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Whats with the Japanese brown hair dye thing?!


Falcon_BlizZACK

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It now seems the majority of the poppulation have dyed their hair to a 'cockroach brown'...why? This seems to be much more deeper than just merely 'fashion'. Its as if they really want to be the 'Europeans' of Asia. XD

Also note their skin bleaching.

 

But I have always thought about this, especially when looking at their anime; Japanese depict themselves identically with caucasians...Is this like a complex thing or something?...*shrug* just rambling on I guess.

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I used to think about this as a kid, something like "if they are Japanese, why do they have such big eyes?", or as seen in Supergrunch's pic "why do Americans have smaller eyes than Japanese?". But its all about perception, they think of their drawing style as Japanese, and portrait westerns with our old school style.

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Shunga art is the only art style that depicts the Japanese as Japanese looking people...

 

shun02.jpg

 

Theres actually a full blown history regarding this, I have just learnt. From what I have gathered, during the Russia-Japan war, Japan needed propaganda that illustrated them as greater than the Russians which also meant physicality such as height...It spurned from an inferiority complex.

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Also note their skin bleaching.

 

This is common in all Asian countries. the way they see it the fairer the skin the more "well off" or "higher status" a person must be/have, as in a poorer person most likely works outside a lot (eg:farm) therefor darker skin as they're always in the sun, while the more "well off" people would work inside (or stay home) and be out of the sun and have lighter skin.

 

Where as in the west, it's the opposite, we see people with more of a tanned tone as being better off as they prolly take lots of holidays or are able to spend a lot of time on the beach in the summer

 

The japanese "big eyes" style was created by Osamu Tezuka, but he was inspired by American comics. The style sticked, so they use it. Sepcially because with bigger eyes it's easier to portray emotions

 

damn beaten to it.. ah well QTF

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Probably because everyone was fed up of everyone having black hair?

I thought the many V05 adverts with them doing shit [Which cannot be replicated without a dedicated professional stylist] was enough?

Haha indeed, and most have a flat ass.

More importantly, most have a flat chest. Although the images above have pleased me.

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This is common in all Asian countries. the way they see it the fairer the skin the more "well off" or "higher status" a person must be/have, as in a poorer person most likely works outside a lot (eg:farm) therefor darker skin as they're always in the sun, while the more "well off" people would work inside (or stay home) and be out of the sun and have lighter skin.

 

Where as in the west, it's the opposite, we see people with more of a tanned tone as being better off as they prolly take lots of holidays or are able to spend a lot of time on the beach in the summer

What I find interesting is the contrast with English fashions a few hundred years ago - pale was popular, for the same reasons as in Asia, and it was also fashionable to be somewhere between chubby and fat, as this again suggested wealth.

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Guest Stefkov
The japanese "big eyes" style was created by Osamu Tezuka, but he was inspired by American comics. The style sticked, so they use it. Sepcially because with bigger eyes it's easier to portray emotions

That's really interesting. One of my mates is doing a criticial link on him, that's something Im glad I read/

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yay for osamu tezuka! ^__^ <pointless story>i have a t-shirt somewhere with a holigraphic astro boy.. turn one way and he's astro boy, move around and you can see his cold robotic interior O___o bought it at asakusa temple in japan ^^ </end pointless story.>

 

*ahem* anyho! yes! hellfire's right, tezuka's art style is derived from american art styles, disney in particular - the big eyes, big heads, exaggerated extremities made conveying feelings and emotions easier and made characters more ... lovable ^^ its clever really - more lovable characters = more staying power with audiences ...

japanese graphics have been very western-orientated since the war... i mean, look at hello kitty - about the most japanese character you can get, right? wrong! she's english!!

 

well no - the character is wholly japanese, made in japan, by japanese people, FOR japanese people - but hello kitty herself was "born and lives in london" and loves apples and baking pies. they made the character from england because that would be more appealing to their japanese audience (hello kitty's audience consisting of literally EVERY age demographic in japan... she's EVERYWHERE. hello-kitty-esque characters are EVERYWHERE... to the point where i was once enticed into a seedy sex shop in shinjuku because of the giant happy looking penguin outside...:blank:)

also! and by no means do i mean this in a derogatory way (you all know how much i love japan and it's people..) but if every anime character was drawn to look japanese... they'd all look VERY similar... O____o you gotta throw in the occasional pink haired, green eyed, 8-armed character ^_^

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