Supposedly Asian characters with blonde hair and blue eyes.

I fail to see how two non-recent stories prove any point, I missed that post while I was making mine.

And in Bleach people fly around and cut up large monsters with swords that have spirits in them which can also transform into things ranging from giant golden babies to giant wooden snakes, in Naruto a teenage boy is a ninja who has a giant orange fox inside him and his love interest has pink hair while his rival has kaleidoscope eyes and can breath fire and make his hand shock people, the fact there's blond people with blue eyes should be the least of your problems; ever heard of hair dye and contacts?.

And Hei and Revy look like anime characters, Hei doesn't even have that slanted eyes thing his eyes look more like L's.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

I hate when people act like it's ethnocentric or something to parse a character with blonde hair and blue eyes as white when white people are basically the only ones who possess those traits, save for a few exceptions (unless I'm mistaken).

Edit: Oops.

edited 17th Jan '11 6:26:02 PM by Pingu

This post was thumped by the Merciless Hammer of Doom

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

@Pingu: Well, if they're in an anime that also includes characters that have hair and eye colours impossible for any ethnicity...

I guess it is.

The reasons these character traits are incorporated obviously has nothing to do with genetics, but it would probably help if there were some cues or perhaps some easy way to tell the race of a character... Oh who am I kidding, I suck at identifying races IRL anyway.

Blonde hair and blue eyes is still pretty rare for a protagonist though right?

I call forth Unlimited Stories!

Wouldn't the setting and the character's name be good enough of an indication?

Hey, what's the race of the character named John Smith living in America? American White!!!

edited 19th Jan '11 4:35:48 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Uh yeah, American is not a race...

Hodor

Whatever...white!

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

So you're saying he couldn't be black?

Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.

Yes. He lives in the anime version of America. That gives about a 90% chance that he's blond and blue eyed.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember them, you are not alone.

If he were black, then he'd be even easier to recognize in an anime. By sight.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Most black people in anime are also American too though...

I guess when it comes to an American character you should assume that it's a white person first if it's anime though.

If people learned from their mistakes, there wouldn't be this thing called bad habits.

I do not mind this. If its nice to watch said character, I honestly do not care if they look like any particular race.

Sign on for this After The End Fantasy RP.

I don't have a problem with the character design, just a bit of problem with the idea that "there's no way you could possibly think that character looks white".

I kind of admit that Hei (who I mentioned before) is doubtful, but here's Doujima◊ from Witch Hunter Robin.

Her character is obviously supposed to be Japanese/has a Japanese name, the art style is typical enugh for anime she has cutsie things on her cell phone, etc.

However, it still strikes me as kind of odd that she looks to be the same race as Robin, the protagonist, who is supposed to be European (Italian iirc). I could easily see this same character design used for a European character in anime.

Edit- thought I could phrase that more clearly

edited 19th Jan '11 5:41:10 PM by Jordan

Hodor

It's the smiley face idea, it's not that it's impossible to see them as white people, it's just that depending on your background you're pre-disposed to assume it's a certain "default race".

Like the Simpsons, everyone is yellow, but they do American things and have Western names and live in a Western society, so they're "white" while characters like Apu have distinguishing features like an accent and brown skin. And if you see a character that has pink hair in a show, you'll probably assumed they dyed it, because pink hair doesn't occur naturally and is an odd choice for a new hair color.

In Japan, dying your hair is a common trait among fringe groups like punks, musicians, gals, etc. So when a character with blond hair appears, they just assume they dyed their hair same as how you assume a character with pink hair dyed it, because if they do Japanese things in a Japanese setting and have a Japanese name then for all intents and purposes they're probably Japanese.

Plus it's not that unique of a trait, it's signifying but only within the context of the setting. For example, a man with short hair and a full beard, dark hair, late-twenties, brown skin, his name is Jose and you see him taking a walk on a holiday while lively music plays in the background. From "brown skin" and "Jose" it's not completely unreasonable to assume he's Mexican, but change his name to Akbar and it's not unreasonable to assume he's Middle Eastern then.

While appearances help distinguish things it is not the end all factor, even people who are good at facial distinguishing still can only narrow it down to a few races with name or preferences often being a deciding factor. For example take your average French, German, and American person cna you tell which is which [1]◊ [2] [3]?

If you could congratulations, but if you couldn't you probably could if I gave you a name. And now look at this one, can you tell which is Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]?

And if they changed Hei to Hontaro and didn't mention the setting would it be unreasonable to assume he's Japanese? If they changed it to Jooyup-Li would it be weired to assume he's Korean? The fact is most characters don't look like anything, they look like anime characters.

For me, there are only 4 races...white, black, asian, and others.

Also, two of your links for white people and three for asian people are dead.

---

PS-Just a purely curious non-offensive non-racist and politically correct question...

If white people see all anime characters as white...do blacks see it that way as well? Like look at Nana and go "She's black."

edited 19th Jan '11 6:05:22 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

If white people see all anime characters as white...do blacks see it that way as well? Like look at Nana and go "She's black."

What? I see anime characters as white or Japanese unless the show intends for them to be otherwise.

The "What?" is at the second sentence. I know nothing about Elfen Lied, but Nana's picture in the show's character page is of a white girl with pink eyes and hair. Why would I think she's black?

edited 19th Jan '11 6:38:27 PM by Customer

Well, people keep on saying things like "People see anime/any animated characters as their own races" everytime race is brought up in anime...

People see Goku as white.

And that led me to think...what about blacks?

edited 19th Jan '11 6:41:07 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Maybe, technically you could have one or two black parents and still come out with fairly light skin depending on genetics.

True. And I think I'm being confused by what Signed is asking.

If it's something like "whites think Goku is white, then blacks must think Goku is black", then I'd have to say no, I'd think he'd be white. Though when I was watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid, I used to think Piccolo was black because he was bald and had a deeper voice than most of the others. Then I used to think the Japanese just use aliens and robots and whatever non-humans to supplement for black people.

Now, I don't think this way anymore, but I'm still confused as to where my logic was coming from. And if that's not what you mean, I apologize.

edited 19th Jan '11 6:52:19 PM by Customer

Is it Piccolo's turban?

As for Goku's race? With anime, I always assume that a standard looking character design is meant to portray the race of the majority of characters as well as the creator's, Goku looking pretty standard, would be fantasy counterpart japanese or whatever Son Goku from Journey To The West is supposed to be  ^*

, unless it's pointed out otherwise.

Following that assumption, any character who looks out of the ordinary is almost always a foreigner. And that assumption has never failed me before.

General Black is black. General Blue is white. And Upa is indian  ^*

.

This is one of the good things about anime too. In the west, if they portray a stereotype, there'd be cries of racism. In the east? No one bats an eye.

edited 19th Jan '11 7:00:10 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

There's probably an element of pragmatism: telling similar-looking characters apart. Not saying All Asians Are Alike, but when your cartoons can suffer from Only Six Faces, it's an easy way to differentiate.

Oh, and something else just occurred to me: anime characters probably often have hair and eye colours that aren't only black/brown because culturally, the Japanese seem to like bright, colourful things. We even have a trope about it.

Africans, maybe. But black people who live in the western cultures, among white people, are probably so used to the western concept of ethinic stereotypes, that they would think about them in the same way as white people.

Kinda like how we keep using "man" for person, because "man" is also a form of default character. Just like that above mentioned smiley face, look at this picture◊. Even alone, the first one would always be seen as a white man, unless it is stereotypically marked with a skirt. Even women would see it as a man, because they lived a long time in a male-dominated society, so they use its concepts and symbolism.