This isn’t the place to discuss being a foreigner in Japan: a quick search will turn up a million blogs (possibly even my own) started up by foreign exchange students, drifters and playboys who discovered to their amazement that (gasp!) the experience is pretty strange. I’m more interested in how Japanese view foreigners, and–supporting my thesis that it is a great way to learn about Japan–anime provides some striking examples.

It should be noted that I basically mean honkies, although to the Japanese, “foreigner” is as likely to mean Chinese or Koreans. I add in passing that, in my experience, rumors that Japanese people will spit on you if you’re some other Asian ethnicity are exaggerated: one of my close friends there was Korean-American, and he did pretty well for himself. But to be “as foreign as possible” is to be white, like these specimens:

5) Lucy Winladd (Midori Days)

I’ll discuss this great artist, Kenzaburou Inoue, at some point, but a brief quote from Lucy (who wears underwear patterned with the American flag) will suffice here: “I’ve studied so much about Japan! Geisha girl! Mt. Fuji! Jackie Chan!”

4) Harry MacKenzie (School Rumble)

There’s not much to say here, except that this character only exists so that his name can be confused with hero Harima Kenji’s.

3) Patricia Martin (Lucky Star)

Refer to uppermost figure. “He who fights with monsters must be wary of becoming a monster, for when you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

2) Keito (Sketchbook)

I can only pray that Totan Kobako’s Sketchbook will be translated as soon as possible. There’s probably a fansub floating around. But what I love about its Canadian exchange student, Kate, is that she doesn’t love Japan for some odd reason (like us): she happens to find herself there, speaks good (if comically broken) Japanese, and is fascinated by the details of ordinary life.

1) Asuka Langely Sohryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

You may have forgotten, given that most characters at the time had brightly-colored hair and didn’t look remotely Asian, that Asuka is half-German. But watch the episode where she arrives at school and the first thing that’s said about her is: “Have you seen the new gaijin?” Keeping this in mind, it’s not hard to figure out what Evangelion is “really” about: Shinji, the emasculated, Post-War male, unable to subdue this feisty foreign chick. Clearly the only satisfactory ending the series could have had, rather than the psycho-mystical mumbo-jumbo into which it degenerated, would involve Shinji and Asuka…well, you get the idea.