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I've always felt that the European characters in Ghibli films looked European (Kiki, Pazu, Sophie) while the Japanese characters looked significantly more Japanese (Chihiro, Taeko, Seita) Anyways, the only dark skinned characters that I ever remember seeing in any Ghibli film are the one that worked for Dola and the one that was in the Mamma Aiutos.
However, non-whites or non-asians aren't very common in anime in general. If I had to guess, I would say it has to do with Japan being such a homogeneous society.
As a side note, people have said to me in the past "Why do Anime characters not look Japanese, are the Japanese a self-hating race?"
As another side note, people like that annoy me, though it amazes me how many people have gotten that impression and said so in my presence.
And as an answer, I feel that if anime characters were drawn to look specifically Japanese, they would have to emphasize things that made them physically different from other races. And in doing that, they would almost be caricaturing themselves.
And as a final note, some anime characters do look more Japanese than others. It just depends on the animator. And the age of the character too. It seems that older characters tend to look more Japanese, which may be a way to make them look more traditional and seperated from the younger generations. Japanese society has made a major shift in the last half-century, so it would be interesting to see how much generation gap there is.
Though I disagree with Calcifer's explaination. I have seen plenty of solid character designs of dark skinned people in anime. Cowboy Bebop in particular comes to mind. Though yeah, with some anime styles, dark skinned characters can look really weird.
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06.19.2006, 01:22 AM
