@Rasp
The issue derives partly from how Japanese media don't portray Japanese people according to western stereotypes of Asians. Just look at anime, and tell me how that looks like "small eyed Asians".
So when they redo a character to be closer to reality, suddenly people notice.

Another part of the issue is also that they didn't have the graphical fidelity back then either. So all they could do is present a simplified model of their beauty standards, which don't include the elements we stereotype about Asians, so the end result doesn't look Asian to us.