Non-Japanese characters in Anime
While watching Legend of Galactic Heroes for the first time a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by the lack of Japanese characters. The fact that it's set in the distant distant future has never been an issue for other shows. Even more surprising was that the main character (at least for the first half of the saga) seems to be at least partly of Chinese ancestry.
This got me thinking about how anime depicts non Japanese. My initial inclination was that the depiction of certain cultures is highly stereotypical, with Europeans being blonde and beautiful, Americans being over confident with a shoot first ask questions later attitude, and other assortments of negative and positive generalizations. You will most certainly find this in many shows... BUT....
A careful analysis of shows I've seen in the past few years often reveal quite the opposite. We find a dignified and highly capable black woman who serves as a bridge officer aboard the SDF-1. An honorable Mexican man of few words watching his Shinigami pal's back, and a Kurdish teenager piloting a giant close quarters combat mech. Even with the new show IS: Infinite Stratos, a Chinese girl is borderline tsundere and is childhood friend # 2.
Is this Japan's way to project a message of multiculturalism, or simply throwing in some foreign characters to make their franchises slightly more interesting?
Well, culture is pretty good material to work with imo..with all those quirks and stuff it's hard not to use them.
However, the use depends on the series. Darker than Black, for example, uses the Hong Kong/China mafia theme mixed with Japanese folklore and "future" Science. It turned out pretty interesting I have to say, and BONES making the fight scenes made it even more incredible.
I'm sure when humor is the main topic tho, they don't mind pulling any light punches as they usually put in a pretty balanced stereotype for each. As long as they don't go too far, I don't think anyone will mind. Besides, I find it pretty funny laughing about MY culture, so why not everyone else (logical fallacy, I know, but w/e) :3
I think it's more of what the author has in mind, when he creates the story. Rather than them trying to be multicultural. They might add in different cultures just to create a "comedic atmosphere" like in Ika Musume, with the americans.
I'm sure that these stereotypes are just not in anime, but in movies and our everyday life too.
My fav you know. :D
You can add Black Lagoon to the multicultural anime series list. It has more non japanese characters than any series I know.
woah.....hei...
oh yeah he`s chinese XD
Actually, I think it's a really nice way of creating character diversion. I've spoken with a storyboard-writer once, and she said that with every story anyone makes for TV nowadays, nothing is even 90% original. Everything has a MasterStory, similar to a template or such.
I like how animes nowadays give Character Profiles a sense of diversion by adding in a character of another origin into the anime-culture and giving us a fresh perspective on the term "anime." But what truly surprises me is how without the blinding use of stereotypes, these animes are able to highlight the origins and culture of a foreign character well enough that we're able to tell that he/she is American, Mexican, or whatnot.
It proves how anime has no bounderies. ^___^
I think it depends on the circumstances and the creator. Some shows are obviously trying to court foreign licensors and are pretty multicultural as a result, but with things like LoGH it's simply more realistic to show a range of different ethnic groups.
Michiko to Hatchin is a pretty multicultural show, being set in a fictional version of Latin America. The production committee includes several Brazilian nikkeijin (descendants of Japanese people who emigrated to Brazil, now a minority group in Japan) and most of the characters have combined Japanese and Hispanic names (Michiko Malandro etc).
Samurai Champloo is surprisingly multicultural for a show set in historic Japan. They even included an Ainu (native people of Hokkaido) character, which is rarely seen in mainstream Japanese media.
Japan is more multicultural than a lot of people might realise, especially with regards to Korean and Chinese people living there, so it's neat to see that reflected in anime once in a while.
Incidentally, I wouldn't really consider Saber a true foreign character. I know she's technically 'English' but she's basically a magical girlfriend character, and no more English than a character from a fantasy world (like in Sora no Otoshimono).
lol is funny since the Occidental characters usually have small eyes and Japanese characters have big eyes! Something is wrong here! :p
Speaking of stereotypes in anime, my friends and I have come to the conclusion that most black male characters in anime all have either afros, cornrows, dreads or braids and generally have huge pink lips. Also, if they're a martial artist, they generally practice capoeira. A certain character from Tenjho Tenge fits this description pretty well.
Wait, you forgot something that some Americans depicted in anime are mostly blondes...
I think the fact that they put other cultures and races in anime as being unique and show a diverse culture and ideology .
Yes , We do think that every foreigner has Blonde Hair cuz it shows their foreign-ess