Germanics in Anime

Has anyone ever wondered why we don't see any Germanics! in anime?

Since, there's a considerable amount of Germanic people in Japan at the moment and, during the aftershock of the 2012 tsunami, the Germanic people didn't leave, whilst the Americans did. So it seems to me like the Germanics have become a firm part of modern Japanese society.

Which makes me wonder, why are they hardly ever even acknowledged. The only time I can remember seeing a German (this is excluding Germany in Hetalia, as that show aims to include all countries except Korea and African and Oceanic countries) was in Azumanga Daioh.

Which was a bloody long time ago, in cultural terms, so it poses the question on why the Germanics are never included in anime and manga. It would certainly mix high school dramas up a little, if you did include them.

There does seem to be a significant amount of them (on par with the Americans and more than the English at least) and the reason the Japs don't mention the Chinese and the Koreans is because the Japs hate them (lots of war and gang violence did that)

Although I think you're probably on the mark with the last reason, still though, it doesn't explain why they can and will use Americans, English (and even Mexicans now that I think about it.)

Meh, maybe this is just something that can only be fully explained if you live in an area of Japan with Germanics close by.

1. The population of Japan is roughly 128,057,352 as of the 2010 census. Of these 128, 057,352 residents, roughly 1,648 thousand are foreign. That's not even German, that's just foreign(http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/kokusei/pdf/20111026.pdf). Given this statistic I would hardly call Germanics a "firm part of modern Japanese society." They're an incredibly niche group within Japan and exercise pretty much zero influence on the society as a whole.

2. You say that there are almost no Germanics in anime and manga. This is a). unfucking true, and b). fucking stupid. Why does it matter if there are Germans, or people of German origin, in Japanese pop-culture? Is it advancing the medium, is it interesting, does it matter? The answer to all these questions is no.

And, even when there are Germans they're typically the token cookie-cutter "foreign" character. So, when you do find Germanic's in high school dramas they're not really mixing up the formula. They're just a re-tread of the same tired cliches. This isn't ever going to change.

3. This thread is fucking dumb as hell and certainly does not belong in serious discussion.

In short: You are stupid. Your thread is shit. You should kill yourself.

Girls und Panzer, Strike Witches, Upotte, Infinite Stratos, Black Lagoon are some that I can name off the top of my head that feature German characters, and there's tonnes more.

You're just not watching any that do.


The most common foreign characters in anime are Russian, American, British, and German.

Jeez calm down already, this is a place where sexual frustrations are released!~ Not garnered!

In any case, you don't seem to know the text book definition for Germanics, which isn't just Germans, but also includes a lot of other culture that are Scandinavian. Such as Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch. Meaning that your statistics are probably going to be a little off. (Even though it shouldn't really be used as evidence here since it's just a normal concerning population and households, whilst not confident about this, I'm going to say that I don't think this census counts as overwhelming evidence as to how many Germanics live in Japan and traverse the Tokyo streets on a daily basis.)

Plus, I was only asking this question because I thought somebody might have an idea, I.E explaining the relations between the Germanic peoples and Japs and how they're regarded. I do not live in Japan, so you're explanation of Germanics being a niche culture would have been a fair enough answer. You didn't have to tell me to kill myself :'(

By the way, you didn't need to type the word 'thousand' if you had already typed out '1,648' and you didn't give any proof as to why my claim is untrue! Andddd it doesn't matter if Germanics aren't in anime and manga, I was just puzzled that there weren't. :)

Nope, not in the forums.

You forgot Attack on Titan.

The whole universe or setting of the show is Germanic based.

Mikasa is the only Asian character there.

Prisma Illya aired just a little while ago and the main character Illyasviel von Einzbern is German.



She's probably not even pure, likely a half-breed considering her last name is Ackerman.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. They talked about that in an episode.

She's just Half Oriental because her mother (The pure Oriental) married a German (whose last name is Ackerman)

Hmm, I'm german and I think It's used quite often in anime. Although it sounds really weird when they try speaking it, like in NGE or K.

I never once seen my people in anime.

I always thought the family was Russian. They even wear the russian hats. Maybe I was mistaken though.. The name itself does sound more German than Russian. Could just be an inconsistency invited by Nasu when he was more of an amature writer starting out since he wrote fate back when he was in his early 20s I think.

A good example of a foreigner in recent anime is in tari tari. The male exchange student was actually a really interesting and amusing character as opposed to the often stereotypical potrayal of foreigners or the recent moe ones like kudo in little busters where theyre more just rehashed genre archetypes with the foreigness added as a trait to give them an interesting backstory to develop.

Anime is the representation of a sub-culture not the Japanese culture as a whole.

Anime has a very (but not always, D.Gray Man a quick example, Europe) in focused view with the most prevalent focus being that of a "school setting". Most (not all) of the occasions when foreigners are bought up it's to show "how interested they are in Japanese culture to come all the way there (yet half the time never know how to speak a word 'helping a lost tourist with your knowledge of another language' cliche)", as the (anime established) stereotypes that "TheSundanceKid" mentions and "PumpJack_McGee" list, or as a "large (evil) nation that seeks to do bad things to Japan".

Race (outside of Japanese) is "more or less" just an accessory, easily interchangeable or unnecessary in anime. Getting upset over a medium done for neither educational or reflect purposes, but for the sake of pleasure, is kind of pointless. It's like walking up to a guy who's writing a book, seeing that he didn't add -insert- race and getting upset, simplified but to the point.