Forum - View topicThe List - 6 Awesome People of Color in Anime
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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There's nothing wrong with "people of color". I've heard plenty of, well, people of color use that term (and for the record, I'm a "person of color", too). That's all it is.
Personally, I always thought that Dutch was the best such character in recent times, since he was a straight-up character that wasn't stereotyped and was simply a tough, cool, leader-type guy. Wolf from Blassreiter was a very good and complex character and I'll echo Aquaregia99 in sad absence of Lal'C (though I'll also add in Gungrave's Bear, Utena's Anthy, Turn A's Loran, Victory Gundam's Marbet, and MSG's Lalah (Gundam's always been pretty good with minorities)). As for Claudia, I'm surprised nothing was mentioned about her and Roy having one of the first biracial relationships in anime. Well-selected list, either way. spoiler[Though on a side note, I may be going against the grain, but I have never accepted the Jackson-fied version of Nick Fury. I always considered the original white, grizzled-looking guy over the more generic-looking black one since the change look and felt like one of those false "inclusive" efforts and I liked the old-school comic look of the original Nick Fury. Heck, I might have accepted the black one if he looked more "hardened" and less boring and clean-cut.] |
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RestLessone
 Posts: 1426 Location: New York |
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Also worth noting that, for the most part, the American or Canadian or European characters will look identical to a Japanese character. Sure, they might get blonde hair or blue eyes, but plenty of Japanese characters have these features too. The show pretty much has to state that where they're from. We don't often see, for example, the black American exchange student. I know Japan is a million times more homogeneous than the US, but it's still nice to see more of a mix.
Anyone remember Panther from Eyeshield 21? He was rather lovable. His coach also had the weirdest (and most racist) take on the "I'll prove that we're not losers by creating my own team!" manga stock plot I've seen. Of course, the anime kind of spit the racism subplot in the face when they had an African football team with members who all looked identical but didn't realize it themselves... I don't believe that was ever in the manga, at least. There was also the Native American Gat from Saiyuki. Ace of Diamond has Carlos. Oh, one thing sort of cool about Winter Soldier was that, on the hero side, (barely a spoiler) spoiler[only one character was a white male]. I'm totally up for more diversity in superhero comics, but a lot of writers have no idea how to do this. (New Wally West anyone?) Legacy titles are part of superhero comics, but it only feels right if you write it right. Either give it some real build up or create a new hero. Ryan Choi and Michael Holt did fine. It would probably improve if we had a more diverse writing staff. Currently, it's mostly white men. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2427 Location: Germany |
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As a half back man myself i aprove of this list.
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Ambimunch
 Posts: 2012 |
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I thought all anime characters are already 'of color' since they're Japanese? Or if using them as the reference, aren't whites and blacks both of color compared to the Asian culture?
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3490 Location: Back stateside |
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Because she's got a Japanese family name (Himemiya, "princess palace") and a Greek-derived given name (anthos, "flower"), both of which are symbolic of her role. Meanwhile her appearance is never brought up as something unusual, even when there's an episode where Nanami has to go to India to get curry. Additionally, Utena pretty explicitly takes place in a universe of fairy tales, so trying to decipher anyone's ethnicity, what with the thematic colored hair and characters who don't age etc., is sort of a moot point.
See previous posts discussing this, but I like the idea of a list talking about how white people, American or European, get portrayed in anime, too. Although a reverse "most stereotypical white characters in anime" would probably be the most fun; I vote for the American manager in Gravitation who was constantly armed. Man, I got tired of people in Japan asking me if I owned a gun back in America... |
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encrypted12345
Posts: 718 |
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My personal issue with "People of Color" since people of America are American people, people of color are well, colored people or the racist term for African during colonial times up to the Civil Rights movement, I believe.
I'm not actually offended or anything, but it's just one of the weirder "politically correct" terms. Most of them at least don't ignore American history this blatantly. Maybe this is proof of history repeating itself? |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3490 Location: Back stateside |
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*sigh* Okay, resource to read: history of the term "people of color" and why it became a preferred term for non-white people. |
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anon827449
Posts: 13 |
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There's nothing sinister at all behind it. It has a very simple meaning. The colour white is often percieved as something that isn't a colour, just blankness. Other colours aren't colours of blankness. For the association of this with societies comprised majorly of whites, it makes sense to use it as a "metaphore" (except its a coined and accepted term so its not a metaphore, and metaphorical things are often coined to be terms for things) and it makes sense because non-whites being minorities means that they are particularly distinguished. The same kind of principle is applied here, where anime is majorly comprised of illustrations of characters that have fair skin that are essentially attributed to white, whilst other kinds of melanin reperesentation is more rare, thus a particular distinguishment. Oh yeah also, due to the existence of tanning, and also how little to no melanin production in the body causes albinism, which means you are very fair skinned, there is obviously a clear concept that if you are darker you are of more defined colour. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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But we're talking about Japanese media in Japan, where they won't see themselves as marginalized, underrepresented, or even oppressed. In anime, whites would be considered people of color because they're one of the several tiny minorities in Japan. |
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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No of course they wouldn't see themselves as underrepresented, in Japan itself. But from a Western point of view they are a racial minority, and they have suffered oppression due to white racism and imperialism (not to say that Japan isn't guilty of imperialism itself, because of course it is). While white people are a minority in Japan, they don't suffer institutionalized racism the same way Koreans, blacks, etc. would. Xenophobia, maybe, but racism, no. Thus having white characters in an anime doesn't really speak much for diversity. edited to add: That being said while many ethnically Japanese people are going to feel plenty represented in anime, darker skinned Japanese such as some Ainu and Okinawans are still extremely sparse in anime and representation for them is rare. |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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I'm not certain Japan's suffered under white imperialism, maybe you meant China, unless you were talking about the oil embargo prior to Pearl Harbor or about the occupation and continued military presence after the war. Even then that has more to do with losing a war and being forced to surrender unconditionally. spoiler[And don't bring in the a-bombs, as if we wouldn't have also nuked Germany given the opportunity. We certainly didn't hold back firebombing them just like with Tokyo.]
I can't see Japan specifically as this brutalized, exploited, and colonized region like you could describe South Africa, French Indochina, or India by. They've always had their own determinism and self-government prior to the Second World War. Unless you're talking about Japanese-American internment which is an entire other discussion. |
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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Certainly not in the same way that much of Africa, India, etc. was brutalized no, but Japan definitely did suffer under white imperialism. From Commodore Perry's use of force to demand trade from Japan to many elements of the American occupation post WWII and the continued military presence in the nation, it's there. Whether the same thing would have happened with in a European country is debatable (I don't know near as much about the occupation of West Germany as I do Japan, admittedly), but that's still what it is. |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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And many places suffered FAR worse under Japanese imperialism, I'd have taken Mac's occupational government any day of the week. Maybe it was embarrassing or disheartened, but I don't think people were made to suffer except for what to the Imperial government had already set in motion, like the severe rationing.
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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There's no defending Japanese imperialism, most certainly not. But being the lesser of two evils doesn't make something not terrible. |
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YesNoMaybe
 SubscriberPosts: 177 Location: Columbus, OH |
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I would add Gorobei Katayama from Samurai 7 to the list. He was my favorite character of the series.
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