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Human Charater Ethnicity

MangaBottle

Lost and Confused...
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This is a question that keeps popping up again and again -- character ethinicty. I saw it crop up again just now on another forum
I think since it's such a talking point it's worthwhile giving the subject it's own article on the wiki
Anyway, my ideas about specific chacters just to illustrate what I mean:
Brock: Either Asian Latino or Fillipino
Phoebe: From Oceanina or Hawaii
Spencer: South-East Asia -- Such as Vietnam, Thailand or Cambodia
 
In my opinion, I think Brock is mixed with black and japanese, because his father is darker than he is, but his mother is really light, thus making giving him that completion.
 
Robert looked like he was British.
Juan was spanish, if the name didn't tip you off.
Tate/Liza seemed Japanese.

And for some reason, I tend to see Dawn as the most Japanese of all the girls. Maybe because if she had black hair like she does in the games, she'd really look more Asian.
 
Fantina is obviously french. Look at her dialogue. And she even says she's from another country. XP

Then there's the french (Or german?) dude with a german Magikarp around the path to Stark Mountain.

Then we have names like Empoleon, Bastiodon, and such...

D/P is very french. XP
 
Tate and Liza (called Fuu and Ran in the Japanese version) are Chinese IMO. They wear Chinese clothes and have Chinese-sounding names.

And Lt. Serge is obviously a Caucasian American, probably ethnically French since his Japanese name is French (Matisse).

I think Glacia is Scandinavian, and Phoebe is obviously Hawaiian.

I think Melody-tachi are supposed to be Mayan or something, but what Mayan has blue eyes? o.o (I suppose she could be wearing contacts?)
 
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.



Juan was spanish, if the name didn't tip you off.
That's the name NoA gave him. Is Adan Spanish or something? Unless he is supposed to look like a Spanish person.
 
i noticed that Diamond and Pearl has more foreign names for the Trainers you battle.

i would say Brock is definetely has some Latino blood in him

Don't double post. ~Rosae Ardentes
 
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I think Melody-tachi are supposed to be Mayan or something, but what Mayan has blue eyes? o.o (I suppose she could be wearing contacts?)

Shamouti was confusing. The look of the festival seemed more Inuit, even though it was clearly supposed to be more Pacific Islander-inspired. But yeah, the original spec art has a Mayan-style pyramid/shrine, but that wasn't in the finished movie.
 
That's the name NoA gave him. Is Adan Spanish or something? Unless he is supposed to look like a Spanish person.

it's funny that you say that when you ignored everyone else's Japanese name (except the Frontier Brains and Hinata, for whatever reason).

Nothing's been officially stated, but I think it's clear a grand majority of the characters are Japanese. As some of you should know, the regions in the games do seem to represent the regions of Japan, and the games themselves even seem to roughly simulate journeying within the Japanese consumers' homeland while removing the majority of heavy metropolitanization (just as Satoshi Tajiri had wanted). This seems especially apparent in the first games (notice how simple Kantou's design is, and how lacking it is in rather unusual areas such as the Ruins of Alph, Kinagi Town, Sky Pillar, Mt. Tengan, etc., some of which seem modeled off of cultures outside of Japan). That said, Japan is a largely homo genus culture. Nearly everyone there is native with extremely few foreigners, so I expect it's the same case in the Pokemon world (and if anyone wants to call on hair and eye colors, I remind you that the Japanese like spicing up character designs based on themselves all the time... or, put more simply, IT'S ANIME).
 
it's funny that you say that when you ignored everyone else's Japanese name (except the Frontier Brains and Hinata, for whatever reason).
The reason I "ignored" their Japanese names and the others' English names is because I like certain names over others. I feel Lucy and Greta don't fit Azami and Kogomi well. And let's not get started on Solana for Hinata, or the Paul fiasco.


Nothing's been officially stated, but I think it's clear a grand majority of the characters are Japanese. As some of you should know, the regions in the games do seem to represent the regions of Japan, and the games themselves even seem to roughly simulate journeying within the Japanese consumers' homeland while removing the majority of heavy metropolitanization (just as Satoshi Tajiri had wanted). This seems especially apparent in the first games (notice how simple Kantou's design is, and how lacking it is in rather unusual areas such as the Ruins of Alph, Kinagi Town, Sky Pillar, Mt. Tengan, etc., some of which seem modeled off of cultures outside of Japan). That said, Japan is a largely homo genus culture. Nearly everyone there is native with extremely few foreigners, so I expect it's the same case in the Pokemon world (and if anyone wants to call on hair and eye colors, I remind you that the Japanese like spicing up character designs based on themselves all the time... or, put more simply, IT'S ANIME).
You know, you can play that game and be boring.... or be fun and exciting and play it as if they really are Caucasian. Because in the end it wont matter.

And I always thought that Pokemon was one of those more international styled anime where Japanese culture wasn't that obvious (when I saw Viridian city in the second episode, it looked like a regular New Jersey country town. And maybe that's why I like Pokemon. Sometimes I just want to watch an anime that reminds me of home.
 
Did Fantina have foreign dialogue in the Japanese version, or was that just added to the localization?
 
I think Pikachu's from the Ghetto.

I agree with the fact that most of the characters are Japanese, with the odd foriegner sprinkled in. I think Tracey is North American, however. The camera just gives him more of a "tourist" look.
 
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Technically, they're Kantoish, Johtonese, hoennese, ect.

But, I have always thought that Misty and her sisters were American. James might be English. Brock is hispanic or latino, and Dawn alwaysed seemed Japanese/Chinese/Korean.
 
As for my opinions, almost all the characters are Japanese of course, so it's easier to list the ones that are not:
* Lt. Surge - American, obviously
* Fuu and Ran - Chinese
* Brock - As I said in another topic, he might be descended from the South American/Japanese immigration that happened before WWII. Like Chad from Bleach.
* Karen seems American, too. Just her name and the way she wears her hair.
* Phoebe - Hawaiian
* Tracey - Japanese/American - considering he was the brainstorm to try to introduce a more "American" character to the show to replace Brock, I would not be surprised to learn he was half-Caucasian.
* Tucker - Considering his large jaw (usually a stereotypical feature for caucasians in anime), and his anglo name "Heath", even in Japanese, probably American or at least cacasian too.

Minor characters of probable non-Japanese descent:
* Butler and Diane seem British to me.
* Jackie Walker - American, obviously.
* Poncho - Mexican, natch.
* The entire Mirage Kingdom seems German
 
Brock is Blakenese

the magicarp seller sounds like he is from tennessee.
 
Isn't Probopass Latino? D:

...I know, bad joke. >_>

But seriously, there has to be other ethnic people in the Pokemon World. It's been hinted many times that the world of Pokemon takes place in an alternate Earth like ours. Although I think the obvious reason to why most people in the games, anime, and manga are white is due to the fact that in all Japanese games, anime, and manga there's usually a lack of other colored people. Japan isn't a very racially diverse country. =[
 
Although I think the obvious reason to why most people in the games, anime, and manga are white is due to the fact that in all Japanese games, anime, and manga there's usually a lack of other colored people. Japan isn't a very racially diverse country. =[

You do realize, of course, that that means the characters aren't white but rather Asian?
 
You do realize, of course, that that means the characters aren't white but rather Asian?
It's hard to tell, to be honest. Most light-colored skinned anime-ish characters don't really have features that can be considered to be Asian.
 
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
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