Why are all anime characters white?

[tahrey]

Even Studio Ghibli - with a long, somewhat questionable tradition of having entirely aryan character lists - has used that last one from time to time.

That's just the thing though - they're NOT mean to be Aryan.

I *was* being sliiiightly faecetious there
But it was in the spirit of suddenly realising that, in whatever shared universe or persistent nation their stories are set, there's either been quite a bit of ethnic cleansing, or there's a very restrictive immigration policy. About the darkest character I can think of is Spiller in Arriety, who is almost literally the very latest addition to their character list, and he's still more "suntanned plains hunter" than anything.

The non-black hair is probably partly a throwback to the days of differentiating characters by hair colour, and also Miyazaki does seem to have a bit of a raging fetish for Western influences and styling in his anime. But in general, I honestly believe his characters are meant to be culture-free "everyman" avatars.

I can somewhat go along with what you're saying there, but for a different reason - much as I love them (or maybe even one of the reasons why I do) is that all of his, and all of the studio's films appear to have a shared "cast" of generalised character models... sort of as if we've got a window into some kind of animated alternate universe where these are the equivalent of live action TV-movies, and this small studio has a particular set of regularly-used actors on its payroll. (Though again, they must have got a bit more budget of late, as they've hired 2 or 3 new faces for the last couple of films

"OK, we've got an opening for a stern but fair early 30s woman in a senior/mentoring role... Sal, you want to read for it? You did well as ... what was her name in that last one? Oh yeah, Eboshi... this actually reads kinda like a similar character but with less power and less central to the story... You do end up looking after the protagonist though. 10 year old girl. Thought we'd give 'chelle a shot at it, she's old enough to stop playing bit parts and macguffins by now. We might in that other kid again, too... yknow, he stopped the fight in that scene with you and Jenny? Bit of an emo? I know you have a soft spot for him. Hope you're good at talking to thin air and animatronics, by the way - there's a lot of CG and prosthetics in this. Talking frogs, that emo kid - ah, Stephen, that was his name wasn't it? - gets to turn into a dragon, and Vera's already getting measured up for the most twisted bit of maskwork you ever saw. Can still tell it's her, though, somehow. Not like Dave... he thought he was getting a bit typecast as the sidelined male comic relief-cum-kindly dad figure, so he's sticking with mocap and V.O's for the villain of the piece."



And if you can spot which films I'm on about and the particular characters from each... well, I'm not too surprised.

As for Hayao himself, wellllll like Tezuka he's not really made a secret of originally being inspired by Disney, and has a massive boner for european machinery and scenery, so a tinge of western styling is to be expected I suppose. But along the way he's made a house style all of his own - I actually clocked MCoG as being somehow related long before finding out that, yes, the studio which created featured several people he'd worked with on his early films... it was that distinct from anything actually airing in the east OR west.

The brown hair / minority ethnic group thing, though? That's an actual fact stated by Ghibli in relation to a couple characters like Ashitaka (there's a reason his people are hiding deep in the forest, and possibly a similar reason why San was abandoned as a baby). And similar in other animes which have people with darker casts, brown/ginger(/blonde) hair, and often a sportier bent/rougher accented speech (the latter being a stereotype). This is a real thing in Japan. Heck, they're a real ethnic group in real life. I suppose it's a case of slightly more chinese/mongol influence than the prevailing majority or something. Someone matching the description was in some of my classes at university as an exchange student. We got reasonably friendly, but that topic never really crossed my mind to discuss

(Just realised, in fact... Aryan's totally the wrong word, because there's hardly any blonde people either... and when there is, they're thrown in for effect almost like you might someone with albinism. Black, brown, red and silver-grey are the dominant colours)

 

[poleboy]

I could write a long post about this but really, the video linked on the first page explains it perfectly well. Anime characters look like cartoon versions of typical young japanese people. They are pale and have round heads. The eyes are big because it's a cartoon style, and also because it's a cartoon style that draws a lot from 40's and 50's Disney cartoons. If you think they look like white people, it is most likely because you are white yourself and projecting. It could also mean you identify with the chararacters, in which case I'd say the animators did a great job.

