Are anime characters caucasian or japanese

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celebritymorph
March 08, 2009

try googling Do anime characters look caucasian and you'd be surprised how many hits you get. Some people consider it a serious enough issue that they write formal academic papers on it how about ...

try googling Do anime characters look caucasian and you'd be surprised how many hits you get. Some people consider it a serious enough issue that they write formal academic papers on it

how about you? Do you think that they look japanese or caucasian?

it's a bit fast. Just pause it from time to time so you can read the subtitles

========================
I'm not arguing that the characters are definitely japanese and definitely not white as most characters are ambigious enough to be interpreted as any race

It may seem like i'm overanalyzing anime but this is actually a response to those who are overanalyzing anime.

like these people:
http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmes...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

Here's an academic paper analyzing the japanese people's self image based on anime
http://www.focusanthro.org/archive/20...

Here's an article on newsweek "Is japan becoming less Japanese"
http://www.meiwasuisan.com/yt/bin/img...

Basically some people think that the japanese have a warped self image and they base this conclusion on the fact that anime characters look caucasian to them.

In this video, i argue that the characters may not necessarily look white to everybody and so any conclusion based on the fact that they look caucasian is poorly grounded.

also, I said that asians are good at cosplay but i never said that white people are bad at cosplay.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Update may 18 2009:
I wont be answering any more questions as Ive gotten a lot already and most of them are the same. So heres a generic reply to the most common questions Ive been getting:

Anime characters aren't anatomically accurate. If youd try to measure the difference the eye sizes of different races, the difference wouldnt usually be greater than a millimeter. You cant expect these measurements to be accurately reflected in anime, even the more realistic ones.

The only way you can definitively make a character look like a specific race is by exaggerating stereotypical features. These exaggerations are more common in mangga and in older, less politically correct anime. david rice of neogami neuro had very stereotypical features in the mangga which were toned down a little bit in the anime.
http://nougamineuro.wikia.com/wiki/Da...

If they do need to exaggerate features its usually the nose and the facial shape. I never suggested that small eyes are a stereotypical trait of whites to the Japanese animators. My point was that large eyes arent a stereotypical trait of whites for the Japanese animators. When whites are represented in anime they either have smaller eyes or eyes that are the same size. They never make the eyes stereotypically bigger than other races when they draw whites.

Heres an interesting article on how and when stereotypes are used by the japanese.
http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/f...

The point of the video is not to prove absolutely that anime characters are Japanese or east asian. As I said before, they usually look ambiguous enough to be interpreted as any race. And there are anime that are set in Europe where the characters are mostly white. The point is to disprove the argument that most anime characters are drawn to look Caucasian (even those that arent supposed to be Caucasian) and that the Japanese have a secret desire to be white because of this.

The premise itself is flawed so any conclusion you derive from it is poorly grounded. There is no reason to assume that they were intentionally drawn to look Caucasian. Racial characteristics aside, most of them live in japan, have Japanese names, Japanese hairstyles, japanse fashion etc. if you ask the average japanese person why most anime characters look caucasian, theyd give you a baffled look because the characters dont look Caucasian to them at all.

This video doesnt advocate racism. Its actually against racism. Ignore the asian supremacist comments, especially from proudasianguy. Im not on their side and I mark them down whenever I can. Im not attacking whites or any other race in this video. Im attacking whites who have a Eurocentric view of the world, who think that everyone wants to look white. If you dont have such a view of the world then you have no reason to be offended.
BTW the song is namida mokou by stereopony

Category: Film & Animation

Tags:

are anime characters caucasian white or japanese asian naruto evangelion death note melancholy of haruhi suzumiya stereopony cosplay jpop jrock koreans chinese big eyes pale caucasianization nose stereotypes slanty eyed racist yoko igura girl hot cute babe chick yaoi otaku geek hair kawaii make up avatar last airbender dragonball evolution

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littlelizzybeth (52 minutes ago) Show Hide

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*sigh* Race stereotypes. Saying big, long noses are a racial feature of caucasians is the same as saying thin eyes are racial feature of asians.

Not all asians have thin eyes and not all whites have big noses.

Fact is that whites don't come out of a 'white mold' and asians don't come out of an 'asian mold'. People have different features.

mizube08 (2 hours ago) Show Hide

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@Shikusei

I don't see any differences between your argument and mine.
I said Caucasian have big, long noses.
You SAID Asian have big, flat noses.
You say it IS racistic only if you CAN'T accept facial features.

Big, long noses are one of racial features of Caucasian. FACE THE FACT.

mizube08 (2 hours ago) Show Hide

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@Shikusei

>I never said ALL Asians has BIG, FLAT NOSES.
I also never said ALL Caucasian has big, long noses.

>It varies so much that you can hardly say ''ASIANS HAS SMALLER NOSES'' etc.
You clearly SAID
>Actually, a lot of Asians has big noses too. A lot of us has big, flat noses.
>Asian noses = can usually be big and very flat.
Why could you say ''ASIANS HAS BIG, FLAT NOSES'' in your past comment even though it varies so much?
I repeat, You HAVE severe contradiction in your sentences.

ATKillZ (8 hours ago) Show Hide

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It's more coinciedence that anime characters are seen to be like white people at first, due to different hair and eye colours, but you have to look more deeply than that.
I've even seen Japanese people with whiter skin than some white people lol

Shikusei (9 hours ago) Show Hide

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People seem to get me wrong. I'm not saying that Anime's based on white people. They are - at least most of them, based on Japanese people, especially the bowed-leg feature. But I hate seeing comments such as ''ASIANS HAS SMALL NOSES WHITE PEOPLE HAS BIG NOSES'' etc, it just makes me really upset cause I think it IS racistic and many of my friends are white. (I'm an European-born Asian)

icefirexd (9 hours ago) Show Hide

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i agree

mizube08 (12 hours ago) Show Hide

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@Shikusei

You clearly said
>Actually, a lot of Asians has big noses too. A lot of us has big, flat noses.
>Asian noses = can usually be big and very flat.
No, You didn't say 'some'.

>The Asian race is the biggest one. Basing Nose sizes on 58% of the world population is kind of hard.
Why did you say Asian have big, flat noses even though the Asian race is the biggest one. Basing Nose shapes on 58% of the world population is kind of hard.?

mizube08 (12 hours ago) Show Hide

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@Shikusei

>But if you'd compare the overall Asian race, the nose sizes would be pretty much equal.
Why don't you say if you'd compare the overall Asian race, the nose shapes would be pretty much equal?
You seem to have severe contradiction in your sentences.

I simply refer to racial features. It's sad that some people have troubles with facing the fact.

Shikusei (9 hours ago) Show Hide

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I'm not having troubles facing facts. I'm just telling you my thoughts as you're telling me yours as well.

Shikusei (9 hours ago) Show Hide

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I SAID The Asian race is the biggest RACE.
I never said ALL asians has BIG, FLAT NOSES.
When you say ''ASIAN'' we're talking about 4,000,000,000 persons.
And by that I mean - there's lots of different types of Asians. Some of them tend to have bigger noses than the others, some tend to have smaller ones. It varies so much that you can hardly say ''ASIANS HAS SMALLER NOSES'' etc.

I think this is a unnecessary discussion.

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Are anime characters caucasian or japanese

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