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The Hooded Utilitarian points out to people who say "Why do Japanese manga artists draw everyone as white?" that if you look at the classic Superman design, he has black hair and narrow, dark eyes. They don't code as Asian to us, because of the context. If American readers look at just the hair and eyes as racial indicators in manga, why aren't they looking at just the hair and eyes on Superman?

[I started maundering on here about catching myself, when in Japan, not noticing certain physical characteristics that I normally code as "Asian", because they were so common - I just noticed the ones that differed from the norm. And that on the train I'd idly think that someone was a dead ringer for a person I knew back home, then catch myself and realize that if I put the two next to each other, a lot of the people back home would say "They don't look that much alike! One's Asian and one's white!" And then after going on about that for a paragraph or so, I realized I didn't have much of a conclusion to say so I deleted it all and wrote this instead, which is just as long as that was, but at least comes to some sort of end right about ... now.]

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I'm suddenly reminded of a while back, when people would complain about Jubilee (a Chinese character) always being drawn with very light skin (to the point where one of her parents as once drawn as white in a flashback, presumably because the artist thought that was why she was always lighter complected) even next to other asian characters. And then an artist did draw her with darker skin and more visibly ethnic features, everyone went nuts saying "But she's Chinese! Not black!" (Except for the ones who think all asians are Japanese, but we'll ignore them.) Then the artist pointed out pictures of *gasp* real live asian people with skin even darker, and that her skin tone wasn't nearly as dark as that of the black characters in the book.

There's also the very popular JBETB, which is either "Jubilee's blue eyes turn brown" or "Jubilee's brown eyes turn blue" depending on who you ask.

No, I'm not sure I have a point...

HOW DARE YOU NOT DRAW HER EXACTLY LIKE MY PERSONAL STEREOTYPED IMAGE!

Weirdly, the way I *want* to see them draw her is probably somewhat stereotyped, but that's because I like long hair, and I miss when she was short and flat and skinny. Now she's super heroine stereotype tall and curvy with balloons on her chest.

Ah, got her implants, I see.

Sadly, yes. And about 8 inches of height.

Dear Marvel/DC,

Some women have small breasts. As a point of clarification, small breasts does not mean D-cup.

No love on that point,

Someone who does not have or want breasts larger than her head.

Captain Marvel is still drawn that way...

OMG SEEKRIT ASIAN!

THE LOCK OF ETELNITY!

Matt Thorne's response to that question. He has the power.

Annnd, he links to Thorne's article in that post. I need to go to bed.

You might as well ask "why do Japanese manga artists draw Europeans to look Japanese?" Swan has the typical shoujo 70s art with characters from Russia, England, the US*, Japan, etc. and I wouldn't be able to tell which character came from which country if they didn't tell me.

*There's a bit where the protagonist (Japanese) is in New York and is noticing that she had always thought that the US was very racially diverse, but everyone at the ballet school was white.

It's easy to tell who the American characters are! They're the crazy ones with guns! Sorry, just had a flashback to the three volumes of Gravitation I read...

And that on the train I'd idly think that someone was a dead ringer for a person I knew back home

That happened to me in Hong Kong. One of the students in someone else's group looked so, SO much like one of my cousins. I'm still a little sad that I never asked him if I could take his picture. It was uncanny.

I just had a conversation about this last weekend.

Apparently all Americans still think the Japs look like this:

Also, they're all named Ping Pong.

EDIT: Sidebar, half the time it's hard to tell what sex the characters are, let alone what goddamn race they are. If it's not important to the story, who cares?

I'm not surprised. Saddened, but not surprised.

Yeah, "manga/anime characters look white (because of Japanese self-hate)" is one of my biggest pet peeves.

A few years back there was this fairly popular Japanese band called 19 and one of the guys looks exactly like Bruce's (white) cousin to the point where we both noticed it immediately the first time we ever saw a video of them. The guy still looks visibly Japanese. You wouldn't even say he looks half. But he still looks just like Bruce's cousin.

An example that brought that made this concept most clear to me were illustrations in Japanese textbooks (as in, teaching Japanese to English speakers). All the Japanese people look "normal" while all the Westerners have clearly different eyes and huge noses.

I was following this discussion, and would have commented, but wasn't sure I could take the inevitable fail. I'm already irritated on this thread by the "No Japanese have wavy hair whatsoever! It's all weirdly and crinkly if it curls at all!" comment up there. Clearly SOMEBODY'S met every single Japanese person ever.

Some time ago someone on

fanficrants complained that "all Japanese people have black hair!" and got dogpiled quickly and rather satisfyingly.

Yeah, this always annoys me. Especially given AvatarFail (not manga, but the arguments are so similar)! What I always want to know is how come people don't read the relatively flatter faces (as in, shallower eye sockets, less prominent brows, not-very-high nose bridges) as Asian.

Hmm. I'd never realized green or light-blue hair was a typically-Caucasian feature. Learn something new every day! ;-)

It is Not Black. If it is Not Black, it Cannot Be Asian. Because All Asians Have Black Hair. Q.E.D.

Despite the characters living in Japan, having Japanese names, speaking Japanese, attending Japanese schools, and in all other ways being Japanese.

The whole "anime and manga characters are all white!!111!!!" thing annoys me, too. Matt Thorn's article about it is great.