A Japanimation Question

I was looking around the 'net for a KDE desktop theme to dress the PC a little, an stumbled across a Japanese anime theme at freshmeat.net. Not having much exposure to this kind of anime (sp?). I noticed something odd about the wallpaper. The ladies who are the subjects of the drawings are drawn in considerable detail, even to the point of skin being pinched a little by waistbands and the muscle lines in arms and legs. Except. The. Faces.

The faces all seem to have eyes the size of dinner plates, a little triangular bump to resemble a nose, a lipless mouth, and no cheeks. What's with that? Is this part of the style that has some symbolic meaning?, a custom?, or is it something that has special appeal to the Japanese customer.? I'm really quite puzzled, so I'm asking. Admittedly, asking that here is rather like asking a question of an empty room. Judging by the sitemeter statistics, I think I have proved that one can have a completely private part of the internet in plain view of everyone.