WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY ARE THE JAPANESE FOND OF USING THEM?
That practice is known as “Super-Deforming” characters. It’s a way of making even the most horrible monster into something small and cute. As far as I know, the first occurrance of this was in SD-Gundam. Nowadays, Super-Deformed characters are appearing *everywhere*. Here are a couple I can come up with, just off the top of my head. It seems to be appealing for some strange reason :-): – Ranma 1/2 Nettouhen The ‘eyecatch’ sequences – Video Girl Ai The postscript segments – Dirty Pair The closing credits of the 10 episode OAV series – Superdimensional Fortress Macross The opening credits (when the series was rerun recently) – Gunbuster The science lessons – Gall Force 10 Little Gall Force – Patlabor on Television The first ‘eyecatch’ sequences – SD Gundam OF COURSE!!
