In School Rumble, there's a character that's an American transfer student or something, but he's always coming up with ideas and being the leader and generally being arrogant (but in a nice way). However, he has black hair (but a defined nose and square jaw with thick eyebrows). Whenever he goes into one of his monologues in the background is our national anthem being sung sort of opera-ish by a deep male voice, and sometimes the background is also changed to a waving star spangled banner.

I think this might come from the fact that Japanese people tend to find Americans fascinating, due to the massive culture difference. The same way we find them mysterious and interesting. A lot of people from Asian countries like people with blonde, or red hear, especially if it's curly. They hardly ever see it, so it's interesting.

Our culture is so much more boisterous than theirs, and more outgoing in most cases, so they make characters in their shows express that fact.

What is interesting to me is the marked difference between the way Japanese characters are now depicted in anime, versus the way they are depicted in traditional forms of Japanese art, say Ukiyo-e. The wide, rounded eyes and the tiny noses. as compared to the long slanted eyes and rather prominent noses. It clearly has much to do with the appropriation of the american/disney style by the likes of Osamu Tezuka, and so many early shojo artists, as Glass mentioned.

Ah, just like Americans have the "Mr. Smith" don't be surprised to find other Japanese people labelling another person as the "Mr. Yamada" or something. Also it's sad to see how often Americans are negatively portrayed in their media.

Indeed. The Disney style was appropriated and altered only slightly to form the base of modern anime, however a few artists still use the more slanted eyes, and other more obviously Asian features. Much of the Shonen genre add these features to their heroes, and other stronger characters, especially when they are fighting or doing something heroic.

And I might add, that in Japanese culture Americans tend to be portrayed favorably. The stereotype of the fat, loud, stupid American shows up as a joke, next to the Athletic, handsome, adventurous type, who show up in much of the anime/ manga world, as well as some movies.

BROCK FROM POKEMON = PERFECT EXAMPLE OF ASIAN ANIME CHARACTERS

haha. I'm not kidding about that....mhm. I agree with ALL of you here..:)

It's been quite a while for me also.....manga AND anime to be exact....:( I just don't have the time for it as much as I did last year....

LOLOLOL IF TAMAKI IS "WHITE" why is he speaking Japanese LOL. maybe he learned it...but he has the Japanese accent. I know. the voice actor /slapped

he's speaking Japanese because he lives in Japan?

As far as deceptions of the Japanese in traditional Japanese artworks, it's worth noting that there was an influence from kabuki and its style of make-up, which emphasizes things like the tilt of the eyes and the nose. Ukiyo-e was a medium that was used to create a lot of portraits of Kabuki actors, and similar celebrates, as well as the landscapes that are so well known today.

This is true, though older styles were lovely as well. I'm not sure the names of them, but there were ink painting styles that were just beautiful.

Ukiyo-e style art is truly beautiful, but only on silk and shoji screens and such with few exceptions. I'm not sure how they would do as an anime or manga.

Besides this, I'm quite happy with how the male characters in anime are drawn. It is true that sometimes the Americans are stereo-typed when they are drawn, but then, so are the normal characters they draw. Nowadays, one will see that the males in the anime and manga published are effeminate and graceful versus the American cartoons which are 'grungy'__for lack of a better word. Indeed, compared to most of the small-boned and graceful Asian people, our males are grungy and uncut. The cartoonists simply draw their characters after the manner in which they perceive their own. For example, the effeminate Bishis shown in anime/manga are entirely realistic when it comes to bone-structure and such, just take a look at Camui Gackt, Kim Hyung Joon, the Sakamoto Twins ((to a certain extent)), Shuhei Kita, Kazuya Kamenashi, and the list goes on. All of these men have decidedly effeminate features, and if you compare them to men like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Danial Craig, you get what my brother likes to call 'Girly Men' ((that's the censored version)).

The point of the characters in anime having Caucasian features was mentioned as well. The point I make on this would be that Japan is no longer exclusively Asian. There are many hundreds of immigrants from several European countries that live on the island, and therefore, it is only natural that some of the characters would have Caucasian features. Plus there's the fact that watching television show where all of the characters have black/brown hair and eyes would be just boring. Caucasian hair and eye colour on Asian people looks awesome. I mean, can you imagine Takumi Usui, Kiryu Zero, Usumaki Naruto , Tsukiyomi Ikuto with black hair and brown eyes? I can't, but that's what makes anime characters interesting.

