PokéBase - Pokémon Q&A
2 votes
3,822 views

What I mean to say is that the Pokemon anime is viewed internationally and kids of various ethnicities watch the show, well, because it's freakin' cool. So then, why are there only a few dark skinned characters in contrast to thousands of whites and a few browns? Isn't it a little racist? See below:
enter image description here

Ash Ketchum

enter image description here

Dawn

enter image description here

Cilan

enter image description here
Elesa

enter image description here
Misty

There are thousands of others. Now for that other colour which is equally as beautiful:

enter image description here

Iris

enter image description here

Lenora

enter image description here
Marlon

enter image description here
Grant

enter image description here
Marshall

Well there might be a few others, but these are all I know. So why???

by
edited by
No they're not. I wish God teaches you a lesson. Don't judge from the outside.
Don't know? Could be any reason
What about Marlon and Grant and Olympia and Marshall?
I'm sorry lol but if you watch any anime at all, you'll realize that dark skinned characters are rare in comparison to light skinned ones. I dont think it's racism, just preference and/or differences in animation between light skinned and dark skinned characters.

Also if you believe that animation companies imply dark skinned characters are not beautiful, then you're wrong lol. There isn't such thing as "equally beautiful", all characters are made to fit the taste of specific fans, no one in general (usually bad guys), or everyone (MC or character that's suffering).
^I get what you mean. I had no offence in mind for the Pokemon franchise. Sorry if I hurt you.
Yeah, most anime and Japanese games like Pokémon have primarily white-skinned characters, just because that's how the culture makes them.
But Pokemon shouldn't just be for Japan only........But then again I can't really debate with Satoshi Tajiri can I?
Ash Ketchum, like many of these other "white" characters are pretty much race ambiguous.
Adding Elesa in doesn't help prove your point at all. She's what's known as a White Chic Supermodel.
Oh I just added characters randomly.
Aww, it's a joke, dont worry XD
Pokemon doesn't have to cater to the US, it never really has.

2 Answers

11 votes
 
Best answer

"Why doesn't Japan conform to American ideas of race?"

What you're doing is considered being ethnocentric, which is ignoring the culture that somebody or something comes from in favor of your own culture. While I'm not going to say it's racist, because I'm not some crazy social justice type, I will say it is ignorant of broader cultural issues. Japan is a country that is racially homogeneous due to their policies of isolation through much of history. People who under the American categorization of race are considered black generally don't live in Japan, except for a few there for business reasons (since Japan is one of the technological centers of the world).

It is not at all racist for a country's cultural exports to reflect their own people and culture. Not every country is the United States.

Interesting to note is the Game Freak added more people of darker skin color to the games with the Unova region, which is a representation of the United States (New York to be specific). Here we see an example of a group of people respecting another culture by depicting the racial groups of that culture within a game about that culture.

Sidenote: The people who in the United States are racially categorized as Asian fall into a pretty hilarious spot. They're "white" when people want to call them racist or privileged. It's sort of like Arabs, who for quite a good chunk of time were considered "white" under our classification system until 9/11 happened and all that changed.

by
selected by
Wow… waaaayyy better-worded than mine O.O
Damn girl, dishing out hot plates of memes on the go.

hmu :*
Sorry Astronautical but he kinda deserves the tick more.....
And please lets not go into terrorism, I'm fed up with people on every social media site pointing fingers on my religion, it's just so agonising and irritating.
Heyo, no hard feelings luke ;D He does have a point on the Arabs though. To build on that, every Japanese citizen of America was  moved to a single group of towns immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
Have to agree on that. Thanks for understanding. My real name isn't Luke actually, I just love the way it sounds... LOOOOK.....
No offense intended with my sidenote. I have no problem at all with people who follow Islam and find it unfortunate that the entire religion is being persecuted for the actions of extremists. I was merely pointing out the precarious nature of racial identification.
1 vote

>I'm sorry lol but if you watch any anime at all, you'll realize that dark skinned characters are rare in comparison to light skinned ones. I dont think it's racism, just preference and/or differences in animation between light skinned and dark skinned characters.

This quote from Lusty pretty much sums up your answer. I don't watch many anime (AoT yeeeeaahhhh), but I have friends that do. I mean, they're obsessed with it. Their screensavers are anime, they read manga, they download anime to watch on the bus… so you could say I've had a decent amount of exposure to it (there's this one guy who watches the "creepy" anime, but that's beside the point). I can say, for a fact, that the vast majority of anime, manga, and Japanese game characters have white skin. They're not being racist, or anything, they're just doing what their culture does.

TL;DR Anime in general isn't very culturally diverse, and Pokémon is (technically) an anime.

by
Thanks, but then again, the whole world watches animes. P.S. I have one Anime-Obsessed friend and let me tell all he talks about is Code Geass, and some disgusting perverted High School of the Dead, Attack on Titan and other whatnot. I know how it feels.
I'd say keep your opinions of what's perverted to yourself.
Sorry guys, just trying to stop this before it becomes a major issue.
Oh it's okay. At least I passed on the message. Some people need to learn. And if you're wondering, no, I'm not black and I've got no problem with them.