Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
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Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
1–10 of 147 posts
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#2Just out f curiosity, what kind of people are asking this question?
I've been an anime fan for years and this question has legitimately never crossed my mind despite being cynical and critical of almost every single factual inaccuracy I come across.
Interesting article all the same!
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#3I think I read once that Asian people pay more attention to the eyes than other facial features when they are reading emotions. The hypothesis was somehow based on the fact that the emoticons Asians use tend to mostly show the eyes. Since it's difficult to show emotions on a cartoon, perhaps drawing big eyes started as a way to make it easier for the artist to express anger, happiness,... on what they drew.
They might look whiter than Asian, but it probably has nothing to do with Asians wanting to be white. You can probably test what the OP said by asking a villager in Africa which race those cartoons belong to assuming he's seen an equal share of whites and Asians.
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#4The post makes a good point, but it does overlook the fact that the "Godfather of Anime", Osamu Tezuka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka) was heavily influenced by Walt Disney and American animation.
For instance, the Wikipedia article notes: "The distinctive "large eyes" style of Japanese animation was invented by Tezuka, drawing inspirations on cartoons of the time such as Betty Boop and Walt Disney's Bambi and Mickey Mouse."
You can see how Bambi was drawn with large eyes here: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=bambi
You can see Betty Boop here: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=betty+boop
You can see Mickey Mouse here: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=mickey+mouse+classi...
You can compare the style of those eyes to Tezuka's Astro Boy, first published in 1952: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AstroBoyVolume1.jpg
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#5This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#6Just out f curiosity, what kind of people are asking this question? I've been an anime fan for years and this question has legitimately never crossed my mind despite being cynical and critical of almost every single factual inaccuracy I come across. Interesting article all the same!
Exactly. I was baffled by the title. Anime characters never ever looked like "white" (Caucasian) people to me.
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#7This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
You can't vote articles down you can just flag them as not belonging on the site.
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#8This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
I was okay with it until here:
"Some Americans, even some scholars, will argue against this view of anime. They want to think the Japanese worship America or worship whiteness and use anime to prove it. But they seem to be driven more by their own racism and nationalism than anything else."
It's a red flag when you preemptively declare all of your opponents racists before they've even had a chance to respond.
Maybe someone will disagree for a non-racist reason? Just maybe?
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#9What struck me as odd in Asia were all the skin whitening products. Even regular cosmetics had "Whitening" plastered over it.
Re: Why do the Japanese draw themselves as white?
#10This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
I was okay with it until here: "Some Americans, even some scholars, will argue against this view of anime. They want to think the Japanese worship America or worship whiteness and use anime to prove it. But they seem to be driven more by their own racism and nationalism than anything else." It's a red flag when you preemptively declare all of your opponents racists before they've even had a chance to respond. Maybe s…
It's not racist as in kkk-style, overt hatred of another race, it's more like culture-blindness, or ignorance, or a misplaced belief that one's culture is dominant in an area where it is not.