 

[FireAza]

Oh look, it's this topic again.

No, anime characters don't look white, unless they're actually suppose to be Caucasian, in which case they will normally give the character blonde hair, blue eyes, a big nose and, often, a pinkish skin tone.

As that great video bruein linked to pointed out, the aspects some people see as "white" are hardly exclusive to Caucasian people. In case you didn't watch it, here's a quick summary:

Skin color: East Asians (i.e Japanese) people, especially woman, have a skin color that's just as white, if not whiter than Caucasians. Hell, a Chinese girl I know has whiter skin than me, and I don't exactly spend a lot of time in the sun.

Eyes: Many Japanese have eyes just as big as Caucasians, and some Caucasians have eyes squinter than most Japanese. However, Japanese people have an eye fold that Caucasians don't have, so you could argue that anime that don't include this in their art style might be considered "white", but as has been pointed out already, the eye style in anime is borrowed from Disney, who found that larger eyes makes characters more expressive. Also, Japanese don't naturally have that wrinkle above the eye that Caucasians have, and many anime characters have this, so this is actually very "white".

Here's a few visual examples, starting with Ai Yori Aoshi, which has a "typical" (i.e big eyes and colorful hair) anime art style:

Tina, the blond one is American, and you can see she has a different skin tone from the rest who are Japanese in addition to being blond.

Of course, Ai Yori Aoshi has a very simple art style, let's see what a more detailed art style looks like:

The character on the top is Japanese, and the character on the bottom is German. Of note are:
Japanese: Black hair, narrow, rounded jaw, brown eyes and small ears
German: Wide chiseled jaw, wide nose, blue eyes and big ears

 

[Jonluw]

Jesus christ, this topic is still going on?
The discussion should have ended the second the video explaining this was posted.
[HEADING=2]Pale skin does not mean a person is Caucasian. There is more than one race with pale skin. Anime characters have pale skin because that is a Japanese aesthetic ideal. It has nothing to do with trying to look aryan. Both Asian people and Caucasian people can have pale skin. If you examine the rest of the racial traits anime characters exhibit, you will see that they're quite clearly asian.[/HEADING]
As for the round eyes: Asians having narrow eyes is a stereotype. The Japanese ideal of beauty is large, round eyes, therefore they portray their characters with that trait. No, they do not view that as a caucasian trait. Westerners are normally portrayed with squinty and slim or square eyes.

You perceive them as Caucasian because their racial traits are not exaggerated. They do not show any blatantly obvious racial traits, and so act as more of a blank character, race-wise. That's why you project your race onto them.
Ask any Asian person, and they'll think you're weird for thinking the characters are white

 

[The Keeper]

I blame Betty Boop. At least in terms of eyes. I she think she started the whole trend for both Americans and Japanese.

I'm just gonna repost this for you... ahem...

"For one thing, you're obviously white, because Asians in Asian countries (and even those in many western countries) don't define what it means to be asian/white with many of the things you're probably associating them with (most likely, almond eyes). Asians usually view themselves as having smaller noses and higher cheeks while whites have rounder faces and giant noses (they're racial jokes often revolve around whites having big noses).

Take another look at a lot of anime characters - you'll begin seeing racial traits for white people and asians. Whites are overbearing, typically loud, with a large nose and round face. Asians are skinnier, have a small nose, and angular cheeks.

The real problem here isn't that they draw homogeneous characters, the real problem is that Western cultures understanding of Asian racial traits is fundamentally different from Asians, so to us, it's confusing.

As for why there aren't more black people in it... have you SEEN black people in anime? 90% of them are horribly drawn along the lines of extreme racism. It's what I'd imagine would be drawn if a white slave owner from 1800's America tried to describe his "negro" property to a modern day cartoonist. >.>"

Yeah, I agree with just about all of this. I don't think you needed to repost it for me but, um, thanks.

