Something In Manga/Anime I REALLY Don't Get.....

[DannysGhostGirl]

Have you ever noticed that in Manga and Anime, ok, about 98% of it is done by Japanese people, right? So WHY is everyone white???? I mean, it seems like in M/A NO'ONE looks Japanese, and it's written primarily by Japanese people! Has anyone else wondered/figured this out??
P.S.-Please don't flame me or call me an ignorant jackass or anything like that. It's an innocent question. No offense to Japanese or white people (Which I am, by the way....)

[Animekitty]

I think the reason for this is that when the style we think of as anime developed there was a sense of envy of Western culture and it's successes. I believe it grew out of the defeat of Japan in WWII and the sudden influx of Western ideas and styles that suddenly flooded the country. The Japanese at this time had just been handed a defeat without precedence in their history and likely felt a general betrayal of their manifest destiny, which their leaders had encouraged. I think a lot of silent rebellion was waged against their history and society as they tried to forget it and embrace a future that was paved seemingly with gold. Once this style, that was part of a general re-envisioning of their culture and roles, took hold it became embedded in their society (think of how rock music took over from traditional forms) to a degree that it became the norm.

[phishn37]

Do you mean white by how they have blonde hair, or other non-Japanese features ~ ? I don't really think that means they're white. White people don't have pink or green hair or huge eyes or any other anime-style looks. I think the whole art form of anime and manga is just to look cartoonish, not particularily non-Japanese ~ !

[flein1337]

im white, i dont look like a manga/anime char

[MMM]

Sorry Animekitty, using a lot of big words (you might want to look up "manifest destiny") does not help your theory hold water.

I don't think it correct to think that anime characters are supposed to be "caucasian". There are stories, like Gunsmith Cats and Black Lagoon and Blood+ which are set in different countries with international characters, but for the most part anime characters are drawn according to the artist's style, and not according to a certain race.

If all the characters had names like "Peter" and "Michael" and "Sally" then there would be some weight to this theory, but they generally have Japanese names.

[Animekitty]

"For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?" John O'Sullivan, 1839

This is the mentality I was speaking of and is to be found under different names and rallying cries throughout history. It is the thought that a certain race or creed is the sole heir to 'The Truth' and will impose their will to the betterment of others. This was the social glue that held that Japan was destined to control much of the Asiatic world and spurned the common people to fight and die for the Emperor and empire. Regardless of the economic reasons that stand behind the War in the Pacific, it was the belief in superiority that rallied the masses behind the war effort.

When the war was lost, Japan faced a crisis in identity since it seemed apparently obvious that they weren't destined to rule after all. It was in this era of cultural upheaval that anime and manga have their roots as Japan redefined itself and replaced the Shogun with the capitalist. It was this embrace and emulation of Western (i.e: American) values, in many areas, that the style we now see developed. Whether conscious or not, the early drawers of manga and anime adopted features in their characters that were far more Caucasian (regardless of hair colour) than Asian because they had developed a view that presented Westerners as winners.

Thankfully, Japan never lost its heritage and re-discovered the Shogun (he carries a briefcase now) but the anime/manga style became so much part of that culture that it remains even though the Japanese people have no need to look beyond themselves for their heroes now. Considering it position after WWII, Japan rebuilt itself and threatened it's conquerers on a new battlefields and won many of the new battles but once entrenched, cultural aspects remain despite the reasons they came to be in the first place.

[MMM]

If the roots of manga presented Caucasian features in a positive light, I would say there might be some merit to your argument, but look how Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of manga, shows actual caucasians in his works. There is nothing complimentary there...often ball-shaped with hooked noses.

Identity-crisis or not, Japan never stopped loving Japan, and if they embraced the freedoms that came with democracy (along with the end of all the bombing and lack of resources) doesn't mean they wanted to become American.

[MaymeRachael]

Who would want to become American anyways! >_<'

^_^

[Animekitty]

America emerged from WWII looking virtually untouched and undefeatable. The sense of American superiority was everywhere since, of all the major powers, it alone maintained a vast and intact industrial base. America shone on the post WWII era and was out pacing and out producing the rest of the world because the rest of the world was to busy putting their countries back together and therefore unable to compete against this influence. Of course, with their new found success came both arrogance and envy. It was this combination of U. S. arrogance and the envy of an impossible and unsustainable standard of living that leads us to where we are now; with America being perhaps the most reviled nation on Earth but this did not happen till the mid to late 1960s. The twenty years between 1945 and 1965 will go down as the golden age of America but there sense of superiority and the will to impose their system on others (its that manifest destiny thing again) made as many allies as enemies and many allies into enemies.

But we have completely diverged from the original thread now.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Animekitty

America emerged from WWII looking virtually untouched and undefeatable. The sense of American superiority was everywhere since, of all the major powers, it alone maintained a vast and intact industrial base. America shone on the post WWII era and was out pacing and out producing the rest of the world because the rest of the world was to busy putting their countries back together and therefore unable to compete against this influence. Of course, with their new found success came both arrogance and envy. It was this combination of U. S. arrogance and the envy of an impossible and unsustainable standard of living that leads us to where we are now; with America being perhaps the most reviled nation on Earth but this did not happen till the mid to late 1960s. The twenty years between 1945 and 1965 will go down as the golden age of America but there sense of superiority and the will to impose their system on others (its that manifest destiny thing again) made as many allies as enemies and many allies into enemies.

But we have completely diverged from the original thread now.

I won't comment on this theory except to say I don't beleive it had anything to do with Osama Tezuka's style. We do know that Tezuka enjoyed Western comic styles, and he brought the paneled frames to Japanese visual storytelling.

I think it is VERY ambitious to think that Japanese reverance for all things American caused them to make comic characters with big eyes, and even more ambitious to suggest that American imposed their system of round-eyed characters on Japanese manga-ka.