Is Brock black?

[Rei_Zero]

Ya, so maybe Masato has that uncommon caucasian gene with brown eyes, or maybe they have someone who was asian in their family, that passed on the trait to Masato.
BTW can you check Senri and his wife to see what color they have?

[Hanada Tattsu]

Originally posted by Rei_Zero
Ya, so maybe Masato has that uncommon caucasian gene with brown eyes, or maybe they have someone who was asian in their family, that passed on the trait to Masato.
BTW can you check Senri and his wife to see what color they have?

Senri has black eyes, and last time I checked I think that Mitsuko had brownish-hazel eyes, like Masato's. She might have blue, I'm not sure. But I know that Senri had black.

[Bacl]

Originally posted by Hanada Tattsu
Who's tried onigiri? I love it!

Curiosity got the better of me and I finally found a recipe for onigiri and made a batch last night. MMMMmmmmm...I love it! No wonder Brock makes it all the time! It's great!

[Hanada Tattsu]

Originally posted by Bacl
Curiosity got the better of me and I finally found a recipe for onigiri and made a batch last night. MMMMmmmmm...I love it! No wonder Brock makes it all the time! It's great!

I know, people think its yucky, but it's really very tasty and unique! *eats more onigiri*

[Misty]

Brock is almost certainly a darker japanese...

Ash is probably a half-japanese half-european thing. His mother looks fairly european, but we don't know anything about his dad(and PLEASE don't talk about that kthx)

Misty... she has sort of the white-skinned red-haired Irish thing. She may be an immigrant or descendant of one or something.

In my opinion, that makes sense from the sectionalized audience appeal standpoint... You have the dark Brock, the light Ash, and the european Misty...

Eye color doesn't mean anything in anime. In a place where you can have blue hair and have it be fairly normal, I wouldn't look to eye color to define race.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Guys, you seem to think that Pokemon takes place in Japan, in Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka...

Well, it doesn't. The anime takes place in either Kanto, the Orange Islands, Johto, the Whirl Islands, Hoenn, and any where else in the Pokemon continent. Now, real places have been mentioned, like James, in the dub, saying that Koga's gym looked like a Japanese restaurant, or the whole Hollywood issue in the Lights, Camera, Quacktion - Go West Young Meowth thingie.

However, just letting you guys know that even though the show is made and animated in Japan, the show does not take place in any real continent, it takes place in a land of its own.

[Misty]

Originally posted by Hanada Tattsu
Guys, you seem to think that Pokemon takes place in Japan, in Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka...

Well, it doesn't. The anime takes place in either Kanto, the Orange Islands, Johto, the Whirl Islands, Hoenn, and any where else in the Pokemon continent. Now, real places have been mentioned, like James, in the dub, saying that Koga's gym looked like a Japanese restaurant, or the whole Hollywood issue in the Lights, Camera, Quacktion - Go West Young Meowth thingie.

However, just letting you guys know that even though the show is made and animated in Japan, the show does not take place in any real continent, it takes place in a land of its own.

If that's the case, why are we even bothering with this discussion? Let's just say they're all Kantonese(bad pun) and end this.

[The Rusted One]

Who's to say, then, that they aren't all the same race? I mean, big deal, they look different - but that may just be the tendencies of their particular race, whatever that may be. I mean, I'm part Italian, and the only think that you'd know that by is my dark brown eyes - and even that's a bit of a stretch. In fact, my red hair makes people think that I'm almost straight out of Ireland, Scotland, or some place in Europe where Celtic people still abound.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Well, I mean there are different kinds of people in any race. The only thing I can see is that there are no Asians (full-Asians, not Asians who have white parents) then they all have brown or black eyes.

[Sunkern336]

Anyway, people who have one of their parents coming from Asia and the other coming from Europe are called Eurasians, if you had wanted to know.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Originally posted by Sunkern336
Anyway, people who have one of their parents coming from Asia and the other coming from Europe are called Eurasians, if you had wanted to know.

Yeah, in fact, people are debating wether to call the continents of Europe and Asia Eurasia. It's been a controversy for quite some time now.

[BenRG]

Originally posted by Hanada Tattsu
Guys, you seem to think that Pokemon takes place in Japan, in Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka...

Well, it doesn't. The anime takes place in either Kanto, the Orange Islands, Johto, the Whirl Islands, Hoenn, and any where else in the Pokemon continent.

Yes, thanks, I knew that. The question is, however, where did the people come from?

If, as I suspect, Pokémon takes place on an isolated set of island continents (a bit like Australia or Antarctica), then the people must have come from overseas somewhere. From the differing styles of archetecture (Ecruteak City is really Japanese, while Goldenrod is more like a city in America), it is obvious that the Pokémon Islands have been the target of several different 'waves' of colonisation. While there are clearly ethnic orientals (mainly Japanese), we also see ethnic European races (like Misty's family - probably Gaelic).

