So I get that people were smaller in general back then, and also Japanese people are not a super-tall ethic group in general, but they drew this guy to look like a fantasy dwarf in samurai armor.
I think that's partially an aspect of the artist's style (who's Angus McBride if I'm not mistaken) - a lot of his figures (even when he's drawing various Europeans) strike me as really... "stocky", I guess you could describe them. I feel like part of it comes from how he draws faces, but I dunno, I'm not an art guy.
Honestly the face looks fine to me. It's those massive feet with their enormous toes combined with just how short and wide this guy is. I think somebody can take the head size and guess how tall and wide this guy is.
It might be that he does that to emphasize the weight of armor. Make the figure look smaller in it
Why is the cloth ration bag a bunch of spheres? Are their rations cloves of garlic or is that just how their rations are stored?
The text commentary says "a long tube of cloth containing a day's rations of rice tied into individual sections", so it seems like it's basically just riceballs. Seems like a pretty small amount for a daily ration though, but I guess you had to make do with what you had, and maybe it would have been supplemented with food that was foraged/pillaged.
My guy out there shooting levy peasants while looking like a bamboo sprout
