—— MODERATOR’S NOTE: apparently, this quote is fake. ——
[Context:This is the creator of Dragon Ball defending himself after being criticized for the lack of black characters in the series.]
This is a Japanese franchise. Made by Japanese people, for Japanese people. It's not your show. It's ours.
The things people complain about continue to change over time, but Japan's racial demographics do not. They (black people) do not live here.
20 comments
"Ah! My Goddess" is a Japanese franchise. Made by Japanese people, based on Nordic mythology. It's not only yours .
Urd. Hild.
When Kosuke Fujishima included not only a dark-skinned Norn of the Past - but her demonic mother - why should you live in that...?!
When they included Idris Elba in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Heimdall: Guardian of Bifrost, but nobody complained, ergo...!
Sadly, most portrayals of Black people I've seen in anime are worse than if there had been no Black characters at all. There's something to be said about sticking to writing what you know.
Of course… making the effort to learn would be far better than not trying at all.
@feralwanderer #157771
Well, Bleach and Attack on Titan, for one, do it well. And I do distinctly recall that the author of One Piece did say at some point that, if from the RL world, one of the MCs (Usopp) would be African. And Usopp is not potrayed stereotypically at all.
Anyway, while some manga (like Demon Slayer) have the excuse of being set in feudal Japan, hence a justified lack of black people in the cast, Dragon Ball is a fictional world with a LOT of crazy stuff. It kinda makes not much sense for there to be hardly any black people there…
@Chloe #157778
You know come to think about it… It’s actually very weird that said “proud warrior space apes” are ALL white/asian people. Not a single dark-skinned one amongst them. Not even others of their kind in alternate universes… I mean, we have black Vulcans and albino Klingons in Star Trek, so why no racial diversity amongst Saiyans?
If it's fake it's interesting, as I regularly see "Japanese ideal ethnostate" propaganda by (non-Japanese) white supremacists, so this could be the motive. I never lived in Japan but remember of some xeonophobia stories by people who did. Then when I read about Japan I noticed that there were some immigration waves, so even if they are minorities there must be some variety. Then considering how some cities like Tokyo are popular international destinations... Also, I know of a Japanese-Canadian who originally was from Burundi, then adopted by a Japanese woman, she moved out of Japan later as a young adult.
@Timjer #157782
{shrug} Melanin gets in the way of properly absorbing moon-reflected light???
Then again, Japan has long had colorism issues. So too China and Korea, but Japan’s may have been exacerbated by influence from American occupation (and the CIA helping to found the LDP) after WWII.
@Creativerealms #157788
Well, I personally see it more as “unintentionally insensitive” than outright racist, but I still understand why people would be offended by it. Black people do have a big lack of proper representation in eastern media…
@Timjer #157790
Yeah I agree there, but for good reason. They are representing their culture. That is why American media needs more diversity while eastern media really doesn't need to. To represent the culture.
And yeah it's fake. Honestly it feels almost identical to the Yoshi P (director of Final Fantasy XIV) post about the lack of diversity in FFXIV. I wonder if this is a copypasta?
There are black people in Japan. Not a lot - I couldn’t find any specific stats with a quick check, only that they’re typically lumped with “other” which was 1.2% as of 2020 - but it does appear that most of them (or their parents/grandparents) came from USA, Ghana, or Brazil. That’s not counting black US soldiers stationed there, who are in the country long-term but not citizens.
Japan may not be racially diverse, but it’s technically incorrect to say that they don’t live there. And metaphorically it’s dismissing them as not mattering, which is at best, rude, and at worst, dehumanizing.
@Timjer #157782
[nerd rant]It was actually established that Saiyans had a very small population, there were never more than a few thousand of them at any one time (probably because they were always fighting and killing each other). So there just wasn’t a large enough gene pool for a very phenotypically diverse population.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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