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"Ani-gaijin"

Reproduction of Ethnic Stereotypes through Japanese Animation

Written by: Kaze Kiri FX

5/20/03

Introduction

In Japanese animation (anime), the majority of characters presented are Japanese nationals. However, every once in a while you will see a small or major character who is intended to be a foreigner (or gaijin), from outside of Japan. When Japanese artists create their own depictions of people of different ethnicity, a mixture of facts and stereotypes gets reproduced. Because animated characters are basically caricatures of real people, they tend to rely more upon pre-conceived notions than actual facts or people. While I am not familiar enough with real subjects of some of ethnic groups presented in anime that I will be discussing, I am adequately familiar with Japan's general stereotypes toward ethnic groups as they are commonly presented in anime. Therefore I will describe the different types of "gaijin" that commonly appear in anime based on their speaking habits and appearance, and I will leave the judgment of how accurate these stereotypes actually are primarily up to the reader.

The two main groups of gaijin are the Western gaijin and the Eastern gaijin. When talking about Asian countries, the old "East-West" division has become a tired and flawed way of thinking, but I think this division suits my purposes well enough in this case. After all, I am only talking about stereotypical Japanese conceptions of foreigners and not real people. The majority of gaijin characters in anime seem to fit into one of these two groups rather well.

After I have grouped them by East and West, I will group them based on their speaking habits. Among both the Eastern and Western gaijin exist the "goofy Japanese-speaking gaijin," the "Japanese-incapable gaijin," and the "Japanese-capable gaijin." Within the Eastern gaijin division also exists the group I will call the "dialect-speaking gaijin," but this group does not seem to exist among the Western gaijin. I will define and describe each of these groups in the following sections.

The Western Gaijin

Michael Grant from "Marmalade Boy" (left) and Jodie-sensei from "meitantei Conan" (right). Both characters are supposed to be from the U.S.

The majority of Western gaijin in anime hail from the U.S., and sometimes England, Australia, and other European countries. Western gaijin can be very hard to identify based on appearance alone. The American gaijin almost always has blonde hair and blue eyes (like Michael pictured above), though African American gaijin make appearances as well. Oftentimes the females will have ridiculously large breasts. The Western gaijin usually isn't set apart by modes of dress, but occasionally they can be. American gaijin can be shown wearing cowboy hats (but this is almost always a sort of gag). Sometimes European characters will appear wearing traditional clothes of their country (like Soletta from Italy, pictured below). This can make them appear surprisingly exotic to Japanese viewers, in a European sort of way.

Soletta Orihime of "Sakura Wars " is from Italy. Her apparel fits the part.

The goofy Japanese-speaking Western gaijin is the most common type among the Western gaijin. This Western gaijin has some grasp of the Japanese language, but speaks with strange rhythm and intonation and insists on frequently inserting English words and phrases into their Japanese (more than a Japanese normally would)¹. This type can be quite hilarious to an actual Westerner who can speak Japanese, because the goofy Japanese-speaking Western gaijin speaks nothing like an actual Westerner who is learning Japanese would ever speak. They seem to have a very good grasp of Japanese grammar and a relatively high vocabulary, but their accent is much worse than it should be for someone at their level of Japanese language proficiency. They are always played by Japanese seiyuu (voice actors), and not actual gaijin. Soletta, pictured beside, is one example of this type. When they appear in manga, their dialogue is often written in katakana² where it should be hiragana in order to indicate a foreign accent. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, this type will even appear within fantasy settings where Western countries aren't even supposed to exist. The goofy Japanese-speaking gaijin is not meant to be taken seriously, and almost always appears within a comedy context. The Japanese viewers are intended to understand that this type isn't based on fact.

Occasionally, the Japanese-incapable Western gaijin will make a short appearance, but s/he is never a major or recurring character. S/he will usually suddenly step into the scene speaking English (or other European language), and the Japanese characters will either react with fear and confusion, or one of them will step forward and communicate with them in English, immediately impressing the other Japanese characters. In other cases, the Japanese characters will all act very cool and natural about the English being spoken, but this usually happens in anime that are very far-removed from reality. Their speech may be subtitled in Japanese if it is important or plot-relevant. This type can appear in either a comedy or serious setting. When this type appears, it can really serve to show the anxiety and reservations Japanese have toward foreigners due to their unfamiliarity with them. This type is actually played usually by a Japanese seiyuu with mediocre to poor English capabilities. Sometimes they will be played by an actual gaijin, but usually one with poor acting abilities, so this type can also prove to be very amusing to an English-speaker.

