[ILOVEJAPAN]

I think anime characters look kinnda like a HUGE exageration of western looking people, but I dont think thats necasarily on purpose.

I dont think its a self hating thing...Its just that anime and manga (when it first started out) was highly influenced by disney which showed characters with big eyes and western looking features. The Japanese just did they are famouse for doing...taking in things from other cultures and moderating it for there own culture. As anime and manga developed they just kept the look.

The big boobs dont bother me so much...whoever said "its only natural for guys to be attracted to large boobs" is right. Which isnt a bad thing. You can be attracted to certaint features on a female body, without disrespecting females. Its not sexcist at all.

The eyes arent big to be western looking, they are suposed to show inocense or femininty. Its like drawing a little bunny with huge eyes. Notice how in anime, woman and children ussualy have large eyes, but men ussualy have regular size eyes.

The hair dosent look western at all. Most anime characters have blue or pink or red hair. No one has hair like that, neither westerners or asians. Although I find that if the characters do have normal colored hair its usualy black.

Some people also think the REALLY strong looking guys with LOTS of muscels is from a desire to look more western...but no one looks like that either, no matter what race they are. Again I gotta say it is only natural for guys to want to look strong.

The only thing that bothers me (and I cant beleive no one has said this yet) is the fact that almost all anime characters are white and not asian...The only explenation I can think of is that in Asia lighter skin is (or used to be) a sign of being wealthy, because people with light skin are like that because work in an office all day and dont get tan, while people with darker are like that because they were working out in the feild all day. That is an explination I have heard before, but it seems like kinnda a strech to me.

Although (I dont mean to offend anyone by saying this) I do think that many Japanese and asians in general have a little bit of a complex about there asian features (probably because of hollywood, and the rest of the world's deffinition of buety). I notice that geisha's paint there face white, and they do that in Kabuki theater too (although I dont think that has anything to do with looking western because these things have been around long before western inluences made there way to Japan). Stuff like that is even done in a modern way. Notice how all over harajuku, kids have there faces painted white, some people even paint anime sized eyes around there regular eyes. Also all over asia many people get there eyes widend with surgery. I dont think this is why anime characters look western...I think it just developed that way...and I dont think asians are self hating...but I think some do have a bit of a complex about there looks. Which is just normal. People everywhere have comlex's about there looks. The media (especialy in the U.S., which is probably the most influential around the world) mainly shows young white people with big eyes, so its there fault that people feel a little bad about themselves (which they shouldnt) but even young white people with big eyes feel bad about themselves. So I dont think its self hating (in a racial way).