Why Do Female Characters In Anime Have Big Breasts?
In Japan, there wasn’t much interest in breasts. It all changed when Japan began to have contact with the West post WWII. The way breasts are viewed in Japanese culture in comparison to their cartoons suggests that breasts might have a deeper meaning in Japan than in the West.
Never have I ever liked anime. I don’t hate those who like it, to each their own, but it was never my thing. I visited a friend that was really into anime, and she urged me to watch an episode with her. In the words of Julia Roberts -Big mistake. Big. Huge! Have I mentioned already that Anime is not for me?
Something that I noticed while watching it was the exaggerated breasts the female characters had. I found it interesting because in Japan, the origin country of anime, small breasts are considered the beauty standard. It is known that the representation of the female body in the media has a pivotal effect on beauty standards. For example, the obsession with the hourglass shape is correlated to the popularity of the Kardashians. This made me wonder why the beauty standards in Japan were not significantly influenced by the beauty norms in anime.
To answer this question I decided to do a little research on the bra, otherwise known as the bane of the existence of many women. I believe that clothes can tell us a lot about history. What people wore, how was it made, and when they wore it, can convey insight into the culture and events that happened in the past. While the evolution of lingerie in the West is well-researched, in the East there is still a lot to unfold.
In the past, people in Japan didn’t wear bras or underwear. They wore Hadajuban (肌襦袢) and Susoyoke (裾よけ) just to hide their skin and body shape. Women would also wear under their kimonos a Koshimaki, which is a long and loose piece of cloth wrapped around the waist. In 1939, loose trousers, called Monpe, became popular making it hard for women to wear their traditional undergarments. Thus, some women used western-style underwear as an alternative.
Japan’s loss in World War II led the country into an economic depression. Many women shed expensive western underwear due to the economic crisis, yet, Japanese prostitutes continued to wear it. This is because they could afford it, given that they offered their services to American occupation forces. As a result, western underwear became associated in Japan with sex workers.
in Occupied Japan. Via: Old Magazine Articles
A couple of years later, the Japanese government started a campaign for women to wear underwear to uphold their chastity. Perhaps it was a way to combat prostitution, especially with the American forces that were present in Japan. The campaign made women more conscious of hiding their private parts and led them to seek alternative undergarments. The western undergarments seemed more tight and covering, however, only the affluent could afford to wear them. Hence, the custom Japanese undergarments retained its importance because a majority of people in Japan still kept wearing Kimonos.
When Japan’s economy began to recover, women could afford to spend more money on clothes. Western culture also started to trickle into Japan after the war when the U.S. occupied the country. Western clothing offered Japanese women more mobility in comparison to the constrictive kimono. Therefore, women began to purchase western undergarments instead of Japanese undergarments which weren’t practical to wear with western clothes.
Similar to Japan post WWII, nowadays the country is also going through a cultural shift in the undergarment department. A couple of years ago it used to be extremely hard to find bras for those with large busts, but now Japanese manufacturers are finally expanding bra sizes. This is because Japanese bust sizes have been increasing over the years due to changes in diet.
Furthermore, if you shop at Japanese bra companies you will notice that there is a lot of correlation between Japanese bras and French bras. A majority of bras are very decorative with lace and have a variety of embroidery. Moreover, Japanese bras are typically molded and padded because there seems to be an emphasis in Japan on creating cleavage. The “Japanese cleavage” is quite different from the “Western cleavage” we are familiar with-think of “pushed together” rather than “lifted”. The “pushed together” shape is accomplished by the unique bra structure which pushes all of the breast tissue inwards, flattening the sides in the process.
Examining the lingerie in Japan makes one wonder if the “pushed together look” is a norm in the Japanese bra industry, why is it a beauty standard to have a flat chest?
In the 1960s, girl comics in Japan peaked in popularity. Up till then, men used to draw comic books, but at that time, women gained more independence in Japan and started drawing their own comics. As a result, the female characters in comic books became more resemblant to young girls.
Female heroines in Japanese comic books were a portrayal of what was viewed as an ideal girl. The characters used to be “good girls” and they were always drawn with youthful bodies and cute faces. This led to the association of small breasts with the ideal, traditional Japanese woman.
The small breast association was quite powerful. For instance, despite all the foreign Western influence, the Barbie doll was rejected in Japan because she was seen as too mature. Instead, the doll that took Barbie’s place in Japan was Licca-chan. Licca-chan had big eyes and a small, flat body. She also was given an age (11) and soon became a symbol of youth. To this day, the “look of youth” is still considered a beauty standard in japan.
However, If flat chests have become a beauty norm in Japan, why do female characters have large breasts in anime?
Anime is a popular style of Japanese film and television animation; it is known that anime depicts a cultural obsession with large breasts. With that said, those who would watch anime closely would notice that there is a consistent trope: only the “bad girls” have large breasts.
One of the impacts of WWII on Japan was the way evil was viewed. The villains in Japanese movies and books were often depicted as western. Additionally, in comics, the bigger the villain, the harder he is to overcome. The evil characters are considered stronger the more money, power, and big physical features they have. The practice of enhancing the features of the villain is done to empower the hero-the bigger the obstacle, the more strength the hero needs to overcome it.
Heroes represent ideals while villains represent everything anomalous. Small breasts in Japanese anime signify cultural norms whereas large breasts in anime are a signifier of something that is not traditionally Japanese. The significance of culture in the Japanese hero-villain dynamic is no coincidence. The western association with the villain was created to subtly state that westernization is a threat to the traditional way of life. The real job of the small-breasted heroine is to win for the sake of maintaining traditional Japanese values. The recurring victory of the small-breasted heroine over the big-bust villain wasn’t intended to highlight the superiority of small breasts, but to emphasize Japan’s cultural superiority.
The way heroes and villains are depicted in anime is one example of many to how Japan is still fighting the aftermath of WWII. Today, women in Japan continue to fight against the traditional Japanese gender roles which were also encouraged after the war. This fight goes beyond gender equality, it is a testament to whether Japan will continue to oppose western values, or perhaps, begin to accept a variety of values, just like they began to accept a variety of bra sizes.
