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Hey, Answerman! [2006-11-03]

Mohawk52 wrote:

One also has to remember the no eastern cultural nation ever historically sailed to some other nation on the other side of their world and forcibly taken many of the indigenous people from those nations, chain them inside stuffy disease ridden ships to their home land and then sell the survivors into forced labour like nothing more than mules and donkeys.

Look up "trans-Saharan slavery," African slaves used in the middle and far east. African slaves were even shipped, by sea, as far as India. Over it's history, trans-Saharan slavery is believed to have displaced many more African slaves than European/trans-Atlantic slavery, although it lasted significantly longer.

Organized slavery of foreign peoples is most likely to originated in the East (ie: Sumer).

-t

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It's pretty simple; in most cases, the whole reason they even have OP and ED themes is to promote a band or a single or an album, especially when the show is a long-running series based on a popular manga, like Fullmetal Alchemist or Naruto.

Erm... or, you know, that uh... the openings and endings get old? I mean, if Pokemon was still on Mesaze Pokemon Master, I think I would totally hurl. At any rate, to say that songs change for bands/singles/albums promotion is a somewhat faulty generalization-- many openings and endings are created specifically for the anime, by seiyuu or non-album-releasing studio musicians, though granted, this mostly applies for younger children's anime.

kolibri wrote:

minakichan wrote: Um, all right... I'm an Asian. Why does American media get away with wholesale racism and other downright disgusting portrayals of minorities? Sure, homogeneity gives Japanese society a different perspective on racial differences. I'd have to argue, however, that it's pretty Western-o-centric to assume that this "downright disgusting portrayal" is definitive, typical, or exceptionally prevalent in Japanese media. There's plenty of similar "racist" portrayal on American television-- stereotypes of Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians abound. I was hoping someone would say this. Lot of it is really subtitle, I like to call it "hidden racism". You know how they have these racial minority characters in TV series or movies, but they are always just a little bit dumber or little bit poorer or little bit uglier than their white counterparts. But since the characters are there someone can point to them and say "look, we're not racist, here's a minority character".

Um all right... I'm a Black American. (sorry i couldn't resist) I'll take subtle racism over blatent racism any day of the week. America's not perfect and we have plenty of stereotyping and racism in our media portrayals. But like everyone has saidas a general rule americans at least TRY. We try not to be offensive and try not to foreigner bash. The Japanese portrayals of Black people have at times left me speechless.

ArielTsuki wrote:

But when I do see a Black character in anime/manga, most of the time they're depicted in a positive light as cool people.

Our definition of cool may differ but most Black characters in anime our drawn and act so Sambo like that I am too busy thinking "How in God's name do they think this is ok." Any positive traits of the character is lost on me.

That said I give anime the same pass I give to people over 80 who still call me colored. They don't know there being offensive and no one taught them any better. What can you expect. I totally agreed with Zac's answer. I just don't like people justifing the Japanese's ignorance by saying we have it too. There are no acceptable excuses, only understandable reasons.

tempest wrote:

Mohawk52 wrote: One also has to remember the no eastern cultural nation ever historically sailed to some other nation on the other side of their world and forcibly taken many of the indigenous people from those nations, chain them inside stuffy disease ridden ships to their home land and then sell the survivors into forced labour like nothing more than mules and donkeys. Look up "trans-Saharan slavery," African slaves used in the middle and far east. African slaves were even shipped, by sea, as far as India. Over it's history, trans-Saharan slavery is believed to have displaced many more African slaves than European/trans-Atlantic slavery, although it lasted significantly longer. Organized slavery of foreign peoples is most likely to originated in the East (ie: Sumer). -t

That was by arabs working their market east, not the Chinese, Indonesians , and definitely not the Japanese sailing to Africa working their own trade.

On a somewhat related point, wasn't Japan the country that recently rereleased the "Little Black Sambo" children's book originally put out decades ago in the States? I can recall reading that one as a little kid, but it hasn't been available in the States in ages, and with good reason.

