# Westerners in Japanese Animation

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 10, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721 "2003-01-10T12:09:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![owlofcreamcheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@owlofcreamcheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlofcreamcheese)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721/21 "2003-01-10T20:41:47Z")

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why do popular american humans look alien? think about the simpsons… think about south park…

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**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721/22 "2003-01-10T21:25:41Z")

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I’d have to agree with the people who argue it’s for distinctiveness. I’d also like to note that in some animé, especially those striving for visual realism, you do find that most of the characters have dark hair and eye colour.

Look at **X** – you have a handful of blonds, but I think everyone has brown eyes, and most characters have black hair. In **Evangelion** , only one Japanese character has blond hair, and it’s established that she dyes it. In **Gravitation** , Yuki Eiri (who has blond hair and yellow eyes) mentions that he was made fun of a child, because he doesn’t look Japanese.

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721/23 "2003-01-10T23:54:11Z")

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[QUOTE]  
\*Originally posted by BMalion \*  
\*\*

> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \*  
> \*\* my bleeding festering piles!!_\*
> 
> Is it just me or do those bleeding, festering piles look western? \*\*

What does _that_ have to do with anything?

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**Author:** ![Andrew\_Makepeace\_Ladd\_III](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Andrew\_Makepeace\_Ladd\_III](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andrew_Makepeace_Ladd_III)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721/24 "2003-01-11T03:31:30Z")

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I think it’s strange that no one’s mentioned Akira. This was probably one of the most popular anime movies of all time, and its main characters look very Asian, more so probably than any before or since.

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**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westerners-in-japanese-animation/147721/25 "2003-01-11T04:13:21Z")

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Whoopsie. Bos is right – Osamu Tezuka was who I was thinking of.

Durnit. I HATE it when I screw up like that…

…and Akira was “anime”, sure, but it wasn’t “anime styled.” The characters were rendered fairly realistically, instead of the “big eyes, small mouth” traditional anime style. For that reason, a lot of people would argue with me that Akira “wasn’t really anime”…

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