foreigner stereotypes in anime

[stelok]

Originally Posted by animeboy12

well there actually quite a few strong Japanese comic characters, Katana, Doctor Light, Psylocke, and Silver Samurai. Also you got Hiro Nakamura from heroes. Either way I agree babybro and the west has done a better job in portraying characters from other races.

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Actually Psylocke is an Englishwoman living in an Asian woman's body.

Sunfire, Katana, Doctor Light, and Silver Samurai all follow an American-perceived stereotype of the Japanese. Formal, strict, hotblooded, impulsive and conscious of their personal & family honor.

But then again, most Japanese protagonists of super robot mecha anime were hotblooded and impulsive.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Funny that the Simpsons spend 99.9% of the time lampooning and skewering America, american sacred cows, american culture, and american icons... but throw in some jabs at japan, brazil, or whatever and suddenly that's offensive and not okay. sheesh..... the Simpsons simply follow the mantra of "IS NOTHING SACRED?" and skewer it.

It would be wrong NOT to be consistent on that matter.

Uh, Vexx, it has nothing to do with how consistent it is with its humor.
It depicted Homer beating up the Emperor, and that's a no-no in Japanese television.
Hell, they even refrain from using imperial family depiction in fiction completely.

It has nothing to do with its track record of rediculing American culture.
It simply violated the broadcast code so it couldn't air in Japan.

It also portrayed the entire Japanese to be full of evil people hell bent on seeing others suffer, but that's a tolerable depiction for the sake of comedy.

Cool?

[C.A.]

Its useless to convince the opposing side. There's someone in there who uses poison cookies to stop you, it just shows that they will not accept anything you say. Such an argument has no staying value, I suggest you stop as well before you get really annoyed. In the internet there's times where you have hold back for the sake of your health.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by aohige

Uh, Vexx, it has nothing to do with how consistent it is with its humor.
It depicted Homer beating up the Emperor, and that's a no-no in Japanese television.
Hell, they even refrain from using imperial family depiction in fiction completely.

It has nothing to do with its track record of rediculing American culture.
It simply violated the broadcast code so it couldn't air in Japan.

It also portrayed the entire Japanese to be full of evil people hell bent on seeing others suffer, but that's a tolerable depiction for the sake of comedy.

Cool?

Aye, I've seen the episode and I can see that it violated the broadcast code (so it goes though "no satire or depiction of the Emperor" seems odd to other countries who routinely satirize their kings, queens, and icons). Though Japan does do a fair job of poking at their elected officials at times.

Personally, I took that episode as the Simpson's version of a "typical unprepared ethnocentric American's view of a trip to Japan". Couple that with the fact that a lot of Japan really is funny (even the anime series run with those bits). The real idiots are still the Simpsons

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Aye, I've seen the episode and I can see that it violated the broadcast code (so it goes though "no satire or depiction of the Emperor" seems odd to other countries who routinely satirize their kings, queens, and icons). Though Japan does do a fair job of poking at their elected officials at times.

Oh, it's perfectly ok to poke fun of the politicians and others in power.
For example, the previous PM was frequenly referred to as a chimpanzee, and there's even a comic book where PM Koizumi fights world leaders with mahjong. (Bush Jr is portrayed as a moron, as usual, while Daddy Bush is portrayed like a powerful and wise warlord )
It's just the imperial family that's off-limits.

[Aretsugu no Kimi]

Reporters Without Borders have indeed declared that the Japanese government is tolerant to mock ministers and so on but except for the Imperial Family.

[MidnightViper88]

So can we deduce a Hoorah! for hypocritical political correctness?

Whoa, that's almost like a double-negative...

[animeboy12]

Originally Posted by stelok

Actually Psylocke is an Englishwoman living in an Asian woman's body.

Sunfire, Katana, Doctor Light, and Silver Samurai all follow an American-perceived stereotype of the Japanese. Formal, strict, hotblooded, impulsive and conscious of their personal & family honor.

But then again, most Japanese protagonists of super robot mecha anime were hotblooded and impulsive.

then you can replace Psylocke with Sunfire, Sunpyre, Naiad, Surge, Tsunami,or Jolt

I don't understand this American-perceived stereotype of the Japanese because most of this superheroes have a lot of similarities,(scientist, use swords, fire powers, or yakuza) but they'll all individuals and their lives aren't ruled by the culture.

[Amray]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Funny that the Simpsons spend 99.9% of the time lampooning and skewering America, american sacred cows, american culture, and american icons... but throw in some jabs at japan, brazil, or whatever and suddenly that's offensive and not okay. sheesh..... the Simpsons simply follow the mantra of "IS NOTHING SACRED?" and skewer it.

The same can be said from Japans point of view though. They have offended themselves and their culture a fair few times, some scenes of which have been banned from Japanese television. I could pick out a lot of scenes from Excel Saga if you would like.

At the same time they get criticized by other countries a lot too, regarding what they allow and what is suitable for them, therefore they put it on their programmes and then onto television in their country. Example; Kiddy Grade. Criticized a lot by other nations because Lumiere, who was in fact over 200 years old (therefore they got away with it) appeared to look like a ten year old female and was shown in a very sexually explicit manner. Suitable for Japanese television, although not for some others.

