it doesn't make sense to me.
it doesn't make sense to me.
Exactly. Exactly.Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowsworn
Anime is based on western cultural animation, thus though the storyline might be japanese the characters are made to copy the western cuture characteristics.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_don%27...#ixzz1BbxHtaF1
This is simple. Japanese comic culture has a fixation on caucasian beauty. To them, the typical white teenage girl is a Pinnacle of beauty, innocence and a general 'cute' auror. Many anime comics and animations reflect this by using characters which look Caucasians opposed to japanese, which to them is less beautiful.
Probably cause they're obsessed with Westerners just like Westerners are obsessed with them, so they make their characters look like white Europeans. Or cause, being Japanese, they think being Japanese isn't cool, what with their orderly lives and Japanese business men who bow 300 times a day. So they reflect that with their anime featuring white people doing kick-*** things like piloting giant robots, saving the world, running hotels full of hot chicks, getting really angry and turning into super-muscular Aryan men, being ninjas, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowsworn
I beat you to it, I rock more, go home, ha, ha, ha.Quote:
Originally Posted by power_gamer_6
i thought that many times myself ... :/
But the answer is here!:
Quote:
I've heard the question too many times when introducing someone to anime: "Well, if this is Japanese animation, then why do all the characters look white?" What most people are asking with this question is really something closer to, "Why don't they look Japanese?" It's time to answer the question once and for all.
Anime characters can look like elfs, mosters, robots, freaks, angels and whatever other fantastic creature the imagination can conjure up. Another question I've heard asked (in the same vein) is, "What's the deal with the big eyes?" Obviously the assumption here is that since the animators are Japanese, they would most likely animate eyes that look Japanese. This a severe limitation to place on such a diverse medium, and usually it is a question that only Westerners are concerned with.
Firstly, Japan has a wonderfully unique culture that is a combination of the ability of the Japanese to incorporate the sciences and art of outside influences into a Japanese society that is literally an island. That island becomes an incubator for ideas, and often outsiders are confused because they judge all things Japanese without considering the context of Japan.
In fact, the 15th century already saw the Japanese using just drawings to convey a story. While most of the world can't think of animation without simultaneously thinking cartoons and children, anime is not a genre to the Japanese but rather a medium for communicating a story. It is small wonder, combined with the freedom that animation allows, that anime can take on such a myriad of shapes and flavors. When plot, setting and character are completely without limitation, race need not necessarily be as large an issue as it has historically been in reality.
It all started in post-WWII Japan; Hiroshima and Nagasake are just more examples of how there is nothing in the world that quite resembles Japan. They have already been through the apocalypse, and it is evident in their society and art. Shortly after the war, in an action that is representative of the way Japan incorporates outside influences, Osamu Tezuka (the father of Manga) was searching for a new medium. He found it because of the popularity of Walt Disney cartoons at the time. It was the popularity of the medium that was the strongest influence. Japan was no stranger to the drawn story.
The most obvious link then between a Disney and anime character is the big expressive eyes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that anime eyes are a holdover from Disney. Possibly even more so than other cultures, for the Japanese the eyes are the windows to the soul. When you watch your next anime piece, check out the difference between 'good' and 'evil' characters. Good characters have the large eyes that can convey sensitivty and emotion while the badguys are often portrayed as being soulless. Other times, the badguys will have large eyes and very small pupils, the idea being that not enough light has reached their souls. Anime is just trying to do the same thing as every other artistic medium: move you. We as humans respond readily to the language and expression conveyed through the eyes. It is an automatic reaction.
Another possible influence for the larger eyes is born out of the fact that anime has largely been created with very little funding. Tricks such as moving two still shots across one another conveys movement without having to spend as much money on hundreds of drawings. In the same way eyes can convey a large amount of information about the character within a limited shot. The fact that anime has been able to do this so effectively is just another wonder of the medium, a gift from its artistic progenitors. To continue some conjecture, it is also quite possible that the severe individualization of characters in anime (such as the wild hair or the unique eyes) could be a product of a country where everyone has the same color hair and had to wear uniforms through school.
If I may be so bold as to claim a point in all of this, it would be that the amazing variety that anime contains doesn't necessarily denote a caucasian race, if it in fact conveys race at all.
No one's going to read what you said anyway cause you're not PG6.Quote:
Originally Posted by Speed
this is what they call "Power" xDQuote:
Originally Posted by power_gamer_6
Since when is blue hair/eyebrows and eyes the size of grapefruit cacausion characteristics?
At least the hairstyle in anime looks japanish.
@shadowsworn: your avatar sure looks creepy:-/
ahh... I have a weak stomach for these kind of things.
That's funny, I always think that all the characters look Japanese.
Same here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paladuck
If people actually took a trip to Japan, they'd probably realize it too.
There are also several anime/manga where the characters actually look "traditional Japanese" - So it isn't really all that skewed.
However, Japanese pop-culture is influenced by, and influences, society in general.
You go to any big city in Japan, and you'll see people with all kinds of hair- and eyecolours(dye and colour-contacts anyone?).
