branch, branch, emily, emily, help.

[kaigou]

If anyone would know, it'd be branchandroot, but someone else might know, too: what is up with the constant use of apples in japanime (specifically the gundam series, but I've seen 'em in plenty of other anime). Are they just easier to draw? Or is there some meaning behind apples, or what? Because over and over, it's characters with apples, eating apples, anytime someone's holding a fruit, it's always a goddamn red apple. It's like the way characters always push their glasses up by using a forefinger right at the bridge of their nose right as lights reflect off the lenses -- you see it once or twice, whatever, but the eight hundredth time, you start thinking: what the hell are you people trying to tell me? Why push up your glasses right at this point? Why apples? Why not, bananas? Or oranges? Why can't anyone nudge their glasses up by using the back of their forefinger against the lower edge of the glass-lens? Is this just filler business and all animators are taught the same fruit in animation school and only one way to show a character pushing up their glasses?

Man, I need a vacation, stat.

Comments

[ldragoon.livejournal.com]

Now I'm curious! I assume it's symbolic. Hmmm... *scampers off to research*

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Hah, it is! Now you know.

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

Yes, apples ARE easier to draw (than, say, oranges, anyway). They're also immediately recognizable.

(Wondering if they're also just simply the most commonly eaten fruit? Hm, off to Google...)

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I knew google would show up somewhere in this thread.

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

People eat more melons and bananas than apples (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FoodConsumption/FoodAvailSpreadsheets.htm#fruitfr). But melons are definitely harder to draw, and not nearly as portable as apples. And talk about symbolism with bananas... Not quite the same as apples!

I hear you about the vacation thing... ditto. Ugh. I am SO just ready to scream right now about work stuff...

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

It's okay, though, since CP resolved it for us all.

[branchandroot]

*giggling helplessly* I don't know of any native symbolism right off the top of my head. I suspect it's partly 'easy to draw' and partly the dramatic value. I mean, an apple can be crunched for emphasis and tossed nicely. I suspect it's kind of the say way you /always/ see someone stubbing out a cigarette. Almost never lighting it or smoking it for long, no it's always the dramatic drop-and-stub.

There's a possibility it's another adoption from the US (mom and apple pie, the big apple, etc.) like the sailor uniforms. But I wouldn't want to assert that professionally without a whole lot more research.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I had figured it was another ref (a la the usual butchered) western/xtian symbolism, of the apple & temptation & innocence & the fall -- note that when an apple's seen in Gundam, for instance, it's usually offered from one character to the next (when it's not being eaten by the character most likely seen as 'innocent').

But that's okay, CP has settled the issue definitively. It's just a reference to the Beatles.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

Speculation here. Apples also have some symbolic meaning, especially in Western culture - I would wager the choice of apples in DN, at least, draws a bit from Christian mythology...?

Though most likely it's because apples are attractive "filler..." They can be peeled, cut, tossed, crunched... and the shapes are unique and instantly identifiable.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Same thoughts I was having, until CP straightened me out.

[hokuton_punch]

I started pushing up my glasses like that. D: I didn't mean to. ANIME IS A BAD INFLUENCE.

I can't think why, either, but I shall stay tuned for any developments.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that's a Beatles reference too. Wait, didn't John Lennon wear glasses? Okay, yeah. Next!

[onthehill]

Hmm... well I ALWAYS push my glasses up in the middle, and with my forefinger 'cos if you push one lens up, they can go all croookedy and then you have to straighten them out.
There ya go - the answer is it's more efficient that way :D

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

No, no, the answer is it's THE BEATLES. John Lennon wore glasses, after all. It's ALWAYS all about the Beatles. *nods*

[onthehill]

Well, certainly can't argue with that. I do seem to remember seeing something about THE BEATLES once. It probably affected me very deeply too ;)