Personification of non-human cartoons: SNORKS
There are numerous cartoon series that have non-human characters that due to fan appeal and fan art are eventually rendered as humans. The assumptions that these artists make when attributing physical characteristics to a non-human character are intriguing as the artist must assume or make accommodation for an aspect that is not cannon to the show.
If a particular show is popular, there may be many variations to a single character’s looks as there is not basis for it in the show. It can be very interesting to see that just through the storytelling and character development that the look of the human version is reach by consensus.
The series I decided to look at was Snorks, which ran from September 15, 1984, to May 13, 1989 on NBC in the US.
THE REASON FOR THE SELECTION -
1) All the characters are aquatic in nature and therefore lack particular human traits that would have to be fabricated by an artist when making them fully human (a particular feat as these are not even mammalian characters)
2) Snorks have essentially the same body and just change a few aspects such as color, clothing, and hair.
3) There are many examples of people making analogous human versions of these characters.
METHOD and FILTERING of the SELECTION SET -
1) I selected only those images that had the main female characters of the show; Casey (typically in green) and Daffney (typically in red)
2) I did not pick images that were Chibi, Paper Doll, Head-Swap, or **09** versions as these would not embody the aspects to be analyzed and to avoid any concerns of minors being depicted here at the BEA.
3) The primary aspects that were reviewed were; relative adult build, relative bust size, as each of these are not in the original characters and would be expressed in human versions.
RESULTS -
After collecting 38 examples the met the criteria each character's traits was rated.
As there were two characters it quickly became obvious that comparison between them was the critical aspect.
This most interesting results were:
1) In only 3 instances when both females were depicted was Casey more busty than Daffney.
2) When the two where shown together they were more busty than when shown separately.
3) Daffney is consistently larger than Casey either shown together or singularly and to a similar degree.
4) Casey is much more popular - finding nearly twice as many depictions of her.
5) When shown together, they were surprisingly the same height.
It is interesting that Daffney is so constantly seen as being the more chesty and regardless if Casey is even shown. There must be some aspect of her character that makes people feel she would be busty in almost every case. The backstories of both characters is surprisingly similar. Their professions were also nearly the same, Artist for Casey and Sculptor for Daffney. The shows had very little character development and at the end of the show they had graduated from High School and gone off to college (age 18-19)
Just How Busty? -
On a scale from 1 (flat) to 9 (hyper busty) the characters ranked thus:
When shown together
Casey averaged out at 3.77
Daffney averaged out at 4.23
(Daffney larger by 0.46 bust)
When shown separately
Casey averaged out at 3.06
Daffney averaged out at 3.63
(Daffney larger by 0.57 bust)
The attached examples show the closest matches to the collective look of the characters as "humans".
The first is the best match when shown together the others are when shown separately.