So this is mostly stemming from the recent nonsensical drama I am seeing from the artwork that was posted by the creator of the anime “My Hero Academia” where they made a picture of the character Mirko (the bunny girl) and she is quite light looking. People (pretty much americans) complained about it because they called it “white washing” and more than a few seemed to think she was a black person and called it “black erasure.” Thing is:
1) The picture was made clearly with extreme brightness so her looking paler would be natural. This reminds me of the drama that happened around the Miles Morales fan art that was made where people screamed Miles was “white washed” because he looked light when the reality was that the art was made with extreme brightness, naturally making him look lighter than he would be under normal lighting.
2) Mirko is Japanese, not black. This is something I see alot regarding americans and anime. Anyone REMOTELY darker than paper seem to be seen as black people by Americans. And this is across any sort of “anime art” style mediums.
So i was curious on what everyone else’s view is on this sort of thing? Like do you think Americans are, again, being unnecessarily hostile and unreasonable? And do you think the people who are screaming about “dark representation” at eastern companies are hurting their own causes whenever they start complaining about “white washing” whenever a character is shown even a shade off color even if thats the correct look for the lighting?
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So this is mostly stemming from the recent nonsensical drama I am seeing from the artwork that was posted by the creator of the anime “My Hero Academia” where they made a picture of the character Mirko (the bunny girl) and she is quite light looking. People (pretty much americans) complained about it because they called it “white washing” and more than a few seemed to think she was a black person and called it “black erasure.” Thing is:
The picture was made clearly with extreme brightness so her looking paler would be natural. This reminds me of the drama that happened around the Miles Morales fan art that was made where people screamed Miles was “white washed” because he looked light when the reality was that the art was made with extreme brightness, naturally making him look lighter than he would be under normal lighting.
Mirko is Japanese, not black. This is something I see alot regarding americans and anime. Anyone REMOTELY darker than paper seem to be seen as black people by Americans. And this is across any sort of “anime art” style mediums.
So i was curious on what everyone else’s view is on this sort of thing? Like do you think Americans are, again, being unnecessarily hostile and unreasonable? And do you think the people who are screaming about “dark representation” at eastern companies are hurting their own causes whenever they start complaining about “white washing” whenever a character is shown even a shade off color even if thats the correct look for the lighting?
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>…Japanese, not black…
Are those mutually exclusive?
>The picture was made clearly with extreme brightness so her looking paler would be natural. This reminds me of the drama that happened around the Miles Morales fan art that was made where people screamed Miles was “white washed” because he looked light when the reality was that the art was made with extreme brightness, naturally making him look lighter than he would be under normal lighting.
I’m not sure any of this matters.
We have bigger problems. We don’t need to stress out about this stuff.
I think the complainers are, as they almost invariably are in this sort of thing, completely wrong.
It’s their fault they arbitrarily made a non-Western cartoon character “black” inside their heads, when the actual creators never intended to.
Something has spawned a pathological sense of entitlement in these nutjobs that lets them think they have any right to exercise creative control over a cartoon character from another country, and then have the temerity to turn around and whine about “cultural appropriation” or “cultural erasure” or something.
Entitlement and hypocrisy – that’s a dangerous combo.
Everything I know about
the Kardashiansanime I learned against my will.You called it nonsensical drama. I don’t know who these characters are and what they look like and I don’t care. I think all sides of this conversation about what character is white or black or asian or whatever and what specific type of those broad grouping are is dumb.
But I do think I’ve moved more towards the side of keeping character representation as close to the source and maybe … if it’s not too much trouble … make some new characters please.
For example, the defining character of James Bond is that he’s British, a tough guy that drinks and gambles and that he’s a guy that women want to fuck. Idris Elba can be Bond. Archie Panjabi can’t but she could be 006. Nick Fury is a bad ass with a eye patch. Sam Jackson is fine.
But Snow White should be pale with the blackest of black hair. Ariel probably should have been left a white redhead. I know Agrabah isn’t real but it’s a mix of Iraq and Iran. I get that most people can’t tell the difference in a half British half Gujarati woman and a Persian as long as she hot but Disney couldn’t find one?
But honestly … who cares? Find better things to care about.
I dont really have the context for this specific discussion, and I won’t be weighing in on this particular one, but it has been a pattern in Eastern media to do this.
For an example that im personally more familiar with, Star Wars recently had this resurface when Jon Boyega made a comment critical of black people not being allowed to be main characters. This has caused some of the discussion on how he was sidelined in promotional material for Eastern audiences specifically, with some even arguing his characters’ plot was altered for this reason as well.
At the end of the day, fandoms have been going overboard with reactionary stuff and drama on all sides of these issues, and I’d imagine the childrens anime communities are probably near the top of the “being overly reactionary and full of drama” charts.
Colorism is a thing too.
Lots of cultures prize lighter skin, not only American. Skin lightening cream is a real beauty product after all.
Interesting topic, wrong subject.
It’s the internet brainrot, some people are too online and it’s often like 14 year olds, just ignore it.
Seems like this is just a problem with anime. It is such a low-effort medium (artistically, writing, etc.) that a lot of interpretive responsibility is generally thrown onto the audience. In this sense, I don’t really see any problem with a group of people claiming that a character should be X identity or Y identity because my guess is that the show doesn’t give you enough content to make a decisive call one way or another nor does their identity meaningfully connect to their character or the story.
Anime is the most manufactured artform imaginable, they thrive off of this type of looseness because it ensures the widest possible consumer base at the lowest imaginable cost. Questions of proper cultural representation will always be secondary in this context.
It is an extremely common problem for derivative works and fan works to portray characters that previously had a dark skin tone as having a lighter one. This problem is rooted in centuries of historical discrimination and colonialism. I don’t have context for if this specific instance you’re talking about is being misinterpreted or overblown, it could be. But I would not dismiss the concern out of hand.
Im happy we’re finally getting to the real issues that need discussing, My Hero Academia
Yeah this is one of those things internet people invent that somehow gets lumped in with liberals.
>Anyone REMOTELY darker than paper seem to be seen as black people by Americans.
This is on the way out, slowly but surely. Pretty much anything cultural in the USA happens in California first, and the idea of mixed-race people being, well, mixed-race is much more common and accepted here than it was twenty or thirty years ago. Of course, being a majority-minority state is a big factor here. This cultural shift seems to be spreading throughout the whole country though, as you see more and more white people with African or indigenous ancestors acknowledge that reality. The emergence of DNA tracking sites like 23andme has no doubt contributed a lot to this trend as well.
Colorism is a huge deal in Japan. Same with Korea, India, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.
She’s not black she’s just tanned, and anyone thinking otherwise are either delusional or just straight up don’t understand anime
It’s a decently common character design in anime to give characters super tan skin like Miriko and Nagatoro, but it has NOTHING to do with her race people are being idiots and looking for reasons to be outraged over nothing