Why are all anime characters white?
- Thread starter chuckman1
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I referring to Bennie. The blonde guy / tech guy.BlakBladz said:
Dutch is the black/african-american guy. Heh, the cast of Black Lagoon is very really varied. Everything from hot badly scarred russian mafia boss to hot cia agents to hot taiwanese assassins.
Stop being racist, you... Well, I don't want to be mean. The thing is, a lot of white people watch anime and see these characters as white. When Asians watch anime, they see the characters as Asian. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki] Saying why don't anime enforce Asian features on their characters is like asking everyone to draw racist stereotypes. Wait, no, it's not like, it is...
You would probably say something about them having white skin and that's why they're Caucasian. Question: Are we really that different from each other to be differentiated just by skin color? Honestly, I've met white people that are more yellow than me. And on that note, does the show The Simpsons feature Asian characters because they have yellow skin? When I was much younger, that's how I interpreted it.
If you don't like that explanation, then how about this: Us Asians have waited long enough to get our "accept everyone" moral around the world. Hell, we even thought that Jesus or whatever already taught that. But things like the KKK and the often forgotten Eastern front in World War 2. So, we've decided to cut the middle man and make our most successful industry try to appeal to the idea of coexistence.
You would probably say something about them having white skin and that's why they're Caucasian. Question: Are we really that different from each other to be differentiated just by skin color? Honestly, I've met white people that are more yellow than me. And on that note, does the show The Simpsons feature Asian characters because they have yellow skin? When I was much younger, that's how I interpreted it.
If you don't like that explanation, then how about this: Us Asians have waited long enough to get our "accept everyone" moral around the world. Hell, we even thought that Jesus or whatever already taught that. But things like the KKK and the often forgotten Eastern front in World War 2. So, we've decided to cut the middle man and make our most successful industry try to appeal to the idea of coexistence.
To add to the video:bruein said:
Mugen is from the south (Ryukyu), while Jin, afaik, is from the north. You can clearly see that Mugen's skin tone is darker.
[img src=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f6/Lagoon_Company.jpg]
Here's a depiction of the Black Lagoon crew. Benny, being of Jewish descent is the palest, followed by: Levy (Chinese), Rock (Japanese) and lastly Dutch (Afro-American). You can clearly see that everyone's paler than Dutch, but that Rock is also clearly darker in tonality than Benny or Levy.
Edit: idk why I called him Brock instead of Rock, but hey, Brock's darker too, right?
He is not refering to black/white, but to asian/caucasian.Quigglebert said:
People, this is not a "BUT THIS CHARACTER IS BLACK" thread. This thread is about discussing why characters in anime look anything but japanese.
Yes, saying ALL of them is false, just ignore that and focus on the topic please
Batou667 said:
Bizarrely you just covered two things there that I was going to use as a COUNTER argument... (against the OP, not yourself - though my points are maybe tangential to yours)
EG The little kid in Love Hina (I forget her name) - supposedly american but with a touch of african in her. Easily the darkest skinned (whether it's natural, or a tan, who knows - but she seems to keep the same tone through winter so let's assume she's half-cast) with strange bleach-blonde hair... presumably that's for keeping enough contrast in her character design that she doesn't end up blending into certain backgrounds. She's supposed to be the obvious gaijin, but given that she seems to have caught up on japanese culture and language pretty quick (and almost always wears a sailor fuku) perhaps any obviousness to a native viewer, besides the skin tone, is in her accent or something?
Or Ed in Cowboy Bebop, if you count ginger hair as being roughly equivalent to blonde... though she's just one member of a quite diverse series cast and far from the darkest (plus, her exact origin is a complete mystery - we must assume the Gaijin thing because she's just so plain weird, that its the trope niche she occupies). Even Jet, Spike and Valentine strike me - as a brit by upbringing and heritage - as being asian, but of different backgrounds within that continent, and they're joined by plenty others of every race.
Oh, and ... Joker for crying out loud? (Who suffers one or two in-dialogue racist jibes, and doesn't respond ever so happily to them... but all in all is simply a character in his own right who happens to be a surprisingly fat black guy)
Or the two or three other token foreigners in Akira, who are quite easy to spot vs the general cast of actual tokyo-region modern japanese?
Anime/manga has had quite a lot of whitewashing down the years, for the obvious technical and cultural reasons, but it's untrue and unfair to say that all characters are white. It doesn't even take into account the actual ethnic variations within Japan itself that are often represented - some are paler with dark hair, but you do get some non-gaijin ones with darker skin and lighter hair (brown, or indeed blonde), showing they're of a different region and heritage than the typical tokyo box-room resident. I forget the actual term used for them, but there is one. If I get bored (ha!) I may google it
Even Studio Ghibli - with a long, somewhat questionable tradition of having entirely aryan character lists - has used that last one from time to time. Ashitaka's part of that ethnicity for a start, and it's possible San is at least partly so, inamongst the more dominant, warring fair skin/dark hair tribes.