As for the Disney thing: anime does bare some resemblance to Disney drawings...but not so much any more.
In the early twentieth century the Japanese people began exploring new methods of animation that were being used in Russia, France, Germany, and in the United States. Inspired by the western newspaper and comic strip, cartoonists like Kitazawa Rakiten and Ippei Okamotobegan experimenting with their own combination of the two above curiosities, and eventually gave rise to the manga.
In 1914, Kitayama Seitaro created one of the first animated films produced in Japan. Momotaro bares some definite resemblances to classic Disney shorts like the B&W Mickey mouse cartoons, as do other first gen. anime like Kumo to Churippu, Momotaro's Sea Eagles, and The Tale of the White Serpent. The latter being the only in that list produced in colour. This anime bares significant resemblances to Disney films, particularly Panda and the Magic Serpent.
With releases like Horus: Prince of the Sun, 1001 nights, Belladonna of Sadness, and Ashita no Jō, we begin to see the anime beginning to take on a more unique quality that marks the beginnings of what we consider to be 'modern anime'.
Then, with anime like Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Future Boy Conan, and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, we start to see the emergence of the 'childish' style of anime found in classic films like Kiki's Delivery Service, Hal's Flying Castle, The Castle in the Sky, and Ponyo. This style is also vaguely present in the Dragon Ball trilogy and the earlier episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho.
Then, in the nineteen-seventies, we start to see what can truly be considered 'modern anime'. The animation shown in things like Mazinger Z, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Space Battleship Yamamoto, and Mobile Suit Gundam we see the character going from the stubby and chubby characters in the aforementioned titles to the more stream-lined and realistic characters that we see today. These character styles would inevitably fall to be the basic layout of all the drawing in the future of anime/manga.
In the nineteen-eighties we enter the age which is called the Golden Age of Anime. With the science-fiction genre__established in the seventies__already in place, cartoonists felt free to release anime like Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Wings of Honneamise, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. These above anime bare little to no resemblance to Disney animation that I am aware of. The style developed by the Japanese cartoonists has developed since the breakthrough in the seventies to be entirely unique__again, to the best of my knowledge.
The eighties is also where the sub-genre of anime of a more adult nature, such as yaoi, yuri, and more explicitly hentai, being to come out. The genres of Shounen-ai, Shojo-ai, and Ecchi came out later. This era is also where we see the rise of a popular subculture of Japanese people called the Otaku__of which I proudly declare myself a member.
The nineties are where we truly see the modern anime come out in its full glory. Anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, and X have all of the qualities that classify them as 'modern anime': bendy and curvy Shojo girls, the effeminate Bishi boys, and the sci-fi and fantasy genres that came up in earlier times. The designs for these anime were preceded by similar examples in manga__which developed animation-wise before anime did.
Nowadays, we see a large variety of anime styles, plots, and themes throughout the world. One can say that anime is a style all its own...what matters it any if the original inspiration for anime came form the US? That's sort of like saying that every single fantasy novel is plagiarizing because they can't help but have some similar aspects to Tolkien's novels in them.
Anyway, from what I've seen, the animation that Disney is coming out with now is leaning more towards CG. Take Tangled for example. The characters are more 3D than 2D and the advanced design that went into the colours, fabrics, and scenery in those movies can hardly be shown in a hand-drawn ((sorta)) anime. At this point in time, I'm not even going to touch Final Fantasy and the like, that;s a completely different bowl of soup and I'd be sitting here typing on the computer for about six hours.

All in all, that animation that is shown in anime/manga nowadays is, in my express opinion, highly preferable to the animation of Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., and all those things. You may think otherwise, but my main point is that anime and manga are unique, and are much much better than the knock-off anime that Americans have tried to produce...

//cough cough Teen Titans

For that one the animators did a pretty decent job, I'm a fan of the show and all, I'm just saying that original anime is much better.

Now I'm going to stop before I touch on some other tangent because I've been sitting here for about an hour re-typing the post that I accidentally deleted and spent an hour typing....I'm not even going to bother to proof-read, I'm so tired....good night, and forgive any mistakes I've made in here. If there are any historical mistakes, please do not hesitate to contact me so I may correct them....thank you and congratulations if you actually take the time to read this entire bloody thing...:gonk:

Hetalia hit it on the nose. ; )

Americans in anime tend to be the assholes or the too busty for their own good girls. >.< I guess it is just the stereo type we have.

Actually a lot of them are cool characters. They just tend to be cocky.

I agree a lot of them are cool characters... just some times it seems like they are all made from the same base mold. At least to me that is.

It varies from anime to anime, there are ones that stereo type badly but then again those stereotype vary as well but no worse than the way we americans stereo tyoe them in film