Asian characters in Dragon Ball

[Zephyr]

Caucasian features are Caucasian features, no matter what.

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

[mute_proxy]

Caucasian features are Caucasian features, no matter what.

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

Big Disney animation inspired eyes.

Spoiler:

Why do Westerners love to consume Asian media like Dragon Ball but cannot accept the fact that their childhood favorites such as Son Goku and his friends are Asians? It is obviously a huge problem in anime in general and even in Avatar the Last Airbender.

There is absolutely nothing in or outside the story which indicates that Son Goku is supposed to be anything other than an Asian character. In the following I will talk about some of the cultural aspects of Dragon Ball. References are primarily from Derek Padula and his Dragon Ball Culture Volume 2 book, Kanzenshuu and Rachel “TripleRach” Oliver’s translations of the Daizenshuu books. By the way, I am fully aware that South Asians and Central Asians are Asians too. Throughout this post however, when I refer to Asians, I will only be referring to the predominantly China-influenced countries (China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Vietnam) and South East Asia.

Basis for Dragon Ball:
Prior to creating Dragon Ball, Toriyama went on a working vacation to China. He was a huge fan of Hong Kong kung fu films as well as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Based on that, he decided to write a kung fu manga that combined martial arts with a Chinese setting. For his new manga, Toriyama used the most well-known Chinese piece of literature as basis for the story, Journey to the West and thus, Dragon Ball was born. This means that the story was written by a Japanese person to a Japanese audience, based on a Chinese story and setting, with huge inspiration from Hong Kong kung fu movies, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Son Goku:
Obviously since Sun Wukong aka the (Chinese) Monkey King was the main character of Journey to the West, Son Goku was created as a Sun Wukong inspired human boy. Son Goku has a monkey tail, the flying cloud (Kintuon) and staff (Nyoibo) which are some of the elements that Sun Wukong is known for. Furthermore, Son Goku is the Japanese translation of the name Sun Wukong. Obviously since Son Goku is an manga character, real-life characters will never be able to look exactly like him or any other character for that matter. That said, he is a Chinese inspired character who lives in a Chinese inspired setting, has a Chinese inspired home, wears Chinese inspired clothing, fights with Chinese style martial. Moreover, he has black hair, black eyes and depending on which media, he might either have light, “yellow” or tanned skin. In the original manga, in DBGT, in DBS manga and anime, and basically every time Toriyama draws him, he has “yellow” or tanned skin. In Z, he is light skinned. All these things taken into consideration, he is Asian. Toriyama once stated that if Dragon Ball were to be made into live action, his ideal actor to portray Son Goku would be Jackie Chan, an Asian man. Fast forward and instead, Hollywood decided to cast a whitewashed Chadwin Goku. People who cannot accept Son Goku as Asian use the following three arguments which I will be addressing now:

1) He has light skin in Z.
First of all, pale skin is the beauty standard in Asia. It has been for thousands of years. Tan skin back then was associated with lower class field work which indicated that you were poor. Pale skin on the other hand was associated with wealth and social prestige. Since you were wealthy, you did not have to work outside. According to western media oulets (surprise) Asians wanting to have pale skin is because of their desire to look more European. That is absolutely NOT true and just pure BS. As previously mentioned, the beauty standard in Asia is to be pale and therefore, you see a lot of light skinned Asians in East/SE Asia. Sure, a lot of people there use skin whitening products but even without those products, East Asians are naturally pale if they just avoid the sun. This is the complete opposite in the west where everybody loves to get a tan. Just like the white race who have people who tan really fast, they also have people who have a hard time getting a tan. This applies to Asians as well. A lot of light skinned Asians get sunburnt easily instead of getting a tan. Personally speaking, I have Asian friends who are light skinned who just cannot get a tan, regardless of how much they are in the sun.