The Japanese-capable Western gaijin is a relatively rare breed, but s/he appears more often than one might think in science fiction anime set in the future. In futuristic anime, the boundaries between nation, race, and ethnicity are often blurred and it may become difficult to determine a character's actual ethnicity. Oftentimes characters will have Western names and speak perfect Japanese, but it is often hard to tell just how Western the character is intended to be. We can assume that sometimes characters are shown speaking Japanese for the sake of allowing the Japanese viewers to understand easily. Obviously, if the setting is outside Japan or the interaction is between two foreign characters we can assume that the characters are actually intended to be speaking English, and Japanese is just standing in as a representation for their actual speech. This is very common in later episodes of "Marmalade Boy" which take place in the U.S. Once in a blue moon you will see a Westerner who can actually speak perfect Japanese in a non-fantasy setting in modern Japan.

The Eastern Gaijin

Shampoo of "Ranma 1/2" (left) and Ri Kohran of "Sakura Wars" (right). Both characters hail from mainland China.

The overwhelming majority of Eastern Gaijin characters come from China. Despite Japan's close proximity to Korea, Koreans are quite rare in anime. Occasionally you may see an Indian, Thai, or Vietnamese, but the vast majority are from China. Russian characters generally fall more easily into the Western gaijin category. Chinese characters are almost always indicated by their traditional Chinese clothing and hairstyles usually involving buns or pigtails. Chinese characters commonly wear glasses. (Wong Ling-Pha, "Battle Athletes daiundoukai"³; Ri Kohhran, "Sakura Wars"⁴). This is based on a Japanese stereotypical image of Chinese, very similar to our western image of Asian people often depicted wearing glasses. The Chinese gaijin is usually female, as she is often a fetishized sexual object. She represents a sort of exotic 'other' who is usually shown to be rather stupid and coquettish. The most well-known example of this is Shampoo from "Ranma 1/2" (pictured above).

The goofy Japanese-speaking Eastern gaijin serve a similar purpose to that of their Western cousins, but their speech patterns are dramatically different. Their speech is often very disjointed, seldom ever using Japanese particles between their nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This leaves their speech relatively understandable, albeit strange. They use a heavy amount of Chinese-origin words (as you can see by the large amount of kanji when they appear in manga), and they often use the ending "aru" in place of the usual Japanese copula "desu" or "da." This probably comes from a character in Chinese that serves a similar function to the Japanese copula, and is pronounced "ari" in Japanese. Due to my lack of knowledge of the Chinese language, I can only speculate about the origins of this "aru." This type of gaijin is extremely common in humorous anime, but the most well-known example is the aforementioned Shampoo of "Ranma 1/2" (though she never uses "aru").

The Japanese-incapable Eastern gaijin shows up every once in a while too. Shampoo began as a Japanese-incapable Eastern gaijin when she first appeared in "Ranma 1/2," but she learned to speak goofy Japanese rather quickly after moving to Japan. The appearance of this type results in a very different situation than that of their Western cousin. Japanese characters tend to be less impressed when another Japanese character is shown to be able to speak Chinese than they are in the case of English. Oftentimes a Chinese interpreter will need to step in and translate. The Japanese characters also tend to be less afraid and intimidated when a character suddenly appears speaking Chinese. All of this seems to be rooted in a general Japanese admiration of English speakers, and an unconscious view of other Asians as somewhat inferior.

The Japanese-capable Eastern gaijin is much more common than its Western counterpart. This is rooted in a general belief that other Asians are generally better at learning to speak Japanese than Westerners are. And besides, there is a much higher number of real foreigners of Asian decent who can speak Japanese in Japan than there are Westerners who can. Japanese are generally much more accommodating to English-speakers in their country than they are to other Asians. The Asians are generally expected to learn Japanese when they go to Japan. This type of ani-gaijin blends in very well with the Japanese characters, though they may still keep their Chinese attire. Mousse from "Ranma 1/2" could be grouped here, though he does still make strange 'kung-fu' yells when he fights. It is strange that they made Shampoo speak goofy Japanese even though her circumstances are similar to Mousse's. This is most likely because Shampoo's goofy speech adds to her ditzy, fetishized image which wasn't appropriate to Mousse's character (because he is male).

