A Comparison of Manga Creators’ and Readers’ Focus Points about “Kawaii Characters”

Abstract

The major purpose of this research is to compare the focus points on “kawaii character” between manga creators and readers. In order to find that what does manga creators focus on when they create “kawaii characters”, we interviewed 6 manga creators who are excel at “kawaii characters”. And for the readers, we conducted a survey using the Chi-squared test to find out which part of the characters is the readers most focus on when they judge a character as “kawaii character”. Through the research, we found that when manga creators create “kawaii characters”, they often pay more attention to the characteristic of the characters as the readers often focus on the characters’ faces when they judge a character as “kawaii character”.