Sometimes, the physics of physical affection in anime and manga just don’t make sense.

With anime and manga character designs being so stylized, it’s common for the romantic male lead to be a dashing young man with a tall, lanky build, and for his female counterpart to be drawn as positively petite. That height difference can even work as a visual shorthand for a number of plot or personality points, suggesting that the guy is suave yet aloof, the woman innocent and pure, or that the two troubled lovers don’t see eye to eye literally or figuratively.

But eventually one or both of them overcome their fears and just go for it, locking lips in a fateful kiss. The camera pulls back, and we see their passionate embrace mirroring their true love in its perfection.

Of course, real life doesn’t work like that at all. We’re not saying true love doesn’t exist or that a kiss with the right person can’t change your life, though. It’s just that, after a certain point, the relative height difference shouldn’t allow two people to look that cool when kissing, as diagramed by Japanese Twitter user @RinTaroH0805.

@RinTaroH0805 says that in certain anime and manga, the male character seems to be about 25 to 30 centimeters (9.8-11.8 inches) taller than the female one, which means no amount of proper posture or standing on her tiptoes is going to let her reach lover boy’s lips

In other words, the guy is going to have to scrunch down if this kiss is going to happen, which doesn’t always make for the coolest pose.

Squatting creates a large empty space between their bodies at the moment their hearts are supposed to be beating as one (although this would be great cosplay practice), and the option of putting their arms around each other involves a lot of uncomfortable-looking neck-twisting.

“The taller character ends up looking surprisingly dorky,” laughs @RinTaroH0805, who also points out another problem. In series with a shy or emotionally guarded male lead, his love interest will often surprise him with a kiss when his guard is down. According to @RinTaroH0805’s illistration, though, she wouldn’t actually be able to do this without jumping up or forcefully pulling the guy down towards her, adding potential injury to possible rejection on the list of risks associated with this unilateral declaration of love.

▼ Although Twitter user @x_YAMABIKO_x offered the simple solution of just having the heroine carry a 30-centimeter cube around with her wherever she goes.

But even while pointing out the silliness of anime scenes like these, @RinTaroH0805 was quick to clarify that this wasn’t a complaint, but just a little good-natured, eye-opening fun, tweeting “I’m not trying to criticize what people have drawn before. I made my drawing as a way to say ‘Please make the standing kiss scenes even more romantic in the future.’”

And of course, none of this presents a problem for real-life couples with such a pronounced height difference, who obviously aren’t watching themselves from a third-person perspective. Plus, @RinTaroH0805 points out a definite upside to the middle workaround in the original tweet where the guy slouches down: “It’s easy to grab the butt.”

Source: Togech, Twitter/@RinTaroH0805