2) He has big eyes.
Alright, so let me get this straight. Every character in Dragon Ball who has big eyes is naturally white while the ones with small eyes are Asians? No. Eyes mostly represent the personality of the character in Dragon Ball (and anime in general). Big eyes indicate that they could have joyful, innocent, positive or funny personalities. Look at Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma. Then let us compare with the people who have smaller eyes. Vegeta, Tenshinhan, Android 18, Piccolo. See how they are more serious types? So yeah, eye shape in Dragon Ball has nothing to do race but rather personality. Even if eyes were indeed an indicator for race, when have you ever seen a white person with eyes as huge as Son Goku? If you think every Asian person has monolids or small, slanted eyes, please widen your horizon. There are a lot of East/SE Asians with big eyes and double eyelids, myself included.

3) Son Goku is an alien.
Yes, indeed he is. Now let us look back. Prior to becoming an alien, he was an Asian (looking and inspired) kid with a monkey tail. It took Toriyama 17 volumes before he decided to make him an alien. Does this mean that Son Goku went from being an Asian looking guy to an alien looking guy, or, according to some people, a white person? No, not at all. When Son Goku was established as a Saiyan, Toriyama decided to create the Saiyan race as an extension of how Son Goku looked. Therefore, by default the entire Saiyan race is based on Asians. In Daizenshuu 4, Toriyama explicitly referred to pure blooded Saiyans as having “black eyes, black hair and yellow skin”. Humans from Earth on the other hand were referred to as having “black, brown, blonde and multiple hair colors. Black, brown, green, blue eyes and multiple eye colors. White skinned, brown skinned, yellow skinned etc”. This proves that the Saiyan race is a homogenous group (much like Japan, Korea and China). Name one race in the world that is referred to as black haired, black eyed and yellow skinned. Yes, East/SE Asians. Now, Asians do not really have YELLOW skin but that is how Asians are described. Vegeta is also based on real life Japanese actor Seiji Miyaguchi. If Superman is white, then Goku is Asian.

The Dragon World:
The Dragon World is the setting they live in. Much like the real world, they have the Eastern and Western parts of the world. There is the Western world (which includes West City) where Bulma is from. English alphabet, people have different hair and eye colors, the clothing, surroundings and food shows how the Western Dragon World reflects the west in our world. Like Asia, Dragon Ball has the Eastern Dragon Ball world. The very first time we meet Son Goku, he lives on Mount Paozu. The surrounding mountains were drawn based on real-life Chinese mountains. The setting shows how everything is East Asian (Chinese) inspired. The homes (including Goku’s own home), the food (how they use chopsticks, dumplings, rice etc.), surroundings, and the clothing (grandpa Gohan, Gohan, Chichi, Son Goku’s own clothes which resembles the kung fu outfits Jackie Chan wore during his younger days in films depicting the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties). The ki aura and blasts we are all aware of, are based on Chinese Taoist concept as well.

Characters in the Dragon World:
Like I said, we have the East and the West. Majority of the characters we see in the East are black haired, black eyed and either brown, tanned, yellow or light skinned. Son Goku, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Krillin, Yamcha, Yajirobe are all East Asians from the Eastern world, while characters like Bulma, Videl (black hair but blue eyes) Launch, Android 17, 18 are white characters. We also have Native Americans (Bora and Upa), South Asians (Nam and Oob), black people (Black from Red Ribbon Army), Inuits, Australians, Middle Easterns and more that are based on real life ethnicities. Krillin is based on shaolin monks, Chaozu is based on Chinese Hopping Vampires, Jiangshi, and Son Goku on the Monkey King. Shenlong (Shenron) is an Asian dragon as well, not an European dragon. His name literally means God Dragon and Long means dragon in Chinese.

So yeah, what's your view on this whole thing? Kamehameha and kamsahamnida (thank you in Korean).

master roshi is also asian

chi chi is asian too

mercenary tao is asian too

cabba is asian

goku asian

vegeta asian

raditz asian

bardock asian

gine asian

caulifa asian

goten asian

gohan asian

master shen is asian too and many more lol

Now you're plain spamming, stop it.

[MyVisionity]

Caucasian features are Caucasian features, no matter what.

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

I was primarily referring to the blonde hair and blue eyes with regards to Sailor Moon and Naruto.

[MasenkoHA]

Caucasian features are Caucasian features, no matter what.

