What does Hauru from Howl’s Moving Castle, this
boy and virtually every other anime man out there from the 1970s onwards have in common?
If you’ve watched any anime in say the last 40 years, you may have noticed that the men are often
drawn very androgynously, with sharp, pointed chins and smooth, rounded jaws, characteristics
we often see on heavily feminised female faces, this art-style is by no coincidence and it
has a name: Bishonen, meaning Pretty Boy. As we delve deeper into the rabbit
hole, this style was idolized by one such icon during the early 70s Bjorn Andersen,
AKA ‘the most beautiful boy in the world.’
Before we can talk about Bjorn’s tragic story
and how he got swept up as the inspiration for Anime men for the next century, we need to look
at the aesthetics of anime faces. I mentioned this term before, but Bishonen, or Japanese
for ‘pretty boy’ is a concept that goes back as far as the early Tang Dynasty, and it
has always had an influence in culture, at times stronger than others, due to the imperial
courts naturally being quite androerotic.
Nowadays this concept of androgenous, feminine,
but capable men is incredibly desirable, with androgenous looking pretty-boys taking
centerscreen from South Korea’s BTS to Britain’s Former One Direction. From Pflugfelder’s
Cartographies of desire, Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse Some have theorized that
bishōnen provide a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down
stereotypes surrounding feminine male characters. These are often depicted with very strong martial
arts abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, dandy fashion, or comedic flair, traits that
are usually assigned to the hero/protagonist. With the rise of androgenous men from Anime
to Music, women have the idea of a man who is physically capable, intune with his emotions,
self-regulating, intelligent and resourceful as well as fashionable, because we’ve all
seen the Tiktoks where it goes’ Ladies, when your man doesn’t match your outfit.
While men may not think that these are important characteristics, as we tend
to look at the world through the male gaze, and as such physical beauty is important
to us as men, which is why men work out, thinking that women too, must be attracted to the
same, in turn emotional stability and ambition are far more desirable characteristics for women.
Gentlemen, don’t take it from me, take it from Robert Greene’s the Art Of Seduction, mind
you a book that is written by a man, in all of the 9 types of seducers he mentions, there is
no type called the ‘Alpha Male Big Muscle Man,’ and instead each of the 9 types focus on
different personality traits to foreshadow a different experience that a potential female
partner may have with them, if they so choose them. Tangent aside, hopefully both the men and
women of the audience can see why Androgenous men and more so faces have appeal, instead of
dismissing the idea completely. They represent the masculine urge of adventure, freedom and new
experiences with the femininity of being intune with their emotions and self-regulated. These
are indeed desirable characteristics in men, giving women the best of both worlds but what
does this have to do with Bichunen men?
Going back to Cartographies of Desire, the
Bishonen is described as Tall and slender, with clear skin, stylish hair and distinctly
feminine features such as high cheekbones while retaining male characteristics. This is
artistically quite similar to the way angels are depicted in renaissance art, but let’s break down
that description quickly. These men are described as tall, which is a dimorphic characteristic as
males are almost always taller than their female counterparts but they are also slender, where
shoulder width is described a strongly male characteristic. From Medved Et al’s paper you can
see how much of a difference we’re talking about. Making the man tall but slender is very much an
androgenous body. If you’re short and slender, then your body-shape is generally speaking akin to
that of a woman which is why a lot of shorter men go to the gym to improve their shoulder width
to add some masculinity to their frame, but taller, slender men are a rarer sight at the gym,
because the androgyny works to their advantage. The next piece of description Pflugfelder gives
us in his book is that Bishonen men have clear skin. While clear skin is an obvious if you're a
regular on this channel, because it’s an indicator of being disease free, In anime, oftentimes
this skin is very white, porcelain, and in the west we tend to think of it as an emulation
of trying to be ‘white’ or ‘european’ but rather this is a beauty standard that dates back
millenia before Japan was ever occidentalized. There are two possible explanations of this
being so prevalent in anime however.
One is the influence of Nazism in Japan with
Voldemort’s heavy preference towards the Aryan race and features. From this Japanese animator
guide you can see that a lot characteristic East asian features are viewed negatively in lieu
of more European ones. While white skin may not be an emulation of anime characters ‘looking
European,’ these structural changes in facial features may certainly be a valid argument. We
see this everywhere, from Avatar to Dragon Ball Z, where Goku isn’t even a human, but his eye
shape and midface is drawn more similarly to a Northern Japanese, Siberian Russian man. The
characters that are supposedly Japanese or some other East Asian group, are typically given comic
relief roles and we see this from movies to anime, so maybe there is a deeper cultural issue at play
here. Characters that are canonically half-caste, are also drawn with their White counterpart’s
features such as Revy Rebecca, despite being half chinese and so it’s easy to assume
that these characters must be white, when they’re drawn with pale vampire skin,
where East Asians typically have a yellowish undertone to their skin due to the greater
presence of Eumelanin, which is a different type of melanin as we’ve covered here.
