Forum - View topicThe List - 6 Awesome People of Color in Anime
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2545 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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While I wouldn't replace any of the choices Lynzee & Sarah had, I will add another character to the list: Black Shaft from Ring ni Kakero 1.
Yes, his name & mannerisms are an obvious blaxploitation reference, but he's just such an enjoyable character to watch. His cocky attitude, pride, & some of the funniest use of English mixed with Japanese (which isn't actually isn't randomly used) all mix together to make an instantly awesome person of color in anime. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13555 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Cyborg 009 has Jet/002 (a Latino), Geronmio/005 (a Native American), and Pyuunma/008 (an African).
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Raikuro
Posts: 347 |
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Guess you forgot/hadn't seen Captain America 2. Falcon is another secondary hero that appeared in Marvel's main series of movies. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Aren't most anime characters already PoCs if they're Japanese?
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Technically, but I think she's thinking of non-white and non-East Asian... "black and brown," for lack of a clearer way of saying it. The groups that get stereotyped the most in anime - though depictions of people from China can also be pretty painful in anime at times. As for the survey, this is the first year in ages that I had to say "zero," just because of how tight my financial situation has been. I'm hoping I get some Christmas money so I can buy a show or two, preferably off iTunes so that I can get them in HD (i don't have a blu-ray player or a TV). |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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I am coming at it from an American way of thinking where Asians are also people of color. There's a ton of dark skinned characters in various anime and manga, but their ethnicity tends to be obscure, they're just brown.
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3489 Location: Back stateside |
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Yup. Akio and Anthy come to mind, but their dark skin is just a visual cue for their spoiler[supernatural origin and symbolic meaning as Prince and Princess/Witch.] And the idea of foreign others as having special supernatural powers and being "superior" can be a form of racism too. But most of the characters on this list get kudos for being well-rounded individuals whose race doesn't comprise their only character trait, so I'm not going to argue most of the inclusions. |
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Tetranet
 Posts: 13 |
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"People of Color"
This vocabulary of white, black and "of color" seriously irritates me. Not only does it hide a racist perception, it has absolutely nothing to do with reality as well. Caucasians are neither transparent or white. Asians aren't colored, Africans aren't black. Marble is white. Space is black. Not people. And all people are colored because no transparent humans have been discovered so far. Differentiating between people "of color" and people "not of color" is a disgusting notion. The entire set of vocabulary that people in English - at least - use absolutely DISGUSTS me. I know ANN isn't the place to sort this thing out, but every little bit helps in letting people know what's behind the terms they're using.
Always keep in mind that Japanese skin tone can vary wildly too. |
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Ulinox
 Posts: 687 |
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Well at least they included Casca.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5424 Location: Iscandar |
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On the poll I voted 10-15 series because I bought 13 series in its entirety, but I ended up buying 40 anime discs releases in total, counting one cour sets, half season sets, movies and OVA's.
I think the poll should have asked how many anime releases you bought this year. Focusing solely on completed series might not give us the whole picture. Last edited by Angel M Cazares on Sat Nov 22, 2014 1:38 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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I don't know why I went into the article thinking "Oh, they're going to forget Claudia Grant..."
(And how many times are we going to still beat the 90's Wesley Snipes mantra of "Black Panther is the only black superhero!", even after Falcon and Storm showed up in movies?) |
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Hitokiri Kenshin
Posts: 291 |
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With Cyborg 008 his appearance from his early days makes my eye wince, and thus why the original show wasn't brought to American shores. Interesting article though. Kinda thought they would've included Garterbelt, but it's ok. |
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Mr.Shonen
Posts: 269 Location: Brooklyn, NY |
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Look, the sentiment is nice, but the last thing anime needs is that pseudo-social justice that has already made it's inroads into comics.
I'm Latino and I don't care that most characters are Japanese because it suppose to be a reflection on it's society. But I don't want to start seeing people complain that a show set in Japan doesn't have characters that have the same skin tone as people from Africa and that it's someone white people's fault. Finally the more I hear the term "People of Color" the more its starts to sound as racist as the usual racist words. |
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Keichitsu0305
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Not to shamelessly plug myself or anything, but I actually made a similar article for Population Go not that long ago.
I only bought six series this year because art college. Okay. The term "people of color" is just a politically correct way of saying this human being right here has a lot of melanin in their genes and that Eumelanin (the most common) makes things like skin or hair darker. It's not to literally mean that people are black (the absorption of light) otherwise that would be a weird superpower. So "Black" people or "Brown" people have color in a physically obvious way but then the term is also thrown out based on the ethnicity or culture of other nations and etc. Plus, in anime (and American media in general), most characters have the same pale skin tone so when a character with obviously darker skin color shows up, it's a pretty big deal. More so if the artist goes out of their way to actually change the character design and not just draw the same face but with a brown fill in. See Lara from School Rumble as example in contrast to Dutch from Black Lagoon. |
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walw6pK4Alo
Posts: 9322 |
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I'm talking more about characters that are ambiguously brown. They're not Japanese, and it's not just tanned skin, but they're also not from any specific real-world location or some kind of equivalent. That's a very popular thing to see around in anime and manga now, as well as in fantasy like with brown elves, or brown minotaurs and ogres from Okayado. They're definitely from any kind of real-world location. Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Sat Nov 22, 2014 1:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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