The large majority of Japanese I've met(and I've met a few), do not have small eyes by any means.
In fact, creating an anime/manga/game taking place in contemporary Japan, where all the characters had black hair, and dark eyes, would be unrealistic - Much in the same way it would be unrealistic for everbody in a cartoon set in Germany to have blond hair and blue eyes.
But as mentioned earlier, this is merely artistic freedom.
They have abnormally large eyes, and gravity defying neon-coloured hair for artistic reasons.
Besides, like bonneau_14 said, when did anime/manga characters ever look especially caucasian?
I always thought they looked Asian, except of course those people who are obviously from another country or world...or universe, or reality :-/
I wish I had gravity defying hair, well I do, but to an extent. Also, I wish my eyes were bigger, it's so freaking hard to put contacts in >.>Quote:
Originally Posted by hian
@hian
most anime characters are pretty damn white, though
edit: also to the person who mentioned it, my avatar is the vocalist from a band called Darkspace. I chose this particular pic of her because I thought it was funny :P
Fixed .Quote:
Originally Posted by poeticas
in most anime, don't think they really look like any race as they generally have big eye's to display emotion's.
emotions ...: anger: >< normal: 0.0 crying: Q.Q happy: ^^Quote:
Originally Posted by tiger1526
As far as skin color goes a lot of East Asian people are a lot more pale than the average American. Can't speak for the Europeans though.
To be fair, they rarely look human.
Cause Japanese people all look the same and this is their way of being different!
That's my opinion anyways. And eh a lot of the time it seems like they want to be American or at least live a more western lifestyle but who knows. ramble ramble ramble...
An interesting note I will edit into this nonsense I call a opinion is that some people think that Japanese people have a warped vision of what beauty is and hell USA is just like that but hm there was also this other point about how they just try to make the characters look beautiful to attract a larger audience but meh I enjoy seeing animes about manly men just as much as I appreciate animes that have pretty teen boys.
Now lets talk about videogames! Now that is ****ing annoying. It's ok in anime but videogames should be more realistic instead of such pure fantasy.
Somebody flame me nao!
There aren't many anime out there which have enough detail in characters for me to correctly guess their country of origin.
Only the ones that go for a more realistic approach achieve this well enough.
If you make the noses like triangles and the eyes freakin huge it makes it really hard to tell.
If you know the subtle differences it's easy to tell where they are based from like;
http://batrock.net/animeimages/monster74-01.JPG
or
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AMTB4op3Mm...ster+runge.jpg
or
http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/clubs/2/37280m.jpg
or
http://i51.tinypic.com/2v30d2f.jpg
And so are most Japanese people.Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowsworn
Arguably, a lot of Japanese are generally(except those from the country side/south, or those who spend large amounts of time in the sun/tanning) whiter than caucasians.
I never though of caucasians as white, they're pink-ish. The same way hardly any black person is actually black - They're brown.
Funny, I swear the same applies to alomst any people on this earth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Groteske
Point me to one single definition of video-game that says video-games should be realistic?Quote:
Originally Posted by Groteske
In fact, most gamers play games that are completely unrealistic. Now, that being the case, wth should the art-style have to be realistic?
Well, you're allowed to hold that opinion. Just think it's rather asinine.
If non-realistic graphics piss you off, you're missing out on tons of great games(Zelda series, FF series, Okami, etc etc).
That's because you watch furry instead. D:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cingal
As long as the boobs are completely disproportionate to reality, then it doesn't matter to me <3 XD
LOL I know a lot of other people or groups of people are like that. And really this is the lounge and I was being silly. :D Though I do hate it when people take me too seriously... Maybe I need to start adding disclaimers for those who take things too seriously.Quote:
Originally Posted by hian
I meant the characters. How many men or boys in the world actually look that feminine? Honestly? And eh my whole post was meant to be in the same context and I did mention 'but meh I enjoy seeing animes about manly men just as much as I appreciate animes that have pretty teen boys.'. Fantasy in games is nice but I get bored with seeing so many JRPG boys looking so girly. Alot of the time it's like the boy char is a girl char just with shorter hair and a even flatter chest. But we all know how much the Japanese love to exaggerate breast sizes in games or anime.
http://www.animekon.com/uploads/2007/01/eiken-boobs.gifQuote:
Originally Posted by Oisterboy
G++++ cup oh that is why i love anime ... its just full of Fantasy :O and the biggest thing is that they fit em ! and i wouldn't even want to imagine such in reality that would destroy my dreams...Quote:
Originally Posted by IronyTaken
there is a bad side to it.Quote:
Originally Posted by poeticas
http://cdimg1.crunchyroll.com/i/spir...c7870_full.gif
well those are melons :/ they aren't even in boobs zone ...Quote:
Originally Posted by IronyTaken
And how can there be a loli with G cup ... that looks stupid :O
Bizarre breasts break barriers brilliantly between beauty and beast.Quote:
Originally Posted by IronyTaken
Because theyre so kawaii. ^_^
Wow, that was some really good alliteration dood.Quote:
Originally Posted by Groteske