Why are anime characters white?

[Haffhart]

"Why are they white?"
"Huh?"
"They're supposed to be Egyptian, right? Why are they white?"
"Why would you choose to focus on that?"
"And for that matter, why are we white? Aren't we Japanese?"

—Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series Episode 59 "Crowd Atlas"

But srsly y doe? I thought the Japanese don't like foreigners, yet anime humans seem to hail from every corner of Europe.

 

[AbyssStarer]

Because nonwhite cultures value pale skin, see it as more beautiful and as a sign of being above the laboring class.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Ink-saving measure?

 

[Liber Pater]

I too have wondered about this. I think there may be some sort of aesthetic preference in highly-Westernized East Asian societies like Japan that deviates from their phenotypic reality.

Because nonwhite cultures value pale skin, see it as more beautiful and as a sign of being above the laboring class.

It's not just the skin tone, though. It's also the hair and eye colors and facial features. For example, how often do you see anime/manga characters with epicanthic folds?

 

[Mr. Bung]

I swear someone asked this question a long time ago...anyway, I think there are a couple reasons. The first is that anime was originally inspired by 30's-40's cartoons and movies from the U.S. by Disney and others that they were introduced to during the occupation. Interestingly, anime may have never became a thing if Japan hadn't been nuked.

The second is that most all Negroid (Africans) and Mongoloid (Asians, Native North and South Americans, Pacific Islanders etc.) cultures the world over have a very homogeneous look. Most all have very dark to black hair and dark brown eyes. However, the Caucasoids (white people) of Eurasia have many different eye and hair colors from black hair or dark brown eyes all the way to light blonde or red hair and blue eyes. Previously mentioned cultures with mostly homogeneous features were originally enamored with the unique hair and eye colors that Caucasoids can possess, and its likely that this also influenced the use of white people in so many anime.

EDIT: Ancient Egyptians were actually a form of Caucasoid, so they were white WE WUZ KANGS notwithstanding. Arabs, other Middle Easterners, and Indians are as well.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

The animators are Japanese, therefore most are Japanese....then there are half-Brazilian or half-Mexican/Half=Japanese characters in the early 2000's, partly due to Japanese influence in other countries.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think there may be some sort of aesthetic preference in highly-Westernized East Asian societies like Japan that deviates from their phenotypic reality.

Reminds me of how people in Japan can have this image of Paris as being this happy, romantic stereotype place. Like "Lumiose City" in Pokemon X and Y.

(BTW there's this "syndrome" they can have when visiting Paris IRL.)

I've heard the consensus among the Japanese is that anime characters aren't meant to be white, but maybe it's the Di$ney influence that explains it?

 

[byuu]

It's also the hair and eye colors and facial features.

Anime relies on different hair and eye colors to differentiate characters despite the simplistic design and having them stand out, that's why you constantly have all kinds of weird hair colors in anime.
And the stereotypical loser character that is designed to not stand out is gonna have black hair because that's their normal.

 

[cumrobbery]

they absolutely are and hearing people try to say they don't look white is always hilarious

 

[snailslime]

anime characters always looked eurasian/turkish/russian to me

 

[JethroTullamore]

Because niggers suck? I don’t know.

 

[RembrandtCourage]

anime may have never became a thing if Japan hadn't been nuked.

I want to somewhat press 'x' to doubt on this one. Manga had existed prior to WW2 and once television hit Japan it would have been an eventuality of putting 2 and 2 together and taking manga to a new platform. Of course seeing american cartoons would have expedited the process through sheer example alone but I stand by my opinion.

Part of me wonders how the world would be today if we had given them the sentinelese island treatment rather than integrate them into modern society post WW2.

 

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

 

[ToroidalBoat]

sentinelese island treatment

To do that, one may have needed to start earlier: what if Matthew Perry was never sent to force Japan to open to trade back in the 19th century?

Or in other words, what if the Edo period didn't end then?

 

[Meat Target]

The Japanese apparently don't care, since they understand a cartoon character is an abstract representation. It'd be like getting upset because Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy looks like he has jaundice.

But I also read somewhere that anime characters have big eyes because Asians (or at least the Japanese) read eye expressions like body language/nonverbal communication. Any truth to that, or is it Kotaku bullshit?

 

[Fentanyl Floyd]

Kotaku

It's obviously bullshit

 

[Meat Target]

It's obviously bullshit

I didn't read it from Kotaku, I was just using them as an example. To rephrase, is it something gaijin are just making up?

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

The Japanese apparently don't care, since they understand a cartoon character is an abstract representation. It's be like getting upset because Ed from Ed, Edd n Eddy looks like he has jaundice.

But I also read somewhere that anime characters have big eyes because Asians (or at least the Japanese) read eye expressions like body language/nonverbal communication. Any truth to that, or is it Kotaku bullshit?

Partly true as Ozamu Tezuka based his characters' eyes off of Disney's Snow White and Bambi's eyes

 

[ToroidalBoat]

To rephrase, is it something gaijin are just making up?

I can't get a straight answer because search engines are exceptional in Current Year, but I think they see the big eyes as both cuteness and expression.

 

[Akashic Retard]

Ever since the Meiji Era the Japanese have wanted to be white.