Why anime characters don't look Japanese?
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Some anime characters do look Japanese...
But a lot of them simply do not.
Anyone care to comment/discuss on this?
But a lot of them simply do not.
Anyone care to comment/discuss on this?
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We actually talked about that in a course I took a few semesters ago. It seemed like the final verdict was basically that they just draw the characters according to what seems attractive to them, not really trying to model them after any particular ethnicity or nationality.
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its simply because they had enough seeing the stereotypical japanese(short, black hair, n black eyes)
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Osameu Tezuka (the "father of anime") created large eyes similar to the large eyes of disney characters at the time. I also read somewhere Tezuka said that large eyes made it easier to show expressions. since the anime style stemmed from him, even anime today have characters with unusually large eyes.
Varied colored hair makes it easier to differentiate one character from another.
Small noses and mouths are generally cute, no matter the ethnicity.
Overall, an anime face has the same characteristics of an infant (regardless of ethnicity) -- again, this is often "cuter" than an adult face. Japanese culture revolves around cute.
Varied colored hair makes it easier to differentiate one character from another.
Small noses and mouths are generally cute, no matter the ethnicity.
Overall, an anime face has the same characteristics of an infant (regardless of ethnicity) -- again, this is often "cuter" than an adult face. Japanese culture revolves around cute.
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What I heard was that because animation, especially Japanese animation was so much cheaper to do than actual filming, it was picked up as the predominate form of entertainment. The reason that most anime characters don't look Japanese was because at that time the film makers were trying to emulate the far more popular American Cinemas of the time, making their characters look American instead of Japanese was an easy way to do that, that trend has apparently continued to today
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but i love the way its drawn. it just looks so good...even American animators are imitating the style more.
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lickwidfoxxx wrote...
but i love the way its drawn. it just looks so good...even American animators are imitating the style more.Well that can be a mixed blessing, yes it's a good art style but with it comes a peculiar form of US racism left over from WWII. It seems to be impossible to have an Asian person who Isn't a ninja, and some of the shows are nothing short of crap (Example: Shaolin Showdown, Shuriken Acadamy and Justice League.) And when Anime is imported to US TV the voice actors are horrible, and there's just too much bad rap.
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Well that can be a mixed blessing, yes it's a good art style but with it comes a peculiar form of US racism left over from WWII. It seems to be impossible to have an Asian person who Isn't a ninja, and some of the shows are nothing short of crap (Example: Shaolin Showdown, Shuriken Acadamy and Justice League.) And when Anime is imported to US TV the voice actors are horrible, and there's just too much bad rap.
Personally, I think it falls more into stereotypical entertainment category of any culture. Racism is a strong word that is well-abused now days. I don't think any American cartoons deliberately try to enforce the belief that all Asian people are ninjas. I think they're just credited as being good at the role. Just like blacks are usually credited as good basketball players.
That's just my observation though. I've seen far too many people cry "RACISM!", when it's actually just companies trying to make money off popular concepts.