Animatictv – Anime TV

try googling Do anime characters look caucasian and you’d be surprised how many hits you get. Some people consider it a serious enough issue that they write formal academic papers on it

how about you? Do you think that they look japanese or caucasian?

it’s a bit fast. Just pause it from time to time so you can read the subtitles

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I’m not arguing that the characters are definitely japanese and definitely not white as most characters are ambigious enough to be interpreted as any race

It may seem like i’m overanalyzing anime but this is actually a response to those who are overanalyzing anime.

like these people:

http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=181650

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722054903AACVpOd

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=928790&topic=47581011

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080226011142AAKJiky

Here’s an academic paper analyzing the japanese people’s self image based on anime

http://www.focusanthro.org/archive/2007-2008/saunders07-08.pdf

Here’s an article on newsweek “Is japan becoming less Japanese”

http://www.meiwasuisan.com/yt/bin/img/sougou/12377354020024.jpg

Basically some people think that the japanese have a warped self image and they base this conclusion on the fact that anime characters look caucasian to them.

In this video, i argue that the characters may not necessarily look white to everybody and so any conclusion based on the fact that they look caucasian is poorly grounded.

also, I said that asians are good at cosplay but i never said that white people are bad at cosplay.
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Update may 18 2009:
I wont be answering any more questions as Ive gotten a lot already and most of them are the same. So heres a generic reply to the most common questions Ive been getting:

Anime characters aren’t anatomically accurate. If youd try to measure the difference the eye sizes of different races, the difference wouldnt usually be greater than a millimeter. You cant expect these measurements to be accurately reflected in anime, even the more realistic ones.

The only way you can definitively make a character look like a specific race is by exaggerating stereotypical features. These exaggerations are more common in mangga and in older, less politically correct anime. david rice of neogami neuro had very stereotypical features in the mangga which were toned down a little bit in the anime.

http://nougamineuro.wikia.com/wiki/David_Rice

If they do need to exaggerate features its usually the nose and the facial shape. I never suggested that small eyes are a stereotypical trait of whites to the Japanese animators. My point was that large eyes arent a stereotypical trait of whites for the Japanese animators. When whites are represented in anime they either have smaller eyes or eyes that are the same size. They never make the eyes stereotypically bigger than other races when they draw whites.

Heres an interesting article on how and when stereotypes are used by the japanese.
http://www.matt-thorn.com/mangagaku/faceoftheother.html

The point of the video is not to prove absolutely that anime characters are Japanese or east asian. As I said before, they usually look ambiguous enough to be interpreted as any race. And there are anime that are set in Europe where the characters are mostly white. The point is to disprove the argument that most anime characters are drawn to look Caucasian (even those that arent supposed to be Caucasian) and that the Japanese have a secret desire to be white because of this.

The premise itself is flawed so any conclusion you derive from it is poorly grounded. There is no reason to ume that they were intentionally drawn to look Caucasian. Racial characteristics aside, most of them live in japan, have Japanese names, Japanese hairstyles, japanse fashion etc. if you ask the average japanese person why most anime characters look caucasian, theyd give you a baffled look because the characters dont look Caucasian to them at all.

This video doesnt advocate racism. Its actually against racism. Ignore the asian supremacist comments, especially from proudasianguy. Im not on their side and I mark them down whenever I can. Im not attacking whites or any other race in this video. Im attacking whites who have a Eurocentric view of the world, who think that everyone wants to look white. If you dont have such a view of the world then you have no reason to be offended.
BTW the song is namida mokou by stereopony

Duration : 0:6:57

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