The sizes of anime characters.

[Fryer]

I know that people living in Japan aren't the biggest individuals on the planet, but how exactly to mangaka(s?) decide the sizes of their characters? I tend to browse wiki entries of anime characters when I am bored and I see that they are quite unrealistic. Vegeta for example is 5'5 and 123 lbs- someone of with that much muscle should be way heavier than that. Schierke from Berserk is 3'11 and 68 lbs- that height simply does not seem realistic for someone of her age. 

Edited December 9, 2017 by Fryer

[Junkhead]

Vegeta makes a lot of sense considering he's like 0% bodyfat, pure muscle and the fact height determines a lot in terms of weight (I think something along the lines of 5lbs every inch of height). Also, proportions are really a thing in DB. Characters have ridiculous shoulder to waist/hip ratio, so unlike real life bodybuilders, they carry a great deal of their muscle on their upper body (at least, in relation to them).

 

I also tend to check out such trivialities. They're fairly basic in anime and anime-like media. A lot of female characters go around between 155-160cm in height and they're pretty much always around 40kg. Dudes are usually around 170cm, with rarer exceptions.

[SoulWeaver]

36 minutes ago, Soul~! said:

Vegeta makes a lot of sense considering he's like 0% bodyfat, pure muscle and the fact height determines a lot in terms of weight (I think something along the lines of 5lbs every inch of height)

But muscle is heavier than fat, so wouldn't that make it more unrealistic instead of less?

[Junkhead]

Not necessarily. It all adds up to the structure, which is why I also mention the correlation next to height. A short guy can look jacked at that height/weight ratio (assuming they're somewhat to really lean).

[Ronnie]

One Piece would confuse you. There's guys that range from 8 feet to the height of a 2 story house.

[Armagon]

It honestly just might be one of those anime/manga things. Kinda like how age in anime/manga is weird. Everyone between 13 and 30 looks like a teenager but once you hit 60, you just become Gandalf old.

[Dragoncat]

Vegeta is also pretty much an alien from another planet. His species/race isn't going to follow human rules completely. Guys irl can't level entire mountains by making big laser beam punch shockwaves. 

I see it as like, lions and tigers are related species and can crossbreed like humans and DBZ saiyans, but they're not going to follow the same size rules 100% of the time.

Unless the anime character is a regular human, you really can't put them to human size standards imo.

[Sentacotus]

You do have to admit though there are some way outta wack ones like Goku at 5'9 weighing 137llbs....

 

 

Yeah not sure I buy that lol

[Junkhead]

On 7/1/2018 at 11:44 PM, LordOTaco said:

You do have to admit though there are some way outta wack ones like Goku at 5'9 weighing 137llbs....

 

 

Yeah not sure I buy that lol

As I said before, proportions can kind of do that.

DBZ characters tend to be ridiculously lean (low to no bodyfat), and especially Sayins. You're looking at anywhere from 6% and below that...you're basically 90+% muscle at that point. Height contributes to a ton in bodybuilding (heard something along the lines of 5lbs every inch or so). A lean dude without too much muscle can match and even outweigh a dude that's about 5'9" that seems a lot beefier. Back to the proportions aspect, a lot of anime characters pretty much automatically have beyond-perfect shoulder-to-pelvis bone ratio bone structure ratio. Initial body structure such as how your bones are shaped do a lot, which is one of the few parts genetics play a major role.

For reference, this guy, Richard Hawthorne. He's a 130lb powerlifter. He's also about 5'3", and you can see how beefy he looks at such a "low weight":

 

http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/15061569/1000full-richard-hawthorne.jpg

If he's not as light as Vegeta, it probably has to do that he seems more like 10-12% bodyfat than Vegeta's 6% and below.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Soul~!