Westernised privilege
When it comes to anime characters, they’re often seen as white in the West and to an extent, outside of the Western world as well, that they’re treated as such by some people even though they’re not intended to be. Sailor Moon may have blonde hair and blue eyes, but she’s not intended to be a Westerner. East Asian people can have blonde hair and blue eyes, especially if they have a milder form of albinism.
But some people dye their hair blond willingly, so whatever the cause a blonde Japanese woman’s not much of a stretch really. The real problem lies with whitewashing characters, especially if they’re not intended to be white. Because most anime characters aren’t white, they experience this often as they seem white when they’re not intended to be.
Their non-Westernness becomes more evident in the cultural markers stories have, whether if it’s the landmarks, the clothes or the foods they eat. This kind of cultural ‘bastardisation’ isn’t unique to Westerners, when it comes to Arabic translations of DC Comics DC characters have been treated as Arabs by Lebanese translators and readers.
Likewise Yu Yu Hakusho characters were made Filipino in the Tagalog dub, but even then anime characters aren’t intended to be white. They look white, but they’re not supposed to be. They actually appeal to a wide variety of people, wider than their creators intended to whenever they have Kenyan or Philippine fans around. But they’re not intended to be Western, so they’re not Western.
When it comes to making a character white, as far as Philippine and Japanese media go, they will often have light hair and eyes sometimes coupled with a pointy nose. Even if not all blond characters are white, these are good markers of somebody who’s supposed to come from another place altogether. But whenever somebody of their ethnicity portrays their own ethnicity they don’t have strong markers.
Consider these characters from a Nigerian website, it’s in black and white but other than hair they don’t have any strong racial markers. Instead their Nigerianness has more to do with commenting on whatever goes on in Nigeria, as well as colloquialisms unique to this country. Japanese manga and Philippine comics, for all their faults, are no different in this regard.
It takes somebody with Westernised privilege to see them as anything but their actual or intended ethnicities/nationalities, if because they’re so racialised that they think they must be white even when that’s not the original intent. An Indonesian would immediately see Pangeran Mlaar as Indonesian, even if he’s an alien from outer space.
Much like how Americans see Superman as American, even though he was born far away from it. In the case with Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, as of late, the characters are drawn more realistically but their ethnicities tend to be implied by the places they live in, rather than going by physical appearance alone. Even then, Kakyoin’s not white because he’s not supposed to be.
Appearances really are deceiving, but this is not an excuse to whitewash them a lot.
