#anime character design

bloggersltd:

mom power

Honestly, while I don’t expect Tiger & Bunny 2 to really get nominated or win any big awards in the usual anime award ceremonies that happen (like Crunchyroll or Anime Trending, etc.). The one award the series absolutely should be nominated for and win is Best Character Designs.

I mean, let’s just take a look:

I grabbed head shots because one of the biggest issues in anime (character design-wise) is the idea of “same face syndrome,” where the characters all basically have the same eyes, nose, and mouth shapes, with the differing aspects being hair (style and color), eye color, and other added/external features, such as accessories and outfits. 

Now, the T&B characters do have aspects of this - the characters all have very distinct outfits and styles, they have various hair and eye colors, various hair styles as well, and many of them wear accessories and things (earrings, necklaces, shades, Agnes’ makeup, etc.). But where we getting interesting designs here is with things like Kotetsu’s cat shaped beard, Antonio’s sideburns, and the differing skin tones. 

This is when we get into the silhouette aspect of the T&B character designs. Even when certain characters may share a similar trait (same sort of nose or jawline) they will usually have some other aspects of their designs that set them apart from each other. Many of the male characters have thicker necks, jaw lines vary from character to character (Antonio has a cleft chin), certain characters have very distinct noses (Yuri, Antonio, Ryan), others have rounder faces because of their youth/age (Lara and Pao-lin), and Subaru has very present and distinct eyebrows, etc. etc. 

Then you have general physical physique too, with Antonio being very buff, Yuri being very thin and tired looking, Agnes (in Season 2) still looking sharp and in-charge, but also with added weight to her form, and so forth.

Like, there is no way you can mix these characters up, no “same face syndrome” in sight, and the character designs aren’t too intricate that they are impossible to animate either. So, if there is an award ceremony for this year of anime, and if there is a Best Character Design award, and T&B 2 isn’t (at the very least) nominated, then I will have lost all faith in the anime community as a whole (not that I have a whole lot to begin with, but still). 

Tiger & Bunny 2 has such excellent character designs that really take full advantage of the setting of the series and real life diversity that comes with that setting (a city based on New York City). It deserves some recognition for that.