Why do anime characters look white?

[sooby]

I think a lot of it comes from the Japanese and the Germans being allies in WWII (srs). Quite a few popular animes have dat dere German influence but obviously Western culture has had an influence on Japan. (i.e, FMA, Attack on Titan, etc). But it also depends on the plot and the setting of the anime. If it was meant to portray or was set in some sort of medieval European society yeah the characters will probably look more white. Or if some guy is supposed to be from Europe in the anime he is going to look white.


I also think that the Japanese tried to appeal to the American markets by creating characters that they could relate to, which you could definitely see in the 80s/90s.

It isn't always the case though and I think part of it is just the style/animation/drawing. Like people don't have such fuking huge/exaggerated eyes, naturally purple/pink/green hair or Goku hairstyles in real life so when a character is drawn with blonde, brown, ginger hair i don't think it's necessarily to mimic white people. those tend to look obvious such as the character's back story is that they are from America.



Bleach, one of the most popular mangas of all time have typically more Japanese looking characters as well as Japanese names. A lot animes though actually have a lot of diversity in terms of how they design their characters to look like certain races (srs). As mentioned Death Note features more Japanese looking characters. In Yugioh at least Yami Yugi looked more Japanese, Kaiba, then you had the white looking dude in Joey and the black guy in Tristan.

[2RDEYE]

open wider eyes usually means younger and more pure/innocent.

[phaginator]

I think a lot of it comes from the Japanese and the Germans being allies in WWII (srs). Quite a few popular animes have dat dere German influence but obviously Western culture has had an influence on Japan. (i.e, FMA, Attack on Titan, etc). But it also depends on the plot and the setting of the anime. If it was meant to portray or was set in some sort of medieval European society yeah the characters will probably look more white. Or if some guy is supposed to be from Europe in the anime he is going to look white.


I also think that the Japanese tried to appeal to the American markets by creating characters that they could relate to, which you could definitely see in the 80s/90s.

It isn't always the case though and I think part of it is just the style/animation/drawing. Like people don't have such fuking huge/exaggerated eyes, naturally purple/pink/green hair or Goku hairstyles in real life so when a character is drawn with blonde, brown, ginger hair i don't think it's necessarily to mimic white people. those tend to look obvious such as the character's back story is that they are from America.



Bleach, one of the most popular mangas of all time have typically more Japanese looking characters as well as Japanese names. A lot animes though actually have a lot of diversity in terms of how they design their characters to look like certain races (srs). As mentioned Death Note features more Japanese looking characters. In Yugioh at least Yami Yugi looked more Japanese, Kaiba, then you had the white looking dude in Joey and the black guy in Tristan.

Forgot about Ichigo another typical japanese guy with blonde hair...lol

[LoveWarrior1957]

I dont know, but the Japs adore white people apparently

[Shortfuze]

Because otherwise chit like this happens (j/k):

I raise you this

[sooby]

Forgot about Ichigo another typical japanese guy with blonde hair...lol

that isn't really blonde tho, at best it's more of some ginger/strawberry hybrid that'looks dyed


if they were so obsessed with the whole blonde/white thing why not go with the typical blonde colour that is viewed as more aesthetic than some ginger ass orange colour?

at the same time it's a fukking anime, what japanese person, or human being for that matter has naturally blue, purple, green hair or any other colour of the rainbow?

[I3igAl]

Forgot about Ichigo another typical japanese guy with blonde hair...lol

It's more orange/red. Red hair signifies being fiery and agressive. Hair colours just symbolize the character's personalities. Lot's of white haired young people in Anime as well showing them to be smart wise, mythic etc. - Green and blue hair is also really common.
In the 80s a lot of Anime's still had normal black have it.

Not shure where this originated. I once read Jojo's Bizarre adventures did it first due to inspiration from Glam/Hair Metal. After all many hair metal singers colored their hair weirdly.

[phaginator]

that isn't really blonde tho, at best it's more of some ginger/strawberry hybrid that'looks dyed


if they were so obsessed with the whole blonde/white thing why not go with the typical blonde colour that is viewed as more aesthetic than some ginger ass orange colour?

at the same time it's a fukking anime, what japanese person, or human being for that matter has naturally blue, purple, green hair or any other colour of the rainbow?

Of course it's still anime but in general anime characters look much more white than asian, even if those characters are japanese.

[Pterodactyl314]

Rip original jynx

[Shortfuze]

Funny thing is I (and the whole world) was very offended at the guy who played Goku in that terrible live-action Dragonball movie. If Goku was modeled on a white character or white model, it sure didn't translate well in a live-action movie. Even Jackie Chan as Ryo Saeba (City Hunter) was a bit of a stretch.

