No.111498
Towards a Theory of Width
I believe it's high time we formalized this crucial matter. At first I believed this to be a simple task, I thought we could say wide was a subset of chibi, but reality is never so straightforward.
¬ Ume Aoki - Orthodox Width
Ume's default head shape is hexagonal, alternating with a rectangle or narrow oval that are about twice or thrice as wide as the default while retaining roughly the same height. Eyes change too, going from a fairly regular form to to her trademark (✖╹◡╹✖). It's a very clear contrast, absent in Madoka for the sake of srs but commonly extended to it in fanart. The golden standard.
¬ tkmiz - Heterodox Width
Unlike Ume, tkmiz's heads are predominantly circular, blobby, and don't have a qualitatively different mode of width, instead characters will melt or be stretched like fresh dough. Their eyes do not change either, as can be seen when Yuuri gets NARROW'd in ep 2. However, after an exhaustive review I've come to the conclusion they are not nearly as wide as the hidamaris. They mostly stick to their regular-sized blobheads, and it's only in Shimeji that their proportions sometimes change in a way that's comparable to Ume's or even more radical. However, this model is widely recognized as wide, so excluding it would be negligence. ("Don't be so wide about it" is a bit of a meme translation, though, the original says 横長.)
¬ Kotoyama - Sharp Width
If tkmiz's width is on the blobbiest end of the spectrum, then Kotoyama is the opposite: his wide faces are well-defined and extremely pointy. Eyes change from regular to rectangular (though as you can see in >>/jp/58098 it's not exclusive to widened forms), and noses disappear. Initially I had my doubts about including this one, as it is proportionally the narrowest of all, but after giving it a closer look I can say with no doubt that it fits Ume's criteria to a T, even if the change is not as pronounced as in Hidamari.
What prompted this is the following question: did Vermilio truly widen, or did she just blob out a little bit? Is it heterodox? She retains all of her facial features, her face barely becomes wider, and the only noticeable difference is her jaw dissolving from frustration. I checked the manga and she's definitely not wide there, this blobbiness is anime-original, which further casts doubt on the matter.
I believe these to be different from potatoes like Princess L-chan, the ghosts in Shachiku, or Hakumei to Mikochi and Mitsudomoe. Potatoes don't really change shapes, there's no serious widening as far as I know, so I'd refrain from including them here. There is one transformation that comes to mind, Umaru's, but she differs in that she becomes radically smaller, while all prior examples retain their regular bodies and only change their heads.
What other examples come to mind, and what do you think?
No.111500
>>111499That's the thing: characters from all sorts of works commonly turn chibi or change shape somehow in comedic moments, but we don't usually say they're wide when that happens. Width in this context seems to me like a more systematic thing.
No.111507
I always thought nazuna being wide sometimes was to show her face being unflatteringly round, since insecurity is kind of a theme in it
No.111514
Wide
Blob
Not wide
Just a normal face
No.111515
>>111498I never understood why tkmiz has random animals hanging out with her girls
No.111516
Also her Twitter used to be pretty depressing. I hope she's feeling better these days
No.111517
>>111507>unflatteringly roundCan't see that being the case, since it's the least round of all examples. Looks more like an axehead honestly.
In any case, the few instances of sharpness are mostly limited to scenes of confusion rather than insecurity.
>>111514A purist. Could you elaborate?
No.111540
>>111517Wides are Hidamaris or those mimicking the Hidamari style. It could be argued that the potatoes, despite having distinctive elements, are still Hidamari-style. The vampire, however, has no clear commonality with the Hidamaris AND THE DEMON IS JUST A STANDARD REACTION FACE YOU CAN SEE ANYWHERE!
No.111543
>>111541Because their heads are like potatoes on their sides.
No.111581
>>111540Nazuna
must have something in common with the others, because since the first episode (shown in the OP) she has been referred to as wide. This occurred not only on kissu but on other places as well. A commonality must exist for it to be identified as such, the language used makes this evident.
Thus, I propose a new size standard for width:
shoulder length.
But first let's go back to Hidamari. In terms of size, the normal thing is to alternate between one form with less wide than shoulder length, and another one about twice as wide. Furthermore, I hope we can agree that its width consists not only of size but of a regular, consistent change in facial features. It's an either/or, there's no overlap between regular and full wide, with no transitionary inbetween, which I believe to be the defining feature of the orthodox model.
Returning to the widepire, take Kou's size here: by default, he's about half as wide as his shoulders, but when morphed he becomes equal in length and takes on a more rectangular shape overall. The change in size is small, comparable to other forms of chibi, but its realization is just as regular as in Hidamari: that's why I'd venture to call it width, perhaps of a lesser type.
Potatoes and blobs typically have heads as wide as their shoulder length by default, but do not change in size. In tkmiz's case, however, we can see the girls clearly morphing beyond it in real time. The existence of a transition is what makes it heterodox. The bath scene is actually pretty damn wide when you compare Chii-chan's head to her tiny body, or crabby Shimaji being about Iunno, five times wider? Probably more.
With this methodology we can at least conclusively rule out Vermilio's width, as her head remained smaller than her shoulder span at all times.
No.111597
>>111581If classifications were expanded just because ignoramuses applied them more broadly than is accurate, classification itself would become meaningless. Vermilio would be a wide simply because someone said she was.
This is a matter of taxonomy. Similarity of traits is secondary to ancestral relations.
No.111598
>>111597If it's taxonomy, then describe the taxa.
No.111602
>>111597I don't think ancestral relations matter here
No.111733
funny faec
No.111735
>>111733that's the verdict yes
No.116996
Okay, but more seriously in Yofukashi characters tend to do that kind of face when they're confused, bothered, or something like that. In terms of looks and circumstance, it's fairly regular and decently spread across characters iirc.
No.117011
>>116996you might say its widespread