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Answerman - Why Don't Anime Characters Have Pubic Hair?


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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:01 pm Reply with quote
I've wondered about this myself after seeing some hentai with pubic hair, and Perfect Blue. I had thought is was completely illegal, even in porn, but I guess it's one of those arbitrarily enforced rules. Course, I don't mind the bare look though; as an artist i can tell you it can be hard to draw body hair without it looking.. weird.

As for nipples, I'm sure I've seen them in lots of ecchi anime. Never really noticed male nipples, though.
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7jaws7



Joined: 17 Aug 2013
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Location: New York State
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:03 pm Reply with quote
We don't need to see it - not when there's this thing called imagery. If you've seen the first episode of So I Can't Play H then you know what I mean Wink
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 12744
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:07 pm Reply with quote
Ashen Phoenix wrote:
...you get used to seeing something or not seeing something a certain way, and when that preconceived notion is upended it's surprising ... scenery censorship

One bit of scenery censorship that took me by surprise was when I first saw the DVD of Wolf's Rain and noticed Hige drooling over a ridiculously phallic hot dog (NSFW?), which had previously been obscured by steam in the broadcast version. Laughing It just never occurred to me that there was anything to hide there. Animators just wanna have fun, I guess.

zrnzle500 wrote:
But really who wants to see male nipples?

Legions of denied fangirls.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:26 pm Reply with quote
Cptn_Taylor wrote:
This idea of not showing nipples is beyong stupid. And it's a recent one. If you look at anime from the seventies, eighties and nineties there was no problem with drawing and showing nipples in mainstream anime. Kid's anime.

There's a difference between colorless or pale pink nubs attached to small semi-circles like you would have seen in the 70s and 80s, versus highly detailed erect or inverted nipples with a wide range of flesh colors, adding in the areolae; and attached to much larger, more animated, and gravity-affected breasts.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:07 pm Reply with quote
Wow this question. Anime hyper

Seriously the last thing I would complain about is a lack of body hair.
It would look gross on anime characters.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1530
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:42 pm Reply with quote
The perpetual lack of hair is probably just one of many reasons I just don't find anime characters sexy.

I like my men to have at least as much hair as I do!
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
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Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:11 pm Reply with quote
I've often wondered why male anime characters never have body hair, even adult men who'd realistically never shave (or wax, laser, etc). And given how big a part of life body hair removal is for many women and girls, you'd expect it to get at least a cursory mention in anime, manga, or any fiction or form of storytelling, but it very rarely is. Not that I really want to see armpit hair in anime, but it's weird that no one has any.
Shimoneta had a funny scene where a girl shaves a boy's legs, and the Flowers of Life manga by Fumi Yoshinaga has a reference to arm waxing.
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:27 pm Reply with quote
I've always assumed that the lack of body/pubic hair in animation is because it is more work for animators. One would barely see a beard and sideburns in anime, and not too often in Western animation.

I should have guessed that there was some actual censorship involved.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4287
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 12:57 am Reply with quote
I thought it was a matter of implications. This is animation so what you get is what people put there. So what is there has to be there for a reason.

If you're aiming for an R rated comedy like Ladies Versus Butlers then you get highly detailed areas for the comedy with the nether regions getting a pass. "It's there, it's just not important." is the main thrust of the design.

I honestly was thinking the same question when I saw Selnia's full body nude scene an hour ago; Everything else was detailed so why stop there? And I was ... kind of wondering... what if anything... Anyway. Moving on.

If the point is pure out porn then you got to go for broke... and then have it blurred so you don't get broken. Or if you're lazy then you don't bother with hair because it's not necessary. It's not like it has to be explained either way.

And body hair? The most beastly the guy, the more hair he gets and this is true even in anime though chest hair gets kind of funky sometimes... one character was drawn with an afro on his chest; Get it, funky? As for women, I think this goes back to a previous discussion of knees and elbows on anime characters. The implication is that's it is there but who wants or needs to see it? Or is it draw and animate it?

So it really comes down to presentation, I guess, and I'm honestly not sure what kind of show would need to show female body hair... the closest one I can think of is High School Girls and I believe even that one just said "no".
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FLCLGainax





PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 1:18 am Reply with quote
Drawing in a detail like that makes the most sense in a work that's conveying a more realistic artstyle or attempting to emulate the look of a live-action film.
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AnimeLordLuis



Joined: 27 Jan 2015
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Location: The Borderlands of Pandora
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:20 am Reply with quote
To be honest I never thought of pubic hair in Anime body hair yes but not pubic hair. As far as body hair goes I'm a werewolf long hair beard more chest hair then I know what to do with but I'm fine with it but I don't necessarily want to see a bush in my Anime shows yes that's right I went there of course nipples I'm perfectly fine with just as long as it's only on breasts. Twisted Evil
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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:30 am Reply with quote
Surprised Gunbuster didn't get a mention; it's well-known for being one of the few non-pornographic anime to feature pubic hair. It was more prominent in the original and LD versions, but partially removed in the DVD and Blu-ray releases.
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Hentai Tenchi



Joined: 29 Dec 2015
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 9:17 am Reply with quote
I mentioned it in my original question (BTW, the Noriko full frontal scene is still in the extras, albeit in VHS quality), looks like it edited out for some reason. Here it is in its entirety:

"Why has there been so few non-hentai anime with pubic hair?
I know of at least Gunbuster, the Berserk movies, and some of the Japan Animator shorts, so there can't be laws or home video guidelines that outright ban it. I doubt TV stations would air it without it being censored, but couldn't it still be added to the home release versions? I assume there isn't a *huge* demand for it, but with so much adult manga/artbooks (and some adult anime) that have it and with Japanese women in general seemingly not bothering to shave as much as Western women, one would think that some companies would have broken the trend and did it by now, either to try and pander to those that want it, or just to stand out from all the other oppai anime. Looking around 2ch, there are definitely a lot of people who don't want to see it, but that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't a market for it. Some also seem to think it would be too much trouble to animate, but if cheap hentai OVAs can do it, surely it can be done for home versions of late-night anime."


And I'm sure there's plenty of fans who would love to see tasteful, Urushihara style full frontal nudity in anime. The fact that no entrepreneuring company has tried to capitalize on this potential market makes me think that there's outside pressure being placed on the anime industry.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 12:06 pm Reply with quote
jymmy wrote:
Surprised Gunbuster didn't get a mention; it's well-known for being one of the few non-pornographic anime to feature pubic hair. It was more prominent in the original and LD versions, but partially removed in the DVD and Blu-ray releases.

In some releases, the framerate of previous scene was slowed down to quite a ridiculous degree, so as to avoid cutting to the unmentionable shot without removing any of the audio track.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:11 am Reply with quote
KH91 wrote:
And the funny thing about CA related to this article is that pubic hair is mentioned, but the characters are squeaky clean down there.
I've seen this in a couple of eroge, which makes it extra bizarre when the dialogue is clearly meant to go with the frame. Pick one, dammit!
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