The second explanation for this clear, pale skin type is that androgenous, Bishonen men,
are seen as pure and protected from the harshness of the world, following the lore of the story that
is. Compared to characters who have had to endure the trials and tribulations of their coming of
age story, they are drawn with a slightly darker complexion, and more wrinkled or course skin
perhaps due to sun exposure and outdoor life. Or maybe the answer is even simpler than that.
Drawing wrinkles takes more work per scene, and it’s easier to draw the face and have it
look smooth rather than adding in imperfections manually, which is why Bishonen men are drawn
with clear skin in anime. As for why the pale white tones and European features, that
requires deeper investigation from someone more familiar with Japanese culture.
In Pflugfelder’s book he also described Bisonen men with stylish hair and feminine features
such as high cheekbones. From Draelos 2007, high cheekbones are the single most sensitive indicator
of an estrogen-rich state, which is why, theyre a feminizing feature, again, adding androgeny to an
otherwise male face. With stylish hair, there is a growing preference towards metrosexual men who
style and more importantly take care of their hair in a natural looking way, rather than shaving it
off completely bald or letting it grow unkempt and when you consider that most androgenous
looking men tend to grow out their hair longer, then it’s no surprise there why that might
be seen as attractive and well suited, compared to say a ronaldo fade which
is very much a masculine haircut.
At the beginning of the video I mentioned Bjorn
Andersen. If you’re a fan of horror movies like I am, then you’ve probably already met this guy
here. Once nicknamed the Most Beautiful Boy In The World, there’s an excellent documentary film on
his life story and exploitation that came out last year. You see, Bjorn was the child star of a 1971
film called Death in Venice which is based on an earlier book of the same name, where the premise
of it is a bit like the male version of Lolita. An older man becomes infatuated with a handsome
young boy , played by Bjorn. The boy in the film, Tadzio seemingly made a very large splash in 70s
Japan, especially with anime artists like Keiko Takemiya, becoming the posterchild of the already
established Bishonen concept that we spoke about earlier. Bjorn did visit Japan himself, posing
for magazines and playing up his popularity there, but its very clear that he was liked for
his imagery in the movie and his androgenous aesthetic rather than for himself as an actor. He
mentions how he was the object of desire for many older, rich gay men, being paraded
around like a trophy to be won.
In anime, we still see a very strong resemblance
to his face. From someone who isn’t really into anime, It’s interesting to me in some of these
depictions, the eyes are exaggeratedly large and in every resemblance of androgenous bjorn’s
likeness, there is a gay or bisexual undertone to those who interact with him.. In older animes
like Kaze To Ki No Uta from 1976 this androgenous influence is very apparent in male every
character. Their faces are incredibly pointed, tapering at the chins, with very narrow, feminine
jaws and high jaw angles and while granted that they are teenagers or highschoolers, it wouldnt
make sense to draw them like adults, this artistic style is still prevalent in contemporary anime
men too. Like for instance Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan, who might seem to have a very sharp,
masculine jaw, but when you measure the jaw angle, or take a closer look at the narrow jar
or pointed chin, it’s very clear to see that by all means his features are feminine.
Also, the long hair should have given it away. Hauru in Howl’s moving castle, is very much the
same and we keep seeing this trend recurring. That’s not to say that all anime’s are like
that, for instance in Beserk, the manical killing machine Guts is drawn hyper-masculinely,
with shorter hair, a drill sergeant, square jaw and a broader more masculine nose,
but if you’re familiar with the storyline, youll realise it only makes sense for his blood-thirsty
character. Next time you’re watching a show, pay attention to how the cast are drawn and you’ll
realise that facial aesthetics is everywhere.
If you would like to get your face assessed
like an anime character, order a QOVES facial aesthetics evaluation over at our website to get
advice on how you can glow up and look your best from our medical team. Check out the Glow Up and
Deep Dive podcasts, free on all platforms or go to Patreon for the latest episodes and follow us on
Tiktok and Instagram for more aesthetic content.
