| makes sense why you say that, they see Japanese with black hair and brown eyes and smaller builds VS. every foreigner anime character that has blonde hair and blue eyes with typically larger builds |
| Simple, if they have asian names they're asian, and if they have western names they´re white. |
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| i dont know if literally being an asian person influences my perspective at all but i've rarely ever stopped and thought "hmm what race is this anime character?" mainly watching sol myself, most will end up being japanese by default |
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| theyre asian and their japanese cuz they speak japanese and born there. atleast the most of them |
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| Guys, I think Joseph Joestar is white. Now applaud me for my astute observation skills. |
| It dosent matter asian or American as long as they are interesting. The anime characters even in a Japan setting desent look Japanese either. |
| Majority of them are Japanese, they are designed by Japanese people in Japanese setting after all, so the mental image the author has is probably what they are familiar with. In your case I would assume it's the same thing, you are used to mostly meet white people in day to day setting so your mental image corresponds to that. Personally I have never put much thought into it, but I have always seen them as Japanese unless stated otherwise. |
| if the show tells us they're asian, that means they're asian if the show tells us they're french, they're french simple as that |
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| when i was younger i ask me the same thing, today i think it's just more...colourful? i mean you can regonize the personallity of a anime character based on their hair colour. besides about the dye your hair is in japan quite proscribed, specially in schools it's forbidden. with very colourful haircolurs in their animes, they can at least dream. |
| They are clearly white. No matter how many hoops you jump through, peach skin and big round eyes do not an Asian make. |
| Old is Gold "Look, look, we can do spinning shots without wasting our entire budget" "Did you see? Look, it's all smooth and everything !" "You're not looking, please, it's SO AWESOME LOOK AT HOW SPINNY IT IS!!!!" - All anime animators since the invention of CGI. |
| I don't think people are understanding OP's perspective and jumping to conclusions. For me, the characters' face structure is quite Asian as the eye socket is not caved inside the scull, but rather outside. But eyes create deception, because due to above reasons, most asian have smaller visible eyes, which is opposite of anime, which generally have bigger eyes. |
Anime was it's best 20000 years ago, when cavemen drew art with real depth. Modern anime is all garbage. I miss great old days of anime. |
| Anime characters have no specific race unless they are outright stated to have 1 from my perspective. Even then 2d looks far superior to 3d Half elves are the master race though!. Most anime characters do have white skin. |
rohan121Nov 7, 2021 10:09 AM
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| Read about Mukokuseki. But honestly most of them are japanese, simple as that. Leave in Japan, japanese names, speak japanese... white people don't have natural pink hair either and all. x) Hair are like this because it's fun and eyes are big so they are more expressive. |
 Life is a despicable endurance race |
zaganGao said: not a racist thing, a matter of perception: to me at least a lot if not most of Anime characters look more like they are white rather than Asian, but i have seen some polls and interviews of Japanese people and they see Anime characters as asian\Japanse. In general, this industries main focus has always been targeting a Japanese audience. Trying to assign a race to fictional characters won't be obvious unless it's stated in the actual work of fiction. In general there is little to no difference between the skin colour of someone who is Caucasian to someone who is Northeast Asian. As an example, you can take a look at a series like "Strike Witches" where all the characters in this particular series are from almost every major nation around the world even if it is a completely fictional one. There is absolutely no distinction between a character from Japan or one from Russia in "Strike witches". Yoshika Miyafuji - Japanese  Gertrud Barkhorn - Russian  |
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| If they're from Japan then they are yellow If they're from the West then they're white No matter what race they are, they still have big eyes |
Ronninn said: Does it even matter? I'm confused lol. To many Americans, race is the single most important thing in their life and they are annoying off the rest of the world by bringing it into every conceivable topic of conversation. Normal people like you and me can't understand this drivel |
