whenever you see a anime the characters look white..white hair, white eyes, white features. Obviously they are white..right? The answer is not so simple. Japanese anime can be traced back to Osamu Tezuka creator of Astro Boy. when asked why his characters don't have Asian eyes he said that he was influenced by Disney cartoons so he made the characters have big round eyes like Disney characters.
This explanation would suffice if not for other features most common to white people like multiple colors of hair and pointed noises and colored eyes. The characters have Asian names and live in japan but are clearly white. Don't say white people don't have green or purple hair...with hair ranging from black to brown, red and blond is green and purple really that much of a stretch? There are characters that are clearly Asian but in the popular cartoons they are few and far between. Akira is the exception where characters appear to be Asian and white together.
Recently there was a uproar over Scarlet Johnson being tapped to play the heroine of the popular anime Ghost In The Shell. Although I can understand people wanting the character to be played by a Asian actress they are misinformed. The character has a Japanese name, lives in japan but is drawn white.
Confusion ensues when certain characters look white but also have features and hairstyles that could be Japanese.
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