Body proportions

[Reksho]

I never thought of Misha being fat until people talked about that in the forums. Honestly, the only thing I could even remotely think about her as fat, is maybe a slightly wider face than average.

[Boppin]

Yeah, I honestly never considered Misha to be fat. I think that's just a projection people have built up. Poor girl.

[ProfAllister]

According to the posted proportions, Misha's actually an hourglass figure. Even her BMI falls right into the "healthy" range. That being said, those numbers are really kinda worthless.

The numbers peg Misha as an hourglass, but her actual appearance suggests more of a "box." (The proportion terms are: Heart - Large bust, small hips; Pear - Small bust, large hips; Hourglass - Small waist, roughly the same size bust and hips; and Box - Bust, waist, and hips within about 9in/22cm of each other. Different people use different names, but the body types remain the same.) Based on appearances rather than numbers, Lilly and Shizune are hourglasses, Emi's probably a pear, Rin's a heart, and Hanako is either heart or hourglass.

BMI is a notoriously bad measurement, for a laundry list of reasons that could keep us here for hours. That being said, Misha's frame and skeletal structure seems to imply that she'd weigh more than the listed 57kg/126lbs for her 158cm/5'2" height, pushing her closer to the "overweight" BMI category. That being said, slightly "overweight" is often a healthier weight than "healthy" for the average individual. (DISCLAIMER: Consult a qualified nutritionist for your personal health assessments, not some stranger on the internet.) For comparison, Rin, Lilly, and Hanako are borderline to full-on "underweight," Shizune is on the low end of "healthy," and Emi is dangerously underweight.

Misha's proportions (based on the illustrations, not the numbers) put her more in the realm of "classical beauty" or "voluptuous." She shares this category with Boticelli's "Birth of Venus," Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and various other fat fattie fatsos.

Somewhere along the way, starvation victims were deemed to be sexy, and we got to our modern standards of beauty.

That being said, I imagine far fewer people than it first seems actually believe that Misha is fat. It's a meme that started long before I arrived on the scene, so I can't really explain how it came to be, other than recognizing the standard tropes of Hollywood beauty.

[DrNonookee]

Lilly 89
Shizune 88

One important thing to note is that, if I'm not mistaken, those numbers do *not* reference breast size - only the circumference of the upper torso/chest area (usually measured just *under* the breasts). It's entirely possible for two women to have the same numerical measurements, yet different cup sizes, which definitely seems to be the situation here - Shizune is pretty obviously bustier than Lilly, if you go by just eyeballing it. The proper way to list numbers like these appends a cup-size letter to the first number, assuming the number-givers wish to be that specific.

(Don't ask how I know this much about women's bra sizing.)

Of course, most women find the whole three-numbers thing rather objectifying and offensive regardless. Given that the whole point of KS is to portray them as people rather than pin-up girls, I'm surprised they even made up any numbers to begin with.

Maybe she's Hollywood fat, as in not a disgusting toothpick.

Pretty much. By realistic human standards, Misha's only slightly pudgy - certainly not out of the ordinary range of natural human body shapes. But nontheless, she's not quite as slim and svelte as the other girls in the game - most noticably her Shii-chan, who is noticably more slender and makes the difference more obvious by the two of them being together all the time. Someone notices the disparity, decides to crack a fat joke, and next thing you know we've got a [shimmie=1291]meme[/shimmie] on our hands.

Misha's proportions (based on the illustrations, not the numbers) put her more in the realm of "classical beauty" or "voluptuous." She shares this category with Boticelli's "Birth of Venus," Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and various other fat fattie fatsos.

Exactly! Ignoring the Hollywood-influenced media's unrealistic standards of toothpick-skinny beauty, Misha is just as attractive as any of the other girls. Besides, some of us *like* our girls with more to squeeze.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'd like to point out that I also happen to think Emi is hot, despite me being a breast man and her relative lack of the attribute in question. I seem to have a weakness for short, petite girls...

[Reksho]

fat fattie fatsos.

Nice nickname.

[Silentcook]

... and Emi is dangerously underweight.

Notice, that's Emi ACTUAL weight. Actual as in "get on scales, remove every single foreign thing not joined to your body" actual.

We didn't asspull that hard.

[BlackWaltzTheThird]

... and Emi is dangerously underweight.

Notice, that's Emi ACTUAL weight. Actual as in "get on scales, remove every single foreign thing not joined to your body" actual.

We didn't asspull that hard.

