Human Charater Ethnicity

[Veggie_Man]

Oooooh! I've always wanted to do a thread on this at Serebii but didn't know how to name it

I think that
Ash - Italian/Japanese
Misty is Irish and/or German
James is English
It always seemed to me that May/Max/Norman were Jewish. I don't know why. But come to think about it, May's family seems a bit Italian.
Brock is like Native American/Mexican. Native Americans can have eyes like that.
Hikari - Japanese sounded pretty accurate actually.
Bugsy - Dutch (joke)
Whitney - French/English
Richie - part Irish part Italian (I've done a fanfic on Richie's family having family in Italy and May coming to Italy to see them *is an AdvanceCloneShipper*)
Vivian/Lilian/Momoan - French
Jump - Jamaican
Azami - either Japanese or Jewish
Kogomi - Swedish
Hinata - English
Nozomi - Irish, English
Kengo - German, Italian
Natane - English/Italian

almost all of those guesses are made solely on their appearances.
I kinda see most of the cast as caucasian, coming mostly from Europe since they tend to have our skin tones, eye colors and hair colors.




That's the name NoA gave him. Is Adan Spanish or something? Unless he is supposed to look like a Spanish person.

Yes, Adan is Spanish for Adam.

 

[Chauncy]

Glacia strikes me as possibly being German.

As for just about everyone else in the games, I've just assumed that they're Japanese, due to the fact that their artists are Japanese and the game geography is modeled after Japan.

 

[turquoisepaws]

Wtf the Asian Brock and Black girl Iris are the only minorities, everyone else white.
Ash-stereotypical American (South Euro descent)
Misty-Irish
May-Italian her family
Dawn-German the last name
Cilan-Irish
Serena-French
James-British
Jessie-Canadian

 

[KaylaBaraonda]

There are various possibilities.

1) The world has the same landmasses we have. Hence it has the same history, races, and ethnicities. Hence the characters are the same ethnicities as whatever their specific region is.
Hence the first four regions are mostly Japanese. They (alongside Sevii, Orange Islands, and Sinjoh) make up a country which I've seen being called Shoyo.
Unova is of European (Galarian but also from Pokémon versions of Germany and Italy), Jewish, African, and some Native American and Asian descent. Pretty much all races are there.
Kalos is Kalosian (French) but also has Middle Easterners and Africans.
Alola is Native Alolan (Hawaiian) but also has Melanesians, Galarians, and Shoyonese (people from the first 4 regions).
Galar is Galarian (British) but also has South Asians and Africans.
So basically the world is a melting pot like our world, there are many people who beat leagues in all regions and end up somewhere far away.

2) Only a limited number of Poké-regions are there. Hence a smaller world with a different looking map. Meaning the history would end up different, and the characters literally look like anime characters in-universe, and that may in fact be their ethnicity. Expecially if the world is small enough. Or otherwise the ethnicities are different than our Earth. Or the Pokéworld has no ethnicity and just regionality instead.

3) All the regions have Pokémon in them that are based on animals, plants, and concepts from somewhere completely different than the region's main basis. So maybe it is the case for human ethnicities, expecially since their genetics often seem to follow anime rules instead of real world ones. This is actually common in Nintendo games, for example in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario is Italian and Peach is more ambiguous northern European, yet they're from pretty much next to each other. Or in ARMS where they're all from a small island but seem to be completely separate ethnicities. The Pokéworld could be the same, where people can be different ethnicity from the rest of the town or even family, despite not being immigrants\adopted. After all some of the player characters can be made every coloring yet they're still from the same family and region.

4) The Pokémon world was originally the 1 possibility, but Pokémon training has made each region much more multiethnic. Usually less than 50% of people in a region are actually native or of mostly native descent to it, and more than 50% of an ethnicity lives outside their ethnic homelands.

5) Characters are of different ethnicities in different translations of the games.

In the game canon, it seems to be mostly possibility 1 (their history and geography - and thus ethnicities and cultures - is a Pokéfied version of the real world) but the anime and some of the spinoff and manga stray into possibility 2.
Though it likely is somewhat more multiethnic than in the real world.

