Minorites in the Anime

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ever wonder why there are no black/hispanic people in the anime. I mean Brock is the closest thing we got but he's more of a tan thing going on.

Thoughts...
 
Swindle4281 said:
....wow ignorance at its finest
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Yep.... and his/her user-title says "proud pedophile". Obvious troll is obvious troll.:rolleyes:

On the thread subject, I ran across somebody in another forum that said something that I found interesting, that the Japanese typically depict anime characters as Caucasian. I don't know why, but yeah... I too noticed that just about every single character in Pokemon appears to be Caucasian. I wonder why that is though?:confused:
 
KPTitan said:
On the thread subject, I ran across somebody in another forum that said something that I found interesting, that the Japanese typically depict anime characters as Caucasian. I don't know why, but yeah... I too noticed that just about every single character in Pokemon appears to be Caucasian. I wonder why that is though?:confused:
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thats what i was thinking as i made this thread shouldn't they be depicted in a more asian way. I mean Pokemon is supposed to take place in Japan correct
 
KPTitan said:
Yep.... and his/her user-title says "proud pedophile". Obvious troll is obvious troll.:rolleyes:

On the thread subject, I ran across somebody in another forum that said something that I found interesting, that the Japanese typically depict anime characters as Caucasian. I don't know why, but yeah... I too noticed that just about every single character in Pokemon appears to be Caucasian. I wonder why that is though?:confused:
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They aren't supposed to be Caucasian, they're simply Asian's with exaggerated eyes.

Anime is generally a reflection of Japanese culture, and Pokemon, even though it's a world-wide phenomenon at this point, it's still Japanese in origin. And what you have to remember about Japan is that it's nothing like America as far as racial demographics go. Besides the fact that Japan has always been geographically isolated from the rest of the world, there was a long period in Japanese history where they voluntarily isolated themselves from outside influences, and pretty much shut their doors to foreigners completely. That, in addition to the general stigma that many Japanese people still have about foreigners even today, has caused Japan to be one of the most racially "pure" countries in the world, with less then 2% of the legal resident population being composed of Non-Japanese minorities.

As such, Non-Japanese anime/manga characters are very uncommon, and many of the ones that do show up are often very heavily stereotyped. Pokemon, being so well-known world-wide, and having already received slack for alleged racial stereotyping in the past (Jynx anyone?), probably tries to steer clear of any more drama by simply not including Non-Japanese characters when they can help it.
 
um, it's a Japanese show? Maybe they decided they didn't care?
 
Remember the incident with Jynx? I think that was why blacks/Hispanics weren't depicted there because of it.
 
We've been through this before. The characters in Pocket Monsters are Japanese.

The whole thing basically boils down to the fact that Japanese animators don't draw Japanese people the way American animators draw Japanese people. I don't know why people expect Japanese animators to rely on the same stereotypes (slanty eyes, yellow skin, "nerdy" appearances) that their Western peers have, but they do.


On-topic, we've had a few gay people in the series. There's that guy in "Pokemon Fashion Flash" and Kaba-chan in the Deoxys movie. And then, of course, Harley. Sure, that's in no way confirmed, but it's pretty obvious what they're going for there.

Also, both Machisu (Lt. Surge) and Melissa (Fantina) are depicted as foreigners in the Japanese version.
 
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In the anime, the people are the minorities, while the Pokemon reign in the majority! Dun dun dun!

But minorities and racism and East culture vs. West culture gets to be too messy of a subject. I tend to tune it out. I believe Pokemon has strived towards being one of the most generic of generic animes anyway, has it not? Lots of people watch world-wide, meaning the potential for getting in trouble is increased by a huge magnitude.

We've got nothing to fret, that is, until the day Brock starts shouting 'Yes We Can!'.
 
One must consider that Pokémon has gone through a major setting shift over the years.

What do I mean? In the earilest games (Red and Green), the setting of the game was basically the real Kanto region in Japan, the only difference between the game Kanto and real Kanto was the presence of Pocket Monsters. The game cities are based on real cities in Japan and references to real things such as real animals and the lunar landing. So it's generally assumed along that sense that the people were obviously Japanese.