I figured as much. My cousin has a prosthetic leg, which weighs around 5 kilos. I presume Emi's legs would be something similar to that, and her running ones shouldn't be far off in order to preserve their integrity as a replacement limb. So you can probably add around ten kilos (~22lbs) to Emi's weight. Which, if my math is right (and it is), makes her a healthy weight.

[ProfAllister]

... and Emi is dangerously underweight.

Notice, that's Emi ACTUAL weight. Actual as in "get on scales, remove every single foreign thing not joined to your body" actual.

We didn't asspull that hard.

Fair enough. I didn't mean the statement to be any sort of accusation. Especially not against the editor/medical advisor.

Decided to actually calculate the BMI, since I ran the numbers kinda off the top of my head, and feel more comfortable with actual measurements:

Emi: 18

Some quick googling puts the legs below the knee as weighing between 10-12% of body weight, so that adds 4-5 kg, putting her right around 20.

(Side note: Her running legs are very light, and weigh about 1 kg for the two of them, if the product page is to be believed. Also assuming I'm reading it right. Average below-knee prosthetic weighs about 2kg.)

Hanako: 19.3
Lilly: 20.2
Rin: 19.3
Shizune: 21.2
Misha: 22.8

Reference scale:

Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

That being said, I've already voiced my vote of no confidence in BMI. Also somewhat voiced my judgment that the posted weights (generally) seem to be a bit normalized compared to the weights implied by their appearance and build.

And, just to keep everything complete, based on the numbers, they're all hourglasses, with Emi being a pearish hourglass and Rin being a heartish hourglass.

[DrNonookee]

Her running legs are very light, and weigh about 1 kg for the two of them

Ah-HAH! So *that's* the secret of Emi's success on the track - she's effectively running with a lower weight-to-muscle-power ratio than the other track athletes! *They* all have to lug their heavy-arse lower extremeties around, while Emi is effectively dropping a few kilograms off of her gravitational resistance by using leg blades instead of flesh posts.

Is the Yamaku athletics comittee aware of this blatant cheating?

[Guest Poster]

Not just that, but Emi also has the advantage that her ankles don't get tired. People are still debating the fairness of leg blades in running contests.

[Xanatos]

Not just that, but Emi also has the advantage that her ankles don't get tired. People are still debating the fairness of leg blades in running contests.

She also has the disadvantage that her thigh stumps can become horribly infected and put her in a wheelchair.

[DrNonookee]

Not just that, but Emi also has the advantage that her ankles don't get tired.

She also has the disadvantage that her thigh stumps can become horribly infected and put her in a wheelchair.

Xanatos has a point. The impact from footfalls has to hit *somewhere*. For most people, it's the ankles and the bottom of the feet; for Emi, it's the ends of her leg stumps. It would be especially painful in her case since the area in question is both A> suceptible to infection due to essentially being a pair of big, closed wounds under constant physical stress, and B> the nerves that formerly connected to her legs would be receiving constant impact stimulation that they were never intended to experience. Emi obviously suffers from both problems; she mentions feeling phantom pains at one point, and of course we see what happens when she fails to treat her nubs with care.

Hmm. On the other side of things, I wonder if she would enjoy a gentle massage to that area. Like, rubbing a sore ankle until it feels better.

[ProfAllister]

Her running legs are very light, and weigh about 1 kg for the two of them

Ah-HAH! So *that's* the secret of Emi's success on the track - she's effectively running with a lower weight-to-muscle-power ratio than the other track athletes! *They* all have to lug their heavy-arse lower extremeties around, while Emi is effectively dropping a few kilograms off of her gravitational resistance by using leg blades instead of flesh posts.

Is the Yamaku athletics comittee aware of this blatant cheating?

Get the feeling this is quite tongue-in-cheek, but the product page more or less specifically addresses that objection:

Studies have shown that the Flex-Foot Cheetah can return around 90% of the energy stored in it. This is far less than a normal able-bodied foot and leg, which has been shown to return 249% of the stored energy.

As we all know, they've been accepted enough that Pistorious was allowed to participate in the Olympics, but the fairness of the legs seems to have reached a consensus opinion of a resounding "maybe."

And, strictly speaking, that's just the weight of the blades. You're probably adding more weight through the fastening gear and such. Also, most runners don't have to worry about improperly fastened legs.

[Oddball]

If anybody objects to Emi using prosthetics to run, they're more than welcome to chop off their own legs and use prosthetics of their own.

[Reksho]

If anybody objects to Emi using prosthetics to run, they're more than welcome to chop off their own legs and use prosthetics of their own.

Because Emi did this voluntarily herself too.