Current Events > I don't see why people say anime characters look white.

(+) Yeah! (+)

@cavalierking posted...

are you stupid

they're not supposed to be photo-realistic

And they can't actually look like any race without looking realistic. Hold this L.

and as a counter-example, we can SOMEHOW identify the griffins (family guy) as white despite them having completely unrealistic features, so how does that work?

Just because you can tell when a character is designed to be white doesn't mean that character actually looks white. No correlation. You can tell when racist artists are drawing what they think looks like a black character: dark skin, nappy hair, big nose and big lips. Does a cartoon character legitimately look black just because they fit the stereotypical description? Absolutely not.
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@Dusk_ posted...

Sorry but they look closer to White then any other. Look at how bad the full metal alchemist live action was... the characters are clearly European based, yet casted as asians? the fuck...

The only reason you think they're European is because of their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, even though none of those things are specific to Europeans.

What if they had black hair, black eyes and darker skin instead? Would they suddenly look black or Hispanic, even though everything else about their appearance would be the same? What if they had very white skin, black hair and black eyes? Would they suddenly look Asian, even though everything else about their appearance would be the same? Changing a real person's hair, eye and skin colors isn't actually gonna make them look like a different race. You said they look European, but how don't they just look like Asians who dyed their hair and put on contacts?

Cartoon characters don't look like anything. You're just biased.
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Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Yomi posted...

I do wonder though, if you assume that characters like Naruto and Ino are white because they have naturally blonde hair and blue eyes, what race is Sakura? A girl with naturally pink hair and green eyes? Or Hinata with her natural blue hair?

Sometimes, its just fun to speculate and hypothesize their race based on physical appearance alone, say, if they were real life people.
As far as Sakura goes, I always thought of her as Eurasian. Hinata strikes me as a Japanese woman.

Hinata's hair is bluish black. Not that she actually looks Asian, but she looks like how Asian women are typically drawn in anime when the artists aren't making them look super fantastical.
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In anime where they emphasize that someone is white, they barely look different from the Japanese characters.

And then they go full blown racist when they draw black characters.

People see animated characters as their own race unless it is obviously completely different (i.e. different skin colour)

White people see them as white
Asians see them as asian

Etc
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You ignored my examples fucking Joey Wheeler from Yu-Gi-Oh even has a Brooklyn accent while Ishizu is colored skin and has a middle eastern accent
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El Mexicano Texano posted...

You ignored my examples fucking Joey Wheeler from Yu-Gi-Oh even has a Brooklyn accent

The Brooklyn accent is a dub only thing. Yu Gi Oh characters aren't even Japanese in the dub; they were rewritten to be in Kansas.

while Ishizu is colored skin and has a middle eastern accent

She's written to be Egyptian, but she doesn't actually look that way aside from her clothes.
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The only reason you think they're European is because of their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, even though none of those things are specific to Europeans.

Ot maybe because they're written as Europeans and you can assume it by their names / backstory rather than their appearance wth

vocedelmorte posted...

The only reason you think they're European is because of their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, even though none of those things are specific to Europeans.

Ot maybe because they're written as Europeans and you can assume it by their names / backstory rather than their appearance wth

Lol ok but this topic is about how appearance is meaningless
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vocedelmorte posted...

The only reason you think they're European is because of their light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, even though none of those things are specific to Europeans.

Ot maybe because they're written as Europeans and you can assume it by their names / backstory rather than their appearance wth

This is a dumb quote from Scotty. White hair, light skin, blue eyes is the ideal presentation or depiction of a White or European character. Sure, it's not a look exclusive to Europe and there may be special cases, but you're not gonna find an anime where a white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired character is depicted as anything but White.

Next you're gonna tell me the guy in the middle isn't Chinese, even if he looks it and is wearing traditional Chinese attire simply because he might not be written to be Chinese.

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@Volkswagen_Bros posted...

White hair, light skin, blue eyes is the ideal presentation or depiction of a White or European character.

Lol so every single person who has those things is automatically white. No.

, but you're not gonna find an anime where a white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired character is depicted as anything but White.

There are plenty of anime like that.

Next you're gonna tell me the guy in the middle isn't Chinese, even if he looks it and is wearing traditional Chinese attire simply because he might not be written to be Chinese.

His clothes look like they're based on Chinese culture, but he himself doesn't actually look Chinese; he just looks like a shitty stereotype. No Chinese person actually has eyes like that.

