How Come in Asian Comics, Characters Don't Look Asian?

[Alf]

Asian comics and/or manga characters don't have slanted eyes, flat noses, dark skin and average height/short. The characters Asian draw more often than not look like Westerners, tall, straight noses, blonde or colored hair, and pale skin. What is the reasoning behind this? Even in Indian movies and Mexican movies, it's more people who look like Westerners who gets the part.

[Skinamev]

cause everyone wants to be a white guy thats why

[Alf]

It's strange that very old Japanese art, the people really look Japanese with extremely slanted eyes.

[76561198344401750]

Diposting pertama kali oleh XxBully_Hunter_69xX:

cause everyone wants to be a white guy thats why

{LINK REMOVED}Would you want to look like this?

[CatPerson]

To them, they often still look Asian. Hair color doesn't matter/mean much and it helps differentiate chrs. who are often very similar in overall appearance.

It's all perception.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Xd2xLAjDM

[Danksama]

Westerners and Asian characters in anime can typically be easily distinguished though, there's just a certain style of presentation

[{루루}RuRu]

White skin is considered as a beauty in many Asian countries. It's like how tanned skin is considered as a beauty in America.

[Danksama]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Hellraiser:

It's strange that very old Japanese art, the people really look Japanese with extremely slanted eyes.

Are you sure comparing comic books with traditional art from centuries earlier really has much of a bearing? Googling 'modern Japanese portrait' comes up with plenty of images of typical Japanese features.

[🜂∴🜏 Cassie]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Hellraiser:

Asian comics and/or manga characters don't have slanted eyes, flat noses, dark skin and average height/short. The characters Asian draw more often than not look like Westerners, tall, straight noses, blonde or colored hair, and pale skin. What is the reasoning behind this? Even in Indian movies and Mexican movies, it's more people who look like Westerners who gets the part.

Because tall, straight noses and pale skin are just a few of the various "symbols of beauty" in Asian countries. Why do you think Korean idols get cosmetic surgery to have tall, straight noses and double eyelids?

[Esoteric]

They want to be White.

[{루루}RuRu]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Octavian:

They want to be White.

That ain't the case.

[628]

Imagine Dragon Ball Z with artstyle of GTA: Chinatown Wars. It would be anything but attractive. That's why.

[tiseno100]

IDK which asian art you mean. After 1945, many asian countries got western influence so its normal they portay the west.

[Taffer]

They do when the anime is supposed to be serious usually.

[shoopy]

A lot of them barely even look human to begin with...

[sfnhltb]

Lighter skin is considered better across lots of cultures, most likely due to the historical differentiation between people that worked out in the sun (farmers, laborers, etc.) and those that didn't (the nobility, bankers, rich merchants and other upper middle class). It is an interesting side note that as a larger proportion of working class and lower middle class now work in offices, factories and the like, that has caused this social class marker to become a lot less clear than in was a few generations ago, but presumably will tend be stronger in countries that have industrialized and post-industrialized more recently.

In terms of the eyes, well first off they aren't slanted, everyone in the world's eyes and eyelids are horizontal (apart from rare birth defects). In animation/comics it is essential to simplify the characters particularly to save time/costs creating them, so not drawing realistic eyes with epicanthic folds is hardly surprising under these pressures - especially if you consider that for someone not asian it may be something you remember about a persons appearance, but when 99.9% or more of people in a country have the same feature, it isn't something very noticeable that you would consider essential when drawing in such a simplified and economical style.

The colored hair to differentiate characters is similar to how superheroes (and villains) have very distinct costumes so even when the action obscures a lot, or you are using small panels to move the story along faster you can still tell who is who. Note that blonde hair in anime/manga tends to have one of a few specific meanings (of western heritage, bleached/"gal", etc.), and is usually meant literally as the characters hair color, whereas most of the other colors are for reader/watchers purpose and are usually not meant to be interpreted as the characters real hair color (this can be seen in some live action adaptations where the blonde character has an actor with bleached hair, whereas the others are played by actors with their normal hair color).

Also if you are thinking they are making their characters look more western then wouldn't they make the hair colors a mix of black, brown, blonde and red? Whereas that is pretty much never seen, if an anime/manga doesn't have realistic hair colors, then pretty much universally the colors chosen will be ones like pink, blue, green, etc.