Forum - View topicGia's List: 8 Awesome Americans in Anime
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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She's a quarter German, and a Quarter Japanese, presumably the other half is American because of her American nationality, as well as the fact Langley is an english name associated with America (USS Langley, Langley Air Force Base, the CIA is located at Langley, Virginia) |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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This. Her Eva unit is also the "American" one if I recall the show correctly. Haven't seen the remake yet, but I remember her intro ep mentioning the American origins. I don't remember if I got the details of the dad from the show or the manga though, or some weird character file, but if she's only 1/4 Japanese, and 1/4 german, that still leaves a half somewhere. It also seems all of Asuka's associated surnames point at nationality ships (Soryu and Langley), the German ship being in her mother's last name (Zeppelin). Random geek fact - ALL the Eva girl pilots have WWII warship surnames from countries of their ethnicity, and they all sort of (at least in the tv series at this point) go down like them; Ayanami, Soryu, Langely, Shikinami, even Illustrious, Makinami - those last two are Brit and Japanese. Asuka's Langely IS an American WWII battleship. Her nationality either way IS listed as American, so I don't see why her American origins would be under question when it was stated in the show. Eva never shows us where Asuka lived after the whole mama fiasco, but seeing as she ended up in America and with American citizenship, I'm guessing she ended up with her American father. For whatever reason though, Asuka claims American nationality over German and Japanese. You can only get that citizenship so many ways. I always associated the German mother thing to American military bases out there and stuff... but that's speculation and random thinking I had while watching the show. The fact she cusses away in German I don't think makes her any less American. Walk around any major American city and you'll hear the same thing, especially with kids from immigrant parents. Heck, my mom is half half German and half Lithuanian, and I can cuss away in both (a reason I always felt attached to Asuka for some reason). Mom was still born in Canada though, but she has dual German citizenship and never claimed any American citizenship when she moved here, but I was born here and my father IS American. That means I can also at any point claim Canadian or German dual citizenship, and maybe if I really looked into it, Lithuanian. Asuka could have a similar sort of nationality bg for all Eva has told us. Either way I think that multiple ethnic background makes Asuka all the more American. Even more so if she's an army brat like we're led to believe. Asuka totally fits the American girl stereotype. |
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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The Illustrious survived the war and was scrapped, while there where two Langley's the first was scuttled in 1942, and the second survived the war, and was scrapped in the 60's.
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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If it helps, the only German WWII aircraft carrier was the Graf Zeppelin, though it was named for the pair of airships as well as the inventor of rigid airship technology.
Interestingly, wikipedia claims that Roy Focker was from the United States, but I still swear that he was from the Netherlands or somewhere else in Europe. I remember this came up on the Robotech.com forum once, and we decided the character was European and related to Anthony Fokker. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Actually, no. I think you're thinking of Unit 03, the Eva that became corrupted. It was built at one of Nerv's American branches. (As was Unit 04 which is never actually shown because it exploded and destroyed the whole American branch when they tried to install the S2 engine in it). Eva Unit 02 however was produced at Nerv's German branch. Also, according to Wikipedia (Under Eva Unit 02) Asuka is 3/4 German. Presumably the other 1/4 is Japanese. There's no mention at all of her being American. Where exactly are you getting the idea that she's American? I'm not saying you're definitely wrong. I mean, it's possible. I'm just not sure why you would think that. She speaks German. She's living in Germany before coming to Japan. She makes a big deal out of the fact that she's German. I mean, barring some glaring statement to the contrary, all signs point to her being German. |
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Borrie
Posts: 3 |
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Roy Focker is from North America according to AnimEigo (edit: whoops one too many 'e's). There's still a chance he's Canadian or Mexican! :3
