Asuka's Appearance

[Dave]

Is Asuka suppose to appear more caucasian than Japanese? To me the design of her face does seem a little bit different from the Japanese characters in the show. However it is nearly impossible to tell the difference in caucasian and Japanese characters when it comes to anime (there are a few styles where the characters are notably Japanese, but these are few and far between), so I suppose this could just be a little wishful thinking on my part.

[Asuka Langley]

All of the characters have little traits about their design that are different than the others.
I'm not sure if she's actually meant to look more caucasian. But she is over German descent to some degree... altho, they have the red hair/blue eyes for that.

[houtaru]

I wondered about that myself. I always thought she was german looking. She's supposed to be half Japanese. So I guess she's both german and Japanese. Did she grow up in America or Germany in the series?

[Asuka Langley]

I think Germany, since she was speaking it when she first arrived.
The manga just says she's an American citizen.

[Karma Burn]

If you haven't noticed...but all anime characters tend to look more cuasian than Japanese.

[The Eva Monkey]

From about the 20s-50s comic artists and animators were heavily influenced by the Disney animation studio. One manga artist named Osamu Tezuka, known for works such as Astro Boy and Metropolis, was especially known for being influenced by Disney. In fact, in many people's opinion, Tenzuka is the "father" of the modern manga and anime style. The anime/manga style of today is infact an extreme abstraction on Disney. This is why characters have a caucasion appearance in many instances.

Asuka is 3/4 German, 1/4 Japanese, but with American nationality, according to the End of Evangelion program book. So in terms of ethnicity, she is predminantly caucasion.

When dealing with character designs, I think its fairly easy to just mix and match. I think the only thing about Asuka's appearance that is not stereotypically Japanese is the brilliant red hair and blue eyes. Natural red heads are uncommon in Japan, and those with that kind of natural red hair are extremely rare. Most people with hair of that color are fake red heads. I'm not sure about blue eyes, but I believe thats quite uncommon to be natural, so I question Shinji's blue eyes as well.

[Dave]

From about the 20s-50s comic artists and animators were heavily influenced by the Disney animation studio. One manga artist named Osamu Tezuka, known for works such as Astro Boy and Metropolis, was especially known for being influenced by Disney. In fact, in many people's opinion, Tenzuka is the "father" of the modern manga and anime style. The anime/manga style of today is infact an extreme abstraction on Disney. This is why characters have a caucasion appearance in many instances.

Asuka is 3/4 German, 1/4 Japanese, but with American nationality, according to the End of Evangelion program book. So in terms of ethnicity, she is predminantly caucasion.

When dealing with character designs, I think its fairly easy to just mix and match. I think the only thing about Asuka's appearance that is not stereotypically Japanese is the brilliant red hair and blue eyes. Natural red heads are uncommon in Japan, and those with that kind of natural red hair are extremely rare. Most people with hair of that color are fake red heads. I'm not sure about blue eyes, but I believe thats quite uncommon to be natural, so I question Shinji's blue eyes as well.

I already knew about Osamu and his love for Disney. I was wondering if anyone knew what Gainax imagined Asuka would look like when they created her.

[The Eva Monkey]

I already knew about Osamu and his love for Disney.

Not everyone is versed on the more inner working of the anime/manga industry, how it works, how it developped, etc, which is why I felt the need to bring it up, and it was more directed to Karma Burn, as he commented that all anime characters look caucasion.

I was wondering if anyone knew what Gainax imagined Asuka would look like when they created her.

That I do not know. I've never read any commentary by Sadamoto in regards to Asuka's visual design.

There are a few visual parallels between Nadia and Evangelion, and I'm thinking that Asuka's design might have come from there. Nadia is where Shinji's design comes from. The main male character, Jean, looks a bit like Kensuke. And there's a firey red head in there named Grandis that could pass as an adult Asuka. I may really be reaching there, especially as I've only seen a few episodes, but I think there's a parallel.

Nadia characters: http://utd500.utdallas.edu/~hairston/nadiachar.html

[Hunter21]

Your'e not reaching at all EM. The whole time I watched the Nadia series I could see parallels. Personally I think Jean is Kensuke's clone sent back in time to live in France.

[Asuka Langley]

I already knew about Osamu and his love for Disney. I was wondering if anyone knew what Gainax imagined Asuka would look like when they created her.

Alright, but don't you think that she is designed in the way that they imagined her?
I'd certainly hope she would be by now, as unfinished character ideas don't usually get put into production works.

I mean, earlier sketches show her with shorter, more brownish hair and freckles.
But she still had the same sort of eyes, and she still had that little 'temper flare' look about her.

[Dave]

Alright, but don't you think that she is designed in the way that they imagined her?

I think you kind of misinterpreted my question Asuka. What I want to know is: how did they imagine her?

[Asuka Langley]

I did not misinterpret.
You asked how they imagined her, so dont you think the artist would try to make that character look as close to the originally 'imagined' idea as possible?

In order to find out how they 'imagined her' you'd probably have to ask Sadamoto himself. And he'd probably say something like 'cute' or whatever.

[Dark FireStar]

i wonder if that would be possible

[advent_child]

i wonder if that would be possible

What exactly?

[Reichu]

I mean, earlier sketches show her with shorter, more brownish hair and freckles.

Hah! I remember those pictures. It always seemed to me like they "extracted" those traits from Asuka and created Hikari with them.

Out of curiosity, where does all of this "American" business come from? How is Asuka connected to America? And "American" is hardly a nationality... We're a country of mutts, for crying out loud!

[Asuka Langley]

In the manga character biographies, and I'm not sure about the ones on the DVDs, it says that Asuka is an American citizen.

Whether or not she briefly mentioned this, slips my mind currently.

[sadsadshinji]

who knows...maybe had something to do with eva?

[Reichu]

In the manga character biographies, and I'm not sure about the ones on the DVDs, it says that Asuka is an American citizen.

Whether or not she briefly mentioned this, slips my mind currently.

This doesn't make much sense to me... In the anime, anyway, it's fairly obvious that she'd been living in Germany, no?

[Dark FireStar]

I thinks shes just a white girl so just leave it at that lol

[advent_child]

I thinks shes just a white girl so just leave it at that lol