Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Americans In Anime Always Blonde?
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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Yes, I've seen quite an abundance of blonde, blue-eyed (or green-eyed) American and European characters throughout my watching of anime. However, I did notice a few that defied that stereotype, like Asuka Langley Sōryū from Evangelion and Zazie Rainyday from Negima.
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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I'm usually relieved when an anime doesn't attempt to depict more than caucasian americans. Anything more than that and depictions usually get into even more offensive/insensitive territory.
I think my favorite Americans are the ones that appeared in Samurai Champloo to play baseball. It was obviously a ridiculous stereotype so the writers could get away with it. |
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Just-another-face
Posts: 324 |
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Simple: Japanese ignorance. They think we all have blond hair and blue eyes since the word "diversity" would blow their minds. XD They also still think black people look like the way blackface unfortunately depicted them (how did Japan ever find out about blackface during the Famicom era when they were making games like Higemaru in the late 80s anyway?). |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2256 |
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Naturally! How else would they blend into their snowy environment? (I kid, I kid.) The only time I thought it made sense to have a blond, blue-eyed character in anime as a distinct indicator of "foreigness" was in The Sword and the Stranger--that, at least, was highlighting how odd it would have been for the isolated Japanese to see and react to someone who looked so physically different from them. On a positive note, I feel like whoever does Space Brothers has to have at least visited the US once; the American characters feel more diverse, and I'm almost positive that the bull-dog themed grocery store (I think it's called "Bullox"?) is a reference to the Southern supermarket franchise "Publix". Even the store font looks eerily similar. (My only nitpick is that Texans don't shop at Publix; they shop at their homegrown H.E.B.  )
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5417 |
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They probably got it from back in the War, when the Germans were their allies. They believed that Blonde hair and Blue eyes were the master race. It's just Americans, people from England in shows like darker Than Black and Read or Die are portrayed that way.
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Via_01
 Posts: 551 |
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You speak as if the same type of ignorance isn't rampant on the US as well... or everywhere else, really. Around here, when you think of an american, the first thing that pops into your mind is either a blonde, blue eyed guy, or an extremely fat guy. Basically the "america is da best!" stereotype, but such views have been drilled into our minds by local media and american media alike, so they are pretty hard to avoid. As most people are never going to visit the US or even interact with an american in their lives, it's much easier to just like with that stereotype in mind, because, well... they are never going to need to know any better. I believe that's how it is for Japan as well. Of course, there must be a large number of people who know the difference... but hey, thinking that there aren't is probably also an stereotype we've imposed. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9880 Location: Virginia |
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It is not just Americans. Any character who is supposed to be half Caucasian such as Eri in School Rumble is also shown as blond and blue eyed. Blonds have really dominate genes.
Given the rainbow of hair colors shown in anime, I wouldn't take the subject to seriously. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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I believe the term you were looking for was 'Merica for stereotypical American things. At least that's what we call in in the US nowadays. |
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fathergoat
Posts: 90 |
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I've noticed foreigners(not just Japanese) seem to think we're all cowboys too. It doesn't pop up as much in anime anymore, but it seemed to be a thing in the 80s-90s. Really every culture does it to some extent though.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6069 |
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Funny I thought all of them were blonde/bald, drink vodka, work in the military or mafiya and have typical names such as Sergei,Dmitri, or Vladimir I guess Japan does things differently |
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GhostStalkerSA
 Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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But Zazie isn't meant to be any sort of European or American at all, seeing as how she's a Demon, and a member of their royal family at that (her sister being the crown princess)... |
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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I seemed to remember this one site (I won't name this person), he used to do his newsletter talking about some of the cultural aspects of Japan. He's an American that taught English in Japan and married a Japanese woman and has children. But there was this weird point he made about some Japanese obsessing over blonde-haired children. I don't know what this pertained to but it could have some odd connection to foreigners depicted in TV. So I thought there was some odd obsession.
But the whole blonde-haired guy never really mattered to me. Considering the majority of heroes are dark haired. But even that's changed somewhat. But when I see a blonde character I already know he's put there as joke fodder as the stereotypical poor Japanese speaking American. You want something really stereotypical that you can't stop laughing at, take a look at the "Whites" as Swan and Stallion White. Then there's the blonde females and they have these crazy made up European names. Then there's the blonde-haired Japanese girl. I'm more baffled by the amount of darker characters that have either black to platinum colored hair. You got Anthy, Sherry Cromwell, Shayla Shayla, Marik Ishtar, Jun (Great Mazinger), Pony, etc... not always so easy to define the ethnicity of these characters. The other thing is no matter what color their hair is, if they're not America, or Japanese they're half Japanese. However there are diverse groups that live in Japan. And while some racial tension still exists it's nowhere near what is was post WW2 (I'm referring to after and maybe during the 60's and 70's, refer to the film 'Stray Cat Rocker', staring Meiko Kaji, which explores the prejudice against "mixed groups" long after the occupations) . To me I don't really care. |
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#821235
Posts: 30 |
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I can't understand a work you're all saying. Try speaking American. It's the only language I understand, IN AMERICA!!
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I am going to assume that "work" is a typo and should have been "word", but who are you talking to?
I thought that the article and the post immediately before yours were both very clear, and very "American." |
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ChrissyC
 Posts: 547 |
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Some great depictions and understanding of Americans is "Haruchika" & "Love Live: The School Idol Movie"
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