ikillchicken, there are some sources out there (too lazy to dig up official scans, best I can offer are Eva nerd forums debating it for pages) that claim that Asuka is American, if only because of her father's citizenship. There's an assumption that her father is likely American, as the Wikipedia claim of her being 3/4 German seems to be interchanged with her being 1/4 German and 1/2 unlisted or American on other sources. There's also the whole warships thing that people have already mentioned. Asuka spends some years (with her guardian Kaji) in Germany and then moves to Japan in the TV series; there's no mention of living in America. It's probably safe to say that Asuka and her family were there for most of the building, activation, and subsequent testing of Unit 02, considering her parent's involvement in the project. The default language for Unit 02 is German, as well. While Asuka may have American citizenship due to her father, she seems to identify as German. I think that's the key here. Why put a character who identifies as German on a list of Americans? Back on topic: My favorite unmentioned Americans? The Black Lagoon guys (sans Rock) and Charlotte Yeager. Gotta love busty bunnygirls with a need for speed! Last edited by Borrie on Tue Sep 06, 2011 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Asuka MIGHT be primarily German in the new movies (since the new girl is American), but in the original series Asuka is American. I always thought she was German (since she speaks German) but the official Gainax website says otherwise: 日本と独国の血が入ったクォーターであり、国籍はアメリカ http://www.gainax.co.jp/anime/eva/chara.html (The bolded part says her nationality is American) |
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lelliel
 Posts: 43 |
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Actually, I think Mari (the new girl) is suppose to be British. |
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Charred Knight
Posts: 3085 |
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Its flat out stated in the Classified information than Asuka is only a quarter Japanese, and a quarter German. I trust the wiki on Eva Geeks for me, since it was created by hardcore Eva fans. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Personally, I'd say that Japanese influence has seeped into America more directly in appliances and vehicles--nowadays, if you look at a busy highway, most of the cars are Hondas and Toyotas, and everybody knows they're distinctively Japanese. Sushi caught on in the early 90s and has become a fixture anywhere with an Asian population (most sushi places are run by non-Japanese though, at least places I've visited). Anime and manga (and Japanese video games, besides Wii stuff) is still a niche thing.
I'd say if you ask people on the street what they imagine what Japanese culture would be like, they'd imagine Godzilla, Hello Kitty, samurai and ninja, Power Rangers, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, karate, and possibly spiky-haired musclemen who shoot laser beams, teenage girls in uncomfortably revealing outfits who magically change clothes in public, and The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. If anything, I'd say that American animation has seeped into Japanese culture more so than Japanese animation has for American culture. Tom and Jerry, for instance, has had a cultural impact on the other side of the Pacific no anime has ever done and likely ever will. And since I've seen a lot of discussion about Chibodee Crockett (from G Gundam, since I don't think it was mentioned), I'll throw in Jet Link from Cyborg 009. He was a Brooklyn gangster whose partners abandoned him when he was injured and left for dead. Black Ghost found him, converted him into Cyborg 002, and became the first direct fighter in Dr. Gilmore's resistance squad. And to tie him in to the reader poll, he is a terrible cook--he is shown in his apartment trying to follow a cooking show, in front of a pan of an unidentifiable burnt mess. |
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I actually always thought that Chibodee Crockett was an interesting character. He's actually quite a positive portrayal of the American spirit, I felt, because of the way that he grew up and really made something of himself. I thought that was really fitting for a character that represented the United States, or even Neo-America in the case of Mobile Fighter G Gundam.
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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What makes you say that? You can't turn on the TV without seeing some American show aping the anime style. Meanwhile, the only recent show that did the reverse was Panty and Stocking, which was supposed to parody American animation rather than be influenced by it. You'd have to go back to Tezuka days to find anything else, and even then it'd just be a general art style rather than writing technique or anything. Not to mention all those toy anime really took the world by storm. YGO itself being the most played TCG in the world, surpassing Magic the Gathering long ago, for example. |
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I wonder, though, if foreign influences from outside both the United States and Japan are becoming more common, considering that so much animation is now being done as contract work outside of both of these aforementioned nations.
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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Like animated in Korea? That's been a common practice for decades.
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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Exactly, and I was thinking that over time that's possibly had an influence on other art styles. I'd like to see more Korean work individually, made for Korean television and film, to have something to compare it to.
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