Hey Japanese folks in TL (although I doubt there are any besides haji), why do Koreans in your animes/fanart look like

A) A very geeky looking otaku with ugly black hair and round face and a height of 5'4"
B) A very handsome, tall and well-built man with red hair.

I never found out why you guys do this

Burre

Sweden154 Posts

December 11 2008 13:01 GMT

Haha really? I wouldn't call myself an anime fan but I have watched my fair share of it and I've never seen this. Pics?

MrHoon

10183 Posts

December 11 2008 13:05 GMT

There are many examples but the best known ones are the Korean dudes from Soul Calibur and Tekken, and also a Go anime with the ghost and shit, and one of the villains is this Korean Pro player with long red hair (cant remember title.)

Nytefish

United Kingdom4282 Posts

December 11 2008 13:06 GMT

Well if you remove 'red' then you have the only 2 types of male anime character.
So the hair colour is probably coding, blond for euro/american, black/blue/purple for japanese, etc.

MrHoon

10183 Posts

December 11 2008 13:08 GMT

On December 11 2008 22:06 Nytefish wrote:
Well if you remove 'red' then you have the only 2 types of male anime character.
So the hair colour is probably coding, blond for euro/american, black/blue/purple for japanese, etc.

huh, you know I've never actually thought of it that way
But seriously, why the red hair lol

thedeadhaji

39489 Posts

December 11 2008 13:21 GMT

soul calibur - no idea
tekken - havent played it since tekken 3, so no idea.

I dont think the go anime had anything to do with him being korean or anything, it was just the character that the authors chose to depict.

honestly it's pretty rare for koreans to come up at all in animes and stuff afaik.

thedeadhaji

39489 Posts

December 11 2008 13:28 GMT

Unless there's some explicit reason to include a character as korean in the plot, I dont think there's any reason to take that route for the creators. Hikaru no Go had a very obvious motive, since korea is the leading nation for baduk. But I struggle to come up with even one other instance of an explicitly korean character in anime/manga, b/c first off that series has to be set in modern japan or something like that, then come to cast a korean dude/girl. Usually it's just not within the work's premise.The only significant korean related manga I can think of is that one with a girl character named "sanuh" or something like that, but that series is translated from korean into japanese so it doesnt really count.

thedeadhaji

39489 Posts

December 11 2008 13:30 GMT

It probably doesnt help that japanese netizens who post in manga/anime related areas and are hence the consumers unfortunately tend to be anti-korean. Some of it seems at least partly justified due to pretty bad bahavior by a small number of the korean population living in japan that gives them a bad rep (kind of like how a small number of poorly behaving blacks or latinos in the states perpetuates a bad rep for the entire race in the country), which is honestly pretty dumb anyways because you can find a lot more japanese dudes in the country who've done whatever 'bad thing' the korean did, but ofc pple dont give a shits about that fact... Anyways most of it is just the morons of the internet just going with the mantra of "oh i think we're supposed to bash the other asian races in general b/c it's the thing to do" kind of thing.

idk I mean the korean dramas seem to be still popular among the demographic that watches them, and hangame seems to be increasing in popularity as well.

In the end I think it boils down to there just being no need to put an explicitly korean character into a story without a really pressing need.

I'd be curious to look into the depiction though if you can come up with more examples though.

oh, and the korean kid for Hikaru no Go is a prototypical "annoying stuck up big fish in small pond" type character that's used a lot.

Liquid`Jinro

Sweden33719 Posts

December 11 2008 14:42 GMT

On December 11 2008 22:21 thedeadhaji wrote:
soul calibur - no idea
tekken - havent played it since tekken 3, so no idea.

I dont think the go anime had anything to do with him being korean or anything, it was just the character that the authors chose to depict.

honestly it's pretty rare for koreans to come up at all in animes and stuff afaik.

Hwoarang is in tekken 3!

pubbanana

United States3063 Posts

December 11 2008 15:04 GMT

#10

Wasn't there a trend in Korea where teens dyed their hair all different colors (mainly red) in the late 90s-early 00s? The Korean characters (like Hwoarang) were introduced in the late 90s, so it roughly coincides with that trend. Of course, there may have never even been such a trend, but I just distinctly remember these things from back then:

1. Just about every Korean guy you'd ever see in DDR videos from Korea back then had dyed hair.

2. One of the Koreans who played in the Tekken Tag Tournament world championship had red hair. A Korean also won that tournament, if I remember correctly.

3. H.O.T was insanely popular in Korea during this time and they had all different hair colors (H.O.T-Forever even dyed his hair like that).

So, I don't know, maybe I'm just imagining it and maybe I'm not.

intoyourrainbOW

United States168 Posts

December 11 2008 18:57 GMT

#11

Hey Japanese people I have a better question.

What's up with your obsession with school girl lolitas, robot rape hentai, and bizarre fetishes like bukkake and gokkun?

MamiyaOtaru

United States1687 Posts

December 11 2008 19:13 GMT

#12

don't forget guro

Nytefish

United Kingdom4282 Posts

December 11 2008 19:18 GMT

#13

On December 12 2008 03:57 intoyourrainbOW wrote:
Hey Japanese people I have a better question.

What's up with your obsession with school girl lolitas, robot rape hentai, and bizarre fetishes like bukkake and gokkun?

western influence after ww2

LordWeird

United States3411 Posts

December 11 2008 19:20 GMT

#14

Yeah for real, wtf is that crap

Too_MuchZerg

Finland2818 Posts

December 11 2008 20:10 GMT

#15

On December 11 2008 22:05 MrHoon wrote:
There are many examples but the best known ones are the Korean dudes from Soul Calibur and Tekken, and also a Go anime with the ghost and shit, and one of the villains is this Korean Pro player with long red hair (cant remember title.)

Hikaru no GO?

Fontong

United States6454 Posts

December 11 2008 20:26 GMT

#16

On December 12 2008 03:57 intoyourrainbOW wrote:
Hey Japanese people I have a better question.

What's up with your obsession with school girl lolitas, robot rape hentai, and bizarre fetishes like bukkake and gokkun?

Ok I haven't heard of this one before. I guess it isn't surprising though.

FakeSteve[TPR]

Valhalla18444 Posts

December 11 2008 21:03 GMT

#17

On December 11 2008 23:42 FrozenArbiter wrote:

Show nested quote +

Hwoarang is in tekken 3!

hwaorang so fun to play as

tekken 3 is awesome

IntoTheWow

is awesome32277 Posts

December 11 2008 21:20 GMT

#18

tekken 3 is great yes.

Nothing better that hearing te Hwaorrang... WINS after smashing your opponent in the head with a whirlwind kick,.

Kau

Canada3500 Posts

December 11 2008 21:22 GMT

#19

On December 12 2008 06:20 IntoTheWow wrote:
tekken 3 is great yes.

Nothing better that hearing te Hwaorrang... WINS after smashing your opponent in the head with a whirlwind kick,.

No way, nothing beats Lei and using all of his stances!