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

I was primarily referring to the blonde hair and blue eyes with regards to Sailor Moon and Naruto.

Which means absolutely nothing in series where characters have natural blue and pink hair.

[MyVisionity]

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

I was primarily referring to the blonde hair and blue eyes with regards to Sailor Moon and Naruto.

Which means absolutely nothing in series where characters have natural blue and pink hair.

The blue and pink hair does not negate the blonde hair/blue eyes. They are still Caucasian features right alongside the fantasy features.

[MasenkoHA]

I was primarily referring to the blonde hair and blue eyes with regards to Sailor Moon and Naruto.

Which means absolutely nothing in series where characters have natural blue and pink hair.

The blue and pink hair does not negate the blonde hair/blue eyes. They are still Caucasian features right alongside the fantasy features.

But the point is its anime where hair color and eye color is anything goes. Neither Sailor Moon nor Naruto's mangaka seriously went "hmmmm I'm drawing my Japanese characters like they're Caucasian!" To argue they're being drawn as white people because of their blonde hair is ignoring that other characters have hair color that no human has. Usagi and Naruto are Japanese characters being drawn with blonde hair and its the same principle as Chibi Usa and Sakura being drawn with pink hair. You're trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

[MyVisionity]

But the point is its anime where hair color and eye color is anything goes. Neither Sailor Moon nor Naruto's mangaka seriously went "hmmmm I'm drawing my Japanese characters like they're Caucasian!" To argue they're being drawn as white people because of their blonde hair is ignoring that other characters have hair color that no human has. Usagi and Naruto are Japanese characters being drawn with blonde hair and its the same principle as Chibi Usa and Sakura being drawn with pink hair. You're trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

Even assuming that the author didn't actually intend to draw them as White people, they still ended up drawing them as White people. That happens regardless of any intentions. The fantastical hair colors don't change anything. Usagi and Naruto are still Japanese characters being drawn as Caucasian, while Chibi-usa and Sakura are Japanese characters drawn as fantasy-types.

[Soppa Saia People]

have you ever made a good point in 15 years+ of posting

[coeper2000]

Caucasian features are Caucasian features, no matter what.

What are these alleged "Caucasian features"?

Big Disney animation inspired eyes.

Spoiler:

Why do Westerners love to consume Asian media like Dragon Ball but cannot accept the fact that their childhood favorites such as Son Goku and his friends are Asians? It is obviously a huge problem in anime in general and even in Avatar the Last Airbender.

There is absolutely nothing in or outside the story which indicates that Son Goku is supposed to be anything other than an Asian character. In the following I will talk about some of the cultural aspects of Dragon Ball. References are primarily from Derek Padula and his Dragon Ball Culture Volume 2 book, Kanzenshuu and Rachel “TripleRach” Oliver’s translations of the Daizenshuu books. By the way, I am fully aware that South Asians and Central Asians are Asians too. Throughout this post however, when I refer to Asians, I will only be referring to the predominantly China-influenced countries (China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Vietnam) and South East Asia.

Basis for Dragon Ball:
Prior to creating Dragon Ball, Toriyama went on a working vacation to China. He was a huge fan of Hong Kong kung fu films as well as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Based on that, he decided to write a kung fu manga that combined martial arts with a Chinese setting. For his new manga, Toriyama used the most well-known Chinese piece of literature as basis for the story, Journey to the West and thus, Dragon Ball was born. This means that the story was written by a Japanese person to a Japanese audience, based on a Chinese story and setting, with huge inspiration from Hong Kong kung fu movies, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Son Goku:
Obviously since Sun Wukong aka the (Chinese) Monkey King was the main character of Journey to the West, Son Goku was created as a Sun Wukong inspired human boy. Son Goku has a monkey tail, the flying cloud (Kintuon) and staff (Nyoibo) which are some of the elements that Sun Wukong is known for. Furthermore, Son Goku is the Japanese translation of the name Sun Wukong. Obviously since Son Goku is an manga character, real-life characters will never be able to look exactly like him or any other character for that matter. That said, he is a Chinese inspired character who lives in a Chinese inspired setting, has a Chinese inspired home, wears Chinese inspired clothing, fights with Chinese style martial. Moreover, he has black hair, black eyes and depending on which media, he might either have light, “yellow” or tanned skin. In the original manga, in DBGT, in DBS manga and anime, and basically every time Toriyama draws him, he has “yellow” or tanned skin. In Z, he is light skinned. All these things taken into consideration, he is Asian. Toriyama once stated that if Dragon Ball were to be made into live action, his ideal actor to portray Son Goku would be Jackie Chan, an Asian man. Fast forward and instead, Hollywood decided to cast a whitewashed Chadwin Goku. People who cannot accept Son Goku as Asian use the following three arguments which I will be addressing now:

