Ahh, what an interesting thread! I honestly had meant to keep my opinions to myself, given my newness to the site and the fact that they have no
weight, but I found myself unable to keep quiet on an issue of art and presentation... particularly since no one has verbalized my own opinion. At least - not quite in the way I'm going to.
It's true. Anime avatars are often the hallmark of a young, inexperienced writer. For that reason, many older writers want to stay away from anime-esque avatars in general - and for completely understandable reasons! It is fair, as an adult, to say, "I don't particularly want to write with teenagers." Some might call that a mark of elitism, but I'd say it is, instead, a simple... understanding of the value of one's time. Teenagers - and yes, I know this is a generalization, but bear with it, if you please! - often engage in writing that's, well. Often silly. Overwrought. Cliche and tropey - and that is a necessary stage of development that should not be mocked! I will forever defend a kid's ability to write dumb stuff and have fun. When I was fourteen, that was exactly what I did! It would be the very height of hypocricy to judge a child for learning, given that I would have gotten nowhere if I had not been given the chance to learn.
But I... also don't always want to engage in that kind of material. I'm out of high-school. I've grown up a bit. I'm interested in more mature stories that fit my more mature perspective on life, because I can't personally relate to the struggles of teenagers anymore.
This brings me to something I find particularly interesting. I have seen, in this thread, an attempt to make distinctions between certain kinds of anime. This is a distinction that needs to be made, because anime is
not one universal style. Anime is not a singular genre that deals with a set of common themes. Anime is a way of grouping a general stylistic influence that originated from (primarily) Japanese animation, but it's come to encompass SO MANY OTHER things due to the process of globalization and cultural exchange. Anime itself has some of its roots in American cartoons! Like any art, the way anime is designed conveys certain things to an audience. In successful works, the art does something to support the core narrative and thematic impact - whether it's enforcing it (like, say, the art style of Berserk) or meant to subvert the reader's expectations (hello, Madoka Magica!). The art of a shoujo magical girl series like Card Captor Sakura (with it's big eyes and sparkling flowers) is ENTIRELY different from the unrepentant grim, realistically-proportioned-yet-clearly stylized art of Akira. That is because the narratives are ENTIRELY different, with drastically different thematic components.
As should be obvious, one of these is aimed at young girls aged 10-15, and one is aimed at disaffected young adults who like suffering.
This is why there's a certain style of anime that tends to indicate a young person - because that style is used in works aimed at young people. Of course a young person would resonate with the style of a medium that deals with issues related to them.
Of course an older person, having grown out of the target range of that demographic, would find the themes associated with those works to be a bit... well. Unrelatable.
Basically, I'm saying it's not an accident that "big-eyes-small-noses" shoujo and "spikey-haired-big-muscle" shonen characters are associated with the tropes of those genres. I'm ALSO saying it's important to acknowledge those associations when you pick an avatar, because hey, like I said before, art contributes to the style of a creative piece. It's a piece of the overall message that forms "your character". I don't have a particular opinion of someone who just HAS a drawn avatar - and I'll get into why I don't personally believe real person models are in any way fundamentally superior or more serious - but the way your avatar is drawn will influence my perception of the character! A character with a faceclaim from the House in Fata Morgana (on the left) will read ENTIRELY different from a character with a faceclaim from Toradora (on the right).
In both cases, I applaud your excellent taste in media, but I have much different expectations from the left image than the right. The House in Fata Morgana is a DEAD SERIOUS story (ha ha ha), so I'm expecting your character to have themes that are, well. Serious. Themes that deal with deep tragedies and Ultimate Suffering. While Toradora is a light-hearted romantic comedy that intersperses it's jokes with some commentary about child abuse. I'm expecting, from the latter, a character that is much more light-hearted and deals with narratives that express a more general... goofiness, although with some room for something more tragic.
But possibly not.
Anyway, what I mean to say is this - in both judging someone from their avatar and in CHOOSING an avatar, I'd take a step back and consider the intentions of the choice. It doesn't really help to make blanket judgments about a particular style, say - "all drawn avatars are bad", though I suppose I can't fault you if you just Can't Get Over It, I have my own quirks too, after all. I may find it a little peculiar, but I collect things like graphic novels and am used to art being used to tell very serious, human stories. Take the graphic novel Maus, for example. The premise is that it's a story about mice. If we make a blanket judgement that "all stories with anthropomorphic characters are juvenile, because many works that use those animal caricatures are juvenile", we'll miss the fact that Maus will TAKE YOUR HEART, RIP IT OUT OF ITS CHEST, AND DESTROY YOUR SOUL. Perhaps I'm saying this because I'm artistically inclined, or perhaps I'm saying this because I want to defend my choice in choosing to draw my own avatars/assets (which I will defend to my very death), but I think anime-inspired stuff is completely legitimate to draw from as a source, because nothing about it
inherently makes it a bad choice.
Just. You maybe want to think about what you're conveying by picking characters from certain genres to represent your characters.
As a personal aside, when I first started roleplaying, I was HYPER weirded out by people using real people to represent their characters. Like, a drawing - that doesn't have feelings. It doesn't have emotions. It's not the face of a real person. When I first started out, I couldn't help but see people's avatars and be like... "there is an actual person who looks exactly like that out there. How would they feel about their face being used to convey a person who is entirely not them? I know I'D be SO UNCOMFORTABLE". I've since, of course, gotten over that, and understand people's choices to convey their character with an actual person's face. I do invite you to turn the gameboard over and think of it from another perspective, though.
Just as I've tried to do in my own life.
I'd like to finalize this Ridiculously Long Babble by saying that it's perfectly normal to judge a character based on how it's visually presented to you. I may find it odd if that judgement is so severe that it entirely keeps you from writing a thread with someone but... hey. You do you. Writing is an inherently creative process, and creativity is bizarre. Who am I to criticize the way your specific needs manifest themselves? I do think it is healthy, though, to evaluate your opinions and assumptions every so often. Why do you think the way you do? What leads you to think that way?
Are your judgments based in fact and education, or are they based on cursory and anecdotal experience? Everything in the world can be improved upon, and self-analysis is the first step to doing so.
If you read all that, I applaud you and also humbly thank you for taking the time to consider my opinions, even though you don't know me personally in any way, given that I just joined. I found some interesting stuff to ruminate on in this topic, and have enjoyed the discussion a lot! I always like encountering people with wildly different opinions and experiences to me. I'm so engrossed in the art world that I hadn't even thought about the perspective of someone who just can't
get into people with drawn avatars, so it's been an interesting thought exercise.
I hope you've found something of value in reading this, as well.
by Annalisa Marin on August 11th, 2015, 10:02 pm 
