"James Marshall" <marshall@astro.umd.edu> wrote in message
news:babf71$aal$1@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
> In article <BAEEB246.EE6C%johncwatson@attbi.com> "John C. Watson"
<johncwatson@attbi.com> writes:
>
> >According to _Anihina Version 1_, the character heights are as follows:
> >Naru Narusegawa     163cm = 5'4"
> >Keitaro Urashima    171cm = 5'7"
> >Motoko Aoyama       173cm = 5'8"
>
> >As for the average heights of Japanese youth in general:
> >     <http://www.sumitomo.gr.jp/english/discoveries/special/84_03.html>
> >"According to the latest report, the average height of 17 year-olds for
the
> >year 2000 was 170.8 [5'7"] centimeters for males, and 158.1 [5'2"]
> >centimeters for females."
>
> >Which means that Naru and Keitaro are of about average height for their
age
> >group, while Motoko is tall, but not a giant.
>
> It's kind of funny that the characters would have different heights in the
> manga and anime, but whatever.  From the numbers you gave and referenced,
> you're right.  It looks like Naru and Keitaro would be close to the
average
> heights and Motoko would be clearly above average.  She's probably not a
> giant, especially if she's basically stopped growing and reached her adult
> height, but I suppose she's far enough above average height to be at least
> a little self-concious about it.

And IIRC, isn't Tsuroko, Motoko's sister, even TALLER than Motoko?

>
> >Actually, given that she apparently didn't own a bra until Keitaro gave
her
> >one for Christmas, and she went to the summer festival wearing the breast
> >wraps (instead of going without entirely), I would not bet on her wearing
a
> >bra.
>
> Well, I wasn't really assuming that Motoko did wear a bra in episode 12
> where she was essentially forced to wear women's clothing, just that she
> most likely did not wear her usual body wraps.  One of the other girls
> could have loaned her a bra if she didn't own any or she might not have
> worn any upper body undergarment at that time.  The other possibility I
> can think of is that the tops themselves had some form of support built in
> to them, but I think that's unlikely.  The main point I was making was
that
> without the body wraps acting something like a sport bra, keeping things
> in place with good support but not particularly flattering to the figure,
> her breasts would probably appear larger and closer to the size they
really
> are (since they're not being compressed against her body by the wraps).
>
> >The manga (Tokyopop volume 9) does not give a clue, but she definitely
> >*was* wearing matching panties (since Keitaro accidentally pulled them
down
> >^_^; ).
>
> And I bet he got smacked around good for that one, too.  :)  I'm enjoying
> the anime series so far, so I'm probably going to get the manga series a
> bit later on.  I need to save up some money anyway, so I'm thinking of
just
> holding on until the fall when the final volume is released in English and
> then buying the whole thing in one shot then.  But I did see a couple
> volumes in the school bookstore the last time I was there.  If I really
> can't wait, maybe I'll buy whatever they have and mail order the rest
later.
> *shrug*  But I have heard that the manga is generally considered better
> than the anime.

*nod* The main differences, IMHO, are simply the different constraints of
pacing manga and anime have (how many storylines you can do in a single
ep/volume, how many gags you can use, etc) and the handling of the
Naru/Keitaro relationship.

If I like the anime, I should certainly enjoy the manga
> then, too, and it ought to be worth the money.
>
> --
>       .      .        .       .         -- James Marshall       (LYR)   '*
>  ,.  -- )-- ,   , . -- )-- ,            marshall@astro.umd.edu       ,  '
>           '             '       http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall
> "How are we going to do this?  Easy, we cheat."                     ,  '