foreigner stereotypes in anime

[Shyni]

It's not like anime is known for accurate/realistic depiction of hair colors anyway. At least blonde hair actually exists.

Okay, now I'm just stating the obvious.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Shyni

It's not like anime is known for accurate/realistic depiction of hair colors anyway. At least blonde hair actually exists.

Okay, now I'm just stating the obvious.

Yeah, but at least half of all "American" characters I've encountered (possibly even more), have blonde hair. Especially common in 'school life' type of settings.

[MUAHAHAHAHAHA]

A Chinese male/female character is almost guaranteed to wear qipao or other traditional Chinese clothing. Personally, as a Chinese, I don't ever wear that except during the festive season. This is kind of hilarious, but I do understand the reason behind this. Seeing as how Chinese, Koreans and Japanese are often lumped together, the only way to distinguish clearly is for the Chinese characters to wear traditional clothing.

[sa547]

Originally Posted by MUAHAHAHAHAHA

A Chinese male/female character is almost guaranteed to wear qipao or other traditional Chinese clothing. Personally, as a Chinese, I don't ever wear that except during the festive season. This is kind of hilarious, but I do understand the reason behind this. Seeing as how Chinese, Koreans and Japanese are often lumped together, the only way to distinguish clearly is for the Chinese characters to wear traditional clothing.

...Or in the case of some younger women, a cheongsam.

I remember watching years ago the final episode of (sorry, but at the time we though it was good watching) Beyblade when all Russians -- including the competitors -- are depicted as cold and unfriendly towards the Japanese.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by MUAHAHAHAHAHA

A Chinese male/female character is almost guaranteed to wear qipao or other traditional Chinese clothing. Personally, as a Chinese, I don't ever wear that except during the festive season. This is kind of hilarious, but I do understand the reason behind this. Seeing as how Chinese, Koreans and Japanese are often lumped together, the only way to distinguish clearly is for the Chinese characters to wear traditional clothing.

Nah just throw "aru" at end of every sentence. And scream AIYA! all the time.

[MUAHAHAHAHAHA]

Originally Posted by aohige

And scream AIYA! all the time.

Well......I can't deny the frequency of AIYA! appearing in Chinese conversation, especially among Cantonese people like me

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

Apparently, in the world of anime, a massive swath of the American population has light blonde hair...

This has everything to do with the simplification of anime character designs. Character designs in animation and illustration starts with making familiar face types as the borderline (i.e. relatively featureless), and adding features to more foreign face types. As anime faces are really basic to begin with, any additional features can look weird and detract from the impression that a particular character is supposed to give, and so character designers go for hair color. And it doesn't just apply to Americans either - German, British and French characters tend to be predominantly blond as well. A similar idea is used for Chinese/non-Japanese Asian characters - either clothing or speech cues are used to denote foreigness.

You can look at shows like Monster or Psycho-Pass to see how other nationalities will look if the character designer went for a feature-based approach. It should be pretty clear that most anime are purposefully staying away from this effect.

[theflyingturkey]

Originally Posted by aohige

Nah just throw "aru" at end of every sentence. And scream AIYA! all the time.

Huh, I still do that occasionally. I meant go 'Aiya' or 'Aiyo'.

But seriously, for once, can a Chinese girl not know kung fu of any kind?

The only ones that I can think of that don't fall into stereotypes are Revy from Black Lagoon and Mellisa Mao from FMP.

[Chaos2Frozen]

But how else would you be able to date them if you don't first beat them in mortal combat?

[aohige]

Originally Posted by theflyingturkey

Huh, I still do that occasionally. I meant go 'Aiya' or 'Aiyo'.

But seriously, for once, can a Chinese girl not know kung fu of any kind?

The only ones that I can think of that don't fall into stereotypes are Revy from Black Lagoon and Mellisa Mao from FMP.

But Revy is basically American, Chinese part plays no more role than the ethnicity of her parents.
And the official Chinese girl, Shenhua, does in fact use martial arts, stereotypical clothing, and complete with "Chinglish" (per Revy) lol.

Heck Black Lagoon is like a collection of the most absurdly stereotyped characters possible, but in a badass way.
No one can hate a Chow Yun-fat clone!

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by theflyingturkey

But seriously, for once, can a Chinese girl not know kung fu of any kind?

The only ones that I can think of that don't fall into stereotypes are Revy from Black Lagoon and Mellisa Mao from FMP.

Lynn Minmay doesn't know Kung Fu nor any other form of combat however she is just of Chinese descent and not actually Chinese.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by 4Tran

This has everything to do with the simplification of anime character designs. Character designs in animation and illustration starts with making familiar face types as the borderline (i.e. relatively featureless), and adding features to more foreign face types. As anime faces are really basic to begin with, any additional features can look weird and detract from the impression that a particular character is supposed to give, and so character designers go for hair color. And it doesn't just apply to Americans either - German, British and French characters tend to be predominantly blond as well. A similar idea is used for Chinese/non-Japanese Asian characters - either clothing or speech cues are used to denote foreigness.

You can look at shows like Monster or Psycho-Pass to see how other nationalities will look if the character designer went for a feature-based approach. It should be pretty clear that most anime are purposefully staying away from this effect.

I understand, but it is what it is. It's still a silly stereotype of sorts, even if they have their reasons for doing it. I actually really liked the character designs in Monster, now that you mention it.

[theflyingturkey]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Lynn Minmay doesn't know Kung Fu nor any other form of combat however she is just of Chinese descent and not actually Chinese.

Welp, forgot about the Macross Franchise, but its not like I can remember everything .

[aohige]

Tbh, every time I hear the whole "Japanese animation are full of foreign stereotypes!" argument, I have to shake my head and think "yeah because Simpsons and South Park are so clean of those. OH WAIT. They're even worse!"

[Jan-Poo]

Well satirical shows are another issue, that's something to be expected from them.

But in general I think almost all cartoons show stereotyped characters of course, not just anime. That's because more often than not when they throw into the mix a foreign character is because they want to add "flavor" and "variety" to the cast, and what's the point if they act and look like everyone else?