Although the Pokémon world is fictional, the various mentions of real places indicates that it is part of a world basically similar to ours, with all the same nations. So it is relevant to ask what ethnic or racial group the various characters come from. 8)

[Hanada Tattsu]

Yeah, I guess the Pokemon World is like its own continent, that sounds just about right.

Brock's family probably came from Japan, Misty's and May's families came from Ireland or Northern Ireland, and Ash came from... where did Ash come from? ^^;;

Well, I guess he comes from somewhere in Europe, maybe Italy or Austria. Ash looks kinda Hungarian or Romanian.

[Misty]

Although I'm pretty sure Misty is European, I don't know about Ash. He's got a definite tan, and his mom is pale white... His dad must have had a fairly medium dark skin...

[Rei_Zero]

You can get a tan from the sun and your parents can still be snow white. Also, Ash's mom is probably Asian, as she has brown hair and brown eyes.

[Hanada Tattsu]

What race is Giovanni? He looks half-European and half- Asian. Or you could say Eurasian.

[Bacl]

Originally posted by Hanada Tattsu
What race is Giovanni? He looks half-European and half- Asian. Or you could say Eurasian.

Isn't Giovanni and Italian name? Talk about stereotypes.

[Toon Dragon]

Originally posted by BenRG
There are as many variations in eye size in Japan as there are in other places, so Brock is just a guy with especially narrow eyes.

I believe it's a pun. See, the Japanese believe large eyes represent innosence (which is why young animé characters have huge eyes.) So, if Brock/Takeshi has small eyes, that must make him not so innocent .

[Hanada Tattsu]

Yeah, there is maybe a dark side to Brock.

As for Giovanni, the dubbers gave him a name because of the fact that he is the mastermind of an evil organization, so 4Kids took this into consideration. Giovanni is usually (through stereotypation) an Italian name of a godfather in the mafia.

You solve it.

[The Rusted One]

The name would also have been chosen because of the "Geo", as in, "earth", connection - him being the Gym Leader to give you the Earth Badge and all. However, I still do believe he is supposed to be the typical Italian, wealthy, educated gang lord.
I've always assumed he was Italian.

Now, Misty and May don't have to be Irish, or anything like that - to me, however, they are clearly European. I say that Misty may not be Irish because you do get red-haired, pale skinned people in all European countries - in fact, she could just as easily be Russian. Odds are she isn't Mediterranean, but the possibility is there; any European race could be the root of her ancestry, really; perhaps the main reason she was given red hair, etc., was to clash a little with the blue/green qualities of water. I mean, most gym leaders have attributes that reflect the element they train - Misty has nothing, aside from her name.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Well, what about May? May kinda looks like a Russian to me, the daughter of the Tsar Nicholas the II? Well, kinda, you gotta admit.

[BenRG]

I would say that Ash is probably meant to be Japanese or possibly Japanese/American. It would fit in with the target audiences of the animé. It also is suggested by his overall 'look', which seems oriental to me.

May might be European. Either way, she is almost certainly caucasian in origin. Maybe 'white' (European) Russian?

[Hanada Tattsu]

Well, Russians have brown/yellow hair, and usually blue eyes, kinda like Germans. So May does fit that category.

[Kairu_Hakubi]

takeshi (brock) is a ganguro. there's lots of them in anime, and they often have white-blonde hair for effect. it doesnt mean theyre any particular race (though perhaps they're supposed to resemble the ainu) it's just how it happens.

other famous ganguro are Ed from bebop, Kaollasu from Love Hina, and mimiru from .hack

[Bacl]

Originally posted by Kairu_Hakubi
takeshi (brock) is a ganguro. there's lots of them in anime, and they often have white-blonde hair for effect. it doesnt mean theyre any particular race (though perhaps they're supposed to resemble the ainu) it's just how it happens.

other famous ganguro are Ed from bebop, Kaollasu from Love Hina, and mimiru from .hack

What exactly does ganguro mean?

[Dragon_Claw]

she's not russian. I think she's just the average europian. Maybe Dutch, heh!

[Hanada Tattsu]

Dutch? Hmm, maybe, or Belgian? She looks Scandinavian actually, she looks either Finnish or Norwegian, not Danish or Swedish, the Danes and the Swedes have more nordic appearences.

And what is ganguro? Please explain these things.

[Girafarig]

Well, in Northen Japan, there is a race of people called the Ainu which are related to the Aboriginies of Australia. They have darker skin and hair, so Brock might be one of those.

[Bacl]

Originally posted by Girafarig
Well, in Northen Japan, there is a race of people called the Ainu which are related to the Aboriginies of Australia. They have darker skin and hair, so Brock might be one of those.