I think if you look into the wars among Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and China, you'll find examples of invasion for the purpose of taking slaves, and definitely some taking of slaves after victory. I've come across it reading aout why the Japanaese and Koreans and Chinese and Vietnamese and Chinese and Koreans don't get along so well, but I've also gotten the impression that they collectively abandoned that behaviour some time before the West did.

indrik wrote:

I think if you look into the wars among Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and China, you'll find examples of invasion for the purpose of taking slaves, and definitely some taking of slaves after victory. I've come across it reading aout why the Japanaese and Koreans and Chinese and Vietnamese and Chinese and Koreans don't get along so well, but I've also gotten the impression that they collectively abandoned that behaviour some time before the West did.

Yes that's true, but they are all relatively from the same gene pool, Also I think you would be hard pressed to find any historic account of when the Japanese took foreign slaves back to Japan.

The only thing I see that is racially offensive is the sambo style that they used, but they don't know or expected to know the cultural signifinace of it unless there is someone who will teach them about it.

And if you think that American entertainment is 'trying', that's pretty crazy. You rarely see Black people portrayed other than gangsta, loose cannon, and "oh no, you didn't!" type. I mean they give Denzel Washington, who is an excellent actor who is worth his merit, a Oscar for playing a dirty gangsta cop? Even some Black male actors would say that there's a dearth of roles that's not about gangstas or the like. And also most major network American TV still mostly white casts. The closest of being kind of diverse casts are ER and Grey's Anatomy. And other races does this too, like having a mostly Black cast with one White or other minority actor.

And racism is racism, no matter what form it takes in. Besides a lot of people would agree that subtle racism is more dangerous than blatant because it gives a sort of justification to exist when we can do something against blantant racism because we can see it. Both hurt the victim no more or no less than the other.

Two anime's that spring to mine that I have watched recently are full metal panic and tenjhe tenge.

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Two anime's that spring to mine that I have watched recently are full metal panic and tenjhe tenge.

I'm confused what's is offensive about Bob in Tenjho Tenge?

busyyuu wrote:

I thought you meant your words to be a blanket classification in your article. If you didn't, then all the better.

I don't make blanket classifications. Of course not all Japanese feel this way. I've met many who don't. Nothing I said was intended to be any sort of blanket statement, nor did I ever say that "Japanese people are like this". Not once.

Try this one on for size:

Mai-Hime - episode 26. One scene close to end took the wind out of the sails for me...and it only took 3 seconds.

Someone mentioned Area 88 as being a positive portrayal of Westerners, but the manga does a slight "sambo" style for 3 'dark-skinned' and rather traitorous pilots.

However, it is hard for non-Japanese people outside of Japan to not sneer at the Japanese in general when you have the Director of Public Safety promising crackdowns on foreigners (for the rising crime rate in Japan by Japanese people) and politicians like Taro Aso spewing Trent Lott-like comments (like Korea was better off under 'colonial rule'). The overall point is that every glass house in this battle is simply making Window Wizards rich.

Anyhow, Japanese anime, when bashing Americans in particular, will usually take on 1 of 3 forms -

- Blatant idiocy by the Americans for not choosing the "right" side (read the Japanese) - like with Brain Powerd (mind you, the series was already teetering on the brink before the Americans were introduced in such hap-hazard fashion) - and identifying the Americans by name;

- Blatant idiocy by the tall, stocky, squared-jawed people with blond hair and either blue eyes or sunglasses for the same reason as above - but not be identified by as being Americans but rather as a part of some International or Galactic Force but will usually have "United" as part of the name - and someone will either sport American-style military uniforms and helmets or be adorned in Red, White, and Blue. Such examples include - Nadesico the series (the UEAF) & the movie (the unnamed countries that joined the Bad Guys); Gravion (the EFA); Crest/Banner of Stars (the United Mankind); and Super Atragon (the UN); and finally:

- Idiocy and destructive tendencies on the part of a party to the fight that "swears left and right to keep the peace" - and uses nuclear-type weapons (if available) to achieve said results. In these cases, a council of military types or "beligerent" politicians wants to go to battle with the biggest weapons against all who stand in their way.

The USA is one of the most closed-down, conservative societies of our world, if not the worst. I don't mean to be insulting here, but it's the truth.

stuff