[phaginator]

Funny thing is I (and the whole world) was very offended at the guy who played Goku in that terrible live-action Dragonball movie. If Goku was modeled on a white character or white model, it sure didn't translate well in a live-action movie. Even Jackie Chan as Ryo Saeba (City Hunter) was a bit of a stretch.

The guy was just a **** model to be goku.

[2am]

I raise you this

That's the same guy

[SomaliGirl]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ocMg8jW.jpg[img]

how does this even make sense, indians are asians and can be pretty fuking coloured

[sooby]

Funny thing is I (and the whole world) was very offended at the guy who played Goku in that terrible live-action Dragonball movie. If Goku was modeled on a white character or white model, it sure didn't translate well in a live-action movie. Even Jackie Chan as Ryo Saeba (City Hunter) was a bit of a stretch.

for live-action, this honestly wasn't terrible. Certainly a lot better than the disaster the box office movie was.

[HoustonMiscer]

Whitening is not an Asian only thing, it happpens in India too. It’s pure cope from those who do it but don’t like to say why or for what reason they are doing it. Just say u want to be white and move on.

[phaginator]

Whitening is not an Asian only thing, it happpens in India too. It’s pure cope from those who do it but don’t like to say why or for what reason they are doing it. Just say u want to be white and move on.

[SomaliGirl]

Whitening is not an Asian only thing, it happpens in India too. It’s pure cope from those who do it but don’t like to say why or for what reason they are doing it. Just say u want to be white and move on.

yeah same in africa, they don't wanna be white white but light skin mixed girl look

worlds fuked

[tunafishha]

This trend of them idealizing white people isn't new .

I guess you must not know me.

[Jax05]

Also the obsession of them with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Dark haired, dark eyed incel Goku turning super saiyan aka aryan chad



[IMG]https://i.redd.it/6y278n30dw941.png[IMG]

To be fair, Goku is an alien.

[Fang2]

Kubo made this character to symbolize Hitler



Along with his Nazi squad

[I3igAl]

Whitening is not an Asian only thing, it happpens in India too. It’s pure cope from those who do it but don’t like to say why or for what reason they are doing it. Just say u want to be white and move on.

I always thought it was a class thing.
Tan = poor worker, uneducated village guy
Pale = office job, upper middle class

The whiter the more rich the Indian brah looks.

[wings_unhinged]

Who cares? It's not like American cartoons are all that more anatomically accurate.

[Ravishing_Rick]

they don't look white to me but their really don't look Asian

they just look weird

these are white anime character

[quadfecta]

Globalizm has necessitated assimilation of the wealthiest cultures

It wouldn’t be popular if all the characters looked Asian. Similar to how azn on azn pron isn’t popular in the west

Likely that the original illustrations of popular anime’s actually did feature all Asian looking characters and the studio said nah, needs more variety so westerners start consuming it on tv.

[Adam16121]

[John Promise]

Sigh, had no idea these were whites

Look at the faces again. He took the animals and gave them white faces. But in cartoons with animal characters, ethnicity is largely portrayed in how a character acts and talks.

In a later post, you put out Dumbo as an example of one of Walt's film. Perfect example of what I'm saying. These characters were "black:"

[Muzzlrpress]

I raise you this

Fukkin ayyy lmao

That was some world class Engrish

[Muzzlrpress]

Of course it's still anime but in general anime characters look much more white than asian, even if those characters are japanese.

That's just cartoons man. The Boondocks characters are onbviouslu black, but most of them don't look like real people unless they're lampooning a real person.




The reason you think they look white is because of the eyes. Take any anime character and give em the eye fat and bam. The big eyes is just a cartoon staple.

[quadfecta]

That's just cartoons man. The Boondocks characters are onbviouslu black, but most of them don't look like real people unless they're lampooning a real person.




The reason you think they look white is because of the eyes. Take any anime character and give em the eye fat and bam. The big eyes is just a cartoon staple.

Not even anime by the definition of it being a Japanese import

Boondocks were created by a black American

[EasternHammer]

I can't agree with the premise that all the characters look white. Obviously it depends on the artist, but in shows where the cast is actually multi-racial it's pretty easy to tell who is who. I grew up watching Macross/Robotech and it's pretty damn obvious that Hikaru/Rick is Japanese and Roy Focker is a white European, for example. I think this comes down to bad artwork in general-the standard has declined pretty hard since the late 80s/mid 90s which produced the series I am most attached to.