 

[loc978]

Claims that al-*ahem*-most anime characters are caucasian are entirely too easy to refute.

Spoiler: similar to this

Also, what he said [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.317610-Why-are-all-anime-characters-white?page=4#12941195].

 

[tobyornottoby]

No scanner, but I hope a low-res, itouch, camera picture will do lol.

Thanks!

Yes, it's the art style.

Asian people are usually recognized by their eyes being being "leaner", resulting from their eyelids being kind of lower. However, the Japanese culture considers small eyes (particularly on anime) to look "mean" or "rude". The artstyle reflects on that: you'll notice that most often young and/or the main characters (the good guys) have large eyes, whereas usually the antagonists and/or people with dismissive/mean/cool personality have leaner eyes.

Also, saying all anime character are "all" white, simply isn't true. I don't watch anime or read manga myself, and I know this.

Probably the best answer I got thank you.
I understand better now.

Why would people choose to stay ignorant?

 

[Caravelle]

Yes, it's the art style.

Asian people are usually recognized by their eyes being being "leaner", resulting from their eyelids being kind of lower. However, the Japanese culture considers small eyes (particularly on anime) to look "mean" or "rude". The artstyle reflects on that: you'll notice that most often young and/or the main characters (the good guys) have large eyes, whereas usually the antagonists and/or people with dismissive/mean/cool personality have leaner eyes.

Also, saying all anime character are "all" white, simply isn't true. I don't watch anime or read manga myself, and I know this.

Probably the best answer I got thank you.
I understand better now.

Note that when Wuggy says "Asians are usually recognized by their eyes being 'leaner'", it's really "Asians are usually recognized IN WESTERN ART by their eyes being 'leaner'". The actual difference in size between Caucasian and north-east Asian eyes is too small to be shown in stylized cartoon art. Western art has picked on that difference as a racial marker but Japanese cartoon art hasn't; it uses another tiny difference (the size difference between children's eyes and adults' relative to the face) and uses eyes as a marker for age or innocence.

Same thing with skin tone; to Westerners "pale"="white" and Asians are depicted as yellow, but it's not as if actual people are white, yellow, or pink. The actual skin tones of Japanese varies as much in paleness as the skin tone of Caucasians, and "normal" cartoon skin tones are as different from Caucasian skin tones as they are from Japanese. I think skin tone is often used as a racial marker in anime; the typical anime skin tone is "northern Japanese". Anime Caucasians tend to be distinctly reddish-pink in comparison, and Japanese from the south will be some shade of brown. And black people an even darker shade of brown.

O
/¦\
/\

Is man above Caucasian or Asian. The idea is that Caucasian's see Caucasian and Asian's see Asian, due to lack of features as happens in anime. Excuse rubbish asci art.

So most are supposed to be Asian. But there is no way you are going to convince me that the two bothers Elric brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist with their blonde hair (yes, know lots of asian kids dye their hair) and blue eyes are Asian. No way.

Other people have pointed out that the Elric brothers are half bizarro-German and half Desert-Atlantean (whatever Xerxes is supposed to be), but am I the first to pick up on the blonde hair blue eyes bit ?

Edward has blonde hair and yellow eyes and Alphonse has brown hair and grey eyes.

But you know, one out of four...

FMA is actually interesting in that because if you look at the video on anime characters I'd say Alphonse, Edward and Winry (who DOES have blonde hair and blue eyes IIRC (but I probably don't)) have the typical "Japanese" anime facial traits. So what happens when characters from bizarro-China show up ? Ling does have western-cartoon-asian X-treme slanted eyes. But Mei very much does not; if anything she has X-treme Betty Boop eyes. Note that works better with the eyes depicting age/innocence than race.

 

[Caravelle]

Actually, everyone here is wrong ! Here is the true explanation for why anime characters look like they do :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lInGm_Fdz_0&feature=related

It all makes so much sense now !

 

[ph0b0s123]

Other people have pointed out that the Elric brothers are half bizarro-German and half Desert-Atlantean (whatever Xerxes is supposed to be), but am I the first to pick up on the blonde hair blue eyes bit ?

