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INTEREST: Video on Black Representation in Anime Posted By Guardian Newspaper


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ErikaD.D



Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 659
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 11:42 am Reply with quote
I'm sure I'm not the only one know's that Superalloy Darkshine is actually spoiler[not black.] His spoiler[skin is tanned,] and hespoiler[sprayed too much tan in his skin.]
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andyos
ANN Associate Editor


Joined: 27 Oct 2008
Posts: 262
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 11:50 am Reply with quote
ErikaD.D wrote:
I'm sure I'm not the only one know's that Superalloy Darkshine is actually spoiler[not black.] His spoiler[skin is tanned,] and hespoiler[sprayed too much tan in his skin.]


This gets brought up in the comments under the video on YouTube. A feed tagged "The Guardian" - I'm guessing it's by the producer of the video - comments, "I think that regardless of whether he is supposed to be black or not, the way he is portrayed still has unmistakable elements of anti-black tropes. Using these 'minstrel-esque' tropes was a stylistic choice, which for me is offensive... I even liked the personality of the character .... but I can't get along with the way they have drawn him."
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13552
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 3:59 pm Reply with quote
A problem is that there are people out there who might automatically assume that a dark/tanned character in anime is supposed to be Black. Uh, no! There is ganguro and similar at times.

Last edited by Kadmos1 on Tue May 17, 2022 11:55 am; edited 1 time in total
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IceLeaf



Joined: 08 Sep 2019
Posts: 146
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:10 pm Reply with quote
Oh, yay, more calls for cultural appropriation by Americans.

Anime isn't American and isn't made for you. Stop trying to force your own issues on it and trying to suit it to your standards of what is politically correct.

Don't like it, don't watch it.

Also how many people watch anime to determine how they think about people in real life. None, apart from the crazies on Twitter who keep trying to push fiction = reality and that fictional characters should be given human rights while degrading and threatening violence against anyone who dares step a toe out of line from their ideas of what is correct. Still waiting to be isekai'd away, somehow randomly end up in an ideal group, gain supernatural powers or be murder by a cult in a small remote village

Also it isn't as if American programs also use cultural stereotypes... Oh wait they do, but since lot of the time they aren't against black people (especially by the popular standards of only African American are black enough to count) I guess they don't matter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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musouka



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
Posts: 707
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:20 pm Reply with quote
IceLeaf wrote:
Oh, yay, more calls for cultural appropriation by Americans.


I'm sure the people that live in the UK will be thrilled to know they've been officially annexed.
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Fred Lougee



Joined: 01 Oct 2018
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:38 pm Reply with quote
The Guardian neatly ignores that anime and manga are full of "racist" tropes and portrayals. All "Europeans" are blond and blue-eyed, English are refined and cultured. But then The Guardian is great for neatly ignoring such trivialities.
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Fred Lougee



Joined: 01 Oct 2018
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:41 pm Reply with quote
musouka wrote:
IceLeaf wrote:
Oh, yay, more calls for cultural appropriation by Americans.


I'm sure the people that live in the UK will be thrilled to know they've been officially annexed.


Make them fight a revolution to get away from us for once. It'll be refreshing.
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Thaumana



Joined: 08 Jul 2017
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:41 pm Reply with quote
One thing what always fascinated me about the 2000s anime that there was always at least one minor character within a wide-range multicultural cast who was black and I never interpreted their role in a negative way, even if they were depicted as enemies or just comic reliefs. The cast of Cowboy Bebop had quite a lot and it fit into the overall concept associated with or inspired by different music styles and cultural origins. I consider it rather cool that many series covered those kind of people (there are quite a lot of trans people who came into my mind too) and they didn't just die off like it often struck me when I saw US movies or series back then.

I can't imagine that most anime fans who belong to one of those respective ethnicities really felt that way when they saw those mentioned characters. At least it is not how I would think when there was a scene or an episode with a character who represented my culture or country as long as their depiction was not too dull.

As far as I learned from my japanology seminars the black community living in Japan had quite a big impact on the music and pop culture in general too so it felt kinda natural to me that those stereotypes existed and played a more or less important role within a bigger cast.

Sorry for my bad English. I'm bad in putting things into the right words.Just felt like this video is more about nitpicking about the negative aspects or examples and some of them are rather a subjective matter, but who am I to have the right to judge.
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Replica_Rabbit



Joined: 23 Aug 2015
Posts: 354
Location: Portland
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:07 pm Reply with quote
IceLeaf wrote:

Don't like it, don't watch it.

What!? They like Anime, they are just criticize something they don't like about it and give reasons why it the way it is. Why these topic always goto the absolute?
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1499
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:29 pm Reply with quote
This article lost me the moment they called Simon from Durarara!! offensive. Bugger off, he's awesome.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5316
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:36 pm Reply with quote
AshLancer wrote:
uhhh.... Cannon Busters, is NOT, an anime..
I'm usually the first person to say that's not an Anime, but this was made by 2 Japanese studios with what I assume was a largely Japanese staff.
Fred Lougee wrote:
The Guardian neatly ignores that anime and manga are full of "racist" tropes and portrayals. All "Europeans" are blond and blue-eyed, English are refined and cultured. But then The Guardian is great for neatly ignoring such trivialities.
It would be interesting to see a video that discuses Caucasians in Anime.
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Abraham Omosun



Joined: 05 Mar 2020
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:36 pm Reply with quote
Is there a reason why the guy from Durarara and the woman from Cowboy Bebop are considering offensive? I can understand the others with the exaggerated features but I'm not really seeing anything wrong with the 2 of them.
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tygerchickchibi



Joined: 29 Sep 2006
Posts: 1448
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:40 pm Reply with quote
Well, this thread went exactly as I thought it would. (u_u)
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Tempest
I Run this place.
ANN Publisher


Joined: 29 Dec 2001
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:48 pm Reply with quote
IceLeaf wrote:
Oh, yay, more calls for cultural appropriation by Americans.
Uhhh... It has nothing to do with Americans. The Guardian is British. They have black people in Britain too.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4371
Location: New York
PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:54 pm Reply with quote
No mention of Cannon Busters should be complete without noting how its creator left his Kickstarter backers high and dry when they wanted their rewards. No wonder his show was a one and done. Besides that it was unoriginal crap.
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