Mukokuseki

Mukokuseki (Japanese: 無国籍, "stateless"), when used as a term in the animanga community, refers to the lack of physical features indicating a character's ethnic background.
==Overview==
The TV Tropes article outlines mukokuseki and some of the more popular justifications or excuses behind it:
==Meta discussion and discourse==
In his article "Whitewashing racial bias: The ball's in Japan's court", John G. Russell criticizes mukokuseki, in particular citing the egregiously whitewashed anime depiction of real-life biracial tennis star Naomi Osaka:
Also see this Tumblr thread discussing mukokuseki.
Some have also criticized mukokuseki for whitewashing the ethnic diversity of the United States by portraying the "typical American" as invariably blond-haired and blue-eyed, leading to whitewashing characters for big-budget American live-action film adaptations (notably the heavily criticized Dragonball Evolution and Ghost in the Shell) in the name of "accurate" cultural translation.
===Specific incidents===
During the Sailor Moon redraw art meme, some fan artists were criticized for giving typically Caucasian features the blond-haired Tsukino Usagi in their stylized renditions of the character.
The misconception that the blond character Arataka Reigen, of Mob Psycho 100, is white, been the subject of ridicule.
==Fan works==
Some fan works take advantage of the ambiguity of mukokuseki conventions in order to racebend characters or create blood relationships between characters who don't resemble one another. 
In the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure/Persona 4 crossover fan fiction A Different Kind of Truth, the blond-haired blue-eyed American Johnny Joestar is half-Japanese, the nephew of Persona 4’s Dojima Ryotaro.
Some humorous fan works may play with the fourth wall by having the story acknowledge the absurdity of mukokuseki.
In the Haruhi Suzumiya fan fiction You Got HaruhiRolled!, the characters Kyon has a moment of panicked self-awareness when he realizes that he is one of few students who look remotely Japanese: "I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING! [...] I AM THE ONLY CHARACTER IN THIS SHOW WHO LOOKS REMOTELY JAPANESE! THANK YOU!"
In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Japanese characters Yami and Kaiba discuss mukokuseki during a flashback of their previous lives in Ancient Egypt.
:Yami: I give you our sexy Ancient Egyptian ancestors!
:Kaiba: Why are they white?
:Yami: What?
:Kaiba: I mean, they're Egyptian, right? Why are they white?
:Yami: Why would you choose to focus on that?
:Kaiba: And for that matter, aren't we supposed to be Asian? Why are we white?
:Yami: Kaiba, stop activating the race card and pay attention! 
==Racebending anime characters==
Racebending anime characters has been the subject of some discourse. Some fans feel that racebending anime characters in fan works is erasing the characters' Japanese ethnicity, and also reinforcing the misconception that the characters—in being designated as acceptable subjects of racebending—must be canonically white. Others feel that racebending Japanese anime characters serves the same purpose as racebending white characters from media made in white-majority countries—giving representation to marginalized groups and challenging the status quo.
Outside of the social justice angle, some simply enjoy racebending for the creative enjoyment and aesthetic variety, while others feel that racebending fundamentally changes a character to the point of OOC-ness.
==External links==
*Mukokuseki on TV Tropes
*"Why do the Japanese Draw Themselves as White?" by blogger Julian Abagond, since deleted
*"Whitewashing racial bias: The ball's in Japan's court" by John G. Russell, an opinion piece for The Japan Times
==References==
Category:Anime & Manga Fandom GlossaryCategory:Race & Fandom