Edward has blonde hair and yellow eyes and Alphonse has brown hair and grey eyes.

But you know, one out of four...

FMA is actually interesting in that because if you look at the video on anime characters I'd say Alphonse, Edward and Winry (who DOES have blonde hair and blue eyes IIRC (but I probably don't)) have the typical "Japanese" anime facial traits. So what happens when characters from bizarro-China show up ? Ling does have western-cartoon-asian X-treme slanted eyes. But Mei very much does not; if anything she has X-treme Betty Boop eyes. Note that works better with the eyes depicting age/innocence than race.

Yeah, you got me there. It's a while since I saw it. I must have confused some of the Elrics features with Naruto's blond hair and blue eyes. Did not need the sarcasm in your response though..

I updated my original response to say that I think Anime characters can be pretty ambiguous and trying to give a race to each is a game in futility. About the only thing you can be sure about with most anime characters is that they are anime characters. They are almost like vague impressions of people that the watcher fills in what they would look like in the real world. Hence the variation in what people see. Hence I started off with the stick figure as representing a person. The viewer's imagination fills in the rest...

 

[Caravelle]

Was my response really that bad ? Sorry, I like being snarky but I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings. (Good thing I didn't go with my first draft, that was even worse )

 

[MercurySteam]

Dutch from Black Lagoon disagrees with you:

 

[FireAza]

definitely all white, yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK6_CH1cH3M

FYI, The Boondocks is an American animation, not Japanese. That's not to say it's not a great show, but it's not "anime"

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Almost all anime characters are Japanese in appearnace.
Small noses, smooth jaw line and rather wide eyes.

Caucasin people tend to have much more slanted eyes than the japanese.

 

[Queen Michael]

Take a look at this girl. See the nose? Notice how it looks nothing like a white person's nose (or anyone else's, for that matter). Notice how it's smaller than the eyes. Notice how her eyes are huge.

Now watch this girl. Notice how her nose is bigger than her eyes. Compare the anime girl's eyes with the real girl's. Notice how they are completely different in size and shape. Notice how their noses, as well, are completely different in size and shape. Notice how different these girls' mouths look. As you can see, their facial features are very different. The anime girl doesn't look white at all. It's just the human instinct to see yourself in everything. Kind of like the reason that a smiley like this one:
=D
looks like a face even though there's a million other things it could look like.

 

[Batou667]

All you people saying "I saw an anime once and there was a black guy in it! Myth Busted!" are missing the point of this thread by a country mile. Re-read the original post.

 

[Princess Rose]

Seriously I don't understand why in so many animes (especially ones taking place in JAPAN) ALL characters are white. Seriously I never see any asian features on any anime characters.

They aren't white. Case in point:

Each of these characters has a clearly Japanese name, was born in Japan, etc.

By the way, the above image translates to this:

Into this. Just FYI.

 

[Twintix]

So most are supposed to be Asian. But there is no way you are going to convince me that the two bothers Elric brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist with their blonde hair (yes, know lots of asian kids dye their hair) and blue eyes are Asian. No way.

Now I'm just being picky and someone might've already told you, but Edward and Alphonse don't look Japanese because they aren't supposed to be Japanese.

Their looks came from their father who came from a country that was wiped out a long time ago. And even if that wasn't the case, Amestris isn't based on Japan at all, but rather an alternate universe version of England (after WW1, if I recall). In fact, in that setting, I'm not sure an alternate Japan does exist; Xing appears to be mainly based on China.

So that's why you're not convinced they're Japanese. Because they aren't.

(Also me being super picky, but their eyes aren't blue. They're golden)

OT: Parroting what others have said, art style.

Also, characters with odd hair colors stick out and are easy to identify. That's why they're used as main characters often.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Good lord....break out the shotguns people, and perhaps call up a few priests. That's some pretty foul necromancy that brought this dessicated corpse shambling back onto the forums.