Puni Plush

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An art style alternative to the tall, skinny design that is so common in Bishoujo Series. Puni Plush avoids straight lines, emphasizing a character's curves, especially the face and hips, that can give to the cast an overall short, young look. Most common in romantic or slice-of-life anime, but sometimes used in less obvious ways. Often leads to Artistic Age of the "looks younger" variety.

Take this trope to its extreme and you get Super-Deformed. Contrast Noodle People. Not to be confused with the species from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door or Puni Puni Poemi.

Examples of Puni Plush include:

Anime and Manga

• Pictured above: Manabi Straight!, especially jarring when it's removed to accommodate a Beach Episode and the girls suddenly look much older.
  • They're supposed to be 15–16 years old at the start of the series, and after a four year Time Skip, they still look the same.
• Axis Powers Hetalia, at least 90% of the countries are this.
• Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
• Bottle Fairy
• Dragon Ball had traces of this style before it was even considered a "type" of style (there are almost no angles anyway), but it was gradually abandoned by the time of the Tienshinhan saga, and afterward it gets increasingly angular.
• Figure 17, albeit very restrainedly, and with attention to proper representation of characters' ages.
• GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class
  • Also Shoulder a Coffin Kuro, from the same creator.
• Grrl Power!
• Hare + Guu
• All of the students in Hanamaru Kindergarten. These are some of the smallest and roundest toddlers anywhere in fiction.
• Heartcatch Pretty Cure
• Hen Zemi, which brings great graphical dissonance with the horribly squicky fetishes discussed and practiced therein.
• Hidamari Sketch
• Ichigo Mashimaro
• Kamichama Karin
  • Actually everything authored by Koge-Donbo sorted to this category despite of her plot is quite mature.
• Kamichu!
• Kanokon
• Kemeko Deluxe
• Kokoro Library
• Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, with humans but especially with animal characters.
• K-On!, being the Moe series that it is, loves this-- The girls The entire cast almost looks like chipmunks!
• Lucky Star is probably the most notable example, which is even mentioned in the theme song.
  • The manga tends to have a character even more Puni Plush at the beginning and end of each chapter. The beginning is more notable than the ending sketches, due to the character sketches still having them in a Plush-like state.
• Macademi Wasshoi
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, particularly the manga.
• Mahoraba was influential in first developing the Puni Plush style.
• Majokko Tsukune-chan is an absurdly adorable example of this style, which makes the show's Crosses the Line Twice humor all the more amusingly jarring.
• Mitsudomoe
• Moetan
• Mon Colle Knights. While most of the more mature characters aren't this trope]] at all, the child characters' designs are a lot less angular than those from any season of Digimon.
• Nichijou
• Ninin ga Shinobuden
• Nurse Witch Komugi
• Ojamajo Doremi
• Pani Poni Dash!, except for certain characters like Tsurugi Inugami
• Popotan - "Puni-Puni!"
• Potemayo
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Uses the same style as Hidamari Sketch
  • This is Art Style Dissonance, since the plot is something of a Cosmic Horror Story.
• Read Or Dream, in comparison to the more "realistic" character designs of the Read or Die manga.
• Rumiko Takahashi's character designs are this to a T.
• Saki
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei used this in an Art Shift during a Magical Girl anime parody.
• Suzumiya Haruhi had a puni-plush web anime called Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu (based off a gag Manga) to settle the fan's cravings for the upcoming Season 2.
• The younger characters of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, such as Satoko and Rika. Rena strikes a variable medium between this and Mion's leaner, more angular form; depending on the scene she could fall more toward or away from Puni Plush.

Comic Books

• Taral Wayne's art style is a western, anime (and Cats Don't Dance) influenced, version of this.

Video Games

• While Akira Toriyama may have moved away from this style in his print and animated works, it's still quite evident in the game series with his character designs, such as Blue Dragon and Dragon Quest.
• Battle Arena Nitoshinden, featuring certain fighters from the main franchise (and a few exclusive to this game) as kids.
• Most of the heroes of the EarthBound series are 13 years old, but it's very hard to notice. There's a reason why the likes of Ness and Lucas may be classified as Cute Shotaro Boys.
  • The American version of the figurines has them aged up. This is especially visible on the Ness figurine (Super Smash Bros. uses the original Japanese version world-wide)
  • Lucas's woobiness in the Subspace Emissary doesn't quite help either.
• Yggdra Union poses an interesting example in that even the items get some puni. Perhaps not surprisingly, the game (and the entire Dept. Heaven series, since its release) was art-directed by the creator of GA and Kuro above; Kiyudzuki is famous for her puni-moe characters (though she doesn't always draw this way).
• Early Harvest Moon games had art like this. It's mostly been dropped since Island of Happiness in favor of Bishonen and Bishojo. If you didn't know any better, you'd think the protagonists were preteens at most. Yet, they're supposed to be in their 20s and up. The hint drops when you're expected to get married. It's especially jarring in games like Harvest Moon 64 and Magical Melody.
• Etrian Odyssey has this too. Quite jarring given the scenario, but very charming too.
• Eternal Sonata
• Most of the character art in the original Panel de Pon is done in this style. It's toned down for the 2-Player and Vs. mode portraits, though.
• Final Fantasy IX. Exceptions seem to be limited to named characters (civilians exhibit this on a massive scale, even the furry ones.)
• Ontamarama
• All Touhou characters, at least in the official art. Fan art depictions vary considerably.

Western Animation

• Lilo and Stitch. The character designers were explicitly told to avoid straight lines and harsh angles, and even rectangular objects have dulled corners, probably as a deliberate contrast with the rampant abuse of straight lines in western animation. This becomes somewhat more amusing when the character designer's deviantart page is viewed, which continues the same style, but includes artistic nudes and 1950s style pinups with a Hawaiian theme.
• Magi Nation, at least in its original incarnation. Even the fierce Hyrens were kind of cute and chubby.
• Fionna from Adventure Time has a lot more curves than the typical Noodle People in that show. Her designer says she's meant to look "chubby cute". Considering she's the Distaff Counterpart of Finn, it makes sense. He's kind of a chunky kid (?) and women hold their weight in different places.