In reality, the mouth area seems monstrously complicated. All the details flow in and out of each other and are intricately connected.
It's a far cry from the TV style "realistic" flat floating mouths. Whatever is appealing about real life is totally lost when translated into animation.
Anime mouths go out of their way to exist completely independently of the heads they are supposed to be part of, which is kinda funny.
I'm trying to take all the wrinkles, muscles, details and break them down into the most basic forms.
The more wrinkly or muscly someone is, the more complex and difficult it is to keep track of what wrinkle attaches to what crease or muscle.