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Doutei-kun said: Their hairs are colored differently to distinguish characters which is obvious. Generally Blonde color is used for foreigners. Then there's also 'Half-American' thing,... This is completely misguided way of thinking in anime. Unless a title states a characters race, different hair colours is mostly used to personify a characters disposition or just used to differentiate between multiple characters in a title to prevent the viewer from becoming confused who is who. In most cases I have noticed Blue, purple, pink, and white hair colours are used for more timid personas while natural hair colours that are lighter tend to personify more cheerful and carefree personas. Darker natural hair tend to personify more of a down to earth persona. There are exceptions to these rules but the point is hair colour in anime has nothing to do with race either. |
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| Can't say they are Caucasian since anime characters usually have more rounded faces and just more "cute" features, not present in whites. People say Asians are cute but I don't agree with that. I would say anime characters are what they want to see in a person, so they would tend to grossly amplify the beautiful features of Asians which will make them look a lot different from actual Asians. |
| If you ever feel bored and are questioning the meaning of your existence, read deez blogs. Maybe you will find your answers. |
| To be fair, you don't see multicolored hair in an Asian society. |
| I don't think they intend to make their characters look white, i think they just focus on making them look cuter. Japanese beauty standards, they find pale to be much cuter. Look at Strawberry Marshmallow, all the characters are fairly pale, but then there's Ana. A blonde foreign girl and she looks a lot different from the other main cast. She's actually white. |
| My waifu is the most wonderful waifu. Mai Valentine. We're freaking out that we're running out of time, but to do what? Should i stop and think of that? Is there something i could do to slow it down? Live in a day for once, instead of watch it sprinting by |
| That's probably to appeal to the global audience |
ColourWheel said: As an example, you can take a look at a series like "Strike Witches" where all the characters in this particular series are from almost every major nation around the world even if it is a completely fictional one. There is absolutely no distinction between a character from Japan or one from Russia in "Strike witches". Yoshika Miyafuji - Japanese Gertrud Barkhorn - Russian Gertrud is German (Karlsland), not Russian. The main Russian (Orussia) girls are Sanya and Sasha. They are actually a little more fair-skinned than other characters; the same is true for Eila and Nipa, from Finnland (Suomus). In contrast, most of the Italian (Romagna) girls are a shade darker, like Francesca. I'm sure this is intentional. But of course it's true that in general, you can't tell a character's nationality by their skin alone. Other indicators of ethnicity such as facial features or body build are even less pronounced. One ethnic group that is often marked is characters from Okinawa. I guess this makes sense because it is much closer to home for Japanese audiences: the difference between someone of Japanese and of Ryukyuan descent means something real to them.  |
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Tirinchas said: ColourWheel said: As an example, you can take a look at a series like "Strike Witches" where all the characters in this particular series are from almost every major nation around the world even if it is a completely fictional one. There is absolutely no distinction between a character from Japan or one from Russia in "Strike witches". Yoshika Miyafuji - Japanese Gertrud Barkhorn - Russian Gertrud is German (Karlsland), not Russian. The main Russian (Orussia) girls are Sanya and Sasha. They are actually a little more fair-skinned than other characters; the same is true for Eila and Nipa, from Finnland (Suomus). In contrast, most of the Italian (Romagna) girls are a shade darker, like Francesca. I'm sure this is intentional. But of course it's true that in general, you can't tell a character's nationality by their skin alone. Other indicators of ethnicity such as facial features or body build are even less pronounced. One ethnic group that is often marked is characters from Okinawa. I guess this makes sense because it is much closer to home for Japanese audiences: the difference between someone of Japanese and of Ryukyuan descent means something real to them. Ya I am not exactly a "Strike Witches" guru, But I think I made premise clear. |
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| another fucked up thread..xd...i think all are japanese..why do you need to create a character of non-white skin to claim themselves asian...do all cartoon characters have black skins? obviously it is normal to give them clear skins...and i think all look japanese...they have got slim and tall bodies, messy hair and typical japanese behaviours |
You all have to undrestand that Chainsaw man is impossible to adapt without CG. |
| Idk about other hair colors but every half Japanese character being blonde haired/blue eyes is so funny to me.. What kind of recessive genes are those.. :D |
This is Nanba Prison. No one has ever escaped successfully from this prison. -Nanbaka |
| Some users here are missing one very important thing. It's the art style and aesthetic. In anime, people are typically drawn with big eyes, which can lead people to come to conclusions like: They don't look Japanese or Asian because they have big eyes. When it's actually because of the art style. Characters are drawn this way to make them more expressive. |
