But Not Too Foreign: Difference between revisions

[['''But Not Too Foreign]]''' often pops up as the result of creative types trying to appeal to the people of their homeland with the sense that he or she possesses a connection to their culture despite being partly foreign, and thus perfectly okay to empathize with. See also [[Non-Specifically Foreign]].

== [[Anime]] &and [[Manga]] ==

* Rally Vincent of ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'' is an unusual case in that she's half English and half East Indian, though whether her father was from Pakistan or India itself was never made clear. This actually makes her a [[Twofer Token Minority|Token Twofer]] in Japan [[But Not Too Foreign]] in Chicago where the series is actually set. AND they significantly lightened her skin tone for the anime, making her [[But Not Too Black|Not Too Black]] as well.

*** Maybe only once ''at length'', but she peppers her dialogue with the occasional German word or phrase -- suchphrase—such as her "Guten morgan!" exchange with Shinji when she first arrives at his school and later her battle command, "Gehen!" (which doesn't seem to confuse either Shinji or Rei but which the English dub translates to "Let's go!" or something).

**** She actually only speaks German words specifically those times in the original dub; compared to the massive amount of German lines Asuka givesgets in the English dub, thanks to her voice actress, [[Tiffany Grant]], who is fluent in German.

* Ana Coppola from ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'' is British -- specificallyBritish—specifically, from Cornwall -- butCornwall—but hides the fact she is culturally Japanese. That her name sounds Italian is probably lost on the author, since it's just an excuse for a [[Running Gag]] pun.

* In ''[[Sister Princess]]'', Haruka is half -German, Yotsuba is half -British, and Aria probably is half-French.

* In each of the ''[[Digimon]]'' anime, there is a token case of [[But Not Too Foreign]].

** Yamato and Takeru (Matt and T.K. in the dub) from Adventure and 02 are at least quarter-French. This is known because one episode in the World Tour arc features their French grandfather. Since the Digimon movie shows Yamato and Takeru visiting their grandmother in Shimane, fans have 'decided' that it is their paternal grandmother who lives in Shimane, and their maternal grandfather in France. Only problem is that their father's last name is Ishida, and their mother, Natsuko, went back to using her maiden name after the divorce--Takaishidivorce—Takaishi. Grandpa's name is Michel.

** Justified in the manga, though, where {{spoiler|the man that put them through the [[Training Fromfrom Hell]], Mitsumasa Kido, was actually their absurdly promiscuous father,}} and since he was Japanese...

* In ''[[Cyborg 009]]'', Joe Shimamura aka 009 is also half-Japanese (mother), half-American (father), and in the manga he was [[All of the Other Reindeer|bullied]] because of that. So are three friends of his (Mary, Shinichi and Masaru) {{spoiler|who are turned into killing machines against their wills by Black Ghost, so he has to fight them [[Shoot the Dog|and]] ''[[Shoot the Dog|kill]]'' [[Shoot the Dog|them]].}}).

* Kaede Kimura from ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]]'' is a Japanese native who has recently returned from studying abroad, and has developed a split personality based on her two nations' stereotypes. Her Japanese side is [[Yamato Nadeshiko|extremely polite and gentle]] (and in love with Itoshiki-sensei), while her foreign half is loud, obnoxious, and [[Frivolous Lawsuit|ready to sue her classmates at the drop of a hat]].

* Urd from ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' has [[Captain Obvious|no Japanese blood]], but shares the insecurities/issues of many other cases of this trope because of her own mixed heritage... her mother is a demon ( {{spoiler|the Queen of Hell to be exact}}).

* The rival band from ''[[Nana]]'', TRAPNEST, often features fluently English lyrics; likely a product of half-American vocalist Layla 'Reira' Serizawa. In being signed to a label, their record company ultimately decides to hide her heritage by making her image and name more unambiguously Asian-- reasonAsian—reason being that the Japanese (and implied xenophobic) public would be more impressed with her English if she were a native.

** Watanuki of ''[[xxxHolic|Watanuki×××HOLiC]]'' is probably also half Chinese, considering that {{spoiler|he's kinda sorta bizarrely the twin brother/clone/son/''something'' of Syaoran}}...[[Mind Screw|look, it's complicated, okay?]]

* Firo Prochainezo from ''[[Baccano!]]'' (set in [[The Roaring Twenties|early 20th century America]]) is half-Italian (the other half being British-descended American), and identifies himself as a second-generation Italian immigrant. With the exception of Japanese-American Yalgumo, most other characters don't have their ethnicity particularly focused upon -- althoughupon—although many of the supporting characters are decidedly not American-born simply on the basis that they're a good sixty years [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|older than the country itself]].

* ''[[Unbalance Xx Unbalance]]'', a [[Manhwa]] features a British-Korean character who is a younger half sister to one of the main characters.

