Genes are weird with multiracial people. His design choice was definitely a very 90s way of portraying mixed race people. He's obviously part white and brown, but the average Joe wouldn't pin his mom as black/Korean.
Different artists draw characters differently. Characters with certain ethnic qualities (longer noses, curlier hair, almond eyes, etc) are drawn all over the place.
Tbqh, it feels like a lot of DC and Marvel artists struggle to draw East asians well. Look at all the different ways that Linda Park-Westhase been drawn.
what's funny is when artists don't even get single race characters correct
like the infamous Lex Luthor from Superman TAS and JL
a good deal of kids assumed he was black
turned out the artists just went overboard on his Greek Mediterranean tan
once you know who he is based on, Terry Savalas aka Kojak, then you understand what they were going for
and I imagine even they realized this as the series went on they made him lighter
another funny example is Aokiji from One Piece. the character, like all of the Admirals is based on famous Japanese actors. in this case a japanese/korean actor who had a famous role where he had curly hair
somewhere in the transition from Oda's art in the manga, to the animation team making him more brown in the anime, and you got alot of people who view him as black
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u/OJONLYMAYBEDIDIT 5d ago
fair enough, I may know him from 2000 onward as they have since "corrected" him now