1) He has light skin in Z.
First of all, pale skin is the beauty standard in Asia. It has been for thousands of years. Tan skin back then was associated with lower class field work which indicated that you were poor. Pale skin on the other hand was associated with wealth and social prestige. Since you were wealthy, you did not have to work outside. According to western media oulets (surprise) Asians wanting to have pale skin is because of their desire to look more European. That is absolutely NOT true and just pure BS. As previously mentioned, the beauty standard in Asia is to be pale and therefore, you see a lot of light skinned Asians in East/SE Asia. Sure, a lot of people there use skin whitening products but even without those products, East Asians are naturally pale if they just avoid the sun. This is the complete opposite in the west where everybody loves to get a tan. Just like the white race who have people who tan really fast, they also have people who have a hard time getting a tan. This applies to Asians as well. A lot of light skinned Asians get sunburnt easily instead of getting a tan. Personally speaking, I have Asian friends who are light skinned who just cannot get a tan, regardless of how much they are in the sun.

2) He has big eyes.
Alright, so let me get this straight. Every character in Dragon Ball who has big eyes is naturally white while the ones with small eyes are Asians? No. Eyes mostly represent the personality of the character in Dragon Ball (and anime in general). Big eyes indicate that they could have joyful, innocent, positive or funny personalities. Look at Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Yamcha, Bulma. Then let us compare with the people who have smaller eyes. Vegeta, Tenshinhan, Android 18, Piccolo. See how they are more serious types? So yeah, eye shape in Dragon Ball has nothing to do race but rather personality. Even if eyes were indeed an indicator for race, when have you ever seen a white person with eyes as huge as Son Goku? If you think every Asian person has monolids or small, slanted eyes, please widen your horizon. There are a lot of East/SE Asians with big eyes and double eyelids, myself included.

3) Son Goku is an alien.
Yes, indeed he is. Now let us look back. Prior to becoming an alien, he was an Asian (looking and inspired) kid with a monkey tail. It took Toriyama 17 volumes before he decided to make him an alien. Does this mean that Son Goku went from being an Asian looking guy to an alien looking guy, or, according to some people, a white person? No, not at all. When Son Goku was established as a Saiyan, Toriyama decided to create the Saiyan race as an extension of how Son Goku looked. Therefore, by default the entire Saiyan race is based on Asians. In Daizenshuu 4, Toriyama explicitly referred to pure blooded Saiyans as having “black eyes, black hair and yellow skin”. Humans from Earth on the other hand were referred to as having “black, brown, blonde and multiple hair colors. Black, brown, green, blue eyes and multiple eye colors. White skinned, brown skinned, yellow skinned etc”. This proves that the Saiyan race is a homogenous group (much like Japan, Korea and China). Name one race in the world that is referred to as black haired, black eyed and yellow skinned. Yes, East/SE Asians. Now, Asians do not really have YELLOW skin but that is how Asians are described. Vegeta is also based on real life Japanese actor Seiji Miyaguchi. If Superman is white, then Goku is Asian.

The Dragon World:
The Dragon World is the setting they live in. Much like the real world, they have the Eastern and Western parts of the world. There is the Western world (which includes West City) where Bulma is from. English alphabet, people have different hair and eye colors, the clothing, surroundings and food shows how the Western Dragon World reflects the west in our world. Like Asia, Dragon Ball has the Eastern Dragon Ball world. The very first time we meet Son Goku, he lives on Mount Paozu. The surrounding mountains were drawn based on real-life Chinese mountains. The setting shows how everything is East Asian (Chinese) inspired. The homes (including Goku’s own home), the food (how they use chopsticks, dumplings, rice etc.), surroundings, and the clothing (grandpa Gohan, Gohan, Chichi, Son Goku’s own clothes which resembles the kung fu outfits Jackie Chan wore during his younger days in films depicting the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties). The ki aura and blasts we are all aware of, are based on Chinese Taoist concept as well.

