want one, i’d want two xD

    i want’em to stare at people
    yesthatsoundsfreaky.
    XD

  8. By art student on June 24, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    well when you look at the rest if the face its rather simple so 90% of a charector’s expression is through his or her eyes

  9. By Name on November 25, 2008 at 7:04 am

    i think its cute

  10. By yon on February 4, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    they do make anime contact

  11. By yon on February 4, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    they do make anime contacts

  12. By Emily on March 6, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/08/11/anime_eyes/print.html

  13. By Dylan on March 31, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    wow….that’s sooooo weird!
    All anime people look better with contacts then….wow

  14. By How to Make Big Anime Eyes | My Disguises - We Love Costumes on April 23, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    [...] Have you ever wondered why Anime characters have such big eyes? According to SparkPlugged, it’s because they wear contact lenses. LOL, [...]

  15. By Smo on September 30, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    The large eyes are representative of western Caucasian people. Far eastern peoples eyes are usually smaller, and just the same as when, for example some bigoted person from the US says: “omg… look at those tiny slit eyes!”, they are also thinking: “omfg, how the hell do these people fit their eyes into their heads!!?!?” – its a facination.

  16. By UpBear on October 27, 2009 at 5:07 am

    @Smo: Not sure if you were kidding there, but that is not actually true. The Japanese manga art style was heavily influenced by Disney. Mickey Mouse, Snow White, and many other characters from Disney have quite large eyes in proportion to their face. Well this eventually became more and more exaggerated to become what it is today.

  17. By Crystal on October 27, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Where to buy anime contacts? I want one!

  18. By bananan on November 7, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  19. By Yuuki Chan on November 29, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Yes they are huge because Japanese people think it is very cute! I love how they make eyes! No those are not contacts, they are their real eyes. It makes them cute and makes them want to hug them. Don’t embarass anime!!!! ANIME IS AWESOME!!! ;)

  20. By heyheyhey on December 22, 2009 at 10:34 pm

    @modem something or other, they do make them. IDIOT

  21. By kleigh on March 29, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    they do make real anime contact lenses. somethin japan has come out with

  22. By Shane on May 30, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    Not all Asians have slitty eyes Smo. Don’t be so ignorant and naive.

    I’ve seen full blood Asians have large eyes. Large eyes is not just a Caucasian feature, it’s found in Africans, Asians and some other races. I’ve met a lot of Asians, and almost none of them had narrow eyes except for like 0.1% of the ones I met.

    Their eye size depends on what region of Asia they come from. Some Asians, depending on their region can have differing characteristics like yellow skin, pale pinkish skin, even brown skin.

  23. By Blappy on May 30, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    @ Smo,

    No race has eyes that huge. It’s just an anime style. Large eyes in anime portray innocence. The large eyes is based off of children, who are innocent, and have larger eyes in proportion to their face, opposed to adults.

    People who market toys, cartoons, or anything know that big eyes and small mouths and noses appeal to audiences. Because those features are reminiscent of infants, and people are likely to buy cute things. That’s why people buy teddy bears, and it’s a proven marketing technique for a while. This has been going on long before anime ever came about.

    I wouldn’t expect a grade-schooler to know anything about advanced marketing though. Go back to your Kids Bop and eat ramen while pretending to be Naruto.

  24. By Mysti on June 1, 2010 at 9:10 am

    It is indeed to show emotion, anime characters expressions focus more on the eyes where western characters expressions focus more on other features.
    It makes the details of the eyes much easier to draw and see, western characters usually have black dots becuase it’s hard to draw detail at such a small scale.

    BTW The cornea is the clear lens on the eyes, and does not effect how the eyes look, the word your looking for is probebly iris or pupil.

  25. By KH4ever on June 3, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    did u knw they actually make large contacts you can buy them online!!!
    i would totally buy them if i wasnt broke XD
    well chea i agree with Mysti teehee
    they jux show more emotion and give them a non real look that appeals to the person watching it

  26. By coss on June 14, 2010 at 8:09 pm

    those mangakas had lost their minds, are totaly crazy.

  27. By liam on August 4, 2010 at 11:08 am

    hahahahaha… human’s eyes are small compared to anime.

  28. By Shyrka on August 19, 2010 at 3:35 am

    LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
    Lelouch looks funny without these contacts XD
    I want these contacts!!!!

  29. By yen-chan on September 3, 2010 at 6:58 pm

    why the hell do you guys argue what anime eyes are made of? if you don’t want to watch anime then do your own stuff. leave us otaku people alone. we love anime!!! FYI, not all anime eyes are that big anyway. it depends upon who created the art …. tch!

