Why people in Manga look like European and not like japonese ?

There is also the 'exotic' appeal of the blue eyes and blond hair, Caucasian looking characters. After all, unless they dye their hair, like 95% or more (native Japanese - not foreign) people in Japan have black hair and brown/ dark brown eyes. Also, according to some people, varying the hair and eye color helped distinguish characters better (A-san has blue hair and green eyes, and B-chan has orange hair and ...).

But I don't believe that all anime/manga characters are like this. I actually think they look Japanese. I do a lot of my drawing from Japanese magazines, fashion and otherwise, and people have told me they look like the Japanese manga style, which I don't see. But I never saw Joe Madrueria's manga style, either, though, so maybe it's me.

BD

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I think that if you try drawing just the eye of a Japanese or other Asian person, and compare that with the eye of a Caucasian, you'll find they're not really that different (depending, of course, on the person). The real difference lies in the facial structure - Asian faces tend to be more flat, while Caucasian faces have deeper-set eyes, etc. When a drawing looks more like a Japanese person or other Asian, it is because the facial structure is drawn differently. Just try comparing the profile view and semi-rear view of the face (which will of course vary largely person to person, but there are basic structures).

Anyway, I'm not lecturing. Just my opinion on the subject. Thanks for reading with an open mind.

BD

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Everithing is in the subject Thank You for the answer.

I've never met a Europeon person with eyes as big as Sailor Moon.

I think he meant skin color and eye shape. I've wondered a bit about that too.

1) They don't.

2) The reason you think they do is because cartoons are fairly abstracted drawings. Your own expectations create a great deal of what you 'see'. If you ask a Japanese person that question you'll just get a strange look. Because *they* think they look Japanese.

Benjamin Franz

I believe it's because of Osamu Tezuka. He is the 'Father of Anime' and created the style we pretty much see today. Back when Disney first released Snow White, everyone fell in love with the animation including Osamu Tezuka.

Tezuka created the classic manga we know such as Asrto Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He emulated the style Disney used, making his characters have big eyes and small mouths and of course white....like Disney.

The style just stuck, and now it's sort of tradition in anime and manga for the characters to be white, have big ol eyes and such. Some Mangaka really exaggerate things like the eyes and hair, while others have a more ethnic look. but all in all, there is really no subliminal meaning to it...just tradition.

As for hair or eye color....it's just to tell the characters apart. That's why some have blue or green hair, a color you don't naturally see on a person other than in anime and manga ^-^'. And if you asked me, anime characters aren't white, nor any particular race. They seem to be a whole new race altogether.

Hope this helps. I'm not too sure all the info here is correct, but the concept is. If you read a ton of different manga, you'll see that each mangaka has his or her own style of drawing and that some of them do choose to make their characters look Japanese while others may stick with the traditional big eyes and small mouths and maybe even white skin.

: Laurent

There are various reasons for this, and just as many opinions, but the biggest influence may have been from Dr. Osamu Tezuka, creator of Tetsuwan Atomu (Astroboy), Jungle Taitei (Simba, uhImean, Kimba ^_^), Black Jack, Hi no Tori, and a litany of others...Called the God of Manga (believe it or not), he was a massive influence on Japanese manga and later, anime; He himself was heavily influenced by Walt Disney and Max Fleischer's cartoons, and strove to give his manga a similar feel (this was in the late 40s, during the Occupation, tho' American films showed in Japan before WWII). Nowhere else can you see this more clearly than a film he did about 2 years before his death, called Legend of the Forest, available from The Right Stuff. Or, of course, you can go with Yoshiyuki Tomino, who, when asked at the World SF Convention in 1984 (I am looking at my copy of Anime-Zine vol.3 for this), he said, 'Remember, we lost the war...' The explanation he gave for that comment was to the effect that he thought Japanese didn't like their own faces, and saw themselves as a cosmopolitan people. There are other opinions, and count on it, you will see many of them here, since this is one of the questions that will ellicit a number of opinions, the other being questions dealing with subs v. dubs.

Truthfully, a lot of little Japanese girls have wishes to have blonde hair. In fact I believe Dateline had a small bit on SM a while back and they talked about why Sailormoon has blonde hair and blue eyes when she is a Japanese character, and it's because those are features Japanese girls desire sometimes. It also has to do with the fact that American Pop Stars have big influences in Japan as well.......I'm sure they are all just praying for Brittaney Spears to make her International appearance there ^-^'.

Well of course...they're supposed to be......I think ^-^'

They don't look 'European'. They look like cartoon characters.

What do you mean 'look Japanese'? Do you expect them to have slit-eyes and buck teeth like those WW2 cartoons? Please... :-p

What a bunch of interesting responses! Well, here's what I've heard.

I have heard the Osamu Tezuka and Disney references before. What I have also heard is that he and many manga-ka after him believed that the eyes were the key to a character's personality, and that the manga reader would develop a better sense of each individual character if he or she could see that character's eyes better. Thus, I don't think it has anything to do with Japanese wanting to be European or with just imitating Disney, but that it was a tool for manga-ka to use to get the readers to react to their characters.

Of course, reading many earlier manga, one can see that the characters' eyes are not nearly as wide as they tend to be in today's manga. This has developed over time also as a way to be more 'kawaii' and nowadays even 'super-deformed' is becoming popular as a sub-genre of manga and anime. I believe that this trend has shown that artists are not trying to make characters look more 'white' but more 'cute.'

As for the color issue, all manga, even the covers, was originally black and white. When color printing became more popular in Japan, manga companies could spend the money to make color covers, while keeping the manga inside black and white. Eventually, in order to attract the attention of readers (esp. kids), the companies used bright, even bizarre, colors for things like hair, eyes and clothes. Basically, it started as an advertising gimmick. And of course, when anime came along, it emulated the colors already used on the manga covers.

This is a pretty simplistic response, as an entire term paper could probably be devoted to these subjects. But my intent is to debunk the myth that Japanese don't like how they look/want to be caucasian. Finally, Sailor Moon may be blonde, but I'm sure that anyone familiar with manga and anime knows that MANY different colors are used for the hair color of manga females, such as red, purple, and, yes, even black, so I don't buy this idea either that Japanese girls want to be blonde. I am certain that Japanese people are very proud of how they look and one look at Japanese fashion magazines will confirm that the Japanese are in no way trying to make themselves 'look' more caucasian (even if they adopt some of the West's styles)

That's all