Characters in the Dragon World:
Like I said, we have the East and the West. Majority of the characters we see in the East are black haired, black eyed and either brown, tanned, yellow or light skinned. Son Goku, Tenshinhan, Chaozu, Krillin, Yamcha, Yajirobe are all East Asians from the Eastern world, while characters like Bulma, Videl (black hair but blue eyes) Launch, Android 17, 18 are white characters. We also have Native Americans (Bora and Upa), South Asians (Nam and Oob), black people (Black from Red Ribbon Army), Inuits, Australians, Middle Easterns and more that are based on real life ethnicities. Krillin is based on shaolin monks, Chaozu is based on Chinese Hopping Vampires, Jiangshi, and Son Goku on the Monkey King. Shenlong (Shenron) is an Asian dragon as well, not an European dragon. His name literally means God Dragon and Long means dragon in Chinese.

So yeah, what's your view on this whole thing? Kamehameha and kamsahamnida (thank you in Korean).

master roshi is also asian

chi chi is asian too

mercenary tao is asian too

cabba is asian

goku asian

vegeta asian

raditz asian

bardock asian

gine asian

caulifa asian

goten asian

gohan asian

master shen is asian too and many more lol

Now you're plain spamming, stop it.

nah bro , they are asian

[Zephyr]

But the point is its anime where hair color and eye color is anything goes. Neither Sailor Moon nor Naruto's mangaka seriously went "hmmmm I'm drawing my Japanese characters like they're Caucasian!" To argue they're being drawn as white people because of their blonde hair is ignoring that other characters have hair color that no human has. Usagi and Naruto are Japanese characters being drawn with blonde hair and its the same principle as Chibi Usa and Sakura being drawn with pink hair. You're trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

Even assuming that the author didn't actually intend to draw them as White people, they still ended up drawing them as White people. That happens regardless of any intentions. The fantastical hair colors don't change anything. Usagi and Naruto are still Japanese characters being drawn as Caucasian, while Chibi-usa and Sakura are Japanese characters drawn as fantasy-types.

If they're Japanese but they inexplicably have "non-Japanese hair/eye colors", such as blonde hair/blue eyes, then surely that itself is "fantastical"?

Then again, if we wanted to plug in Real World Science™, then anyone at any time could be born with a mutation that gives them blonde hair and/or blue eyes. That's one factor in reproduction that allows for evolution to occur within populations in the first place. "Caucasian People™" don't have some essential or universal claim over certain phenotypes.

But also, blonde hair in particular isn't even from the Caucasus Mountains, or Europe. From Wikipedia:

Ancient DNA analysis (ADNA) has revealed that the oldest fossil known to carry the derived KITLG allele, which is responsible for blond hair in modern Europeans, is a 17,000 year old Ancient North Eurasian specimen from eastern Siberia.

Geneticist David Reich said that the hundreds of millions of copies of this SNP, the classic European blond hair mutation, entered continental Europe by way of a massive population migration from the Eurasian steppe, by a people who had substantial Ancient North Eurasian ancestry.

What is "Ancient North Eurasian" ancestry? Let's look:

In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (often abbreviated as ANE) is the name given to an ancestral West Eurasian component that represents descent from the people similar to the Mal'ta–Buret' culture and populations closely related to them

The ANE lineage is defined by association with the MA-1, or "Mal'ta boy", the remains of an individual who lived during the Last Glacial Maximum, 24,000 years ago in central Siberia

Populations genetically similar to MA-1 were an important genetic contributor to Native Americans, Europeans, Central Asians, South Asians, and some East Asian groups (such as the Ainu people), in order of significance.