The most unique breed of ani-gaijin is the dialect-speaking Eastern gaijin. This type doesn't seem to exist among the Western Gaijin. This type is an Eastern character who speaks perfectly fluent Japanese, but in a non-standard dialect. One example of this is Ri Kohran from "Sakura Wars" (pictured at the top of the "Eastern Gaijin" section). She is a Chinese character who speaks the Kansai dialect of Japanese. Though there is nothing really foreign about non-standard dialects of Japanese, they seem to be somehow a bit more exotic than the standard Tokyo dialect. This is a method of making the characters seem a bit exotic without using goofy Japanese. It is relatively uncommon, but does occur occasionally.

Other Gaijin

Tanya Natdhipytadd from "Battle Athletes daiundoukai" is a wild girl from Africa.

Sometimes a gaijin character who does not fit easily into the categorizations of East and West will be depicted. Tanya Natdhipytadd of "Battle Athletes daiundoukai" is a character who hails from some unmentioned country in Africa. She speaks like a very young Japanese child and exhibits many characteristics similar to those of a wild animal. She wears the same uniform the other characters at her school wear, only hers is ripped and tattered as if a wild animal has torn it apart.

The most cruelly treated gaijin I've ever seen in any anime would have to be Pedro from "Excel Saga". Pedro is an immigrant construction worker in Japan from an unknown country. He speaks a strange sort of Japanese with incredibly exaggerated rhythm and intonation. He dreams of nothing more than returning home to his family, but instead he is tossed about from one cruel Twilight Zone-like situation to the next by some strange force. He frequently sheds tears of pain and his catch phrase is "Nooo!" (in English), and though he is intended to be a comical character, his plight can be truly moving at times. Though I will admit that this character can be rather funny, I think his situation is just a bit too sad, cruel, and insensitive toward foreigners.

Translating Gaijin Speech to English

When anime with foreign characters are translated to English, the translators have many options available to them. They can decide how much of the characters' foreign speech they want to carry over to the English language version. Usually, a larger amount is carried over in subtitled versions than dubbed versions. An unintelligent or "foreign-sounding" version of English can be used in subtitling. Sometimes, though, the translators will decide to delete the strange language entirely and use normal English. This can be an appropriate decision in many cases. In English dubbed versions, a complete erasure of the strange language is rather common (especially among English-speaking characters⁵), though it is still carried over sometimes (see the English dubbed version of "Ranma 1/2"⁶).

Conclusion

Animation can reproduce ethnic stereotypes that ought not to be reproduced. Too often the representations of foreign characters in animation are based solely on stereotypes rather than any real people or figures. Though the characters are usually made just for the sake of humor and aren't intended to be hurtful toward any real people, sometimes they can be. This problem is not restricted just to Japanese animation though of course, but also American and other animation. American animation has featured characters like Peppy Le'pew since its beginnings, and continues to produce characters who embody ethnic stereotypes to this day.

Ethnic humor is still a mainstay of comedy in both hemispheres of the earth, but it can sometimes seem unnecessarily ignorant to those who know the actual people being represented. On the other hand, I am an American and I for one generally find more humor in anime's depiction of Americans than I find offensive material, so maybe I am being a bit too critical of something that is really mostly in good fun. Whatever your point of view may be, it is a fact that animation produces caricatures of ethnic groups that are representative of a certain group's notions of another group.

If there is anything good to be said about anime's depiction of foreigners, it is that they usually don't embody any physical stereotypes. American animation still portrays Asian characters with ridiculously pointed eyes and strange features, while Japanese animation has American characters who hardly look any different from the Japanese characters. Anime may feature an occasional Western character with a huge nose, but its track record is relatively pretty good in the physical features department. In the future though, I would love to see a foreign character played by an actual foreigner who can speak Japanese because this would be the most realistic. I have seen plenty of foreigners on Japanese TV who can speak Japanese at least a little, so I think it would be feasible to get one of them to do a small part in an anime show every now and then. Though I don't see this happening anytime in the near future, keep your eyes pealed for those ani-gaijin when watching anime. You may find yourself offended, or better educated about Japan's attitudes toward foreigners, or you may be too busy laughing to do either. JF

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