I think with Gen 1, Game Freak meant to make Kanto all Japanese except Surge who is American of European (propably Galarian) descent.
In Gen 2, I think Johto is still all Japanese.
Gen 3, also all Japanese except Tate and Liza (who are Chinese), and Glacia who is European (propably Galarian or Kalosian). Phoebe is Okinawan which is kind of a Japanese subethnicity.
Gen 4, also all Japanese except Fantina who is half Kalosian half Galarian, and the main trio who is Ainu and descended from the Pokémon Legends main trio. Because Ainus nowadays are where Twinleaf and Sandgem are. And Dahlia is Mexican.

Gen 5, the Striaton triplets are of Galarian descent, Lenora is black, Burgh is Jewish, Elesa is also western European, Clay is Japanese, Skyla is Italian, Brycen is some kind of Asian, Drayden is mulatto\quadroon, Iris is actually from Blacktorn herself and is thus also Japanese but looks different from Clair and Lance because she resembles Zekrom, Cheren and Bianca are Slavic\Bulgarian, Hilda, Hilbert, Nate, Rosa, N, and Hugh are German. Yancy and Curtis are propably also German and\or of Galarian descent. Roxie is also of western European descent, Marlon is also Italian but with a very dark tan to a point it does'nt exist in real life. Shauntal is also white or likely hapa\quapa, Marshal is one fourth white three fourths black, Grimslay is white and descended from European nobility, Caitlin is Japanese since she's originally from Sinnoh, Alder and Benga are descended from Unova's Native American chiefs but Benga's other grandparents are of Galarian\German descent, possibly even Alder has European ancestry himself. Colress propably also of German descent. The Seven sages also propably of German and Galarian descent.

Gen 6, Calem, Serena and Trevor are Kalosian, Tierno is Spanish, Shauna is Middle Eastern, Emma is Occitanian (which is a kind of Kalosian), Viola is also Kalosian, Grant is black likely either from Sahel or is part white ancestry, Korrina is also Kalosian, Ramos is Kalosian, Clemont is Kalosian, Valerie is Japanese, Olympia is Middle Eastern, Wulfric is Alsatian (they're a kind of German that's a bit more French than usual), Malva is Occitanian or half\quarter Occitanian, Siebold is Kalosian, Wikstrom is Occitanian or half\quarter Occitanian, Drasna is Japanese, Diantha is Kalosian, the rest of Team Flare also propably of Kalosian origin. Dexio is also Kalosian while Sina is Occitanian.

Gen 7: Sun and Moon are Japanese, Hau is Native Alolan, Lillie and family are German, Ilima is Native Alolan, Lana is Japanese or maybe hafu\quapa, Mallow is Native Alolan, Sophocles is Japanese, Molayne is half Japanese half Galarian, Acerola is Japanese, Mina is Galarian, Guzma and Plumeria are Spanish, Hala is also Native Alolan, Olivia is three quarters Melanesian one quarter Alolan or half Melanesian half Alolan, Acerola is Japanese, Kahili is Galarian, Kukui is Native Alolan, Burnet is from Unova so she is tanned Italian, Hapu is half Japanese half Native Alolan, Ryuki is either Japanese or is the middle gen between Alder and Benga.

Gen 8: Victor and Gloria are Galarian, Marnie, Piers and Bede are also Galarian, Hop and Leon are Pakistani, Rose and Peony are also Pakistani, Peonia is half Pakistani half Galarian, Sonia is also Galarian, Milo is Galarian, Nessa is black, Kabu is Japanese, Bea is half Pakistani half Galarian, Allister is Galarian, Opal is Galarian, Gordie and Melony are Russian, Raihan is black, Klara is Galarian, and Avery is also Galarian.

 

[Ricbolog]

1) The world has the same landmasses we have. Hence it has the same history, races, and ethnicities. Hence the characters are the same ethnicities as whatever their specific region is.

From episode the Johto League episode "Can't Beat the Heath!"

