Before I start, I want to apologize for not doing too much with the site this week. I knowwwww I said I’d be sure to update everyday or every other day, but I definitely welched on that front. For that, I apologize and will definitely make sure to do my best to stay true to my word. I still have a ba-jillion reviews to do, and even more code to fix up with the help of my co-writers and web professor, but I plan to finish up a good part of it before the summer’s here. But on with the post!
Being someone who loves anime, one thing which really draws me in is character design. This isn’t to say regular TV doesn’t have interesting people admire, but anime allows countless personalities to be conjured into existence. However, with the good indefinitely comes the bad. And if you’re really unlucky, sometimes the bad is INSUFFERABLY bad. Namely, majority of male leads these days. For the most part, they are scrawny, unattractive, plain, spineless cowards who can’t do anything right except use the aforementioned “qualities” to inexplicably attract an insanely hot girl. The kicker is how the girl to be woo’d (or engaged via forgotten promise) is a model woman with excellent hair, beautiful hair, lovely eyes, soothing voice (usually), and not to mention BANGING body with GREAT boobies.
Don’t get me wrong, not all male anime protagonists are like that, but a good amount are. I mean hey, some girls like geeky guys who can’t get anything right…and stash porn magazines under their bed. But tell me WHY every other show has a guy who doesn’t jump for joy when a girl willingly (if not forcefully) unstraps her bra or slide off an undergarment? Is this supposed to be reminiscent of general Japanese culture…? Or is this supposed to be a reflection of how the Japanese Male SHOULD be…or generally is? Before I go on, I’ll just say doubt hardly any guys are like that. Now whether they DO something if a girl gets naked and throws the guy their bra is another thing.
A long while ago, I went to a seminar on stereotypes in Asian culture, and what I saw/heard were interesting. It seems many people these days think that the masculinity of the Asian man has declined over the years. I couldn’t have disagreed more. I won’t go on about the rest of what they said, but many people realized many of the things they thought were dead wrong. When dealing with stereotypes, I don’t believe much in making it “fun,” but the video from KevJumba w/2.5 million views from Youtube that touches on the subject in really fun way:
Getting back to the post, I began to think that anime to people who don’t understand it so well instantly attribute it to asian culture and get “weirded out by it.” It just seems really unfair. And on top of that, a couple friends of mine were going on about how it was a little hard for them to find Asian women these days. Where I live (in Michigan), it certainly didn’t appear that way, but a couple people insisted otherwise. In fact, one friend even showed me this funny, yet informative video I think everyone should see regarding how Asian girls are being stolen from Asian guys. The different perspectives are refreshing to see. Oh, and the ending is HILARIOUS! This video also has 2.5 million views.
I suppose even though this post is dubbed, “Are Asian Men Stereotyped Through Anime?” I never really got to the correlation from the start, but this third video DEFINITELY does. It focuses on similar subject matter as the first video, except it isn’t staged. Random people (at Berkley) are asked things such as, “why do Asian girls like White guys?,” “would you be with an Asian guy?,” among a bunch of other thought-provoking questions. Honestly, I feel some people’s responses were a little ignorant (or a lot in specific segments) I thought, but interesting nonetheless because it let you see what other people think. About in the middle of the video, someone talks about “anime porn” too. This video got 1.7 million views.
All in all, from what I gather in these videos, I do think Asian men are stereotyped in anime to a certain degree. However, I think a bigger part of that comes from other media, like movies and different shows on TV. How many times are we going to see the Karate Kid (which was on ABCFamily yesterday) with Mr. Miyagi speaking broken English? I am NOT saying everyone needs to learn perfect English, but I AM saying the media needs to tone the stereotypes down a notch. I haven’t really seen much as of late, but at the same time, I don’t watch much else except MTV & TruTV…if the TV’s even on that is.
What do you think? Do you think something could/should be different about the generally wimpy male protagonists we always see in anime? Or perhaps you have your own thoughts about stereotypes in general? Whatever it may be, drop a comment so we know what you think. The more talk, the better.
Generally when I see your typical wimpy person whether they be Asian or not. I gradually become more pissed off at them like where the hell have their pride disappeared to? To ask to change their stereotype or notice a different approach in any situation would be promising.
I don’t know why some people are inspired to be weak or remained speechless. Who knows. Admitting, stereotypes are clearly seen in the culture. *Watches videos*
Sadeyo: Wait, that makes no sense. Are you seriously asking why a person are what they are? And not only that, but you get angry by that? A laugh riot.
Clearly, spoken from a perspective of someone who knows little of what a person goes through and why that person is “weak” or “speechless”.
Tell me what should a person be then? Strong, muscular, assertive, and a total deuche who simply uses others to utilize their own needs? I’m also curious as to what a “weak”,
“wimpy” or “speechless” person is in your view.
Also, pride has has nothing to do with how “wimpy” they are, practically for the fact that it varies tremendously between person to person. And you actually think people “inspire” to be weak? Hilarious.
My god, what a stupid post you’ve made. You’re as ignorant as the people in the last video.
Tl;Dr– Go read a psychology/sociology book or take some classes on it before spouting out some ridiculous stuff.
Well I agree with some points Ether, but I think Sadeyo’s comment was a bit vague. I’m sure you might have thought he was talking about real people, but I think he’s probably talking about actual anime characters in one part, and maybe real people in another. I’ll have to reread.
And perhaps if he is talking about a real person, maybe it’s someone who hasn’t had anything particularly “detrimental” happen to them to get that way.
I play Blazblue w/Sadeyo a lot online and he’s a real cool, understanding person. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding lol? Well in any case, thanks for the comment
Truth be told, I’ve probably come off very harsh and strong, and I apologized if it indeed is a simple misunderstanding, but he certainly doesn’t sound like he’s talking about anime characters, but then again, I can’t read minds.
Meh, I’m sure we’ll all have some Coldstone (ice cream) and forget all about it…or rather, not forget, but understand all about it
Funny that, cos I’ve really only seen asian women here with asian men. I guess it’s just the familiarity here, since the only asian women who hang with us caucasian guys are the ones who have lived here for a very long time, or were born here.
Difference in countries I suppose?
Bass´s last blog ..Saijou no Meii ch19
‘the media contain ideologies of how to view immediate society’…
I guess somewhere, devs just figured out it’d be more entertaining to star such protagonists. It gives the target audience, those who loyally follow such series and possibly lack social skills themselves, some peace of mind.
Still, in terms of real life relationships, that video does strike true a little, at least in North America. ‘Asians’ do seem to be generally less assertive than white people on their own turf. Back in Hong Kong, the foreigners I knew were relatively timid as well. All sorts of cases, in the end.
@ Bass: Hmmm, yeah, that’s definitely something I thought. There’s a lot of stuff we can only see. Idk, I try to keep the mental avenues open.
@ Ningyo: Lol, yeah, Anime-wise, you’re sooo right. Jeez, I wish we could write together. Your perspective definitely makes things fit. And yeah, the foreigners probably suck language-wise, so I can probably relate
It’s Friday night….and we’re playing DDR……..
I’m white, and I’m nasty at DDR.
7:43 in the second video…..AWESOME.
As a white person, all I can say is….I should just try for Asian girls, since I am a tall white guy.
Glo´s last blog ..Manga Monday: Futagami Double Headlines
Yeah, I loved that part, definitely anime-inspired lol. To be honest, I’ve only been able to snag 1
I don’t really get stuck on it, but in high school, there was this girl who was a junior and she really REALLY liked me, and didn’t know I was a freshman. We got along really well. Her name was Charlotte…and she moved guess where…yeah…Charlotte.