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.

>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.  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."                     ,  '