What do you think of Anime Dolls without sculpted mouths?

I'm honestly...not too keen on bjds with an anime aesthetic—in resin or vinyl. A lot of them have either certain ill-defined or even non-existent facial features that unnerve me to a degree, and—although I am an anime enthusiast—the style doesn't sit well with me in 3D form.

Even with that being said—the degree of how much it will bother me or not is really dependent on what theme or character the doll is based off of. More moe, child-like characters can pull off that simplistic look, while certain series or genres of anime that have characters with more defined facial features would look otherwise uncanny translated into a simplistic anime bjd sculpt.

To give some examples of this: the characters from Lucky Star would translate well into the more simplistic anime sculpts, as would Azumanga Daiou and other series with a similar style.

Anime where it gets more debatable, for example: Naruto, My Hero Academia, Fullmetal alchemist, etc.—they have a distinct anime style, but the characters have more semi-realistic features compared to the previous examples, especially when looked at in profile (It varies a bit from character to character; some can pull off the simplistic look, while others are a no-go). For these cases, sculpts that are more realistically stylized tend to work better.

When you get into the territory of certain anime styles that veer in a more realistic direction, like Monster and Cowboy Beebop, however—the super stylized look can become rather jarring (Cowboy Beebop has a couple exceptions to this with Ed and (debatably) Fae Valentine).

So—although I'm not really into anime styled bjds—there are some styles that have more appeal to me over others. To more specifically answer the initial question: with the exception of moe based dolls, I find either the lack of a mouth or a simple line in the place of one to be a bit uncanny. Same can be applied to those triangle mounds that are labelled as their nose. Bugs the heck out of me.

There's my 2¢ on the matter.

 

In fact, I prefer anime dolls without sculpted mouths.
I have one anime character I plan to have in doll form one day (a portable persocon from Chobits) and it should have a joyful expression I haven't been able to find in any sculpted mouth.
Besides, I think a sculpt with no mouth gives more room to play with the expression of the sculpt, so you can do very different and amazing things like the ones from @0bsequi0us.
I would even consider buying several heads for having different expressions for the same doll character.

 

I enjoy a semi-realistic, semi-anime type of style where the facial features like lips and nose are sculpted, but they still have a wide-eyed and cute cartoon look. Though it can be hard to find this specific look, a lot of 'realistic' sculpts with wide eyeholes look very good when given anime-style eyes.

 

Looking at the first answers in this thread (of course, the opposite ones have already sounded, but nevertheless), I just want to say it’s funny how tastes can vary from person to person! Really surprising, because I am the kind of person who really loves the complete absence of a mouth on anime heads. It gives so much room to the imagination! You are not limited to sculpting and you can draw any mouth you want, or even make a modification, cut a hole, sculpt teeth and tongue inside. Or make removable inserts with different mouths.
All this seems to me more natural than the overhung lips on the anime-style head, because anime in most cases is done in 2D and a flat mouth is even more normal for it. I am a little fan of the sculpted mouths for this reason.

 

Its a no go for me. I don’t really want to paint the mouth on ahaha. Some of the dolls I’ve seen with no sculpted mouth are really adorable so its tempting but I don’t think I’d be happy without that particular face-up.

I’m personally not that drawn to anime style sculpts in general. I think the lack of sculpted facial features makes it less likely that a sculpt will catch my attention or something. I’ve seen tons of beautiful anime dolls though haha.

EDIT: Lack of sculpted eyes are also generally a no go for me for the same reasons listed above.

 

one of the reasons i like anime sculpts is because of the lack of mouth, you can do anything with the expression and i think thats a great freedom to have, i hate it when the have tiny little sculpted "slit" mouths though, its ether a complete face or zero mouth for me.

 

I don't own and don't own an anime sculpt, but I LOVE seeing their photos. I think that any type of lips are okay. Pouty fill-ups and smokey eye make up can look amazing within the sphere of the fashion-doll like BJDs (e.g. from Iple, etc), but delicate, pastel, cotton-candy-like cuties are awesome too Whether they are "zero mouths" or "slits" as @Enchiridion describes them, I like both

 

i admire the versatility of anime style sculpts that don't possess defined mouths / other facial features, but i don't think i'd ever own one. something about the roundness and lack of dimension in the sculpts when unpainted irks me. i do like looking at other peoples' dolls, though! seeing what people do with all that area to work with is neat.

 

Im actually getting my first anime doll, and she doesn't have a sculpted mouth. I feel like they left it unsculpted incase the owner decides to do a more extreme version mouth that anime characters sometimes get. Dont get me wrong I would prefer a scultped one, especially if it has interchangeable magnetic parts. But like I said I just feel like they left it in case the owners wants a specific facial expressions that simply sculpting wouldn't give. Or if the owner just wants to change that mouth expression to something else, instead of the same old mouth.