Forum - View topicKeeping Up Appearances
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Isikari
 Posts: 118 |
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Me and some of my friends have been pondering the often perplexing appearance of Anime characters for quite a while, every since we first discovered the genre. Throughout the vast majority of anime we've watched, two central traits seem to emerge in regards to how characters look, and it would be great if some guru of Anime could explain either of them to me.
1) Why do characters in the Anime world feel the compulsive need to dye their hair? Seriously, at this point it is simply ridiculous. The first few times I saw someone with green, pale blue, or hot pink hair, I just stared. I thought these were isolated occurances, perhaps to signify the characters importance or unique qualities. Boy was I WRONG. Virtually every anime series I watch have myriad characters with hair colors that encompass every shade and gradation of the rainbow, and mabye a few more! Someone explain why!!! 2) Why are a vast majority of anime characters (And a super-majority of leading characters) white? Some characters, no problem. Even a few of the leads. But once again, just like the zany hair colors, almost all Anime series I've seen have an entire cast of all-white characters. Japanese, to the extent of my knowledge, aren't the same shade as a piece of printer paper. So WHY are their characters almost reflective in their lack of color! What, is it easier on the color laser printers when making posters? Jeez... Alright, those are my two issues with anime. These two facts have always confused me, although I have a strong theory for my second question. I'll see what the responses are like, hopefully it will shed some light on my curious dilemma  .
~ Isikari P.S. I'm pretty sure this is clear,but as a pre-emptive strike I just want to point out that I don't actually have a problem with the hair color or whiteness of characters. Not trying to get anyone pissed. I don't think it'll pose a problem but better safe than sorry. |
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Mirrinus
 Posts: 230 Location: La Thiene Plateau |
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1) Here's how I view hair colors in anime: These characters don't exist in a world like ours. Sure, their world may be deceptively similar, with the exact same locations, geography, lifeforms, history, etc. In fact, almost everything can potentially be identical to our version of earth, except for one key difference: in an anime, the human gene that controls hair color has many more varieties that can become the dominant trait for a particular character. Thus, in an anime world, every color imaginable can be a natural hair color. Hey, it's not that far-fetched. If I can believe that a 16-year-old girl has the power to subconsciously control the universe, surely I can believe that the humans in an anime world can have many different genetic codes for hair coloring, right?
2) I honestly didn't notice that so many characters in anime are white. Which shows are you watching? The only anime among my favorites where I remember the cast being predominantly white is Last Exile, but they were intentially going for the European Victorian era look for the entire series. Oh, and does Ginko of Mushishi count? Other than that, most main characters I recall are of Asian descent. Then again, I don't watch too many fantasy shows that bear no connection to earth. Tell me, what shows are you referring to with all-white casts? |
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NGE1113
 Posts: 1081 Location: Alexandria, VA. |
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In terms of hair color (and hair styles), I've always felt that it was a way to more easily identify characters. It's a lot simpler to tell who's who based on what color hair they possess, and the extremeness (or lack thereof) of their hairstyle. A couple of cases in point. For the 31 girls that make up Negi's class in Negima!, the varying colors and hairstyles were a great aid in placing names with faces. Compare this to Boogiepop Phantom, where the characters share somewhat similar hairstyles and hair colors. After several watchings, outside of the main characters, I sometimes still have trouble telling people apart. Anyways, that's been my view on this for quite some time now.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16983 |
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Well, both questions are rather easy to answer. At least I think so. The hair color rainbow is there to bring more art to anime. Why limit yourself to just the normal hair colors? This is animation, where you can do literally anything you want. Why hold yourself back? The different hair colors also help add another layer of art to the anime. Sometimes that purple or cyan hair helps bring out a characters outfit more. Some hair colors fit a character's mood. Personally, I wish we all could hair like that. As in natural hair color not dye. I mean it would make things so much more interesting and not so dull. Only so much you can do with the 4 basic colors.
As for why so many are white, well what color are Japanese people primarily? Not trying to be racist, simply stating a fact. VERY few black, hispanic, or any other color Japanese people besides good ole white bread. Simply how it is. Since that's simply how it is what color would they make their characters? It's a very predominate white person culture so in turn those people who make animation lean towards white characters. Most people stick to their racial group in terms of dating, characteristics they like, art interpretation of their people, etc etc. It would be interesting to see real studies on why this is. Maybe we're simply genetically pre-disposed that way. Anyway, in simple terms they're are mostly white so they draw mostly white. Can't get much simpler then that. Also, the Japanese people have had a strong racism element to their culture in the past, and even still to a degree. If you weren't pure 100% Japanese, born in Japan, you're an outside (gaijin). Why model a character after someone you consider an outsider? Not saying it's fair or still happens all the time, just that there is that element to their cultural history. |
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Amasa
 Posts: 340 Location: Japan |
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Sadly, I think there is a deeper cultural reasoning to why most anime characters have such flamboyant hair. It's difficult to say it without sounding racist, but I know there is a very strong movement among the Japanese. The younger generations are rebelling against the traditional values and customs of Japanese culture and this means that a lot of youth (once they finish the hard laboring school) change their appearance drastically. There are over 120million people in Japan, and they all have black hair and brown eyes. It's inevitable that some feel the need to be different. Anime is just a form of expression of the Japanese people, yes it's fiction but it is definitely influenced by cultural and social trends, thoughts and dilemmas. Through anime, the people who watch it are in a sense awed by the colors and flamboyance of the characters (Western audiences as well) and this is why anime became so popular in Japan - Japanese characters, speaking Japanese but looking so completely different and unique, even glamorous or dazzling. Emerging from a slightly xenophobic era, Japan in the last 2 decades is Westernizing in the sense that difference in thought, speech and appearance is accepted.
