The biggest debate in the history of anime, big thighs or thin thighs, Japan is lighting the torches for this debate, offering perspectives that may offend a certain part of the community. In a recent post on the great Yaraon forum about the perception of thighs, which a large portion of the Japanese hold in love for thin thighs, further offering somewhat harsh words, “Big thighs are Western markets.”
Anime fans debate thighs, the community’s biggest conflict
This thread of opinions has come from a certain user who, in his words, “They have long since transformed the canons,” claiming that in recent years Japanese characters have lost their culture as they have opened up to Western audiences. He exclaims that, in the first instance, Japanese characters in animation are thin, representing the natives of his country, but now there are girls with breasts the size of their heads and very large thighs. Does the West prefer bigger things?
Among their opinions there are some sentences, others offering their choice in preferences: “People in the West love to see fat bodies”, “Now the figures increasingly have bigger breasts and wide thighs, the market knows what they want”, “It’s just a counterculture”, “I don’t think the publication is right, they just want attention”, “Many anime and their characters are popular despite not being “chubby”, so at the end of it all, it doesn’t matter much”. Opinions are divided on this type of somewhat controversial topic.
The original publication incites constant debate, most of the comments laugh at this type of post, although the fuse has already been lit, the debate has gone far. Within the evolution of anime, we have certainly seen how the characters that began as canons of thin characters, are increasingly being observed with larger features within the body of female characters. One of the examples taken is Rikka Takarada from SSSS.GRIDMAN, who is constantly trending for her thighs, something we have detailed in this post on our site.
This debate has been going on for a long time, with the design change of Hatsune Miku or the introduction of characters such as the aforementioned Rikka Takarada or Ryza from Atelier Ryza. Toru Hagakure, Ochako Uraraka, characters with a lot of personality and plot are usually categorized within this “transformation” of characters of Asian origin. Normally, like everything else, there are purists in Japan who prefer the canon of slim bodies in anime.
Big bodies means success, Steins; Gate uses thin bodies, My Dress-Up Darling, Spy x Family, One Piece. Those and a hundred more new decade series that are part of this thin aesthetic. The market may have adopted characters and made slight changes to their physiognomy to make them more eye-catching, like any product. This is true, as the market expands by leaps and bounds, reaching every part of the world.
So, thin or big thighs, this question is a simple quiz about the preferences of each and every anime fan, so creating a fervent debate thread that involves calling those who prefer big thighs “underdeveloped countries” (purists) is unethical. Concluding that, whatever you choose, waifus in anime are awesome, they don’t need a specific canon. If you want to take a look at this great debate, you can do so here.
Something that is common in Japan is to find many purists who don’t want other cultures to share and innovate in their own culture, for this kind of reasons they want to keep this culture. Are thighs justified, it’s just a matter of taste, but in Japan there are many extremists on issues like this.