telophase | (no subject)

One of the books I got from Amazon was the Bleach Souls Official Character Book. As with most anime/manga character books, the height/weight ratios are utterly fucking ridiculous. A few examples:

Matsumoto Rangiku - 5'6", 126 lbs

Ayasegawa Yumichika - 5'5", 123 lbs

Kuchiki Rukia - 4'7", 73 lbs

And the worst* offender of all ...

Zaraki Kenpachi - 6'6", 198 lbs. (ETA: Before giving me 34523543 examples of people this tall and skinny [my dad's stepmother's side of my family is all over 6' tall. I am aware of how skinny a tall person can be], plz to be looking at the picture first and then decide if it's possible for someone to be drawn that big and be less than 200 pounds. I'm not saying that people can't be that height/weight, I'm saying Kenpachi can't be that height/weight. Also, the above people are all, essentially, elite athletes, so their weights should skew high. Although I bet Yumichika lied abut his.)

--
* I don't consider Matsumoto to be an especially bad example, simply because knowing the Gotei 13's bizarre R&D department, it's entirely possible they're special implants filled with helium.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't find Rukia or Yumichika to be unrealistic at all. Those are pretty normal stats for thin Japanese people. Rangiku is much curvier than your average Japanese woman, so that seems a little low to me. Kenpachi is pretty ridiculous.

It's obvious that for both Kenpachi and Rangiku they took a typical Japanese person's weight and didn't bother to adjust for their non-typical physique.

But they're not typical Japanese people - they're, essentially, athletes. Whose weight skews high because muscle is far more dense than fat. Rukia at 73 pounds has a good chance at not having the stamina to be a shinigami.

True, but I don't think they're as ridiculous as people make them sound. (You're not the first person I've seen bring them up.) High for even an athletic Japanese person is not the same as high for most white people. They tend to have smaller frames.

And yet, Kenpachi, at six inches taller than Daisuke Matsuzaka, should not be only fifteen pounds more. Because no.

...198 lbs. Um, yeah, that's his hair.

Apparently the reiatsu-eating monster also eats mass.

There we go. Not that the others aren't also mind-boggling.

He's totally reducing his momentum advantage!

It's brilliant!

I see you haven't been introduced to Jerry Blevins yet. As far as I can tell, the listed height and weight are accurate--the dude is a beanpole. He's a beanpole who can throw a baseball left-handed at over 90 MPH....

(Also, it's too bad that there is no full picture of him in the Hermione Granger costume from last year's rookie hazing day--there's just him in the back of a group picture of a bunch of other guys in Halloween drag, wearing a big ol' pointy witch hat.)

As I said to someone over on LJ: it's not that people can't be that height and weight, it's that they can't be that height and weight and be drawn this size in every appearance.

Yeah, that is pretty ridiculous (as I said below--being distracted by Brewers game, sorry)

I probably should have linked up the CC Sabathia page, in that case... ;)

And, yes, I see your point after seeing the character design, but that doesn't negate the fact that there are some skinny yet very athletic guys out there.

True! But they're generally not the size of a house. :D

If this wasn't about Bleach, I would make the joke that he is perhaps possibly hollow.

Hee!

This might be helpful: Photographic height/weight chart.

ummm - my son is 6'6" and weighs about 198.

Yes, but I doubt your son is drawn this big in every appearance (http://www.wallpapergate.com/data/media/2960/Zaraki_Kenpachi_34778.jpg). Which is more-or-less my point, and why I linked pictures: it's not that it's not possible for people to be that size, it's that it's not possible for these characters to be that size.

Actually, I DID look at the picture you linked to the name, which was why I thought it was possible - with the loose robes, it's kind of hard to tell. However, I totally agree on the second picture - if that's more typical of the character, then no way on 198 pounds.

The phrase I used on the other thread was that he's about the size of a house. :D

Maybe all of Kenpachi-chan's bones are hollow, like a bird? *g*

Best theory yet!

Ugh. I hate when the official stats for a manga/anime include weight. The numbers are always so ridiculously low, even when the character in question is incredibly tall and absurdly muscular. Arg.

The official stats (especially for women) in American comic books are just as bad. Like how Jean Grey is 5'6" and 115lbs, apparently.

Good grief.
I suppose you can't give people the idea that being bulked out means weighing more--they might get dangerous notions about weighing more into their own heads. :P

To be fair, they /are/ *technically* undead souls swinging swords.

I'd imagine the weight in fact applies to their weapons and not to their various 'physical' selves. ;D

...and now I can't stop thinking of Matsumoto's breasts floating up into her chin and above.