Race of Anime Girls

I'm making this thread because I've seen posts about people saying how a lot of the anime girls editted aren't really asian because they dont have the facial features and colors, and have pale skin or so on. I'm curious what everyone's take is. I suppose this also applies to a lot of the CGI stuff, too, like the DoA hentai clips. Personally, while I think asians can have pale skin, too, i can get the stuff about their facial features and eye/hair colors. If i had to pick one ethnicty, a lot of anime characters and 3d CGI anime games are probably closest to Hapas, but what is everyone's take?

I just think most anime styled women (and to some extent the men) are intended to be more like whites than they are like Asians. A lot of their phenotypes and looks are heavily lifted from European phenotypes; lighter complexions, bigger brighter eyes, colorful or varied hair and eye color, etc. But at the same time I don't think it's all that way, there's still many anime characters that have very traditionally oriental features.

AryanSuperSoldier said:

I just think most anime styled women (and to some extent the men) are intended to be more like whites than they are like Asians. A lot of their phenotypes and looks are heavily lifted from European phenotypes; lighter complexions, bigger brighter eyes, colorful or varied hair and eye color, etc. But at the same time I don't think it's all that way, there's still many anime characters that have very traditionally oriental features.

That's kinda why i said hapas, as they can have either features, and it would be wierd to have a lot of anime being 100% pure europeans.

Most anime has the women take on more Western features or looks. So you could easily argue they're just white. Yor I would say is more of an exception

Considering the big inspirations for the first anime were Disney comics you’re not far off from calling them Hapas

evolutionary_8044 said:

Considering the big inspirations for the first anime were Disney comics you’re not far off from calling them Hapas

That's a good point forgot about. I did hear how that was the case, but i never found out how true it is. Did manga/anime not exist before western cartoons, because if their features were really inspired by the west is does make sense.

Edit: from what i looked up in wikipedia, it does seem like modern manga became a thing started after ww2. They did have comics before then, but none of them seem to have the typical anime features we see now, it was all in that older japanese artstyle you see on scrolls on stuff. Does anyone know when the first "anime/manga girl" with the typical neotenous features we see now was drawn?

fkiblaze said:

That's a good point forgot about. I did hear how that was the case, but i never found out how true it is. Did manga/anime not exist before western cartoons, because if their features were really inspired by the west is does make sense.

Edit: from what i looked up in wikipedia, it does seem like modern manga became a thing started after ww2. They did have comics before then, but none of them seem to have the typical anime features we see now, it was all in that older japanese artstyle you see on scrolls on stuff. Does anyone know when the first "anime/manga girl" with the typical neotenous features we see now was drawn?

Reading up on the history of manga and anime made me remember how much popular manga and shows were created by women, as opposed to the west where pretty much all comics that were popular were made by men it seems.

fkiblaze said:

I'm making this thread because I've seen posts about people saying how a lot of the anime girls editted aren't really asian because they dont have the facial features and colors, and have pale skin or so on. I'm curious what everyone's take is. I suppose this also applies to a lot of the CGI stuff, too, like the DoA hentai clips. Personally, while I think asians can have pale skin, too, i can get the stuff about their facial features and eye/hair colors. If i had to pick one ethnicty, a lot of anime characters and 3d CGI anime games are probably closest to Hapas, but what is everyone's take?

If you think about it: You don't see irl Japanese people with blonde hair unless they dyed it, blue eyes unless they have color contacts, pale skin unless they used skin lighting products which is popular in Asia and Africa because "Pale clean and high status, dark dirty and farm work" and whatnot. You can show me Marin and I'd say "She looks like a white girl to me" so imo most are white by default because the art style is pretty eurocentric. Sure, you'll see actual looking Japanese people like those in Ghibli films because I'm pretty sure the author tries to be as realistic as possible with his work but dunno if they still exist outside old anime. But part of me needs to know about dark skinned anime girls too because when I see them: I see a lot of discourse on whether the girls are black, just dark tan, or she's possibly from the rural side of Asia.