True. Japan is a very homogeneous society. There is not much exposure to different races, even though in school they learn about many different cultures and worldly issues. You can find multi-racial anime but most of it is, understandably, set in Japan where you'll almost always only find Japanese people. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1029 |
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I'm not so sure on the hair but the main reason for light skin color in animation is because it's easier to animate facial expression for a light skinned character. This is the reason even today a lot of dark skinned characters still have rather large lips.
Plus if you go back, early manga was based on American animation. If you look at the older manga like Metropolis (done in 1949) by Osamu Tezuka, it looks like Max Fleischer cartoon meets Disney in style. Plus in manga before screen tones it was hard to draw a dark skinned character or even a character of a different shade because in a black and white drawing that mean there face needs to be inked in and that doesn't work very well. So when the time came to start animating most of the character were already light skinned. |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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The hair color thing makes it a lot easier to tell people apart, especially in longer running series where everyone starts to blur together after a while. Also, hair color can emphasize a person's difference from their family or friends. One example that comes to mind is Youko from The Twelve Kingdoms; another is Tao Jun from Shaman King. Jun's family is rather serious and (let's face it) evil, and they all have black hair, whereas Jun's hair is green, which sort of matches her cheerful, caring personality.
Also, I've really never thought of all anime characters as being 'white' before. For me, they are the way they are, and it doesn't really matter. |
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inthebiz
Posts: 34 Location: Burbank, CA |
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This is a very interesting argument that would probably help explain anime to someone who has only seen a small sample. I never really questioned it myself, but a lot of the above points make sense, especially Amasa's (feeling the need to be different).
But I contend that these points would serve as a introductory FAQ guide to someone who may be puzzled about the sometimes wackiness of anime. Excellent discussion, everyone. |
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Isikari
Posts: 118 |
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Thanks for all the replies! I didn't realize this was that active of a forum, I figured it would take a couple days to get some realy good responses. Psycho101, Amasa, and Brand, thanks for your insights on the hair color / skin tone question. It shed some light on the history of anime as well as bringing up some interesting cultural points.
BTW, Inthebiz, I think adding these two questions to a general FAQ on anime would be a great idea. ~ Isikari |
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Amasa
Posts: 340 Location: Japan |
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There have been a few discussions on this recently and I always find them very interesting. Most people say that the way anime characters are drawn is a technical convenience. I still don't think so. In this thread the discussion concerning the way eyes are drawn and the different hair colors was a bit more elaborate. In this other thread eye size was explored on cultural, technical and artistic levels.
I still believe that anime characters are an expression of Japanese desires. From every Harem anime to most Magical School Girl series there's always a very obvious characteristic that make those stories so different from reality in Japan. I'm not talking about Japanese people not having magical powers, I just mean I think there's a lot more escapism in anime for Japanese people than for most Western people. Even American tv shows and films don't go to such extremes as anime. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Well if the question about anime characters looking or being white or not hasn't been beaten to death I thought I'd express a little of what I've experienced to the discussion. Take a look at the following picture:
All the girls in this picture have an average anime complexion color. I think establishing this particular color is separate from the fact that in manga you can't depict any type of skin color unless the manga is actually in color. Furthermore I think that anime characters are neither white nor non-white; they are Japanese and it's other features like hair and eyes that give the caracters a caucasian "look". In this example I've shown, you see that the boy in the upper left has rather dark skin but he is also Japanese (since this story takes place in Japan with Japanese students). Therefore this example shows that anime characters can have all sorts of different skin colors and hair colors regardless of their apparent race. Animators carefully choose ways to give different characters different appearances, not just so they don't all look the same but I think those unique designs reflect their personality. For example notice Kei (the boy in the lower right) has very pale skin which reflects how he suffers from health problems and is a very important part of the story. So in essense, greater emphasis is placed on a character's appearance being in tune with the story or plot than actually designing characters that accurately depict their nationality. Also one other interesting thing you'll notice is that Mizuho's skin color has a slighty pinkish tone compared to all the other characters. Since she's an alien that would mean that she's not necessarily supposed to appear Japanese. So to make her look "foreign" the animators didn't just give her pink hair they also gave her a complexion that more closely resembles an actual white person which generally has a more pinkish color than Asians, even if they are pale. |
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Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
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Grrr, and I thought we're gonna talk about the Bucket woman!!
(If you don't get it, Wikipedia the title of the thread.) |
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Isikari
Posts: 118 |
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Abarenbo, you are my hero! I was wondering if someone would get the reference to the British Comedy!
Also thanks for the threads on eyes in Anime, I should have added that as well to my original questionnaire on the apperance of characters but forgot. Those threads lend a lot of insight into it (I really enjoy studying and understanding other cultures). ~ Isikari |
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Amasa
Posts: 340 Location: Japan |
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Haha, I didn't think of Hyacinth before (I think that's her name). What a funny show
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Zabuza-Sama
 Posts: 6 |
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I don't think we should ask why, anime is something unique without a doubt and this is why it's so special and enjoyable.
I also think that we can learn from the character's hair color about his personality, for example, the beautiful, quiet, gentle girl will have a pink hair, the mysterious one will have... purple hair color and so on, this is what I think it comes to represent, I may be worng, but... come on let's not try to find a lost of sense in Anime, one of the reasons we love it is because it's WEIRD, don't lie to yourself
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