It was when Pocket Monsters, or Pokémon, got imported overseas to North America and worldwide that things got changed. Since people in Western countries wouldn't have an intricate understanding of Japanese geography, it was assumed that the "world of Pokémon" was a made up place and the people, due to their light skin, were automatically deemed "Caucasian".

Actually, it would have been pretty neat if there was an entire region where the people native to there have a darker skin tone then the people in the regions Ash and his friends came from, along with a culture that was pretty distinct, but still into Pokémon as well, like an Arabian-styled culture. But the chances of this are slim-to-none I'm afriad :\.
 
In the anime, the people are the minorities, while the Pokemon reign in the majority! Dun dun dun!
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Ha! Have you been reading Professor Oak's book of Pokemon Poetry XD
 
For some reason this topic just makes me think about the Frontier Brain, Dahlia. She always looked to be about the closest thing to a notably dark-skinned human in the Pokemon world (barring Brock, obviously). There was also Phoebe, but the odds of her appearing in the anime at this point are pretty abysmal... aaaaand judging by how Sinnoh's being paced, the case might or might not be the same for Dahlia. Either way, it'd be a fun aesthetic change of pace, buuuuut this is Japan. They've always been weird about their depictions of foreigners in various anime series, it feels like.

Come to think of it, I'm remembering those really dark-skinned Nurse Joys waaaaay back in the Orange Islands arc, too. That was pretty amusing.
 
Adamant said:
Yeah, because American series showcase non-Americans SO often :)
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I think I'm not getting the diss here. Shinneth is speaking of how they represent other countries, or rather, what the media based in Japan views other races as (and not necessarily what the people themselves think), which can be really... odd at times, to say the least.

Besides, it's much more common to have an American be of another racial descent than it is to have a Japanese with another. An American may have been born in America, but their grandfather or great-grandfather or even great-great-grandfather may have been Irish, German, or Polish (or something else altogether). Your typical Japanese person most likely traces their roots back and finds Japanese-Japanese-Japanese.

BTW, Shinneth, I wouldn't count Phoebe if I were you. That girly has a harsh tan on her on her skin, nothing more.
 
V Faction said:
Besides, it's much more common to have an American be of another racial descent than it is to have a Japanese with another. An American may have been born in America, but their grandfather or great-grandfather or even great-great-grandfather may have been Irish, German, or Polish (or something else altogether). Your typical Japanese person most likely traces their roots back and finds Japanese-Japanese-Japanese.
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Uh, yeah, that was kind of my point. American television and movies tend to be about Americans, Japanese television and movies tend to be about Japanese, so why complain about these non-existant Japanese minorities aren't represented in their series? If you want to watch black people on TV, watch material produced in countries that actually has a black population.
 
Adamant said:
Uh, yeah, that was kind of my point. American television and movies tend to be about Americans, Japanese television and movies tend to be about Japanese, so why complain about these non-existant Japanese minorities aren't represented in their series? If you want to watch black people on TV, watch material produced in countries that actually has a black population.
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It's an observation, not a complaint. Idiots complain, and do so wrongly I may add (hello there, RE5).

It's still fucking weird though.
 
V Faction said:
It's still fucking weird though.
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Why? They represent the actual population in their media rather than tossing in some non-existant token minorities because some people from Foreignistan might like it, what's weird about that? I don't see anyone complaining that American shows generally don't have any Maori characters.
 
Adamant said:
Why? They represent the actual population in their media rather than tossing in some non-existant token minorities because some people from Foreignistan might like it, what's weird about that? I don't see anyone complaining that American shows generally don't have any Maori characters.
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You're still arguing about something I have no qualms with. The representation isn't weird, the depictions are.

EDIT: And I'm probably being vague too, but that's because I don't want to start some huge debate on races. I'm not going to drag it out further.
 
Dogasu said:
Also, both Machisu (Lt. Surge) and Melissa (Fantina) are depicted as foreigners in the Japanese version.
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Are they thought of as being a different race, generally, or as being foreign-born people of the same race as most everyone else? Because to me, looking at their designs, I don't see any difference between how they look vs how anyone else looks (sure Surge is something like ten feet tall on the show, but there's been a few characters like that).
 
We don't really see any of them long enough to know, do we? At least, not long enough to get any background information on them.

But the feeling I get, when listening to them in the Japanese version, is that they're being played as people whose first language isn't Japanese.
 
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