---

So it's logically possible for East Asian individuals to be born with blonde hair. These traits are not immutably and inherently "Caucasian features". It is not inherently contradictory as it's being framed. Maybe Usagi and Naruto have blonde Ainu ancestors who in turn had blonde Mal'ta ancestors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While blue eyes don't seem to go as far back, nothing in the real world precludes the mutation that gave rise to blue eyes coming about again. Similar traits mutating in different places at different points in time is what is known as convergent evolution. If Takeuchi or Kishimoto actually cared about "explaining" these "fantastical" eye and hair colors, they definitely could using real world science. And it wouldn't make the main characters of their works any less Japanese.

[MasenkoHA]

Even assuming that the author didn't actually intend to draw them as White people

We don't have to assume we know.

they still ended up drawing them as White people.

They drew them as characters with blonde hair and blue eyes. Because its manga.

The fantastical hair colors don't change anything.

Of course it doesn't change anything. But not for the reason you think.

Usagi and Naruto are still Japanese characters being drawn as Caucasian

Say those first 7 words but slower until you get it.

They're Japanese characters.

They're not being drawn as caucasian. Because they're Japanese.

while Chibi-usa and Sakura are Japanese characters drawn as fantasy-types.

Logical consistency has always been your Achilles Heel

[MyVisionity]

If they're Japanese but they inexplicably have "non-Japanese hair/eye colors", such as blonde hair/blue eyes, then surely that itself is "fantastical"?

Of course it is, it's a cartoon. Manga/anime style can include a mixture of real world and fantasy elements.

Then again, if we wanted to plug in Real World Science™, then anyone at any time could be born with a mutation that gives them blonde hair and/or blue eyes. That's one factor in reproduction that allows for evolution to occur within populations in the first place. "Caucasian People™" don't have some essential or universal claim over certain phenotypes.

I was praying that no one would attempt to bring in evolutionary science and rare genetic mutations into the discussion. I appreciate the knowledge and information, but this kind of logic and reasoning is largely irrelevant at best and extremely misguided at worst. No offense.

Even assuming that the author didn't actually intend to draw them as White people

We don't have to assume we know.

I don't think we know this at all.

Usagi and Naruto are still Japanese characters being drawn as Caucasian

They're not being drawn as caucasian. Because they're Japanese.

Not mutually exclusive. They are both.

[MasenkoHA]

I don't think we know this at all.

We do though. They're Japanese characters living in Japan ergo they're not being drawn as caucasian.

You're arguing we don't know if 2+2=4 because the answer you get is 5.

Not mutually exclusive.

They are though

[Zephyr]

this kind of logic and reasoning is largely irrelevant at best and extremely misguided at worst.

How so?

[MyVisionity]

They're Japanese characters living in Japan ergo they're not being drawn as caucasian.

You can draw anything in any way you want to. If you're writing about Japanese characters living in Japan, but happen to draw them as Caucasian, then that's what you're doing.

We know that they have Caucasian features because we can see it on the page/screen.

this kind of logic and reasoning is largely irrelevant at best and extremely misguided at worst.

How so?

Because I think that it should be obvious to begin with that no one is considering anything about rare genetic phenotypes and such, neither we or the author. It's an irrational assumption and expectation, and a dramatic leap in logic in my view. Maybe it's just me, but it seems far beyond the realm of appropriate reasoning.

[Zephyr]

Because I think that it should be obvious to begin with that no one is considering anything about rare genetic phenotypes and such, neither we or the author. It's an irrational assumption and expectation, and a dramatic leap in logic in my view. Maybe it's just me, but it seems far beyond the realm of appropriate reasoning.

That's all fine, but I was trying to help you understand why the claim "blonde hair is a Caucasian feature" is false.

[MyVisionity]

Because I think that it should be obvious to begin with that no one is considering anything about rare genetic phenotypes and such, neither we or the author. It's an irrational assumption and expectation, and a dramatic leap in logic in my view. Maybe it's just me, but it seems far beyond the realm of appropriate reasoning.

That's all fine, but I was trying to help you understand why the claim "blonde hair is a Caucasian feature" is false.

