Chibi
Quick Summary
Chibi (Super Deformed - SD) is an artistic stylization form that distorts character body proportions — typically enlarging the head and shrinking the limbs — to create a cute, compact, and friendly feeling.
Chibi character proportions: The head is abnormally enlarged, occupying nearly half the body area to highlight large round eyes and facial expressions.
What is the Chibi Style?
This “super deformed” style originated from Japanese Manga/Anime culture. Character proportions are compressed to approximately 2–3 head-lengths in height rather than the 7–8 of a real person. The large head typically occupies up to half the body area — especially emphasizing large round eyes to maximize expressiveness. This transformation directly targets the natural psychological instinct of humans: always generating feelings of affection and endearment when seeing infant-like structures.
In the game industry, the Chibi style is deliberately applied to reduce the level of violence and tension in a game. Even when a game has slashing or fighting mechanics (like Gacha character card games), the Chibi form makes the visual risks of blood and gore harmlessly light. Notable projects strongly applying this structure include Animal Crossing: New Horizons and legendary MapleStory.