Why are all anime characters white?

[Some_weirdGuy]

First up: Wow, look at how many really important people there are in this thread!

..What? Clearly they're important if their time is so valuable that they don't even have the time to read the OP before making their reply. That you're they're just kinda stupid, but that just sounds pessimistic, so i'd refer to think it's not the case.

O
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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.

Clearly that guy is black

this one is white:
[color= #FBBBB9]O
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and this one is asian:
[color= #EAC117]O
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/\[/color]

As for Elric Brothers, for boh FMA or FMA:Brotherhood both aren't asian.

Spoiler

For one they're alternate reality german, and for the other they're half Xerxesian or whatever which seems to be based on greece?

 

[Jamash]

It's not just Animé characters, this bizarre phenomenon plagues real life Asians too.

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Look at Kazushi Sakuraba there, he's far too white. Doesn't he know he's suppose to have darker skin? He's 100% Japanese and a national hero to boot, so what on Earth does he think he's doing looking like a white man?

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​

Now Kazuyuki Fujita here, he knows what being Japanese is all about and he has the dark skin to prove it.

I think we need to start an Internet campaign to raise awareness about this troubling issue. Only with our help can we make some Japanese people appear the way we think they should appear.

 

[Zyntoxic]

people are forgetting about this:
http://satwcomic.com/robots

Japanese people are pretty "white" in skin colour.
and Japan have very few imigrants because they allow so very few of them, so natrually they don't have many "darker skinned" people around resulting in few "darker skinned" anime characters.

 

[Batou667]

I'm going to have to go with the herd on this issue.

- Characters in manga/anime are simplified. That means that subtle details like racial characteristics get lost.

- When Westerners or other foreigners are portrayed in manga/anime, they often look quite markedly different. The most extreme example of this would be the generalised "gaijin" or foreigner stereotype with tanned skin, light hair and coloured eyes (i.e., different in every way to the Asian characters).

- Manga is traditionally drawn in black ink first and coloured later, or not at all. To help differentiate between the characters, and to add "emotion", the artists responsible for colouring would often make quite bold choices for hair colours. Trying to depict characters as being racially diverse was never the intention.

- And finally, some manga/anime is actually drawn in a more realistic illustration style, such as Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, and features characters who all have jet black hair and Eastern features.

 

[Joos]

Because white skin is a sign of nobility and wealth. If you had lots of money, you didn't have to work in the fields and get a tan etc. So typically your main characters in a Manga would be pale to show they are noteworthy.

Lie many things, it has passed down to our current generation through the ages. For more info on how this cultural phenomenon is affection Japan and Asia in general atm, check out a few of these links:

http://www.pri.org/stories/world/asia/skin-whitening-big-business-asia.html
http://uniorb.com/ATREND/asianwhite.html
http://www.joseibi.com/tag/whitening/

 

[TG MLPDashie]

dude when you've been drawing anime for a while you'll learn why it's hard to draw someone who isn't white.

 

[Legend of J]

he's pretty fly for a white guy...

Was going to say him beaten already

 

[Del-Toro]

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

There isn't actually an academic paper that gets away with saying typical features of anime/manga stylization stem from a desire among Japanese artists to be white is there? I have a hard time believing that someone whould be allowed to get away with that in this day and age.

 

[A.A.K]

Black Lagoon.
The big guy is black.

 

[Sarah Frazier]

Most anime characters are white, but there are a very small few who aren't. It's probably something to do with the people involved with the creation of the cartoon and the fact that the artists may be mostly, if not completely, white/asian.

As for why they don't all look "asian" or any particular nationality, that's probably because it's a cartoon and only special characters following a stereotype enough for the audience to say "That one is totally from because of ".

 

[cainx10a]

Black Lagoon.
The big guy is black.

Revy is chinese-american, Rock is Japanese and the other tech guy is Jewish-American.

OPiversity is there in Japanese anime/manga, it just depends on the art style used by the mangaka and other details thrown in. Hell, do you think Naruto is white? Maybe, then again his story doesn't take place in Japan (or our real world for that matter) but a fictional world where race might not be issue at all.

 

[tobyornottoby]

Result should look like this:

Nice! Didn't know there was a vid about it =)

Anime characters are white because Japanese people are white. I find it cute when people think they don't look asian.

 

[Spy_Guy]

OBJECTION! I say...

I think you might not want to use the term "all"...

 

[Saltyk]

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

Damn. You beat me to it by quite a bit. As soon as I saw this thread I decided to post and embed that video. And it seems someone already beat me to that, too.

 

[A.A.K]

Black Lagoon.
The big guy is black.

Revy is chinese-american, Rock is Japanese and the other tech guy is Jewish-American.

and....err....Dutch? I think his name is?

 

[direkiller]

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

Like this: take the bit from the youtube link that comes after the =, which in this case would be JKTvFhRbBt8
Then write youtube=JKTvFhRbBt8, and put that between these two: [ ]

Result should look like this:
Other than that, I have not much to add to what bruein said, except that there's also a few black guys out there. Not a lot though.

i guess that explains cyborg 002

Spoiler

 

[cainx10a]

Black Lagoon.
The big guy is black.

Revy is chinese-american, Rock is Japanese and the other tech guy is Jewish-American.

and....err....Dutch? I think his name is?

I referring to Bennie. The blonde guy / tech guy.

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.

 

[Jonluw]

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

Good ninja.
I'll embed it one more time, just so the people reading this thread will be further bombarded with it. Because, honestly, I hate the question OP is asking. Mostly because of the academic paper the video mentions.

 

[ckam]

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.

 

[freaper]

watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

To add to the video:


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?