Forum - View topicDo anime stereotypes exist?
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Koumi addict
 Posts: 40 |
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If so, please tell it here and provide the counterexamples.
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Emerje
 Posts: 7400 Location: Maine |
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I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean stereotypes for the anime itself or for the characters in it, or for the people watching them?
Emerje |
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Ataru
 Posts: 2327 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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J-Fan.com posted a very good editorial about stereotypes in anime. Gaijin in Anime
For the most part, there are sterotypes in anime. American women have bigger breast (*Remembers Azumanga Doioh* *L*) and people from the West that speak prefect Japanese can most be found in Sci-Fi series. Hmmm |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6227 Location: Houston, TX |
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isn't "Gaijin" a slur towards americans? |
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cyrax777
 Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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foriegners in general not just americans. |
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Ferquin
 Posts: 297 Location: Renton, WA, USA |
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Americans (and generally other westerners) tend to be also blonde-haired and blue-eyed. It's like all white people came from Denmark or something.
Another stereotype is that all black men seem to be big and buff and all black women have afros. |
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Quintron
 Posts: 19 Location: japan |
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the word "gaijin " does actually carry a negative connotation. literally, it means "outsider," and is most commonly used in reference to americans. the more polite term is "gaikokujin" which means foreigner.
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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(quintron; i thought you and your friend went back to SW, disillusioned with us? :p) hmm... It seems to me more likely that they're afraid of miscommunication moreso than the character's nationality. In the Hikaru no Go manga, one of the characters goes to China to study Go for a bit. During that time he's questioning what's being said, and although he hears his name he can't hear anything else (xxxx). Naturally, there were a few fluent Japanese-speaking Chinese people during that chapter, but he was left to question what was being said, and it frightened him. In the same series, one of the characters plays against a Korean. The Korean being spoken around him was converted to katakana, to show the foreignness of the language. The main character initially acted surprised and frightened by the boy's inability to communicate with him. I can't think of any other good examples, unfortunately, but I've got the feeling that it's not so much fear of outsiders as much as fear of miscommunication that these characters express. Of course, it's difficult to find good examples; gaijin (as "gaijin") are rare, and oftentimes you can interpret the fear expressed in both ways -- a fear of foreigners and a fear of miscommunication. And, of course, there's more to the stereotype than just the characters who speak the language. In series such as Nadesico (during the UN scene, iirc) and Crest of the Stars, English is intended to be the spoken language -- the reason why the series isn't entirely in English is because it would be very tiring to the Japanese actors, not to mention it'd sound bad to Japanese ears. I think anime like those two show greater acceptance for English, and in fact see it as "a" future of the Japanese language, if not "the" future. |
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Lupin_333
 Posts: 136 Location: Houston, TX |
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Newtype USA did a good article about anime sterotypes of women awhile back... I think it was the Jan. 2003 issue with Macross Zero on the cover. They were the basic things though, like the tomboy, the girl-next-door, the child, etc. . Still a good read though if you can track down a copy.
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Ataru
Posts: 2327 Location: Missouri (Strikeman) |
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She may have not seen those series, but it's true about some time, like a UN conference or something to effect, English is usally used. |
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Case
Posts: 1016 |
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Interesting point of view. Care to elaborate a bit? (In another thread, if necessary?) I'd very much like to hear your thoughts on this. |
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Quintron
Posts: 19 Location: japan |
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not to be argumentative, what friend are you talking about, and what is SW?
i just stopped posting because there hasn't been anything worth posting to lately, but when someone needs an answer, i like to post. ~Q |
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cookie
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 2460 Location: Do not contact me for support. |
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well, i mean it in this sense... English is, in effect, the current "language of politics". By this I mean that most political leaders speak English, at least to some extent, and all international agreements have at least -some- official English translation. Additionally, English is the language of business in many countries, owing to the economic power of the US industries. Whether this remains true in 25 years remains to be seen, but at present the US is still the largest economy in the world. (Of course, the US is slowly becoming Spanish-speaking rather than English-speaking, but that's another matter entirely...) From what we can tell of Crest of the Stars, it occurs in the "not too near" future, in that giant laser weapons are a reality and holographic imagry can be found in at least some cars. The opening of the show is in the artificial Abh language, but the next scene is in English (when they are attempting to defend the planet), before finally folding back to Japanese for the rest of the series. We can infer from this scene that they're really speaking "English" the entire time, rather than Japanese.. it's just that we hear it as Japanese because that's what the Japanese audience is best at hearing. The novel, of course, doesn't make this distinction between spoken languages because it would be unfeasible to do so, given the structure and layout of Japanese novels. I would assume Morioka (the author) had some say as to how his novel was turned into a TV series, and either approved or recommended this change. It's this sort of trend in anime, to use English in political situations, that I'm referring to as "a" future of Japanese. What I see from series such as Crest of the Stars is that English has become the dominant form of communication, and while someone on the planet may be speaking actual Japanese, the relevant characters are "actually" speaking English. That's, more or less, what I meant by English being "a" future of Japanese. While Japanese may exist as Japanese, at least some authors contend that it will become ineffectual and not used when dealing with "matters of importance" (such as alien invasions). |
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Mr.Sp31gl3
Posts: 7 |
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First off, to be on topic and all, Have you ever looked for a corelation between the color of a charachters hair and thier respective personalities. Well you might be suprised. But this is not the same in all animes, infact most directors and writers make their own steriotypes within their own works. For example in FLCL the Left handed charachters tend to have a very different personality type thatn the righties, more carefree and dumb-lucked. this was deliberate on behalf of the director.
And to be off topic i do not agree that japanese will be phased out in any manor whatsoever , at least i pray to god that it wont, its a topic I've seen argued in many a debate though it always seems that japanese will stay strong. The only time english is the "language of politics" is when an english speaking country is involved directly. You dont see China and Japan conducting politics and buisness in english do you.. or Germany and France. Japanese is as likely to be phased out as german or french or any other language in the world. A country of proud and patriotic people will not stand by and let their culture and language be cut from existance. A language caires national identity and history, and in this sence english in america is more likely to die, why? Because it dosnt belong to them! And im spent! 
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Shouta
Posts: 32 |
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Gaijin itself carries no negative connotations. It's the usage of the word in a sentence. Gaijin literally means Outside person or foreigner (used with ANYONE, not just Americans). Gaikokujin isn't used very much (or if at all) because Gaijin means the exact same thing except without an extra kanji.
And yes, there are anime stereotypes. They've changed quite a bit in the last 20 years in comparison to the previous 20-30 years beofre that. |
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