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| I guess it just comes to what you think they are. If you think that they are white, they look white. If you think that they are Asian, they look Asian. |
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| The default person in Japan is Japanese. So in anime unless otherwise specified the character is ALWAYS Japanese. It doesn't matter what the western viewer thinks. Throw away what westerners have to say about race in anime, because it just doesn't translate. It always comes from a racial superiority complex if we are being real "look even those asians want to be white that's why they draw them like that!" but it doesn't take rocket science to refute such a stance as there are countless examples of what Japanese people think Western people look like in anime. OP, the polls you've seen are correct, and reflect reality accurately. Anime characters by and large are Japanese. |
| Join Mastodon |
| The white peachy color is the standard and there seems to be no distinction between asian and caucasian people. So unless the character is definetely black or they are going out of their way to depict different races or nationalities, like The Great Pretender, just assume white as the color of the place. Little Witch Academia has girls from many different countries and there's only two colors: white for everybody, and brown for the announcer from Kenya. |
| Anime characters don't really have enough features to distinguish them as any particular race so people just see them as being their own race. East Asians have white skin. They're also fairly short and have small noses. If you're East Asian you're going to view anime characters as being your own race, but if you're white then you'll assume they're also white. I am white myself, but I know that anime characters are meant to be Japanese and so that's how I view them. One thing anime does to distinguish foreigners is that it usually gives them blonde hair, but you do get the occasional non-blonde white person as well as "blonde Japanese" which can make it more difficult to tell what race the creators intended each of the characters to be. |
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| Most anime characters are Japanese. The setting is Japan, their names are Japanese etc. but in terms of appearance... generally, male characters often look asian while female characters tend to look more white/european. It's hard to say with a straight face that blonde, blue-eyed Alicia from Aria is Japanese. But then again nobody is born having the pink hair that Akari does. There are exceptions to the rule however. Even though it takes place in a fantasy/steampunk european setting, and even though she's got crazy eye and hair colors, Chaika looks asian AF:  |
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| If they aren't blonde or have blue eyes then the lines tend to get pretty blurred in that regard. Lol At least if going off looks alone. |
| Don't let others ruin things for you. Even if a toxic fan pisses in your cereal, you could just get another bowl of cereal. The 50 Anime You Should Watch Before You Die |
| pretty often anime characters' race is rather ambiguous if you only take visuals into account. sometimes non-asian characters are made look distinct but usually you have to rely on some context before guessing |
| Am I a good person? No. But do I try to be better every single day? Also no |
Zycle said: Ronninn said: Does it even matter? I'm confused lol. To many Americans, race is the single most important thing in their life and they are annoying off the rest of the world by bringing it into every conceivable topic of conversation. Normal people like you and me can't understand this drivel it's almost like people from places with emphasizable diversity in race and culture can be conscious of such differentiation, wild I hadn't thought about it much at all but I think there's some interesting stuff that people have brought up in this thread that seem have more substance than the typical twitter wOkE ColourWheel said: zaganGao said: not a racist thing, a matter of perception: to me at least a lot if not most of Anime characters look more like they are white rather than Asian, but i have seen some polls and interviews of Japanese people and they see Anime characters as asian\Japanse. In general, this industries main focus has always been targeting a Japanese audience. Trying to assign a race to fictional characters won't be obvious unless it's stated in the actual work of fiction. In general there is little to no difference between the skin colour of someone who is Caucasian to someone who is Northeast Asian. As an example, you can take a look at a series like "Strike Witches" where all the characters in this particular series are from almost every major nation around the world even if it is a completely fictional one. There is absolutely no distinction between a character from Japan or one from Russia in "Strike witches". Yoshika Miyafuji - Japanese Gertrud Barkhorn - Russian ngl i find this kinda hilarious hhahaha |
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| It's sad that you feel the urge to preface this topic as not being racist or with malicious intent, when it should be obvious it's not. To answer your question, names are quite telling of the intended nationality of said character. |
| yo |
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