Will you post a picture of Blackface next and say it legitimately looks like a black person? Get that racist shit out of here.
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I'm reading the new chapters of prince of tennis and it's hilarious how they view foreigners. Most of them have small eyes, but all the Japanese characters have big anime eyes.
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Esrac posted...

PBusted posted...

Unless there are stereotypical features, people just automatically assume cartoon characters are the race that are predominant in the culture they were raised in. Why do white people think Homer and Marge Simpson are white, that stick figures are white, that random blue skin characters from shows like Doug, Kim Possible and adventure time are white.

I don't know about Doug, Kim Possible, or stick figures, but I figure the Simpsons (and most other yellow-colored characters) are supposed to be white because we can contrast them with characters we know are supposed to be other races, like Carl, Cookie Kwan, and Apu.

Exactly. That further proves my point. Other races can by known by racial stereotypes like accents, clothing, stereotypical facial features (slanted eyes, big lips, red dot on forehead) while the ones without any stereotypes are the "default" and thus you see them as white. The thing is, other cultures consider themselves the default.

Scotty_Rogers posted...

His clothes look like they're based on Chinese culture, but he himself doesn't actually look Chinese; he just looks like a s***ty stereotype. No Chinese person actually has eyes like that.

Will you post a picture of Blackface next and say it legitimately looks like a black person? Get that racist s*** out of here.

Scotty doesnt know the concept of cartoons.

And no, I highly doubt Mr. Popo is a black character.
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@Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Scotty doesnt know the concept of cartoons.

That's some nice backpedaling. First you argued that he looks Asian, but your excuse for him not actually looking Asian is, "It's a cartoon" lol

Looking like a stereotype does not equal looking like the real thing.
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Scotty_Rogers posted...

@Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Scotty doesnt know the concept of cartoons.

That's some nice backpedaling. First you argued that he looks Asian, but your excuse for him not actually looking Asian is, "It's a cartoon" lol

Looking like a stereotype does not equal looking like the real thing.

So if he's not Chinese despite looking like a stereotypical Chinese character, than what is he? Are you going to say 'a humanoid that dresses like a Chinese person'?

Next, you're gonna say she's not Chinese despite having a Chinese name and surname and dressing in traditional Chinese garment because "she doesn't look Chinese, Chinese don't have exaggerated cartoon eyes like that".


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Volkswagen_Bros posted...

So if he's not Chinese despite looking like a stereotypical Chinese character, than what is he?

I'm not arguing that the character isn't intended to be Chinese. He just doesn't actually look Chinese; looking like a racist stereotype isn't actually looking like Chinese. I'm sorry that your reading comprehension is booty.
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Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Her clothes are clearly based on Chinese culture, but her face does not look like any race at all.
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Scotty_Rogers posted...

Her clothes are clearly based on Chinese culture, but her face does not look like any race at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
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You're backpedaling again.
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What do you mean? I'm just pointing out why certain characters don't resemble their real life counterparts despite hypothetically being it.
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You're admitting I'm right and are just looking for an excuse why it doesn't matter.
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The amount of blonde haired characters can throw you.. Considering blonde hair is pretty much a white characteristic.

But it really doesn't matter either way.
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BettyWhite posted...

The amount of blonde haired characters can throw you.. Considering blonde hair is pretty much a white characteristic.

Just because a character is blonde doesn't mean they actually look white.
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Scotty_Rogers posted...

You're admitting I'm right and are just looking for an excuse why it doesn't matter.

Nope. If a character looks a certain way, chances are, they were influenced by something within the real world.
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Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Scotty_Rogers posted...

You're admitting I'm right and are just looking for an excuse why it doesn't matter.

Nope. If a character looks a certain way, chances are, they were influenced by something within the real world.

Except they don't actually look that way in the first place. You're just biased as you rely on other factors to determine what they are (clothes, voice, how the character is written, etc)
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they look more asian than white to me tbh
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Volkswagen_Bros posted...

Fine, let's take Ino.



Clearly a White chick with light blue eyes.

Naruto has black guys though.

This is the white elephant in the room (no pun intended) in Japan's culture.

After world war 2 and until the early 2000s they used to look up to western culture, especially the US a lot. This happened to some degree in South Korea too. Think of the weeaboo phenomenon but the other way around.

