But Not Too Foreign
Member15 years ago
Posts: 3503
Quote from Thoki
My younger brother had blond hair when he was 3 or 5 year old and he is half japanese but it changed to brown. Too much sun??
P.S.
Have pictures to prove it if you are curious.
I have seen some cases too, from blonde blonde to dark brown. Seems like it works like that 🤣
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ççççççç[Ô.Ô] tsutopodus© will eat your manga and steal your cats!
15 years ago
Posts: 546
I'm reminded of an exchange in Cathy Yardley's Turning Japanese, a chicklit novel about a half-Japanese, half-Italian American woman interning at a manga publisher in Japan. A Japanese girl refers to the protagonist as a foreigner. Protagonist: "But I'm half-Japanese!" Girl: "Exactly."
As for the improbable blonde hair/blue eyes thing, the bio-nerd in me usually just winces and then files it away in the same place I put green hair. Or, I just ignore since manga's mostly black, white, and grey anyway. 😀
For those of you feeling left out, apparently there is a half-Japanese er, club, or community at http://www.halvsie.com/ Aww. I wish there was one of those for my half-Chinese peeps.
15 years ago
Posts: 774
mmmmm....
Halfies are so gorgeous no matter what half they are. It's a beautiful thing when genes mix.
But then true mutts end up looking ordinary again. =_= Like me.
But um, I really don't care about the manga situation.
It's manga... make believe. But really the odds of that happening are so slim.
My mom has green eyes and everyone on her side of the family has light eyes and my dad has brown. Both me and my brother have the dark eyes. Unfair! u_u
BUT IT IS POSSIBLE.
I see it all the time at work. Since mothers usually come in with their children.
One was this gorgeous little girl with light brown hair and bright blue eyes.... the woman also had an ugly son with the same brown hair but brown eyes. Genetics can work in strange ways... 🤣
15 years ago
Posts: 2707
do japanese people know that the eyeolour blue is rezessive and brown is dominant?
15 years ago
Posts: 2275
Quote from ShadowSakura
do japanese people know that the eyeolour blue is rezessive and brown is dominant?
Some do and some don't just like in any other country.
[color=green]"Officially, this machine doesn't exist, you didn't get it from me,
and I don't know you. Make sure it doesn't leave the building."[/color]
15 years ago
Posts: 846
It may be somewhat insulting at times but I think the same concept of "light stereotyping of a certain ethnicity/group of people" has happened in other forms of Asian/American/European/etc. media or even other Asian/European/American comics. Not giving any titles 'cos the last time I seriously looked into this topic was about 5 to 7 years ago and I've kinda forgotten but I do recall at least the fact that light ethnic stereotyping does occur everywhere.
That said, I think "light ethnic stereotyping" is somewhat less godawful than themes of fascism, very overt nationalism, discrimination against another group of people, calling upon people to support war against another country,etc., that're present in certain manga(that likely have not been scanlated or licensed in English), foreign comics(non-Japanese), etc., etc.
Or how about the themes of "blood" that often insinuate that 1 group of people is lesser(certain Asian or European media too) not in the kind of "light-hearted, silly, stupid comedic, etc., manners" but "in the sense of overt hostility that others are lower beings or that they don't deserve to exist"?
Btw, aren't most of the human "ethnic groups" actually kinda mixed? I can't really clearly speak up for this issue but from what little I know in terms of "anthropology" and dna, didn't our ancient and far-off ancestors from at least 1 million years ago(the ones who belonged to the only surviving race of humans: homo sapiens) use to move around a lot before settling down, so the genetic pool for all/most ethnic groups is not 100% "pure"? I'm wondering if I'm making any sense here 'cos I'm mostly/completely self-taught in terms of these topics. -__-;;
15 years ago
Posts: 833
Quote from Thoki
My younger brother had blond hair when he was 3 or 5 year old and he is half japanese but it changed to brown. Too much sun??
That's how it works. Most people who have blond hair usually turns brown (I mean the hair does) when they grow up.
Quote from VampireBanana
It may be somewhat insulting at times but I think the same concept of "light stereotyping of a certain ethnicity/group of people" has happened in other forms of Asian/American/European/etc. media or even other Asian/European/American comics. Not giving any titles 'cos the last time I seriously looked into this topic was about 5 to 7 years ago and I've kinda forgotten but I do recall at least the fact that light ethnic stereotyping does occur everywhere.
That said, I think "light ethnic stereotyping" is somewhat less godawful than themes of fascism, very overt nationalism, discrimination against another group of people, calling upon people to support war against another country,etc., that're present in certain manga(that likely have not been scanlated or licensed in English), foreign comics(non-Japanese), etc., etc.
Or how about the themes of "blood" that often insinuate that 1 group of people is lesser(certain Asian or European media too) not in the kind of "light-hearted, silly, stupid comedic, etc., manners" but "in the sense of overt hostility that others are lower beings or that they don't deserve to exist"?
I think it's stupid when people make such a big issue out of it. There's no ill meaning, so don't take it like it's racist somehow. Stories are full of stereotypes, and it's necessarily so. World is full of stereotypes anyways, and it's simply too much work to make every single minor character not to be stereotypes of some sort.
It's stupid to take offense when offense isn't intended. It's also stupid to try to make everything seem prejudicial when it isn't so.
Or are there really some manga where the author wants to convey a message that some other races are lower being that don't deserve to live or something else like that? I think it's just how you take it.
Besides, why light ethnic stereotyping? All kinds of stereotyping occurs everywhere. Usually you notice the stereotyping of your own ethic group, or one that you are closely familiar with.
Far-off places with sweet sounding names.
15 years ago
Posts: 761
Is it really such a controversial issue? It's just the way people think - they tend to generalise everything, that's how stereotypes work. Many people I talked with (I'm not talking about people interested in manga and anime, they know more about Japan) think that all Japanese (sometimes they mistake them for Chinese and Korean) people are very short, have very narrow, slanted eyes etc. And a stereotypical image of a Gaijin or half-Japanese is a person with blue eyes and blond hair. And I don't really care about it, although I look completely different 🙂
Besides, there are many characters in manga and anime who are not gaijin or half, but still have blond hair (or any other colour), like Honey from Ouran and many others.
