Why do most Jp and Kr (and some Cn) Mcs look the same

D

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Ah, I'd like to apologize to the OP. I hacked the thread. Anyways, my bad.
80 to 100 per class? Fuuuuuck. In the U.S., High Schools are considered overpopulated if its 40 students per class hour. In uni classes though, it can be 300-400 students per class hour so 80 to 100 would actually be an improvement.
A 40 student class in Ph is a luxury only private schools (and public schools in the capital city) can have.
 

SakeVision

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For a similar array of reasons that Western generic traditionally published romance novel MCs are all tall, dark(but rarely dark-skinned), and well muscled.

The most popular followed a certain archetype that became an archetype due to excessive coatail riding. Anime MCs were more Shinji (boyish, troubled, naiive, sometimes plucky) than Kirito (edgy, hypercompetent, mysterious, possesses "hidden depths") before Kirito became a big thing iirc. If you don't think these character traits carry an aesthetic of their own, look at the transition between brown-haired slacks wearing "average" MCs and their black-haired all black wearing successors.

You make modern isekai mcs seem cooler than they are.
 

SilvCrimBlac

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For a similar array of reasons that Western generic traditionally published romance novel MCs are all tall, dark(but rarely dark-skinned), and well muscled.

The most popular followed a certain archetype that became an archetype due to excessive coatail riding. Anime MCs were more Shinji (boyish, troubled, naiive, sometimes plucky) than Kirito (edgy, hypercompetent, mysterious, possesses "hidden depths") before Kirito became a big thing iirc. If you don't think these character traits carry an aesthetic of their own, look at the transition between brown-haired slacks wearing "average" MCs and their black-haired all black wearing successors.
Every time I try to figure out who Shinji is, my mind drifts to Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho and I have to restart my thinking process because he has way too much green on to be who you mean.
"Your up against a wall and I am the fucking wall!"

I make Darkeater Midir look like a Super Mario boss fight.
Some of those Super Mario bosses were kinda hard tho
 

Katsuya

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I mean, maybe they aren't like top notch and get inspiration from one artist or something. also, they probably have like the same type of character in mind.

I get what you mean. It really is quite annoying, but not really. I mean i think Jp webnovel/light novel cover are pretty cool, but like, the not so popular ones do pretty much look the same.
 

Bobisekaibulshitto

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When asian people or south asian generally black hair and somewhat pale or yellow skin. Its hard to achieve "unique" character design in the eyes of western or non asians. Similar to why asian people see other race/ethnic the same. So ya actually indeliberately racist loool.


But sometimes, those animal with mc that look 2 damn similar are just copy paste trash anime manga who are jumping the bandwagon of their predecessor succesor. But not all the times. It mostly because the character design is an "ideal" design for the lack of better word for their Target Audience.

 

SilvCrimBlac

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When asian people or south asian generally black hair and somewhat pale or yellow skin. Its hard to achieve "unique" character design in the eyes of western or non asians. Similar to why asian people see other race/ethnic the same. So ya actually indeliberately racist loool.


But sometimes, those animal with mc that look 2 damn similar are just copy paste trash anime manga who are jumping the bandwagon of their predecessor succesor. But not all the times. It mostly because the character design is an "ideal" design for the lack of better word for their Target Audience.

Must be me, I'm Welsh-Cherokee, so not completely white, but none of those white guys look the same to me. Nor do Hispanics or Black people. I even think Koreans and Japanese people can be easily told apart. I mean to me, the prettiest Asian women (to me), would be between Korean and Vietnamese. The only people I've ever seen a bunch of and had a hard time seeing obvious differences besides small little things, were Chinese people. Chinese people in a room, just throw me, especially if they are all the same gender. If given 10-15 minutes to accilimatize or whatever the word is, I can pick up social, vague physical, and behavioral differences and then it becomes obvious to me who is who even without names, but for those first 10-15 minutes, unless someone has an obvious physical characteristic that separates them, like height, weight, scars, really attractive, really not attractive, wears glasses, different style of dress compared to others, or something as unique as a smell (some people do smell unique and I don't mean just bad), I get awkward around Chinese. Like I said, never a problem with ANY other kind of Asian, not Koreans, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian.....its just Chinese that do this to me.
 
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Irl_Rat

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Must be me, I'm Welsh-Cherokee, so not completely white, but none of those white guys look the same to me. Nor do Hispanics or Black people. I even think Koreans and Japanese people can be easily told apart. I mean to me, the prettiest Asian women (to me), would be between Korean and Vietnamese. The only people I've ever seen a bunch of and had a hard time seeing obvious differences besides small little things, were Chinese people. Chinese people in a room, just throw me, especially if they are all the same gender. If given 10-15 minutes to accilimatize or whatever the word is, I can pick up social, vague physical, and behavioral differences and then it becomes obvious to me who is who even without names, but for those first 10-15 minutes, unless someone has an obvious physical characteristic that separates them, like height, weight, scars, really attractive, really not attractive, wears glasses, different style of dress compared to others, or something as unique as a smell (some people do smell unique and I don't mean just bad), I get awkward around Chinese. Like I said, never a problem with ANY other kind of Asian, not Koreans, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian.....its just Chinese that do this to me.
It's probably just the Chinese people that you've met happened to resemble each other. Because if we considered China as a whole, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong, the population is quite diverse. Many different subcultures with different genetic makeup. Also, people from big cities or more westernized areas tend to dress quite similarly to Koreans and to an extent Japanese, while countryside Chinese people tend to wear more traditional wear.

