Comments on: Anime Characters Look White? No, they look like anime characters!

By: keikakudoori

keikakudoori — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:42:41 +0000

This is a very informative video. The comment about all Asians having dark skin and Japanese secretly wanting to be white made chuckle big time. My take is that they are expecting every single anime character to have a stereotyped Asian look, that is, to have dark hair color and small eyes. You see, a great majority of Asian people do have those features but it seems that people who claim that anime characters look Caucasian want anime characters to look Asian. In fact there are indeed characters that “look” Japanese/Asian in the anime world (look at some of characters from Genshiken for example), it’s just there are a lot more characters in anime that don’t fit the “Asian look” thus the assumption that “if they don’t look Asian yet they have white skin then they must be Caucasian” is created. Well, that’s my conclusion.

By: Dr. Matt

Dr. Matt — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:21:59 +0000

Great video! I really loathe the “anime characters look caucasian” meme; it’s almost as flamingly racist as the (related) “the Japanese wish they were American” meme.

By: TheBigN

TheBigN — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:59:31 +0000

I need to start posting on amrc-l, seeing as I’m a member and all of that. :P

By: Baka-Raptor

Baka-Raptor — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:08:04 +0000

The video demonstrates that anime characters are feasibly Japanese. Still doesn’t explain why they’re more Japanese than White.

By: Kairu Ishimaru

Kairu Ishimaru — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:13:11 +0000

“If you actually met a real person with eyes like that, you’s probably scream in terror and run!”

No. Not at all. I would worship that person if I met him/her.

By: jacobian

jacobian — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:15:12 +0000

I think it’s less about art imitating life than it is about life imitating art. It’s interesting that the point of comparison in the video is between people who represent (socially constructed) ideals of beauty, and art that represents those same ideals of beauty; neither is truly reflective of real people. At best, we can only say that anime merely reflects what some people *wish* they looked like.

But the fact that we have cosplayers already highlights that fact.

By: Owen S

Owen S — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:18:51 +0000

You could’ve always linked the one without Japanese subtitles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8&fmt=18

In any case, that video is so accurate it’s not funny.

By: Raiga

Raiga — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:06:00 +0000

… is it just me or did a pic of an Eva cosplayer get compared to an image of Suzumiya Haruhi? At about 2:09.

By: animemiz

animemiz — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:16:15 +0000

Ooh.. pretty good music, and some good reasons.. I thought that anime characters are white, because animators didn’t want to waste time coloring in skin color.s..