* Suoh and Shion of ''[[Darker Thanthan Black|Darker Than Black 2]]'' are half-Japanese half-Russian.

* Though never brought up in the ''[[Durarara!!]]'' anime, Walker Yumasaki is regularly noted in the [[Light Novels]] to be biracial (half-''what'' has yet to be elaborated upon, but it's implied to be white)

* Terry the Kid from ''[[Kinnikuman Nisei]]'' is half-American, half-Japanese, but this rarely comes up because this wasn't so that the audience could relate to him -- ithim—it's just a natural extension of the fact that the American Terryman married the Japanese Natsuko after the original ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' series. ''Kinnikuman'' is actually one of the series that most proudly averts this, with main characters who are 100% British (Robin Mask), German (Brocken, Jr.), American (Terryman), ''Native'' American (Geronimo), Chinese (Ramenman), Russian (Warsman), and Spanish (Buffaloman).

* Kodaka in ''[[Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai]]'' can be said as a [[Deconstruction]]--the—the prevalent racial prejudice in Japan means his half-British background, with blonde hair and Asian facial features, means he's [[Face of a Thug|taken to be a]] [[Delinquent]].

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Here's something most readers of [[Archie Comics]] and likely many of the people who produce them nowadays are unaware of: Jughead Jones is Native American. Or, at least he was. In his initial appearances, he was depicted in the stereotypical stoic, chiseled look typical of the 1940s. This quickly gave way to his familiar look by the early 1950s, but scattered references to his original ethnicity persisted, amazingly, until at least the 1980s. Some of it could just be chalked up to Jughead's [[Cloudcuckoolander]] nature (in one story he whips up a rain dance, causing a thunderstorm just to get out of work), but other references were harder to ignore; Reggie in particular was fond of giving Jughead nicknames such as "Big Chief Gross Beak" and "my Aboriginal amigo", which made no sense to people unfamiliar with the character's background. While no comment has been made on this issue for a while (and Jughead's family, once they were established, were pretty definitely white), it stands as a bizarre series of [[Depending on the Writer]] [[Early Installment Weirdness]] [[Call Back|CallBacks]]s.

== Fan Fic[[Film]] ==

* Nulla in ''[[Australia (2008 film)|Australia]]'' is a half-Aboriginal boy, who has to deal with the [[Real Life]] issues that half-Aboriginal children had to deal with... that is, becoming part of the [[Useful Notes On Australia|Stolen Generation]].

* [[Takeshi Kovacs of ''The Takeshi Kovacs Series]]'', a [[Cyberpunk]] anti-hero is one of these, and indeed, as is suggested by Hiro above, this trope is quite common in cyberpunk, especially with partially Japanese ancestry.

* In the season four ''[[China Beach]]'' episode "The Quest", [[Shell-Shocked Veteran|Colleen McMurphy]] goes to visit her old [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] buddy Dodger and his half-Vietnamese son. Said son is played by a young, obviously all-Caucasian Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

* Religion example, instead of nationality example: Abed and Annie in ''[[Community]]'', who originally identified themselves as, respectively, Muslim and Jewish, were each revealed to have one Christian parent, making them both just Christian enough to participate in the annual Christmas episode without creating any inconvenient complications.

* The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] caught some flack a couple of years changing some of the "Face" Canadian wrestlers hometowns. When they are announced to the ring, they're usually stated hailing to where they reside now in the U.S. as opposed to Canada.

* Ken Masters, the second half of the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' series' [[Ryu and Ken|leading duo]], is a martial arts master who is 3/4 Japanese and 1/4 American (he was purely Japanese in ''SF I'', but was [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned in ''SF II'').

** ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' as a series does this constantly. Characters from different countries are almost always half-Japanese or half-American. Revolver Ocelot is half-American/half-Russian, EVA is {{spoiler|half-American/half-Chinese}}, Kazuhira Miller is half-Japanese/half-American, and Naomi Hunter claims to have a Japanese grandfather {{spoiler|(though this is revealed to be a lie)}}. Because of his last name, it can be assumed that Johnny Sasaki is also half-Japanese/half-American. With the half-American characters, this is clearly a case of [[But Not Too Foreign]] so that the characters can be drawn with Caucasian features.

* ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long|Jake Long]]'': Jake has a white dad and Chinese mom. Bonus points for the ambiguity and [[Bilingual Bonus]] of his last name since Long can be both a perfectly workable surname for both Anglo-Saxons and Chinese, and means "dragon" in the latter.

* The Japanese music industry loves part-foreign singers who are exotic [[But Not Too Foreign]]. For example:

** [[WWEWorld Wrestling Entertainment|Dave Batista]]

* It is not unusual for an entertainer--especiallyentertainer—especially a Latin one--toone—to Anglicize their name or take a new stage name entirely, as if Anglo viewers can't relate otherwise.