 

[KaylaBaraonda]

From episode the Johto League episode "Can't Beat the Heath!"
View attachment 141311

Basically our Earth but with landmasses closer together, Japan and Korea smaller, Malaysian peninsula also smaller, Malay archipelago smaller and much further north, Australia smaller and somewhat further north, Taiwan, Philipphines, New Zealand, and pacific islands nonhesistent.

But then again other episodes have globes completely different from our Earth, like so:

That's Unova at the center, and it seems to make up a big part of the world. Like the size of Europe compared to our world. This means each region is around 6.8% of the Pokéworld.
Together, the 8 main regions would make up about 54.4% of the Pokéworld. Which I think means there's about 15 regions, or perhaps 14 regions but with some extra-regional areas.
Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Orange, Decolore, Orre, Fiore, Almia, Oblivia make up 14, perhaps with Sevii, Sinjoh, the expansion pass places, Holon, Faraway Island\Guyana, and Nature Preserve then making the remaining 7% of the Pokéworld.

And then again each time we see a globe or map in the games it looks completely different.

 

[Ricbolog]

View attachment 141334Basically our Earth but with landmasses closer together, Japan and Korea smaller, Malaysian peninsula also smaller, Malay archipelago smaller and much further north, Australia smaller and somewhat further north, Taiwan, Philipphines, New Zealand, and pacific islands nonhesistent.

But then again other episodes have globes completely different from our Earth, like so:

That's Unova at the center, and it seems to make up a big part of the world. Like the size of Europe compared to our world. This means each region is around 6.8% of the Pokéworld.
Together, the 8 main regions would make up about 54.4% of the Pokéworld. Which I think means there's about 15 regions, or perhaps 14 regions but with some extra-regional areas.
Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Orange, Decolore, Orre, Fiore, Almia, Oblivia make up 14, perhaps with Sevii, Sinjoh, the expansion pass places, Holon, Faraway Island\Guyana, and Nature Preserve then making the remaining 7% of the Pokéworld.

And then again each time we see a globe or map in the games it looks completely different.

Yeah, they haven't been super consistent about that. But at least it shows that there is a good possibility that the Pokémon world does indeed have the same landmasses we have

 

[Phosphene]

Attempting to discern regions from globes shown in Pokémon media seems like a futile attempt considering there's no set-in-stone map of the world. Pretty much all globes appear to be pretty generic outside of a few real-world references in the early anime (early installment weirdness in action) if I remember correctly, and any map could be retconned out of existence by yet another globe. I'm guessing the vague geography of the Pokémon world was done so that GameFreak has free range to create regions rather than be constrained to an ultimately semi-arbitrary map.

Edit: I forgot to read the thread title... thought this was about something completely different.

 

[KaylaBaraonda]

Attempting to discern regions from globes shown in Pokémon media seems like a futile attempt considering there's no set-in-stone map of the world. Pretty much all globes appear to be pretty generic outside of a few real-world references in the early anime (early installment weirdness in action) if I remember correctly, and any map could be retconned out of existence by yet another globe. I'm guessing the vague geography of the Pokémon world was done so that GameFreak has free range to create regions rather than be constrained to an ultimately semi-arbitrary map.

Edit: I forgot to read the thread title... thought this was about something completely different.

Maybe the regions are on different planets.

Like, the first four regions are on one planet, Unova on another planet, Kalos yet another planet, Alola yet another planet, and Galar yet another planet.

 

[Phosphene]

Maybe the regions are on different planets.

Like, the first four regions are on one planet, Unova on another planet, Kalos yet another planet, Alola yet another planet, and Galar yet another planet.

I believe that it’s been confirmed multiple times that the regions are all on the same planet.

 

[KaylaBaraonda]

I believe that it’s been confirmed multiple times that the regions are all on the same planet.

Then maybe Regigigas, Groudon, and Kyogre change landmasses around a lot.

 

[Welkamo]

Maybe it's an inconsistency thing, or maybe it's trying to blur the lines between the real world and the Pokémon world.