So as a lot of production of both still comics and moving cartoons shifts into the digital realm - at the very least for the previously very expensive postproduction (IE inking, painting, tweening) if not entirely (IE including the original sketches) - does that mean we'll see less "whitewashing"? It completely obliterates the main thrust of that argument. Doing white-on-black, or using various shades of zipatone is as easy as plain black-on-white (and certainly simpler/cleaner than, say, drawing in white on black paper, making a xeroxed negative, or hand-shading/toning your characters, which one assumes Otomo only bothered with because he/his helpers were already drawing so many hugely detailed backgrounds, why not have a B-lister with dark skin too?), and indeed if you're producing the final copy in colour, just as easy or difficult as making everyone's outlines, fills and shading any colour you like. The great many artists making full colour webcomics in their spare time, including manga ones, don't seem to regard it as a problem.
Simply because all Japanese people secretly (or not so secretly if you watch a lot of anime) want to be white; or more specifically American; or more specifically specifically a United States Citizen. Why, you ask? Somehow those damn Japana people hacked into our cartoon network line up in some point in time. And they were like, "This is shit! We must perfect our own version of "cartoons" to present to them and show them what fools they are. Then we will have all the honor and they will have none!" By now they have perfected the "Anime" (well, they don't know how to stop a series before it hits 500 episodes but they're working on it) and all they have to do is merge themselves with the master race* (*U.S.A. Citizens, of course) and their plan will be complete. That tsunami from last year set their plans back a few decades but believe you me those "Japanese people" are plotting our demise as we type.
I theorize that after they shame us Americans all into suicide (because we all know thats whats going to happen after they destroy us with their beautiful anime) all Japanese people will widen their eyes and whiten their skin enough to look just like their Anime characters. Its just a theory at this point but I'm currently working onfinding making up evidence to back this up.
I theorize that after they shame us Americans all into suicide (because we all know thats whats going to happen after they destroy us with their beautiful anime) all Japanese people will widen their eyes and whiten their skin enough to look just like their Anime characters. Its just a theory at this point but I'm currently working on
although you are completely right... XDSaulkar said:
and it's the art style. In manga and anime they use the large eyes because it is easier to show emotions through them. English and american characters are probably more likely to have 'normal' sized eyes. And there are quite alot of NOT white characters anyway. they are the minority of characters because THAT'S WHAT IT IS LIKE IN JAPAN (and most white countries too)
Just as an aside to what I wrote about Cowboy Bebop above:
What with the ongoing (I think?) controversy over Akira being remade as live action with a largely american cast, set in america (yes, one of the most clearly ethnic manga/animes having the core of it's identity stripped out...)... THIS better had never have been a serious proposition, much less released (straight to video?).
http://www.jimtay.com/blog/_archives/2004/4/17/35573.html
My eyes, goggles, nothing, etc.
What with the ongoing (I think?) controversy over Akira being remade as live action with a largely american cast, set in america (yes, one of the most clearly ethnic manga/animes having the core of it's identity stripped out...)... THIS better had never have been a serious proposition, much less released (straight to video?).
http://www.jimtay.com/blog/_archives/2004/4/17/35573.html
My eyes, goggles, nothing, etc.
theyre... not?
Japanese people dont generally have too much of a different skin tone from whites, and its more physical differences in the bodily features that set them apart. So yeah, unless they tell you they're from Japan, or from the US, or from the UK/Europe, or any of the equivalents, they're they're not really meant to look white.
Japanese people dont generally have too much of a different skin tone from whites, and its more physical differences in the bodily features that set them apart. So yeah, unless they tell you they're from Japan, or from the US, or from the UK/Europe, or any of the equivalents, they're they're not really meant to look white.
Until I saw read thread the thought of anime character looking white never crossed my mind. I put the various features of anime characters such as the rainbow assortment of hair, the huge eyes and the usually pale skin as part of the art style that was partly inspired by American cartoons of the 1920s and 30s.
The video that was linked was very good, an informative 6 minutes of my life. Made me wonder if the fact i've never really thought of anime characters as white is due to the fact I'm half white, half south east asian. Something for me to think about at least.
For now I think I'll continue to see anime characters as Japanese unless the narrative would imply otherwise.
The video that was linked was very good, an informative 6 minutes of my life. Made me wonder if the fact i've never really thought of anime characters as white is due to the fact I'm half white, half south east asian. Something for me to think about at least.
For now I think I'll continue to see anime characters as Japanese unless the narrative would imply otherwise.
The point remains, it's simply not the case that there are NO asian-looking anime characters, and ALL of them look like white americans. I think by pointing out the considerable number of cases where there are identifiably asian... indian... african... etc characters kills the argument stone dead.sergnb said:
Yep, there are reasons why a caucasian-type characterisation has been favoured down the years, but it's a bit like asking why ALL americans are fat and drive SUVs.
A LOT of americans are fat (the stat is better than 50% overweight, and a surprising number obese, isn't it?), and large four-wheel-drive almost-trucks are popular everyday conveyances, and there are reasons for both which can be discussed at length. But holding the viewpoint that such features are universal is completely mistaken, the same as OP's is.