Angst and Pocky: Nerdrage Problems: Kathryn Style

And now it is time to showcase my special nerdrage problems, in a segment I like to call "I took way too many anatomy classes in college and this is what I have to show for it."

Zetsuen no Tempest (spoilers) is a show about this girl who dies and her brother who is creepily way too attached to her and his friend who was secretly dating that other dude's sister and some sort of apocalyptic death tree and a guy that dresses like Inspector Gadget with a trident and a mage on an island whose breast to waist to hip ratio is a little disturbing and who may or may not be dead already. And Shakespeare quotes. Yeah. So what we have in episodes 7-9 is, for all intents and purposes, Hakaze Kusaribe's skeleton, which we examine while the characters are talking to her from some sort of inter-dimensional wooden voodoo doll.

Hakaze Kusaribe's magical size-changing breasts, meet inter-dimensional wooden voodoo doll.

This episode, while being dreadfully boring, gave me a chance to concentrate more on the actual skeleton. Part of the story hinges on the fact that this is definitely Hakaze Kusaribe's skeleton. Now, it is fairly easy to determine the sex of a skeleton given the right information, i.e. landmarks on the pelvis and skull, so in my obsessiveness, I started screencapping pictures of the skeleton in order to do just that.

So, determination of the sex of a skeleton from the pelvis alone involves:
1) width of the greater sciatic notch
2) subpubic concavity (basically how wide/narrow the angle at the front of the pelvis is, underneath the pubic symphysis)
3) ventral arc
4) pelvic inlet (how large or small the hole through the pelvis is - i.e. baby head size or no)
5) size/shape of sacrum (shorter and blunter in females, you know, so it doesn't get in the way of the baby's head)

Kinda like this, but drawn better and less exaggerated

The detail on the skeleton in Zetsuen no Tempest is very inconsistent. The ribs are drawn very well, and surprisingly, the correct number are present (12 total, with 11 and 12 as "floating ribs" not attached to the sternum). From a distance the appendicular skeleton (limbs) appear to be well drawn. But in the skull and the pelvis, the only two areas that are consistently reliable in sexing a skeleton, the detail is severely lacking! Coincidence? ...Yeah, probably.

WHERE IS THE DETAIL ON THE SACRUM!? I SEE NO SACRAL FORAMINA!

Look at this gloriously detailed (male) pelvis! WHY CAN'T YOU DRAW IT LIKE THAT

However, it does appear from the screencap that the subpubic concavity is fairly wide, an indicator of a female skeleton. Off to a good start!

Wish all you want, those sacral foramina won't just draw themselves...

From here we seem to have a decent view of the greater sciatic notch, which is very wide (notably female). and the ventral arc, which also appears female. Most of the landmarks indicate that the sex of the pelvis is female, except for the unusually long sacrum, which narrows the pelvic inlet considerably. It would be difficult for a baby's head to get out of that hole without breaking her coccyx, let me tell you. All in all, though, even with the lack of detail, the pelvis does appear to be on the female side of the spectrum. Bravo, anime. You have validated my nerdiness.

WHY CAN'T YOU SEE MY SPHENOID BONE. AND CHINS DO NOT DO THAT. DON'T LIE TO ME.

HOWEVER. The skull is just dreadful. Beyond dreadful. There aren't the proper words to describe how dreadful that skull looks. The skeletal landmarks are all wrong and/or completely missing (WHERE IS THE MASTOID PROCESS). It would look so much better with a little more detail! ALSO. Why does everyone draw skulls with completely black holes for eye sockets and the nasal aperture?! They are not black sockets! In fact, the orbit is backed almost entirely by the sphenoid bone, save for the passage for the optic nerve! And the nasal aperture almost always has a line of bone down the center (vomer) and sinuses can clearly be seen on either side! No more black pits!