That's really interesting. I've never heard of Ainu before. I looked them up in my encyclopedia and this is what it had:

Ainu, pronounced EYE noo, are a group of people who may have been the first inhabitants of what is now Japan. There are about 15,000 Ainu. Most of the Ainu live on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island. Until the mid-1900's, some Ainu also lived on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Sakhalin is a part of Russia. Russia claims and occupies all the Kurils, but Japan claims the southernmost ones.

Scientists are uncertain about the ancestry of the Ainu. Some anthropologists think the Ainu are related to European peoples. Other anthropologists believe they are related to Asian peoples or Australian Aborigines, the original inhabitants of Australia. The Ainu language has not been clearly classified.

Through the centuries, many Ainu have intermarried with the Japanese and other neighboring peoples. The village was once the basic unit of Ainu society. Each village was headed by a leader and consisted of 5 to 30 one-room houses. Hunting, fishing, and gathering plants provided food for the community. The Ainu practiced a complicated set of religious ceremonies.

The Ainu have long been victims of discrimination. However, they have started a movement to achieve fair treatment in Japan. The Japanese government has begun a program of economic aid for the Ainu.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Yes, from what I remember of my history lessons the Ainu were the first tribe to set foot in one of the four islands of Japan, I think it was Hokkaido.

Also, let me give you guys a brief history of Sakhalin. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese defeated soundly Tsar Nicholas the II's (remember this from my fic ^^) Russian armies, and the Japanese took complete control of the island. Now, following the 1917 Russian revolution when Vladimir Lenin overthrew the tsar and took control of Russia, he and Japan signed a treaty of some sort to divide the island of Sakhalin, half to Russia, and the southern part to Japan. In recent events, after communism was abolished in Russia, the island was taken by Russia, under supervision by the Japanese.

[Bacl]

Well, in American television nowadays, most shows try and represent our cultural diversity by having characters of different ethnic groups. Maybe in Japan they do a similar thing, and Brock is meant to be Ainu.

I wish we could ask the actual makers of the show this question. I'd be interested if they said, "Well, we always thought of Takeshi as Ainu. It doesn't have anything to do with the show, but when we conceptualized and designed the characters we thought of him as such." or "Not at all. That's just the way he was drawn. When we create characters we try out different skin tones and hair colors to see what looks right. That's all ther eis to it."

[The Rusted One]

I have trouble believing Brock to be Ainu; I mean, the Ainu are basically isolated to Hokkaido, by choice. They don't, I think, really venture anywhere apart from there, as their culture, etc., is found nowhere else in Japan.

However, he could be Okinawan, as the people there are very closely related to the Ainu (the theory goes that as the modern Japanese people entered Japan, they pushed the Ainu away from the middle and out towards the ends of Japan, and in Hokkaido, they largely remained separate due to a lack of want to move to Hokkaido, but in Okinawa, a far more attractive place, they intermixed freely) - so if he was to be Ainu, or descended from any Ainu people, I'd say he was from there (or somewhere similar in terms of Pokémon world geography.

[Hanada Tattsu]

Hmm, well I think in recent years the Ainu have moved south to Kyushu, and to places like Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya. Of course, the city of Osaka is very unique in terms of diversity, because it has a very high percentile of South Koreans.

[Mikey]

I believe Brock just has a tan. Japanese peope really never include "blacks" in their games. No offense, but that's how it is. There isn't many in Japan, so most of their people are just normal everyday caucasians.

[Bacl]

Originally posted by GoldenNoctowl77
There isn't many in Japan, so most of their people are just normal everyday caucasians.

I think you mean asians, not caucasians.

[Hanada Tattsu]

I think he meant white people, but Asians aren't really White, they're just, 'Asian'.

[Mayamyu]

When it comes to races in anime, I think most characters are Asian, but not necessarily with Asian features. A good example of this is Sailor Moon, in which most of the characters come from Japan, and yet have any hair/eye color the creator wished. The main character is blonde with blue eyes! All in all, I think Ash is asian, Misty is Caucasian, and Brock.....
Brock has a tan. That's just my opinion, though.

BTW, occasionly there are Black people in anime, but they look a bit more um, 'stereotypical'.

[Mikey]

No, I meant caucasian. (another term for white) I don't believe the creators really make them asian. They just draw a person, not really meaning to make it white, black, or asian. They let the viewers think of them as they want.

[Dr_Omicron]

Well, Borck has slits for eyes, which, at least from what I hear, is how the japanese draw people from other parts of Asia. (There are also times when the people have 3's for eyes for some reason, such as Nobita without his glasses from Doraemon and 006 from Cyborg 009.) Due to his skin color, since it's a pretty yellowish tan, though not dark enough to be considered brown, I would have to guess that he either hails from Southeast Asia, the Philippines, or Indonesia/its surrounding islands.

But that's only my guess. For all we know, he could be Egyptian, which means he IS black.

[Rei_Zero]

Or Middle-Eastern. Just because he's got a tan and he's asian wouldn't mean he's a South Eastern. I know some people who are really tanned but are Chinese.