“If someone has a bow in their hair, make it the same size as their head. “Find exaggerations for characters,” says Larson.
That nearly always includes wide, childlike eyes and large, expressive mouths, but when you want to turn a character into a chibi version of themselves, look at everything about their character design. “Often, there are a few pages of chibi characters at the end of the issue talking about what just happened in the volume.” In these cases, chibi characters are speaking both as themselves and also as caricatures of themselves.Ĭhibi is, first and foremost, about finding features in a character that you can enlarge and accentuate. “Sometimes there’s a full-page spread and chibi characters will be superimposed over the panels,” says Stanton. In manga, whole sections of the comic book are sometimes dedicated to chibi characters.
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“I always imagine characters in a huff, like in a weird aside that’s almost outside of the plot,” says Stanton.Ĭhibi versions of characters also show up as fourth wall–breaking versions of characters, providing meta-humour and commentary on the plot, much like when a character in a film or TV show turns to the camera and directly addresses the audience. A character that got upset at another character in a silly way would turn into a chibi.” The sudden transformation of a normal character into an emotional caricature can be narratively jarring, but that’s also part of the humour and effect. “It’s always to accentuate someone’s emotions. “It’s never a serious moment,” says illustrator and chibi artist Shiela Larson. In any case, normal anime and manga characters often become cute chibi characters to emphasize how strongly emotional they are in that moment. Or, if a character is in love, he might take on a chibi appearance that features heart eyes and a huge smile. An anime character might be a stoic warrior one moment, but the instant she gets angry at some minor problem, she’ll turn into a chibi character for a few seconds, raging at something like a child would. In many manga and anime series, chibi versions of characters have a clear narrative purpose: To show a character having a strong explosion of emotion. Manga and anime also feature characters like serious warriors or determined ninjas also appearing in chibi style. Chibi style isn’t just for characters who have an air of cuteness about them already. This cuteness exists regardless of character type. The whole point of these proportions is to give the character an impossible cuteness. Because of the combination of large eyes, oversized heads and small bodies, chibi characters are also known as “super-deformed,” though that term is used less often now. A chibi character’s head will often be as big as, if not bigger than, their body. "Massive head size is pretty definitively chibi, along with big facial features,” says Stanton. Characters who are already stylized become more so, with even more exaggerated facial expressions and bodily proportions. “Chibi is comedic exaggeration within anime or manga,” says illustrator Kevin Jay Stanton.
But every so often, those larger-than-life figures become smaller than ever, reduced to a tiny, childlike size, often while expressing some kind of emotional outburst. Anime and manga tend to feature over-the-top characters.
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