This is a nice thought-provoking article. Pale white skin has a history here in Japan much longer than anime. Look at geisha for example. On the other end of t

This is a nice thought-provoking article. Pale white skin has a history here in Japan much longer than anime. Look at geisha for example. On the other end of the spectrum, there were Gangaru walking all around tokyo at one point too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro Japanese women especially are well aware of their skin's natural ability to change color and often treat it as a fashion decision. A heavily tanned caucasian can be much darker than an asian, latino, african american, etc... I think many westerners would be surprised that caucasians don't always have "white" skin if they actually looked around the world with a critical eye.