It's not a false claim. It is a true claim. Blonde hair/blue eyes is a Caucasian feature. I understand that there can be mutations or rare circumstances, but that point is not relevant. It's a predominantly Caucasian feature. This sort of logic is extreme and beyond the scope of this discussion.

[Ten na nGael]

There's plenty of videos on youtube where Japanese people are asked what ethnicity various anime characters are and almost immediately say blond haired Disney-eyed characters are Japanese. Just have a look at the channel of "That Japanese Man Yuta". Sometimes they correct themselves, but it's to say "No wait, she looks Vietnamese". Sometimes when the character is literally meant to be European they still think they're half-Japanese. So personally I think the vast majority of characters in Dragonball are Japanese or occasionally Chinese.

Even more interesting to me is that sometimes the ethnicity Japanese viewers assign to characters isn't even something I'd come up with, like "He looks Turko-Mongol" etc.

[coeper2000]

But the point is its anime where hair color and eye color is anything goes. Neither Sailor Moon nor Naruto's mangaka seriously went "hmmmm I'm drawing my Japanese characters like they're Caucasian!" To argue they're being drawn as white people because of their blonde hair is ignoring that other characters have hair color that no human has. Usagi and Naruto are Japanese characters being drawn with blonde hair and its the same principle as Chibi Usa and Sakura being drawn with pink hair. You're trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

Even assuming that the author didn't actually intend to draw them as White people, they still ended up drawing them as White people. That happens regardless of any intentions. The fantastical hair colors don't change anything. Usagi and Naruto are still Japanese characters being drawn as Caucasian, while Chibi-usa and Sakura are Japanese characters drawn as fantasy-types.

If they're Japanese but they inexplicably have "non-Japanese hair/eye colors", such as blonde hair/blue eyes, then surely that itself is "fantastical"?

Then again, if we wanted to plug in Real World Science™, then anyone at any time could be born with a mutation that gives them blonde hair and/or blue eyes. That's one factor in reproduction that allows for evolution to occur within populations in the first place. "Caucasian People™" don't have some essential or universal claim over certain phenotypes.

But also, blonde hair in particular isn't even from the Caucasus Mountains, or Europe. From Wikipedia:

Ancient DNA analysis (ADNA) has revealed that the oldest fossil known to carry the derived KITLG allele, which is responsible for blond hair in modern Europeans, is a 17,000 year old Ancient North Eurasian specimen from eastern Siberia.

Geneticist David Reich said that the hundreds of millions of copies of this SNP, the classic European blond hair mutation, entered continental Europe by way of a massive population migration from the Eurasian steppe, by a people who had substantial Ancient North Eurasian ancestry.

What is "Ancient North Eurasian" ancestry? Let's look:

In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (often abbreviated as ANE) is the name given to an ancestral West Eurasian component that represents descent from the people similar to the Mal'ta–Buret' culture and populations closely related to them

The ANE lineage is defined by association with the MA-1, or "Mal'ta boy", the remains of an individual who lived during the Last Glacial Maximum, 24,000 years ago in central Siberia

Populations genetically similar to MA-1 were an important genetic contributor to Native Americans, Europeans, Central Asians, South Asians, and some East Asian groups (such as the Ainu people), in order of significance.

---

So it's logically possible for East Asian individuals to be born with blonde hair. These traits are not immutably and inherently "Caucasian features". It is not inherently contradictory as it's being framed. Maybe Usagi and Naruto have blonde Ainu ancestors who in turn had blonde Mal'ta ancestors. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

While blue eyes don't seem to go as far back, nothing in the real world precludes the mutation that gave rise to blue eyes coming about again. Similar traits mutating in different places at different points in time is what is known as convergent evolution. If Takeuchi or Kishimoto actually cared about "explaining" these "fantastical" eye and hair colors, they definitely could using real world science. And it wouldn't make the main characters of their works any less Japanese.

------

well most anime have to have a certain fantasy look , you can also see it with other characters , most black people in animes have white hair , like killer bee , or Sphintus Carmen , even black people in street fighter tend to have white hair , even though black people look much different in real life , sasuke and all uchihas are straight up asian