I know there's an Original Idolm@ster character who's tanner than the rest of the girls but for some reason she gets painted paler then sometimes tanner.
I think anime is eurocentric but most anime artists and manga claim theyre this word for nationalityless but I forgot what it is

somebleacheduser said:

If you think about it: You don't see irl Japanese people with blonde hair unless they dyed it, blue eyes unless they have color contacts, pale skin unless they used skin lighting products which is popular in Asia and Africa because "Pale clean and high status, dark dirty and farm work" and whatnot. You can show me Marin and I'd say "She looks like a white girl to me" so imo most are white by default because the art style is pretty eurocentric. Sure, you'll see actual looking Japanese people like those in Ghibli films because I'm pretty sure the author tries to be as realistic as possible with his work but dunno if they still exist outside old anime. But part of me needs to know about dark skinned anime girls too because when I see them: I see a lot of discourse on whether the girls are black, just dark tan, or she's possibly from the rural side of Asia.

I know there's an Original Idolm@ster character who's tanner than the rest of the girls but for some reason she gets painted paler then sometimes tanner.
I think anime is eurocentric but most anime artists and manga claim theyre this word for nationalityless but I forgot what it is

The darker skin anime girls tend to be from southern and rural japan. Some anime do have black characters and it's pretty obvious they are black.

fkiblaze said:

The darker skin anime girls tend to be from southern and rural japan. Some anime do have black characters and it's pretty obvious they are black.

Yeah. You can tell if a dark skinned anime girl is black is if they have locs, curls, and darker skin tones than just brown, pretty much look like average black girl. The ones with darker tans are probably rural. Also it's weird how most of anime is eurocentric (not complaining) yet they have Pokemon and Dance dance revolution with characters from a lot of backgrounds and some looking ethnically correct, my theory is those are media that is meant to be catered to a wider audience.

IIRC, isn't that tan girl from Original Idolmaster an Okinawan which means they'll look different from a regular Japanese person?

somebleacheduser said:

Yeah. You can tell if a dark skinned anime girl is black is if they have locs, curls, and darker skin tones than just brown, pretty much look like average black girl. The ones with darker tans are probably rural. Also it's weird how most of anime is eurocentric (not complaining) yet they have Pokemon and Dance dance revolution with characters from a lot of backgrounds and some looking ethnically correct, my theory is those are media that is meant to be catered to a wider audience.

IIRC, isn't that tan girl from Original Idolmaster an Okinawan which means they'll look different from a regular Japanese person?

Also a lot of the time, for at least the black males, they tend to give them black facial features, too, like the big lips and wide nose.

fkiblaze said:

Also a lot of the time, for at least the black males, they tend to give them black facial features, too, like the big lips and wide nose.

True when I see black anime girls, they will look ethnically correct with exaggrated features like with that one girl off HxH or look more euro but just slap a dark brown color on her skin and put some stylized curls (optional) don't forget the classic dot nose.

fkiblaze said:

I'm making this thread because I've seen posts about people saying how a lot of the anime girls editted aren't really asian because they dont have the facial features and colors, and have pale skin or so on. I'm curious what everyone's take is. I suppose this also applies to a lot of the CGI stuff, too, like the DoA hentai clips. Personally, while I think asians can have pale skin, too, i can get the stuff about their facial features and eye/hair colors. If i had to pick one ethnicty, a lot of anime characters and 3d CGI anime games are probably closest to Hapas, but what is everyone's take?

I think most of the comments have done my job for me but generally most people default to " they're white " and the question" why are anime characters white? " wouldn't be such a popular question people have if most people saw them as asian - there's more nuiance to this of course since it can really depend on the genre, setting, author's preferences and just the author's general art-style but given the fact mangaka seem to LOVE drawing their characters with european features it's not hard to see why people default to " they're white. "
though it doesn't help that a lot of popular animes like sono no frieren are based on western fantasy since the setting does heavily influence the design.

IvoryFuta-II said:

I think most of the comments have done my job for me but generally most people default to " they're white " and the question" why are anime characters white? " wouldn't be such a popular question people have if most people saw them as asian - there's more nuiance to this of course since it can really depend on the genre, setting, author's preferences and just the author's general art-style but given the fact mangaka seem to LOVE drawing their characters with european features it's not hard to see why people default to " they're white. "
though it doesn't help that a lot of popular animes like sono no frieren are based on western fantasy since the setting does heavily influence the design.

