Collin Powell isn't going to like this post too much, but hey at least I tried
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This is a common misunderstanding that we, as Americans, tend to fall for over and over again.
When you see Japanese cartoons with characters with blond, brown, green, red, pink, etc hair and you're thinking, "What the fuck! I know it ain't scientifically possible for someone from Asia to have non-black hair, so they MUST be white people," you've missed the point. The varying hair colors are all about characterization. They are drawn that way for the specific purpose to make the characters easy for the watcher to differentiate.
Next, is the whole issue with "big" eyes. If you're watching a Japanese cartoon and start thinking, "What the fuck! I know it ain't scientifically possible for someone Asia to have non-slanted eyes, so they MUST be white people," you've again missed the point. In Japan, many drawn characters aren't meant to mirror the exact physical appearance of live human beings. That is one of the big differences between character designs made in, for example, America and those made in Japan (Note: I said character designs because most cartoons, American or Japanese, actually have most of their animation studios in South Korea.) Many artists in Japan have noted that drawing characters with larger eyes (i.e. non-slanted eyes) because it is easier to convey different emotions through the character's eyes that way. There are, of course, many many MANY notable exceptions where the character casts feature those with large and smaller eye shapes. But I'll keep things simplistic in regards to this post.
So, again, unless it is explicitly noted in the Japanese animation of focus (for example, like in Black Lagoon, which features a multiculural cast...but it is done from a Japanese perspective so all the spoken dialect is in Japanese until the perspective shifts), it is safe to assume that all the characters are of Asian/Japanese origin.
I know some of you will choose to not believe
, clingy to how animations are designed from a Western/American perspective. But those more open-minded know what's up.
...This is a common misunderstanding that we, as Americans, tend to fall for over and over again.
When you see Japanese cartoons with characters with blond, brown, green, red, pink, etc hair and you're thinking, "What the fuck! I know it ain't scientifically possible for someone from Asia to have non-black hair, so they MUST be white people," you've missed the point. The varying hair colors are all about characterization. They are drawn that way for the specific purpose to make the characters easy for the watcher to differentiate.
Next, is the whole issue with "big" eyes. If you're watching a Japanese cartoon and start thinking, "What the fuck! I know it ain't scientifically possible for someone Asia to have non-slanted eyes, so they MUST be white people," you've again missed the point. In Japan, many drawn characters aren't meant to mirror the exact physical appearance of live human beings. That is one of the big differences between character designs made in, for example, America and those made in Japan (Note: I said character designs because most cartoons, American or Japanese, actually have most of their animation studios in South Korea.) Many artists in Japan have noted that drawing characters with larger eyes (i.e. non-slanted eyes) because it is easier to convey different emotions through the character's eyes that way. There are, of course, many many MANY notable exceptions where the character casts feature those with large and smaller eye shapes. But I'll keep things simplistic in regards to this post.
So, again, unless it is explicitly noted in the Japanese animation of focus (for example, like in Black Lagoon, which features a multiculural cast...but it is done from a Japanese perspective so all the spoken dialect is in Japanese until the perspective shifts), it is safe to assume that all the characters are of Asian/Japanese origin.
I know some of you will choose to not believe
, clingy to how animations are designed from a Western/American perspective. But those more open-minded know what's up.
