i assume they are asians until told otherwise. but if they are martian or cyborgs I still think they are asian if they are in asian setting or having asian names, unless they are in other setting or have non-asiatic name.

Well I'm Asian myself but not from Japan, Korea, nor China but well... most of the characters in manga, manhwa and manhua are just "overcharacter" mmm...


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Humanity doesn't get much more beautiful than Gackt... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaE6nWR6LRE That's what I think. Who would want to look at anything else. ;P

I always see them as Caucasian, unless the art is more realistic, especially with facial features. When they have large, cliche anime eyes, it's hard not to see them as Caucasian. Even when they have Asian names, their physical features are more Caucasian most of the time (usually eyes, but also different hair color). Especially in manga when the hair is white (as opposed to black or gray), I think blonde, even though it's usually brown, red, blue, etc when colored. Either way, they almost always look Caucasian, unless their eyes are drawn like typical Asian eyes. That's always the biggest factor when determining race in manga/anime IMO. I prefer when I can tell races apart in manga/anime, especially when there's a European or American in the bunch or if the setting is somewhere outside an Asian country. They look the same in almost every shounen, especially women. It get's frustrating when you can't tell one person's ethnicity from another.

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Depend on the artist. Kinda pointless poll.

...... makes me wonder a bit how many Asians you have seen in real life.

That said, this poll should have defined Asian, although we all know its SE Asian.

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"I'll shut your mouth~~~~~ with mine~~~"

二息歩行

south east asian look quite different from east asian, or the orientals.

the third for me

I see them as Manga drawing, neither asian or caucasian
it really depend on the artist, what the artist's story say about them

+1



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If their name is Asian and/or it's stated that they're from an Asian country, then yes.

When I first starting reading manga I did see all of the characters as being Caucasian, and wondered why mangaka drew their characters like that. But then, I read some post on here about what race ppl thought the characters were and it opened my eyes to my own biases (like thinking that all Asians have squinty eyes). Most characters aren't really drawn with enough distinctive features for a person to tell what their race is. I think we just see in the characters the race that we are used to seeing (or maybe want to see). But I do still automatically think of the characters' hair being blonde when the mangaka doesn't have it colored in.

To be honest it really seems like they kidnapped a whole bunch of Europeans at birth and raised them as Japanese. It really becomes more apparent when you have either all or half 'white' people in the manga and they look exactly like everyone else. I have gone to japan and honestly I stuck out like a sore thumb. People often started talking English (especially at restaurants and stores) without me asking or prompting them to), they seemed overly polite (although that died down somewhat over the months I was there), and over all I really stuck out.
On the other hand they do look different enough from a Caucasian person that I would buy the argument that they aren't Caucasian. I believe that Its the fact that they all look like their 'ideal sense of beauty' unless they are intentionally drawn to not look good. It's like every TV show here in the west, where everyone is unnaturally attractive. While working over there I never really understood their sense of beauty, it's both similar and different from the general western beauty.

In the end I "consider the majority of characters to be Asian" but they do look Caucasian.

Frankly, I don't really think about it much in fantasy manga, but in real-life manga I tend to see the characters as Japanese unless they are in a different country. When I was younger, maybe I saw them as caucasian, but now I live in Japan so their speech and actions just seem very Japanese to me (for obvious reasons), so that is how I see them. With regards to their eyes and such, I never really thought about it. Caucasian people don't have eyes that take up half their face, so it seems silly to think of manga characters as caucasian simply because their eyes are large.

I do understand why people think they are caucasian though. I live in Japan and it is blatently obvious when someone is even half-caucasian. Even my students who are half-Chinese can be picked out of a crowd, let alone those who are half-phillipino. In manga, you often can't tell unless it is stated when someone is supposed to be of mixed race/nationality. Mostly it is the mannerisms that give me a sense of Japanese more than the apperance.

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since japanese are very racist in general
they sometime draw other asians close to how they draw themselfes

but other than that it is fairly obvious who is part of the master race and who is not
cute,fine lines,"special" eyes
then we have the nonasians
hairy,weird eyes,big nose,black ppl often remind me of racist caricatyrs of black ppl from like the 1890s or something,other asians if drawn diffrently are usualy overall drawn to be ugly ,weird chins,


so atleast when i read japanese comics...i assume everyone is from the continent in that world that would be Asia in our world

Depends on the art style. I've read some manga where Asian characters actually look Asian. Angel Densetsu is an example of Asian characters looking Asian, IMO. The volume covers of I"s also makes the characters look Asian.

Last edited by alexdhamp at 10:07 am, Oct 7 2012