Ask John: Why do Anime Characters Look Like Westerners?
Question:
Why is it that in many shows, there are characters, especially women, that look like they are American or another nationality but have Japanese names?
Answer:
It’s a known fact that anime characters have big, round, Western eyes because Osamu Tezuka patterned his characters’ eyes after Walt Disney’s style of character design. I believe that the Western look of typical anime characters is an extension of this pattern. Especially in the early days of anime, the 1960s and 1970s, Japan was a country wholeheartedly devoted to a single-minded attainment of success. As a result of this tireless pursuit, Japanese culture left little room for personal freedom of expression. Japan looked to the west, particularly at the cultural abandon of the United States, and saw a degree of individuality and freedom impossible in highly formal, polite Japanese society. Anime, being the escapist medium that it is, addressed this anxiety by allowing young viewers to imagine that they also had the freedom and power to do whatever they wanted and go wherever they wanted. By making anime characters look Western, anime took on a cathartic essence. Anime allowed viewers to role-play, imagine that they were someone completely different, either living under a totally different cultural system, or living in a contemporary Japan that was just a little bit more wild and adventurous and dangerous than reality. In order to maintain a bond to the viewer, anime had to have some sort of basis in reality and connection to the viewer. That’s why Western looking anime characters kept their Japanese names. If anime characters were Japanese, but looked Western, they could be everyday Japanese people that had a little bit more worldliness to them, a bit more diversity and freedom and either more or less responsibility than the average Japanese person. If the characters were actually foreigners, it would be less easy for viewers to relate to them personally. Creating occidental-looking characters with Japanese names and a grounding in Japanese culture allowed animators the widest possible range of dramatic development with their characters and the greatest chance of universal acceptance and recognition.
Related Posts
About The Author
john
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
In a post titled “Why do the Japanese Draw Themselves as White?”, blogger Julian Abagond argues that the Japanese do not draw themselves as white or “Westerners”. Rather, Americans think that they do.
“The Japanese see anime characters as being Japanese. It is Americans who think they are white,” he writes. “Why? Because to them white is the Default Human Being.” To illustrate his point, he includes a stickman figure. Abagond says most Americans will look at the stickman and see a white person, because, he argues, Americans see the white as the default.
According to Abagond, “For them to think it is a woman I have to add a dress or long hair; for Asian, I have to add slanted eyes; for black, I add kinky hair or brown skin. Etc.”
The other must be marked, he contests. “If there are no stereotyped markings of otherness, then white is assumed.”
However, in Japan, white is not the default. Japanese is. Thus, there is no need for them to “look Asian”, because no matter how ridiculous the characters look, everyone will assume they are Japanese.
The same thing is true in America. To make his point, Abagond points to Marge Simpson. “After all, why do people think Marge Simpson is white? Look at her skin: it is yellow. Look at her hair: it is a blue Afro. But the Default Human Being thing is so strong that lacking other clear, stereotyped signs of being either black or Asian she defaults to white.”
Physical features like huge round eyes, yellow hair and white skin are inconclusive in Japan for “whiteness”: The eyes are unrealistic. Hair color is not limited to yellow as there is blue, green and purple hair. Small noses are not indicative of “white” or Westerners in Japan — big noses are. And white skin is not exclusive to Caucasians as it has been a symbol of beauty in Japan since before Japan had contact with Europeans.
Not that John has a PhD in anime, or any other internet personality is any more suited to answer this question, but who is Julian Abagond? Heis reasoning on the ball, but I giggled that “blogger” is somehow a title of authority.
*His