# Do Asians in Manga and Anime look like white people?



## rapidfox1 (Sep 13, 2010)

Now I like manga. It rules.

But today at class my aesthetics teacher stated that different people prefer those with lighter skin and that beauty for them is Eurocentric, being white. He said that anime characters, have round eyes, their not slanted. They resemble white people.

Look at Ichigo; he looks white.



Here's an article about manga characters looking like white people.

http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html


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## sebastian1 (Feb 7, 2013)

I'm thinking of Sailor Moon so I'm gonna say yeah. How many naturally blonde and blue-eyed Japanese people do you know? Sure, there must be some due to chance or something


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## Post_Punk_Proclivity (Oct 12, 2008)

In general there are definitely a lot of Asian girls out there who idealize the white appearance, but as far as it's correlation to manga and anime goes-- it's not really something I'd be happy to speculate on. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me though, since I subjectively find a lot of beauty in the Asian appearance. I guess in light of that consideration it's true to a degree that we tend to want what we can't have.


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## visualkeirockstar (Aug 5, 2012)

Its cartoon! Who gives a **** if they look white just enjoy the show.


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## Fledgling (Jan 1, 2013)

Idk, it's kinda hard to make that connection when the characters are just illustrations or moving images. As in, they're not really _people_. The notion of them belonging in certain races is almost nonexistent to me, unless the creators explicitly demonstrate that to the reader. Also, I think the art style is a cultural thing for the Japanese. It boils down to the beholder, I guess?

I'd like to come up with a better explanation, but that's all I have.


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## Monotony (Mar 11, 2012)

Sin said:


> I'm generalizing here, but it seems like Japan has an inferiority complex in regards to that


That might explain why they where so pissy when they where eventually discovered by the west. Or that might have to do with America forcing them to open their borders to trade of be attacked.


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## Micronian (Nov 11, 2004)

manga characters look white, but in everything else (gestures, reactions, body language, etc.) they are genuine Japanese.

They look "white" for two reasons: 
1 because Japanese youth culture has a need to "individualize" themselves (just like in the west) and so they use different hair colour and accessories to do so, otherwise everyone will look like black-haired clones of each other.

2 in Japanese society, having darker skin is the equivalent of being a "*******". They are the ones who work in the rice fields all day. The urban population has lighter skin and tend to overprotect themselves against the sun, so you tend to see those values reflected in the appearance of anime characters.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

most of them have dyed hair (well bright colours though there's never any mention so you're always left to assume the weird hair colours are natural for them lol) and don't look human at all lol, I guess quite a few have pretty light skin though. Some look racially like they are from the far East too though (as much as anyone in an anime ever does of course.)

If they were real, this is what they'd look like:










Don't know many people like that naturally lol.


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## CrimsonTrigger (Jun 28, 2011)

Do white people look like manga and anime characters? Do these characters even look like people? Do people in American cartoons look like people? It's just fantasy fun. Even in games like Final Fantasy where everybody looks white, they are so stylized that it's impossible to make them look like real, genuine people.


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## Lemonmonger (Mar 12, 2013)

In my Japanese class, our younger instructor said they liked wide eyes. Which explains why most of the anime characters out there have huge eyes. I don't know about skin or anything though. Some characters have really dark skin and others have really light skin. It probably depends on the creator(s). I'd say everything else, like hair and eye color, are just a fantasy thing. What normal crazy person wouldn't want purple to be a natural hair color?

But anyway, a lot of them look white, yes. But I don't think it's to look white, just to look beautiful in the way the artists find fitting.


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## oubliette (Apr 10, 2013)

In Dragon Ball/DBZ, Saiyan is a code word for Aryan. Super Saiyan forms were a subliminal-level commentary on Aryanization, but people started catching on, so in DBGT, Super Saiyan 4 was created to throw viewers off the trail... :idea ...or, it could have just been an artistically stylized work of fantasy, with no other intents.

Perhaps Cubists were actually painting extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial environments, but people mistook their paintings as being avant-garde. Giorgio A. Tsoukalos would probably go for that.


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## Odinn (Dec 15, 2012)

No, they don't look like white people.
They look like anime and manga styled people.

Unless race is intentionally placed into a character, I do not see this.

Maybe white people see anime/manga characters as caucasians so they can relate better?
I haven't a clue where the thought comes from.


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## Kafka On The Shore (Apr 27, 2013)

I think it's just the eyes since wide eyes (especially double eyelids) are considered beautiful and not only Japanese culture, but other East Asian countries beauty standards (which why circle lenses are very popular). Though I cannot speak for a whole people so you can't take my word for it.

Also eye color seems kind of like just the whole fantasy animation thing, why should you stick with just one eye color for every character when you can make different varieties like green, blue, red etc?

Maybe that's why some people think anime characters look white. The whole hair thing is also just fantasy since no one has naturally blue or pink and purple hair.

You shouldn't think so much about it, it's just a different art style that changed (to more of a cartoon/fantasy feel)over time since anime characters in the 80's looked more human with realistic eye shapes (regardless of race) and body structures.


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## pastelsound (Dec 27, 2012)

Ehhh no. They have all the mannerisms of Japanese people and it's too cartoony to associate with real people.


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## mike91 (Sep 23, 2012)

what about brock from pokemon???
and i hear that japanse put white make up on and they like to look like that we are the same we all hate been pale we all want to be tan i think we want to stand out


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## Joe (May 18, 2010)

Probably just a drawing style. I always thought Japanese people looked white too.


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