Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Americans In Anime Always Blonde?
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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Probably my favorite blonde, gun-toting, crazy 'American' character. But then again, everything is kind of crazy in that manga. |
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GeneStriker
Posts: 156 |
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And even if they aren't blond-haired, blue-eyed, you can still tell they're American by the random grammatical nightmare English shout-outs.
OH! MISTAKE!!!! |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Don't worry, there are uniquely Canadian stereotypes in the US. (In fact, it's safe to say that the Kids in the Hall ultimately did more international harm than good...) I also admire your restraint in not shoving guns or the War of 1812 down our throats, or angrily insisting that any Canadian be properly referred to as "a resident of North Continent", to avoid any insulting misuse of the A-word. 
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MajinAkuma
 Posts: 1199 |
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Gevani from Death Note is a black-haired American. And I guess that the black-haired Lind L. Taylor is also American. Well, Lester and Lidner fit the stereotype. Raye Penber doesn't really count since he's half-American, half-Japanese.
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Just-another-face
Posts: 324 |
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You're not funny, just so you know. |
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Razor/Edge
Posts: 607 |
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Let's be honest, who wasn't obsessed with Leo during those days? |
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Joe Carpenter
 Posts: 503 |
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Japanese misconceptions of America are too cute for me to take offense, one anime that got it pretty right though is Gunsmith Cats.
Hey, a littlekuriboh reference would have been funny...almost a decade ago. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Something that's always weird to me: American people often seen to follow inaccurate stereotypes in Japanese media, but somehow, they always nail the look of an American city, even in stories where not much research was done. They somehow know what makes an American city look different from a Japanese city. However, the reverse--American illustrators rarely ever get the look of a Japanese city down unless it was copied from a photograph or something. Usually, it's just an American city, often NYC, only with more neon signs.
I mean, I recently read an American comic book where the main characters went to Tokyo. The buildings had distinctly American architecture: Old brick buildings with flat tops, Gothic-style skyscrapers, and messy outdoor ground-level train stations. I have never seen Japanese media depict an American city with Japanese architecture, with their signature outdoor stairs and hallways, vertically-oriented steel and glass exteriors, and surburban houses separated by thick brick walls.
As a bonus, here's an American character who isn't blonde (Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure).
Yeah, there is no better subject for this article's thumbnail than Bandit Keith. I would not have accepted anyone else.
Meanwhile, Nisekoi's leading lady is already a blonde Japanese, so Paula McCoy, the American character complete with a McPrefix, has to one-up Chitoge with her silvery hair. She doesn't behave in any stereotypically American way though except for her love of guns. |
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maxs2d2ace
Posts: 8 |
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That Is really false. Japan has never really ever drawn black characters like in black face. Everybody just brings up mr. pop as reference, who is not black. In fact there is a black character in dragon ball that shows up before mr.pop named Assistant Black(funny i know). The most you ever see in older anime is a ring around the mouth and a lighter/red tone for the color of the mouth. But They don't Do this anymore(well some do). there have been TONS of black characters in their video games and anime as of late that look really normal, such as the following: soul eater, sid, kilik,nygus full metal alchemist.Paninya Michiko to Hatchin Afro samurai JoJo's Bizarre-smokey black lagoon Shigi Taishiji - Ikkitousen Gangsta Naruto Land of Lightning Miyuki Ayukawa from Basquash bleach:Tousen,Zommari Leroux,don kanonji anything evolving Shinichirō Watanabe(checkout cowboy bepop ep Mushroom Samba). This is just to name a few. |
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AnimeLordLuis
 Posts: 1626 Location: The Borderlands of Pandora |
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Blood Blockade Battlefront had a pretty good mix of Characters of course if everyone had blonde hair and blue eyes that would just be silly especially since the Show takes place in the Big Apple.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5934 |
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Joseph's actually British.....as for him not being blonde he can have whatever hair color Araki wants him to have. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Is he? I hear some people say he's British and some people say he's American.
Still, Araki's not really going to let nationality determine what hair color his characters will have. Steel Ball Run is set entirely in the United States and is thus full of American characters, for instance, and the full spectrum is there. |
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2800 |
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I'm not going to get angry about having American characters in anime with blonde hair. To me,that's a minor issue. What gets me angry is that a lot of times,Americans in anime are often portrayed as jerks or villains. I've seen that sort of thing happen even in good anime like "Ghost In The Shell."
I think that America's a far better country than it's given credit for,even by Hollywood. Would it hurt anime writers to put in a friendly American character in once in a while? There are positive American characters in shows like "LBX,""Yu-Gi-Oh!,"and other shows. What's wrong with having the good American character thrash the bad American character around simply because he/she makes other Americans look bad? Also,there are immigrants in America. It would be interesting to see them portrayed in a foreign production whether as a positive or negative character. Seeing a stereotypically blonde American character in an anime doesn't make me upset. Having an obnoxious twit be the majority of American characters in anime is something that does,even when,in real life,most Americans wouldn't even want to be around that sort of person. Last edited by Snomaster1 on Sat Feb 06, 2016 6:51 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Savion
Posts: 40 |
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@maxs2d2ace
Yes There are examples of non-pickananny type black characters but still there are many anime when black people do appear they are one off characters (often thugs) who have non-descript unhuman blackface like features. They didn't say "all anime black/darkskin characters look like stereotypes" just that there are more than a few examples of such. Denial on either side isn't conductive. Anyways towards the "Americans are blondes" topic I do agree its lazy writing but I don't agree that "Japanese don't know better" (too broad a statement) or "they're obsessed with blonde westerners" (i'm sure some are ofc). But writers are supposed to do research, even if they take artistic liberties. Its usually just just lazy writing or any easy way out lol. I've seen various manga that incorporate depth knowledge of western occult magic, the hundred year war, the bible, WW2 weaponry, german history and language and so on and so forth so I'm very sure the Japanese Wikipedia's article on america has a few blurbs on the diversity of the nation (or even of white people most of whom aren't blonde). Similarly I would frown at an anime fan who thinks japanese culture boils down to Naruto, bushido, harajuku and sushi or whatever. I don't believe its malicious or intentional but Japan is a highly developed and highly educated nation and any writer/artist could go that "extra" step for a more realistic portrayal or they could rely on their uneducated (perhaps even bigoted) stereotypes. When you think about it the portrayal of blonde americans/europeans by the Japanese is actually extremely ironic as the USA and parts of Europe are being called to take steps towards greater diversity in media among other things. For the record I also critize a lot of Western movies and shows for boring portrayals of Japanese people as personality-less tight-lipped swordsmen or genki girls (who are also always swordsmen/martial artists) Edited to remove excessive quoting. --willag |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5934 |
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You can blame Araki for the confusion. |
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