Why are all anime characters 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.

 

[Jonluw]

Because japan idolizes western culture, so the whiter the better.

and the eyes, large eyes make the emotion easier to draw or something like that, but they also make you look very not asian.

This.

Pretty much kinda summed up what I was thinkin in a nutshell beyond all the "oh thats how we see it"

Last I checked most Asians are not natural blondes (nor porn stars...for that matter) They have dark hair...ala Black most of the time...

I must ask why Japan sees the western world as an idol....

Here's something to watch:
The Japanese do not "idolize" western culture or have some desire to be like 'us'.

 

[jj90]

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.
Maybe it's the art style but I don't see why everyone would look like an American white person.

SO why do you think even "asian" anime characters don't look asian at all?

Afro Samurai????

 

[BgRdMchne]

There aren't only white people in anime, sometimes there are horribly offensive caricatures of black people, too.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Anime Eyes actually have squared off corners. So they're neither round or elongated.

White people and Japanese people have similar enough skin tones so that the easiest way to tell them apart is eyes and hair (and general facial structure, but not too many people pay that close attention) Anime eyes are square, anime hair is pink and crazy. people who don't know any better say Anime faces are shaped like home plate. People just assume they're supposed to be white.

Which doesn't mesh with the racist stereotype that Japanese people are xenophobic.

I'm not racist by the way. Pointing out that people from different countries look different is not racist especially not when you asked.

 

[Lethos]

My Japanese textbook is hilarious when it comes to this. The textbook features some cartoon characters from different countries in the world. All of the Japanese characters, admittedly look white. So to make the characters from America and Britain look different to the Japanese characters, they have given them the biggest and most circular eyes you can imagine.

The Japanese do not "idolize" western culture or have some desire to be like 'us'.

This isn't entirely true to be honest. There is a fashion trend in Japan to dye your hair blonde and get a surgery to make your eyes more circular. It's not got a massive following, but when I was in Japan I did see quite a few girls doing this.

 

[tobyornottoby]

My Japanese textbook is hilarious when it comes to this. The textbook features some cartoon characters from different countries in the world. All of the Japanese characters, admittedly look white. So to make the characters from America and Britain look different to the Japanese characters, they have given them the biggest and most circular eyes you can imagine.

Could you scan this? =)

 

[krazykidd]

watch this

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

don't know how to imbed a video, sorry

You win this thread. that was a real good video and i will use it often , thank you .

 

[Canadamus Prime]

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.

This

It's a matter of art style and projection. Asian audiences consider anime characters to be Asian, whereas Caucasian audiences consider anime characters to be Caucasian.

And this too.
Also I'm sure it also varies from artist to artist as well.

 

[JSkunk22]

I'm just annoyed that black males still get drawn with those huge lips from time to time.

 

[Jazzeki]

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.

to be fair fullmetal alchemist might very well if not defiently be the exception in this case. since the world is more or less based on an alternate europe they should be german looking more or less. we then have ling and the others from xing actually haveing extreame asian features... it's almost like it's drawn by someone not asian witch is kinda funny.
but yeah TL;DR amestrians are germans more or less.

 

[Jazzeki]

My Japanese textbook is hilarious when it comes to this. The textbook features some cartoon characters from different countries in the world. All of the Japanese characters, admittedly look white. So to make the characters from America and Britain look different to the Japanese characters, they have given them the biggest and most circular eyes you can imagine.

The Japanese do not "idolize" western culture or have some desire to be like 'us'.

This isn't entirely true to be honest. There is a fashion trend in Japan to dye your hair blonde and get a surgery to make your eyes more circular. It's not got a massive following, but when I was in Japan I did see quite a few girls doing this.

it would still be like saying america idolizes japan just because they have few weirdo otakus going a tiny bit too far. sure we have the nutjobs everywhere who want to be someone their not but don't judge a nation based on these guys.

 

[Terminal Blue]

No, no they do not.

While there may be a good deal of fascination with Western culture, the Japanese decidedly do NOT idolize it anywhere close to as much as their own. At best it's given slightly less attention than Korean culture.

No credit for partial answers!

In visual aesthetic terms, Japan is saturated with references to 'Western culture'. There are people in Yoyogi Park who dress up like rockabillies every weekend and have dance-offs like they're in Grease. There are people who dress like 80s British punks. Even supposedly 'Japanese' pop-cultural phenomena tend to draw from Western visual styles, Visual Kei being a prime example. Very little in Japanese visual culture does not draw on Western cultural tropes.

What you're referring to is that Japanese people themselves tend to no longer see these things as 'foreign', they've lost their connection to an outside source or the things they reference. This leads to a bizarre paradox that Japan is extremely culturally insular, while at the same time borrows its visual language almost intact from the West.

There is another thing which bears mentioning though, and that is that there is a slight but observable degree of racial fetishism in Japan. We're talking about a country where eyelid surgery (to put a crease in the eye, which most asian people lack) is a standard beauty treatment, where blonde hair and blue eyes are signs of beauty despite the fact that noone possesses them, where blaxploitation still somehow thrives in the absence of any real (and sizeable) black population. It's not necessarily harmful, like everything else I think it's too robbed of cultural context to be directly offensive to anyone, but it's still kind of distasteful.

 

[Sordak]

they are yellow

 

[Robert Ewing]

Actually, they just have light asian skin tones most of the time.

But I've seen white, black, purple, asian, green anime characters before. Not to mention really, really tanned ones... urgh.

 

[Batou667]

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. 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.

In the Japanese culture, like many cultures around the world, having a clear and light complexion is seen as an aesthetic ideal. Just because many anime characters are light-skinned doesn't mean they're trying to be Western.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

American white person.

that's a contradiction.

It probably has to do with how anime barely has any features. Either that or Japans amazing history of racism.

 

[anthony87]

Is it okay if I assume that the OP is a troll of some sort?

Or would it be more polite to just assume that s/he's a generalizing idiot of some kind?

 

[goldendriger]

Bob Makihara From Tenjou Tenge, you couldnt get more black if you added Wesley Snipes.

 

[Lethos]

it would still be like saying america idolizes japan just because they have few weirdo otakus going a tiny bit too far. sure we have the nutjobs everywhere who want to be someone their not but don't judge a nation based on these guys.

Yeh I agree with you, I was just saying there is some Japanese fashion trends that do idolise Caucasians.

Could you scan this? =)

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