"James Marshall" <marshall@astro.umd.edu> wrote in message
news:bab3m8$4m5$1@grapevine.wam.umd.edu...
> In article <Et7GHRHku+w+EwjL@xerez.nospam.co.uk>
see.sig@nospam.demon.co.uk.invalid writes:
>
> >Motoko is younger than Naru and rather self-conscious about her height
> >at times, for instance on a bus one day she realises she's taller than
> >Keitaro and becomes conscious of people staring at her, as she's been
> >forced to wear a pretty dress that day.
>
> For some reason I thought that was a train, not a bus.

A trolley?

I'll have to remember
> that.  I just saw that episode and you're right.  She asks Keitaro how
tall
> he is and he says about 5'7" (on the region 1 subtitles)

170 I think. Maybe. >_>

 and she thinks to
> herself that she's 1.5" taller and didn't realize it.  Still, that only
> puts her at about 5'8.5" or *calculates for the rest of the world* 174 cm.
> Is that considered tall for a Japanese woman?  It doesn't seem all that
> unusual to me, but of course I'm used to USA standards.

Depends what you mean by 'unusual'. ^^ According to Love Hina merch and
design materials, most of the castof the series are geared towards what'd be
considered normal heights for 'real' Japanese people. Thus LH heights should
accruately reflect RealLife heights.

If anything 5'8 is tall for a 15-year old girl in most places, Japan
included.


BTW, I kind of
> think Keitaro was right that people were staring at Motoko because she
> looked so pretty,

Yeah. ^^  Then again who she's seen by other people may be a plot point
rather than an honest reflection. Certainly, WE know she's pretty and Motoko
is an extremely popular LH character.


not because they thought she looked freakish like she
> seems to think.  But I don't know, if she is considered tall, that could
> be part of it, but she did look pretty good in women's clothes rather than
> her usual outfits, too.

Hard to say. Like Keitaro (who really is a big sweetheart, the unlucky dope
^^;) I have to agree people aren't scared of Motoko cause she's tall so much
as she's also standoffish & aloof. Motoko's problem is she associates some
very sterotypical things with being traditionally feminine so she tries to
act the complete opposite. During the whole business with Motoko's weird
maid-get-up, Keitaro clarifies when he suggested Motoko act more delicate,
he means to act more RELAXED, not 'girly'.



>      On a similar note, there was mention of Motoko's body wraps before
> sort of disguising/hiding her actual breast size.  Since she was wearing a
> dress in that episode she probably wasn't wearing the usual body wraps.
> It's probably a good comparison for how she looks with and without the
> wraps.  I didn't specifically notice the difference, but screen captures
> or other images would probably show one if it existed.

*nod* I thinik there are prolly offical measuremenrs of her anyway. Then
again, it's less important since there are more gags about Naru's boobs than
Motoko. ^^;
>
> --
>       .      .        .       .         -- James Marshall       (LYR)   '*
>  ,.  -- )-- ,   , . -- )-- ,            marshall@astro.umd.edu       ,  '
>           '             '       http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall
> "How are we going to do this?  Easy, we cheat."                     ,  '