Well this is a bizarrely racial article. Down to the typeface which many Asian American civil rights activists are calling "yellowface font".
Well, I guess Japan and anime is white supremacist. If you're an anime fan best hurry up and become a white nationalist! Perhaps Japan is trying to go for some Pan-Turanistic empire eh? If Japan wants to be white well I say we let them. Let's list them under white people in the U.S. census. I'm calling the British National Party to tell them that Japanese people are white and to be sure to include them into their Pan-White politics. I just got done talking to Aleksandr Dugin and he seems to think that Japanese people are white so I think it is settled.
Haha, no.
There is a variety of reasons that anime looks the way it does. Some of it is Western. Some of it not. Certainly Japan looks upon the so called Western world in a way that the Western world ought to look upon Asia. And there's a lot of double standards. In Japan it is pretty normal for Japanese people to use English in the middle of their sentences. In the United States, if you used Japanese or any Asian language word in the middle of a English sentence, people would mock you. Also, Western music is a lot more popular in Asia than Asian music is popular in the West. Though that is changing with the success of Jpop and Kpop.
I would say that so called "white privilege" has some worldwide influence. There is a lot of double standards and a lot of cultural imperialism. Culture that tends to "flow one way", as I like to put it. In a globalist society, there is a flow of culture. And most of that cultural flow is from rich, Western, English speak nations out to other nations. In very particular the United States to the rest of the world. Though to a lesser degree, wealthy Western European are doing this as well. Rammstein's song
"Amerika" is primarily about this effect. Something that a lot of people are calling "cultural imperialism".
I certainly don't think this so called "white privilege" is as extremely as certain outspoken minorities in the West of Asian descent are making it out to be. I've read various Asian American blogs claim that white privilege exists everywhere in the world, and nowhere in the world does a privilege other than white privilege exist. I think these people are legitimately racist, uneducated, and bigoted towards white people. In Asia, Japan included, there is plenty of Asian privilege and blatant racism towards white people. While white people tend to have privilege over black people in Asia I believe, due to being associated with wealthy Western nations based upon appearance. The racism is Asia is that of Asian privilege. And certainly Asians and Japanese people do not hate themselves. They are very much privilege and racist against white people is quite common in those nations. Just as common as racism towards Asian people is common in the West.
"Anime" art style draws to multiple aesthetics. Part of it is certainly influenced by Westerners and Western ideals of beauty. But it certainly has a lot more to it than that. Anime is mostly fantastical and isn't very human looking to begin with. The big eyes in anime look neither like the supposed stereotypes of Western or Asian faces. And in most anime characters, there are features considered common to Westerners and Easterners. Even with most "black" anime characters, they share characteristics which make people argue what race they are.
This is Iris from Pokemon. Is she black? A lot of people seem to think she is so. Most people don't care. And some people seem to want to strongly argue what race she is. Just like some people argue whether some anime characters are "white" or "Asian". Some people strongly believe she is Hispanic. Some people think she is South or Southeast Asian. Some people think she is a "mix" of some kind. As if we weren't all mixes to begin with. Most Europeans have haplogroups common to both Africa and Asia. Mix my foot.
Anyway, just like most "white" or "Asian" looking anime characters, she blurs lines and concepts. I do wish more anime characters looked like her, though. Since admittedly anime does tend to favor creating light skinned characters.
Is she black? Who knows? Are most anime characters white? Are they Asian? Who knows. It is one of those broad areas. Anime's "mukokuseki" does for race what androgyny does for gender. They aren't intended to be clear cut in terms of what race they are to begin with. Maybe there's a bit of good in that in a world where the world wants too much to classify people as different races. Aren't our terms for race kind of arbitrary and silly?