With western settings in animanga, they know that it's mostly eurocentric since a lot of times, Western Fantasy is highly euro (doesn't mean that authors can't throw in dark elf girls (not the edgy stuff like Dark Link but elf girls with darker skin), we need more of those in my opinion). The only time I saw ethnically correct Asian characters are Ghibli films since it's more realistic or tries to be since most characters do not have the typical moe art style and some characters in Komani works like DanceDanceRevolution and Pop 'n music.

somebleacheduser said:

With western settings in animanga, they know that it's mostly eurocentric since a lot of times, Western Fantasy is highly euro (doesn't mean that authors can't throw in dark elf girls (not the edgy stuff like Dark Link but elf girls with darker skin), we need more of those in my opinion). The only time I saw ethnically correct Asian characters are Ghibli films since it's more realistic or tries to be since most characters do not have the typical moe art style and some characters in Komani works like DanceDanceRevolution and Pop 'n music.

GATE was a cool anime with a dark elf girl if you want one.

fkiblaze said:

GATE was a cool anime with a dark elf girl if you want one.

Thanks, adding it to my watchlist. Also I know there's this anime I saw and I know it what it is and I guess everyone else does but I forgot the name.
-Dark skinned girl/elf girl
-Is either a cleric or some form of a magic user
-Brown skin, white hair, blue eyes, her outfit is not a light or dark blue, more of a navy blue color. Maybe human or elf.
-Takes place in a RPG setting since she's a cleric or magic user.

I posted this too early so sorry if it was unfinished.

I don't think it's necessarily about trying to be white, but a fantasy of creating an ideal self. That just correlates with a lot of white adjacent things.
The creator and consumer of anime enjoy a lot of optimism fiction. Magical powers, social status, high adventure, love and friendship, good looks and light phenotypes, functional societies, hope and heroism, etc dialed up to 11 depending on what genre of show it is.

yarblharbl said:

I don't think it's necessarily about trying to be white, but a fantasy of creating an ideal self. That just correlates with a lot of white adjacent things.
The creator and consumer of anime enjoy a lot of optimism fiction. Magical powers, social status, high adventure, love and friendship, good looks and light phenotypes, functional societies, hope and heroism, etc dialed up to 11 depending on what genre of show it is.

I agree with this, it's more just it seems like white typical facial features tend to be unviserally seen as pretty

When Anime originally were made, few decades ago, USA dominated the movie industry.
Most movies that defined romance, scifi, fantasy (etc.) were USA movies with caucasian people: any Japanese author saw "big eyes" everywhere. I think the only thing they didn't like was the big nose and such.... so, here how the first manga that set up the legacy were made: ridiculously big eyes and small nose... and you can't put that much detail on face shapes with big eyes and small nose (it become overly funny).

I think the modern anime style is not supposed to represent ethnicity, just like furries: you give a cowboy hat to a blonde girl and... here you go: she is a girl from the southern side of the USA. Hair color, eye shape... or even tan skin is there just to give her more characterization.

Nessa from Pokémon is supposed to be African (or south american maybe?), but there are no study about African female facial features in her facial design.

Aakord said:

When Anime originally were made, few decades ago, USA dominated the movie industry.
Most movies that defined romance, scifi, fantasy (etc.) were USA movies with caucasian people: any Japanese author saw "big eyes" everywhere. I think the only thing they didn't like was the big nose and such.... so, here how the first manga that set up the legacy were made: ridiculously big eyes and small nose... and you can't put that much detail on face shapes with big eyes and small nose (it become overly funny).

I think the modern anime style is not supposed to represent ethnicity, just like furries: you give a cowboy hat to a blonde girl and... here you go: she is a girl from the southern side of the USA. Hair color, eye shape... or even tan skin is there just to give her more characterization.

Nessa from Pokémon is supposed to be African (or south american maybe?), but there are no study about African female facial features in her facial design.

Part of me thinks Nessa's possibly a western black girl since western black girls (those in US and Europe, mostly US) have mixed blood due to slavery and whatnot. She does have dark skin that basically screams "she's black" because I don't see that shade in anyone else unless I guess they work in the sun for a very long time but she has blue eyes which you only see in white people but not on black people a lot. There's another possibility of her being Polynesian/Oceanian because I remembered there was a tribe somewhere in Polynesia or somewhere where a tribe had dark skin and blue eyes as well as blonde hair (no, they don't wear weaves or wigs). Correct me if I'm wrong.