Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Americans In Anime Always Blonde?
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NeoStrayCat
 Posts: 632 |
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Well, that header picture made me lol, Bandit Keith doing the "Shut up and take my money" pose kinda way.
But yeah, besides the stereotypical blond hair archetypes, there is probably other American-type characters I've probably seen in other series that's not just blond always, more so just other variants, I assume. |
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Minimimiau
Posts: 194 Location: somewhere on this planet. |
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Well, it is true that most of american characters are blonde with blue eyes, but there are a few that don't. I am reading the manga of Alice 19th and the american character is black.
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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Probably for the same reason why half the globe thinks that white people only look like German soldiers in WWII films.
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Marzan
 Posts: 518 |
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SO true about this particular anime stereotype. From the top of my head though there's a couple of American characters in memorable nime that are not blonde.
Half the guys in Baccano do not have blonde hair Chibodee Crockett- Fighter G Gundam Revy-Black Lagoon Kanuka Clancy- Patlabor (she's supposed to be half japanese. Funnily enough she's easily the most japanese looking character of all). |
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DmonHiro
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And let's not forget that most Russians have white hair and green/blue eyes.
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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It's also a very simple way for a character to appear obviously foreign. While even a westerner with brown or black hair would stand out like a sore thumb in Japan, there aren't many features in a typical anime character's design that hint at ethnicity. In a series where everyone else has dark colored hair and eyes, it's easy to look at a blonde character and go "Oh, they're foreign!"
I think that's also why in shows like Yu-Gi-Oh (Since our favorite Bandit Keith is the thumbnail here...) where characters have crazy hair colors they do other things to make it super obvious, like give them a bandana of a freakin' American flag, or give them a frilly cravat and make them drink wine. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13239 |
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As a Canadian I'm more miffed that most anime seem to believe that our continent consists only of the United States.
We need more Canadian characters like Kate from Sketchbook and Kirara from GJ-bu. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Probably the only reason I want Tokyo Seventh Sisters to get an anime as it has an American without blond hair. I don't really care for it as a game but it has some interesting characters and I like all of the lolis in it.
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3768 |
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Does Canada from Hetalia count as a Canadian? Come to think of it America and Canada are both blonde and the latter is often confused for the former so if anything it is an exemplification of the Japanese attitude towards Canada. |
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Kutsu
Posts: 570 |
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It's not just Americans. In anime, If you're from the US, Canada or Europe, you're blond wih blue or green eyes.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Also, a foreign exchange student is more likely to be from England, which explains WHY they have blonde hair and blue eyes--like most characters from English novels that the Japanese only know from reading--and therefore represents the elegant "foreign" tea-time tradition of all Europe in the West.
(Sailor Venus, for example, only lived in wow-foreign England temporarily, to explain why she was just one of the Japanese girls, but still had blonde hair and was the best English speaker of the group.) Now, as to the question of why Japanese comedies think Americans, despite their bumbling cluelessness, have a crazy violent streak, that's a more interesting question, although their belief that we all have "Mc-" last names can be blamed on fast-food restaurants. And the idea that we have big Shaq-sized black cops in the city (like in Kaleido Star) is more a product of Hollywood |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4534 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Canada in anime is a little island somewhere near Maine where Anne of Green Gables (Osage no An) lives. 
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4618 |
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With Baccano, I would guess that the story being set in America made a difference. Chibodee Crockett might not have been blonde, but they sure managed to throw a lot of very American seeming things into the character. 
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3768 |
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Even English people are portrayed as blonde too.
Off the top of my head Kinmoza- Alice and her mom and Karen Detective Conan- Ai is half English, though her blonde hair is on brownish side. Fusae, Agasa's childhood friend is English. Conan also has blonde Americans as well in spoiler[FBI agents] Jodie Starling and James Black, the latter of whom was born in England so he counts as both English and American. Hetalia- England as well as America and Canada Last edited by zrnzle500 on Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:44 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CoffeeCan
Posts: 3 |
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Yes, we're always lumped in with United States. At the very least we need proper Canadian stereotypes, coffee, lumberjacks, poutine, The Maritimes accent, RCMP, Igloos, and of course, Hockey. I love Canadian stereotypes, so much fun you could have with them. |
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