A major factor of differentiating Asian people is the demographic of Asian people you're interacting. Certain ethnic groups, like Vietnamese, have fairly diverse subgroups that have different appearances due to genetics but are grouped under one umbrella term due to language and/or nationality. Age and background is a big factor since this affects style of dress and things like hairstyle. Notice how a majority of Asian fuckboys on American campuses look extremely similar to each other.
 

SilvCrimBlac

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Asian fuckboys on American campuses
You made me choke on my tea XDD

Yeah maybe it was just that. But they were from different provinces tho. That's the thing. Some were from Sichuan, others Liaoning, and another from Jiangsu. So, North China, South China, and West China. I've always wanted to go to Chengdu btw. Never had that problem with any other Asian race like I mentioned, and Koreans and Japanese are a lot more homogenous. Very few sub-groups in their territories yet I have no issue distinguishing.

So, could it have really been just chance that they looked alike despite being from such widely spaced provinces?
 

BlackKnightX

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It annoys me so much when I see a novel, anime, or manga and the Mc has this generic, basic ass look. Like is it that hard to make your Mc look somewhat unique. Like the side characters and villains really look better and more interesting than the Mc.
It mostly only happens in light novel. If you see this in anime or manga, then it’s most likely the adaptation from light novel.

Why? Because light novel writers—usually start out as amateur writers on web novel before their stories get picked and become printed light novels—usually care about one thing—self-insert and wish fulfillment.

The mc looks the same because of the self inserting purpose. And not just the look, either, even their personalities are alike to a scary extent if you look closely.

That too is for the self inserting purpose.

It’s the same thing as Twilight, I think; having the plain, average-looking mc with the plain, average personality be the protagonist so the readers can insert themself into the mc and enjoy theirs and author’s fantasy.
 

Irl_Rat

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So, could it have really been just chance that they looked alike despite being from such widely spaced provinces?
Perfectly possible since Han settlers spread their genes to many parts of China. For instance, major cities in the Gansu corridor were vastly Han Chinese despite the local region being originally composed of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tibetan peoples.

I can confirm from personal experience that even being a different country that speaks a different language, a middle aged Chinese man ASSERTED that I am Chinese and should speak Chinese. Though I guess I technically speak Chinese, just a version that diverged so much to start calling itself a distinct language.
 

SilvCrimBlac

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Perfectly possible since Han settlers spread their genes to many parts of China. For instance, major cities in the Gansu corridor were vastly Han Chinese despite the local region being originally composed of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tibetan peoples.

I can confirm from personal experience that even being a different country that speaks a different language, a middle aged Chinese man ASSERTED that I am Chinese and should speak Chinese. Though I guess I technically speak Chinese, just a version that diverged so much to start calling itself a distinct language.
Ah okay. Makes sense. Han makes up...last I checked was...96.7% of the Chinese population.
 

SilvCrimBlac

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And that's not considering how many other East Asian countries have a history of Han settlement.
Can't be that bad, I don't confuse Korea or Japanese people with others. Their native genes won out despite the potential Han mix. Never met Mongolian though so idk what they look like.
 
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ConansWitchBaby

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I don't know but their hentai is varied. It weirded me out when I noticed that the MC's and the side-characters had much different styles compared to traditional media. Especially in the hair style department. I didn't know I needed messy and long curly hair in my life.
 

Deeprotsorcerer

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Every time I try to figure out who Shinji is, my mind drifts to Yusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho and I have to restart my thinking process because he has way too much green on to be who you mean.
This sad loveable dork.

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Though he's a mecha protag and not a harem/isekai protag (or is he? he has multiple women and one guy that are really affectionate towards him), he was very much a gene donor for the popular "average" protag you'd see in that period where average still meant someone that could be like you rather than someone that seemingly could be like you.
 

SilvCrimBlac

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This sad loveable dork.

View attachment 11710

Though he's a mecha protag and not a harem/isekai protag (or is he? he has multiple women and one guy that are really affectionate towards him), he was very much a gene donor for the popular "average" protag you'd see in that period where average still meant someone that could be like you rather than someone that seemingly could be like you.
Hated that show. Bullshit vague and abstract endings. Didn't even try to make the conclusions coherent. The movie only improved it marginally.
 

Deeprotsorcerer

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Hated that show. Bullshit vague and abstract endings. Didn't even try to make the conclusions incoherent. The movie only improved it marginally.
That's valid. The good parts were really the dysfunctional, estranged, broken interpersonal relationships, rather than the grander scheme stuff, and that kind of petered out by the end. It got too big for its britches and tried to say too much.

Kind of like the later MGS games even though they were fun as hell.
 

Topgun1908

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MC shows up a lot, it’s a pain in the ass and takes a lot more time to draw overly complicated shit frequently. People care more for the female character’s appearance so they invest more time into them.
That's why having a female mc is superior. Can also make her gay so that you still get to make a bunch of heroines.
 

Varstark

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My biggest rage-buttons on modern comics are the infuriatingly normal JP guy with dark hair and dark eyes, and the Korean two-block bowl cut who min-maxes his life. I know it's the trend and it's what sells, but it makes me want to pick up a buzz cutter for both of them.

I don't even read Chinese comics, so no idea. I have heard a lot about cultivation, though.
Except that Japan has had immigrant Koreans for about +2000 years or so, and they are mingling and have mingled with Japanese.
FTFY.
 
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