Again, what is Iris? She has big poofy hair that doesn't seem straight at all. It looks like what many would call "Afro textured" or "nappy". Does that mean she's black? What about black women like Michelle Obama whom have their hair straightened? Are they any less black? Michelle Obama doesn't have Iris' poofy hair. And neither does Iris when she has her hair done up in Black 2 White 2. What about her skin? It is brown but it certainly isn't as brown as many black people are. And yet, she is a lot darker than most of the characters of Disney's "The Proud Family".
And her skin colour is one of her most racial features. She has no nose to speak of, and her eyes are pretty much the same big ones all other anime characters have. If most anime characters looked like Iris would Asian people want to be black?
What is a black person? Is Mariah Carey black? Is Barack Obama black? Is Beyonce Knowles black? It depends on who you ask. All these terms for race are pretty arbitrary.
Again, I would certainly say that Western culture and Western aesthetics play a part in why anime characters look the way they do. Certainly many Japanese people look up to rich Western European nations as an example and multiple pieces of Japanese entertainment romanticize Western culture. But they have plenty of respect for themselves and I don't think that anime aesthetics have anything to do with self hatred.
Here are a few reasons other than Western influence or self hating that I think have causes anime to look the way it does:
- Tradition. There is a tendency for Japanese people to do what they've always done, and change is slow.
- Japanese non-verbal communication places a lot of emphasis on eyes rather than the mouth.
- Race is perhaps an uncomfortable subject for Japan, in a world where Japan needs to interact with the West to be economically competitive, Japan may strive to create characters who accentuate similarities between the races rather than differences. Or the concept of harmony, anime may strive for racial harmony rather than dissonance.
- International appeal. Japanese animators may want to draw characters they think the most people around the world may relate to.
- Esoteric and different. Most anime enthusiasts wish for escape from the real world. Anime characters may come off as more exotic and interesting, something befitting of fantasy settings, like are mentioned in the article.
Again, while I won't say that fondness for Westerners wouldn't ever play a part at all. I would say things probably have more to do with creating someone different. A character that is more raceless, rather than clearly Asian or white. Most anime characters are not really either one in terms of what human society see it. They look like neither, and if anything, tend to blend many people's favourite features of the so called various races.
A lot of people put the blame on Eastern nations as wanting to "appear white". But do we attack Michelle Obama for straightening her hair? Is Michelle Obama a self hating, wanna-be white person? Is it racist that she straightened her hair? What about white people who like getting tans? What about white people in the industrial music scene who form their hair into "nappy" dreads? Cyberlocks? Cyberlocks are features we attribute to "black hair". But I don't think people who have them want to be black. Nor are they intending to "look black".
Just as Iris is pretty ambiguous in terms of "race". Most anime characters are. If anything, they feature several things common to both Asians and so called white people, and features that neither have. Yes, the eyes of anime characters are big. But to be honest, they are also much bigger than what most people of any race have. Also, in terms of shape, many look like they have an epicanthic eyefold, which is associated with Asians. It also isn't common for anime characters to be
tall or have
facial hair. Along with having small eyes, it is tended that we stereotypes Asians as being short and hairless. While what cultural difference do you see in representation? In Japan it is far less common for fictional characters to be tall and have facial hair, while in the West, fiction is loaded with tall and hairy men. There's nothing "Western" in the body type most anime characters are portrayed with. If anything, they are considered every bit as petite as the American classification of the Asian "race". And yes, it is a stereotype that Asians are short, it is also a stereotype that Asians have tiny eyes. Asians are also stereotypes as having softer, rounder, and flatter facial features than whites or Caucasians or whatever. Guess what kind of face most anime characters have? Soft, round, and flat.
The situation is far more complicated than what a lot of Westerners think in terms of race. In reality, Western ideals probably make less than %2 of the reason anime characters look the way they do.
And that was basically an essay. Maybe somebody out there will actually care to read it. Probably not. And that'd probably be for the best. This topic is silly. Anime characters don't "look white", anymore than they "look Asian". I think people care too much about this topic, to be honest. Perhaps me as well just for writing a huge post about all this. Though I do that about everything.