The same can be said for Puni Puni Poemy too, which was also banned in New Zealand for the same reasons (child exploitation) yet that whole anime was simply showing representations of Japanese culture....mostly hentai and such, hence the many scenes that contained lolicon and toddlercon, notably the final scene. This was all an intentional part of the story because the genius director "Nabeshin" wanted to show people, and make fun of, some of Japans weird fetishes. And obviously as a result in that the anime was detested and marked as "Inappropriate" by some countries (New Zealand mainly). If you have seen the anime and read its reviews then you would know all of this already I suppose.

[TigerII]

I thought of another one. Not all, but many foreigners(with more notable parts) are female. Either this is because they don't like foreign men or because young men are the normal viewers. I guess this is more and an archetype.



Also, what is acceptable in Japanese culture isn't in other nations. As said above me, many nations are a lot stricter on children in shows that involve sexual or even just plain romantic nature.

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by TigerII

I thought of another one. Not all, but many foreigners(with more notable parts) are female. Either this is because they don't like foreign men or because young men are the normal viewers. I guess this is more and an archetype.

What? Char Eznable has a word with you.

Char Eznable being one of the most well known name in Japan, is a, foreign, western male.

Since I'm still very much into SRWZ now, I went through the total character list and what did I find? There are more western males as main characters than western female main and notable characters combined.

Maybe you don't watch mecha anime, that's why you don't see the amount of male western main characters. In mecha anime, its a biased genre mostly ruled by male characters, females get lesser chances to be main characters and even lesser western females, the rest of the ladies form up the fanservice party.

[TigerII]

Nah, never really been into Mecha. Also, if you notice, I didn't say all, just said many.

[C.A.]

Yes, indeed and I didn't say all as well.

But there can't be 'many' western female characters, because there's also 'many' western males. Unless we're going to combine them and say, there are many western characters in anime.

What I'm saying is, there are more western males than females. So it means that there are not as many western females as males.

[TigerII]

Guess it is just watch I watch/read. I always see more females(I am not talking about background characters).

[stelok]

I can't help but notice There are more Western females with Japanese guys than Western guys with Japanese women.


Hiroki (full-blooded japanese) and Elise (half-French) from Canvas 2
Shirou (Japanese) x Saber (British) from Fate/Stay Night
Shiki (Japanese) x Arcueid (European vampire) from Tsukihime
Kai (Japanese) x Monica (German-American) from Yakitate!! Japan)
Harima (Japanese) x Eri (half-English) from School Rumble


Pete Bumps (Canadian guy) x Tazusa (Japanese girl) from Ginban Kaleidoscope
A male German knight x a female Japanese ninja from Rurouni Kenshin

[Vexx]

Many of those are boy's romance type series and since the vast audience of Japanese viewers are japanese guys .... one might suspect the male lead is usually going to be Japanese. A dash of inter-racial makes it exotic for them just like many other males of other races.

[Oxtail]

I find that making a character half Japanese is just an easy way to give someone who behaves completely Japanese a little spice in their background.

Heck, for females especially it's not all that uncommon to make them fully foreign(British or French seem popular) and yet have them behave in a totally Japanese fashion. I kind of expect every ojou-sama character to have some sort of British or French connection.

[Amray]

A character to have a different cultural background, or half of a cultural background, just makes the anime and the character much more interesting. I know that if I were an anime director, I would want people of many different origins as characters. This is due to the fact that they will all have different cultures, fashions, and taken actions because of where they were raised. It also adds an interesting mix regarding all of the different countries, cultures and such.

In anime series' such as Ichigo Mashimaro we had the cute little blond girl, Ana Coppola. She may have simply been added to add more of a fun cultural standing to the anime as her culture and character was portrayed in comical ways. We saw this when we hear her father speaking in the house stating that he is going to cover his food in vinegar and then recommending that Ana does it too (a stereotype that the Japanese holds for English people, where all English people drown all their food with Vinegar), and also when Miu kept comparing breast sizes with her, another stereotype which is that a majority of caucasian females have big breasts. She could have also been added because, let us face it, British children are adorable, especially for Japanese Lolicons one can imagine. There was also the scene where she went to her grandmothers house and wore a Victorian-era styled dress, complete with a cute umbrella. This could be the director taking the advantage of a British girl by making her wear clothes in such a culture that is now very popular in Japan (Gothic Lolita/Lolita Complex).

It could also be to show that it is good to have mixed races regarding romance. We have Jiro Mochizuki and Alice Eve (Alice is another cultural reference, most anime which include British or Lolita Complex often have the name 'Alice' in them, referencing the popular British novel, famous in Japan, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland") Jiro being Japanese and Alice being English, et cetera.

As a whole, I would say that it adds different interests into the anime, as having every single character being of full Japanese origin in every anime would get repetitive and become dull. Adding different cultures in them would make it more interesting and fun to watch.

(Majority of this is just my own personal opinion.)

[Fiemma]

just look K-ON mıvie how to look non-japanese characters
OMG nose :O
japanese people think western ist like anime character and their girls are not cute and people are fat

Spoiler for non jp:

[ChainLegacy]

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