Joelcool7 said:
Japanese companies like to use white looking characters in their anime's. So using a white actor actually looks more like the anime then using an asian actor. The names is something else though I do know of two white people myself who came from Japan and have Japanese names. In the end I don't mind seeing anime movies made by Hollywood as long as Hollywood puts some effort into the franchises. The Dragon Ball movie was horrible and any repeat of that situation should be boycotted. |
Sorry but I find your statement to be wrong. A problem with a lot of that people (mainly white people i find) would think that anime characters look "white" just because of what they're use to seeing. In america, their cartoon characters are defaulted as caucasian. In Japan it goes the same way and they default their characters as Japanese...just white people like to think otherwise? Take the Simpsons cartoon for example; they're all yellow and Marge has blue hair but im sure everybody thought she was caucasian right?
I read an article about those that have the exact same mentality as what you've posted. Japan actually draws different characteristics when they draw americans such as they say they'll draw them with bigger nosebridge and other things they listed except i forgot. If Japan doesnt state a country where they're from then its by default they drew them as Japanese. Ex. Metal Gear Solid, clearly they made Snake as an american and it shows. Chad from Bleach, they told his background about him being Mexican etc. So if an anime hasnt stated a character's nationality then they are by default Japanese. Thats all there is to it, as Americans by default see their super heros and cartoon characters as caucasian unless stated.
Keep in mind that hair and eye color doesnt matter because many Asians dye their hair and wear colored contacts so it doesnt mean a character with a hair color thats not black and eye color thats not brown is a caucasian person. You should google up the Japanese rock star Gackt as his apparence was heavily influenced and portrayed in many Final Fantasy characters such as Squall and Genesis (Tetsuya Nomura really likes using him for his character model). Hope you didnt think they looked caucasian as well.
Death Note as a good example? What nationality did you think L was? Remember they clearly mentioned he worked with Americans and did you not see the difference in art style drawing between the americans and the main characters? I've also seen a number of Japanese that look similar to Yagami Light.
Bleach...hence the title 'bleach' Kurosaki Ichigo 'bleached' his hair. Hope you didnt think he looked white and completely ignored that he dyed his hair. His hair is orange too, nobody has orange hair but i guess if its a colored-hair then it automatically belongs to caucasians? I wonder which character you felt look caucasian? Ishida? Rukia? Byakuya?
Dragon Ball...hmm Goku doesnt look asian at all nor his family with their black hair?? Did you just completely ignore that and only thought about their Super Saiyan mode and simply by having blonde hair and blue eyes made you think they're totally caucasian?
Pokemon....seriously?? Ash is slightly tanned and has dark hair. Brock with his small eyes? Nurse Joy has pink hair, officer Jenny has blue hair.
None of what you've mentioned are anywhere near 'perfect examples' and just makes me think that you're really are stuck on "caucasians" as your default.
To anybody that feels the same way you do, you just need to understand that anime characters' nationality are drawn as Japanese by default unless otherwise stated. Maybe these people just have to hang around with more asians cause I've never once saw an anime character and simply thought the character looked caucasian.
I honestly hope you and others dont expect to see sterotyped-looking-characters in order to actually realize they're not caucasians such as chinky eyes and really short for an asian or an afro and really tall for a black person etc....seriously some people just really need to open their eyes.