  30. By yen-chan on September 3, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    If you want to see anime with small eyes, refer to shin-chan, Chibi maruko-chan, marco, heidi and a lot more. It just happens that big eyes appeal better than muscles… :P

  31. By thatsclassified on December 21, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    thats a cool suggestion but contacts dont enlarge anything but the eye colour and pupil how would the whole size of the eye become bigger by it? also in some shows they wear contacts to change there eye colour so that would mean they’re putting contacts on top of contacts?

    just adding my thoughts on it

  32. By luna on January 2, 2011 at 9:20 pm

    soo cute….. ^_^

  33. By vapki girl on February 13, 2011 at 10:04 am

    ok i dont get this page at all and by that i mean WHAT THE FREAKING HELL DOES THIS PAGE MEAN IT JUST HAS TWO PEOPLE WITH THEIR EYES BEING TAKEN OUT WITH CONTACTS IT MAKES NO SENSE

  34. By The Legend..!* on March 11, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    yes you are right ,, why anime is eyes so big lool ?!!!

    so cute i love it so much ^^

    keep it up

    “Salute”

  35. By Rei on June 5, 2011 at 5:48 am

    the real reason is they can get more emotion shown in the eyes.

    Also, please check out my website. ^^ it would be greatly appreciated.

  36. By Rei on June 5, 2011 at 5:53 am

    animepsstimes. webs. com

    just take out the spaces.

  37. By themalaysia2222 on October 4, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    Im anime fan and i think it’s very cute. however,it’s undeniable that big eyes sometimes bother me.

  38. By natashia on October 26, 2011 at 1:51 am

    i don’t think animes eyes are huge and colorful becuase it’s contactlenses i think they’re real anime eyes and becuae they’re not humans but anmes why would an anime put on a contact lenses i think japanese creators are just creative and not what you call . This is non sense how could an anime sleep with it and put it in the morning for going to school or work i’ve seen a lot of animes and they sleep with their colorful eyes and that means they’re not wearing contact lenses and for animes it’s their natural eyes,, japanese creators are only making animes eyes so beautiful becuase they look good in it and animes are not cacausian but a real fairytale experience!!!!! who ever wrote these article about animes wearing contact lenses i’m sure you have not enough brain to think that,, and im possitive that i’ve seen animes sleeping with it and waking up with their eyes,,animes eyes are animes eyes and i’m contented and happy about that they’re not humans but animes,, people only want to prove that they’re real and in means humans only put contact lenses but not animes and i’m sure,, this saying is totally wrong and fake i mean how do an anime put on their contact leses and sleep with it of course their there real huge colorful eyes their animes not humans who put on their contact lenses and takes it off when their sleeping or had enough with it. Animes have real huge colorful eyes and i know so and i know so

  39. By nattie on October 26, 2011 at 2:04 am

    Eye stylesMany anime and manga characters feature large eyes. Osamu Tezuka, who is believed to have been the first to use this technique, was inspired by the exaggerated features of cartoon characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Disney’s Bambi.[3][28] Tezuka found that large eyes style allowed his characters to show emotions distinctly. When Tezuka began drawing Ribbon no Kishi, the first manga specifically targeted at young girls, Tezuka further exaggerated the size of the characters’ eyes. Indeed, through Ribbon no Kishi, Tezuka set a stylistic template that later sh?jo artists tended to follow.

    Coloring is added to give eyes, particularly to the cornea, some depth. The depth is accomplished by applying variable color shading. Generally, a mixture of a light shade, the tone color, and a dark shade is used.[29][30] Cultural anthropologist Matt Thorn argues that Japanese animators and audiences do not perceive such stylized eyes as inherently more or less foreign.[31]

    However, not all anime have large eyes. For example, some of the work of Hayao Miyazaki and Toshiro Kawamoto are known for having realistically proportioned eyes, as well as realistic hair colors on their characters.[32]

  40. By nattie on October 26, 2011 at 2:06 am

    and also animes eyes are not contact lenses thats all, whoever made this article that animes eyes are contacts they’re wrong they’re real animes eyes ad the creator made so

  41. By lovelydasom on October 31, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    Why don’t MY ACUVUE CONTACTS WORK LIKE THAT?! YOU LIE ACUVUE!! >~< I WANT TO LOOK LIKE THEM TOO </3 lol the ad is cute though :D

  42. By Maddie-Chan on November 20, 2011 at 4:55 am

    You guys are kissing the point. The ad campaign is a JOKE. They’re not saying anime ACTUALLY wear contacts.

    Anime characters are not real (I mean, they are real, just not in the sense of actual living humans), so unless the creator says so, they do not wear contacts, to make their eyes larger or otherwise.

  43. By Maddie-Chan on November 20, 2011 at 4:56 am

    Lol, *missing

  44. By madison on December 23, 2011 at 12:44 am

    imma say something in viet lol
    dang yeu qua! dat means so cute lol x3

  45. By madison on December 23, 2011 at 12:47 am

    sooooooooooooo cute!

    rawr! x3

  46. By Shafnat on January 1, 2012 at 5:30 pm

    Okay, it’s the characteristic of anime, japanese art.. not because they using the contact of anything like that..
    i think they made it big, because eyes can show expressions.. be often to watch animes and think over it again..
    http://i.imgur.com/2rlAz.jpg
    see? it’s my own drawing. i can’t wonder it with the small eyes.

  47. By Kitty on March 10, 2012 at 7:43 pm

    It’s To Show More Emotion Then Normal Human Eyes Can

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