Did you know that baseball is HUGE in japan? The ameriboo vibe can be seen even in modern kpop, many of their videos have the guys wearing college-style jackets and the girls hanging out in dinner-like places while sipping on milkshakes, it's sort of a 2000s take on 50s diner culture through the eyes of asia.

Obviously, this had a huge influence on Anime too. Maybe the anime characters of the time were NOT drawn thinking "I am drawing a white guy, lol", but they weren't drawn thinking "I am drawing an asian guy that represents my culture" either. They were drawing a fictional character that they wanted to look cool and that sort of stuff.

This is an uncomfortable thing because during the mid 2000s the Japanese began growing out of their ameriboo phase, and that lead to some interesting things.

Remember Ken Masters, Ryu's American counterpart? He is no longer a blonde american dude with a surfer look, who is based on real life american martial artist Joe Lewis? ( https://tinyurl.com/yaoql2rt )

Now Ken is a japanese dude who dyes his hair blonde. They even changed his character model to look asian:

SF4 (American) : http://i0.wp.com/shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sfiv-ken-622.png?fit=622%2C320&resize=750%2C400

SF5 (Japanese that dyes his hair) : https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/streetfighter/images/b/bd/IMG_0512.png/revision/latest?cb=20170310152727

Where am I going with this? They can look back to their past embarrassed and change Ken. But what do they do about established anime characters, man of which are old animes, anyway? Claim they're japanese too! A japanese character... with blue eyes, blonde hair, fair skin and voluptuous figure:

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/28000000/Mai-yu-gi-oh-28050076-411-250.jpg

They are trying to say somebody like Mai would not look like this in real life:

https://pm1.narvii.com/6076/66a9011ce80d90a906f53cf2c19900d2685fc3a4_hq.jpg

But Mai would look like this, apparently:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSYLxfvflKW_g0fbeX5hZoOpF2ZRSA2iWdcFtdtDGMbCFkKUl2iDA

I mean.. lol no
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Here's another example like the Ken Masters one.

Here is Celes Chere from FF6:

http://cdn.staticneo.com/w/finalfantasy/thumb/5/53/CelesB.jpg/180px-CelesB.jpg

Here's some FF10 characters:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTP2bN4UMbW_Rpd0zRgIhimwnVw6suCpxCSWFPOFrcfUMGKvj-K
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Mai looks neither Asian nor White. However, she's written as being Japanese in the series, so in real life, she'd just look like an Asian who dyed her hair blonde.
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Scotty_Rogers posted...

Mai looks neither Asian nor White. However, she's written as being Japanese in the series, so in real life, she'd just look like an Asian who dyed her hair blonde.

Did you see the pics I posted? Tell me the japanese girl I posted looks closer to the white one I posted...

she was maybe written to look japanese. But she was drawn to look white, maybe not on purpose, but she did.
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As usual, ROD is projecting his own racial prejudice

StarLightGlimmR posted...

Naruto has black guys though.

Yep. Killer B even has cornrows, a traditional African hairstyle.
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BJ-blazkowics posted...

Did you see the pics I posted? Tell me the japanese girl I posted looks closer to the white one I posted...

Neither of them actually look like Mai.

she was maybe written to look japanese. But she was drawn to look white, maybe not on purpose, but she did.

You're implying that she was subconsciously drawn to look white without the artist realizing it, but you've posted no evidence for that. Japanese people liking baseball, college jackets, dining, etc isn't evidence. Nothing about Mai looks white nor Asian.

Blonde hair? Anyone can dye their hair blonde.
Light skin? Anyone can have light skin.
Big eyes? The Yu Gi Oh artist draws almost everyone with huge eyes; that's just his art style. For an example, Ishizu has the exact same facial features (eyes, nose, chin, ears, etc) as Mai: https://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ishizu_Ishtar

No real person actually looks like that. Mai isn't going to look like that cosplayer you posted if she was in real life; you can't determine how a cartoon character's physical appearance to determine how they would look in real life when that character doesn't even look realistic in the first place. To actually determine how they would look like, you would have to look at other factors, like how the character is written. Mai is written as a Japanese woman who dyes her hair blonde. Therefore, that's what she's going to look like in real life. Does she look like that way in the anime? No, but we're not talking about the anime; we're talking about real life. And anime characters don't look like real people.
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I'm on my phone and can't find a secure site using Anime as an exampleso I will have to use a cartoon instead

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo

This is literally a famous person in the Simpsons he's missing the wrinkles, moles and the skin isn't that color in real life. Please tell me how this speicifc guy doesn't look anything to his human counter part or that said character isn't Portuguese.
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Are we talking Manga too, or just anime?
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El Mexicano Texano posted...

