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[Jude]

Because the only distinguishing characteristics between recycled character designs is skin color and a few comic relief faces?

This

You could say it creates an impossible ideal.

So what

[Leafsnail]

You could say it creates an impossible ideal.

So what

Well, it's damaging to chase something you can never reach.

[G-Flex]

Thinking about my Sailor Moon reference though, I've always wondered...

Why are virtually all anime characters more or less Caucasian, instead of, y'know, Japanese?

They don't. You probably assume they do because they look relatively "generic" to you and the skin color isn't TOO far off. They don't really look any more Caucasian than Japanese.

For further evidence, look at anyone in an anime who's obviously SUPPOSED to look European/American. The features are almost like caricatures sometimes.

You could say it creates an impossible ideal.

So what

Creating impossible ideals and conditioning people to live up to them is psychologically unhealthy, especially when it's all the same impossible ideal (with no regard for how people actually vary in real life).

It's also extremely dishonest! You have magazines full of models who might as well be computer-generated talking about how hot said models are. It's bad enough socializing people to all live up to the same physical standard, never mind an unreasonable one, never mind an unreasonable one that never was true to begin with for anyone.

[Aqizzar]

My God, unrealistic expectations and erroneous health advice from fashion magazines.  What is the world coming to?

Why are virtually all anime characters more or less Caucasian, instead of, y'know, Japanese?

They don't. You probably assume they do because they look relatively "generic" to you and the skin color isn't TOO far off. They don't really look any more Caucasian than Japanese.

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

[sonerohi]

My God, unrealistic expectations and erroneous health advice from fashion magazines.  What is the world coming to?

Why are virtually all anime characters more or less Caucasian, instead of, y'know, Japanese?

They don't. You probably assume they do because they look relatively "generic" to you and the skin color isn't TOO far off. They don't really look any more Caucasian than Japanese.

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

Mayhaps the artist has a fetish?
Edit: misclicked partway through my post.

You see a lot of girls with 800 DD in anime that exist in the real world. They kind of have to represent a non-majority of the people, to create more appeal and distinction.

[bjlong]

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

THIS HAS ALWAYS BUGGED ME.

[G-Flex]

My God, unrealistic expectations and erroneous health advice from fashion magazines.  What is the world coming to?

None of us said that it's surprising, just that it's harmful.

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

Er, there are also an awful lot more blue-haired people, shiny red-haired people, purple-haired people, etc. It's not a question of ethnicity.

Sometimes, when an anime is trying to be realistic about such things, they'll STILL use a lot of blonde/brown/red/etc. hair, but that's just to differentiate characters. Anime is a relatively simplistic art style much of the time, so artists will rely on hair color/style and clothing and other obvious features to make characters more distinct.


I'd say that most anime have characters that are either supposed to be ethnically vague or Japanese.

[Leafsnail]

My God, unrealistic expectations and erroneous health advice from fashion magazines.  What is the world coming to?

Why are virtually all anime characters more or less Caucasian, instead of, y'know, Japanese?

They don't. You probably assume they do because they look relatively "generic" to you and the skin color isn't TOO far off. They don't really look any more Caucasian than Japanese.

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

Blond characters seem to be relatively rare compared to other implausible/ impossible colours.

[Itnetlolor]

My God, unrealistic expectations and erroneous health advice from fashion magazines.  What is the world coming to?

Why are virtually all anime characters more or less Caucasian, instead of, y'know, Japanese?

They don't. You probably assume they do because they look relatively "generic" to you and the skin color isn't TOO far off. They don't really look any more Caucasian than Japanese.

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

Blond characters seem to be relatively rare compared to other implausible/ impossible colours.

You'll notice that with anime that tends more towards a sense of realism, they keep the color and ethnicity as accurate as possible (within the style); as with more fun ones which show otherwise. Unless, of course, there are distinctly unique characters that are far different than the common or main, and sometimes secondary characters.

[/derail]

[Willfor]

Let's differentiate here:

Going for accuracy.

Not.

[Duke 2.0]

Let's differentiate here:

Going for accuracy.

Not.

*Blows milk and chunks of cereal out of nose*

 The first isn't so much 'realistic' so much as applying to the anime generic standard. The two characters have identical faces from what I could see. Granted my eyes are rather messed up now, but this appears to prove my point.

 The seco-
 *Blows more milk and cereal out of several different orifices not entirely suitable for such a joke*

 I... There is nothing to say.

[The Mad Engineer]

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

THIS HAS ALWAYS BUGGED ME.

There is also a disproportionate amount of catholic schools.

[cowofdoom78963]

I'm just saying, there's an awful lot more blond people in Japanese animation than there are blond people in Japan.

THIS HAS ALWAYS BUGGED ME.

There is also a disproportionate amount of catholic schools.

Not only that but everyone has REALLY BIG eyes.

And when people express emotions they turn into blurry midgets.

[Duke 2.0]

 And it is always spring all the time. Perfect for seeing cherry blossoms falling.

[Willfor]

And it is always spring all the time. Perfect for seeing cherry blossoms falling.

Well, my first example has a reason for the cherry blossoms at least. It features a serial killer who buries his victims under a kind of sentient cherry tree. Though, that's not referenced very much in the anime IIRC, and gets more fleshed out in the manga.