I'm on my phone and can't find a secure site using Anime as an exampleso I will have to use a cartoon instead

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo

This is literally a famous person in the Simpsons he's missing the wrinkles, moles and the skin isn't that color in real life. Please tell me how this speicifc guy doesn't look anything to his human counter part or that said character isn't Portuguese.

He doesn't look like the actual Ronaldo at all lmao
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Scotty_Rogers posted...

El Mexicano Texano posted...

I'm on my phone and can't find a secure site using Anime as an exampleso I will have to use a cartoon instead

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo

This is literally a famous person in the Simpsons he's missing the wrinkles, moles and the skin isn't that color in real life. Please tell me how this speicifc guy doesn't look anything to his human counter part or that said character isn't Portuguese.

He doesn't look like the actual Ronaldo at all lmao

Kid Rock, Larry King, Fat Ronaldo, Spock, Bono, Bill Clinton please tell me they all look like each other and that none of them resemble there real life counter part.
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bruh none of them look like their counterparts. Get cha L fam!
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Holy shit. I scanned this entire 90 post topic and I'm the first person to say the word "mukokuseki".

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki

Mukokuseki is the deliberate lack of ethnic features included in the character design of Japanese fictional characters. It literally means "stateless" (i.e. "without nationality"), though the term relates to more abstract anime, and in this case, used hyperbolically.

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People (rightly or wrongly) typically fall back on one of two explanations for this trope.

The first is that the purpose of mukokuseki is to make characters look distinct so that the audience, and the artists don't get confused. In works set in the largely homogeneous Japan, it can be hard for an animator to make unique designs in such a simple art style for several dozen straight black-haired, brown-eyed people.

The second is the idea that the artists are appropriating features from the exotic "other" (in this case white people) into their character designs either for their own interests or for marketing purposes. It is speculated that the pervasiveness in Japanese pop-culture of physical features such as fair hair and blue or green eyes note arguably suggests such features are considered fashionable, desirable, and interesting. It is assumed this was compounded exponentially over the last 60 years or so by the pervasive Western standards of beauty that infiltrated most cultures, including Japan, via Hollywood and the Euro/American fashion industry.

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CyricZ posted...

Holy shit. I scanned this entire 90 post topic and I'm the first person to say the word "mukokuseki".

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki

Mukokuseki is the deliberate lack of ethnic features included in the character design of Japanese fictional characters. It literally means "stateless" (i.e. "without nationality"), though the term relates to more abstract anime, and in this case, used hyperbolically.

...

People (rightly or wrongly) typically fall back on one of two explanations for this trope.

The first is that the purpose of mukokuseki is to make characters look distinct so that the audience, and the artists don't get confused. In works set in the largely homogeneous Japan, it can be hard for an animator to make unique designs in such a simple art style for several dozen straight black-haired, brown-eyed people.

The second is the idea that the artists are appropriating features from the exotic "other" (in this case white people) into their character designs either for their own interests or for marketing purposes. It is speculated that the pervasiveness in Japanese pop-culture of physical features such as fair hair and blue or green eyes note arguably suggests such features are considered fashionable, desirable, and interesting. It is assumed this was compounded exponentially over the last 60 years or so by the pervasive Western standards of beauty that infiltrated most cultures, including Japan, via Hollywood and the Euro/American fashion industry.

I think we can all agree that you're a weeb
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I think we can all agree anyone who uses "weeb" unironically as an insult is a terrible poster and a terrible person irl
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Thank you Rika, but quite frankly if anyone's best response is calling me a weeb for knowing a Japanese word, I feel pretty comfortable in my stance.
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DBZ has the blackest character with Piccolo
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FMA is a show where I can clearly tell the characters are American/white
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Vermander posted...

FMA is a show where I can clearly tell the characters are American/white

The inspiration for the FMA universe (at least Amestris) is European WW1/2 era, not America. Hell, their leader is called a "fuhrer".

Arakawa has said as much.

Regardless, most of the characters in FMA are still designed mukokuseki. The only ones who aren't are the Xingese (Chinese inspired obviously) and the Ishvalans (made-up race of mocha skin, white/silver hair, and red eyes).
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SSJGrimReaper posted...

DBZ has the blackest character with Piccolo

lol
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