Well, maybe you could enlighten us, then, how a bunch of white, privileged people from the U.S. are going to “fix” Anime. After all, it’s a product of another culture that we’re appropriating. We can beat ourselves up over the not-so-subtle racism that comes from that culture, but it’s not ours to fix imho.
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I’d wager they get a little more than black women.
At some point it’s just fuck it, I’m doing what I want and put on a dress.
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well it isn’t as though the majority of whites aren’t cosplaying as japanese, you know? White people are more represented in anime, sure, but it’s still majority japanese by far and most white people you see cosplaying an anime character aren’t the ‘correct’ race any more than you are. I’ll grant you that at least they have more options if they want to be someone of their own race but seems like mostly a non-issue, especially considering @Mal_Tosevite’s excellent point that anime isn’t ours to fix.
Do you know why anime characters have such big eyes? It’s a style Japan picked up from early American cartoons. Do you know why the black men in Final Fantasy 7 all said stuff like “Shuddup, foo!” ? They were based on stereotypes depicted in American media, which is Japan’s main source of information about what black people are like.
Anti-black racism did not spontaneously develop in Japan. It is an American export. The difference is that, being outsiders to American culture, the Japanese don’t fully grasp the subtleties. So when they notice the obvious racist themes and subtext in American media, they don’t have the tact to realize that it’s supposed to stay subtext. They depict it openly, like a kid repeating his parent’s private comments.
Point being: anti-black racism in Japan is much more a reflection of American culture than we would like to admit.
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That doesn’t mean we can fix it. Only fix ourselves and hope they do too
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Japan itself has a racism/xenophobia problem that’s far more pronounced, common and not recognized as problematic by the wider japanese society. I’m no fan of US “culture” but I don’t think imported US-american anti-black racism is the major reason for this phenomenon you describe.
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I can see it as a thing that was imported and then reinforced by their own racism.
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not so much racism as complete and utter ignorance which leads to weirdness more often than offensiveness.
If it’s just xenophobia or generalized racism, then why do white and black Americans in Japan have such different experiences from each other? I know white Americans have stories about being treated rudely for being gaijin or whatever, but how many are asked why they’re missing their gold teeth and chains?
Yes, Japanese culture is xenophobic. But it’s hostile towards black people in a special way, and that’s because they learn it from us.
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I might be inclined to agree that Japanese culture isn’t ours to fix, but when the world is consuming their media then i think wanting better diversity is not exactly an outrageous thing to ask.
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My shooting buddy is a huge Anime fan. He often uses Bob from Tenjou Tenge and his avatar, and indeed looks very similar to him.
You are greatly overestimating the importance of foreign markets to Anime.
The global economic depression has caused foreign sales to drop dramatically. As if it wasn’t hard enough to distribute anime to foreign markets(partly from the rampant piracy and difficulty in promoting it locally as well as the low value of western currency) the money coming from those markets is the lowest it’s ever been, while at home Anime is becoming a booming industry again.
Most US movies are in a nose dive right now in Japan and Anime is filling that niche.
I actually can think of two off the top of my head, Revvy from Black Lagoon is Chinese American, and Kanuka Clancy from Patlabor is Japanese American. They aren’t common though.
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Love Black Lagoon. Their cast is rather eclectic.
Certainly you can ask and want these things but at the end of the day someone has got to make these things in order for them to exist. I personally don’t think it’s wrong for creators to stick to making what they know, or that we should expect them to make extraordinary effort to improve diversity like you are asking for. Besides, even if they did try to incorporate such things, how many mangakas have the background necessary to respectfully depict this diversity you are asking for? You’d just end up with more tokenism, and insensitive/stereotyped portrayals.
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I’m neither a Japan expert nor versed in the whole US racism issue. But aren’t certain very popular black artists prone to present themselves with just those attributes? I once read that basketball is very popular in Japan, perhaps RnB, HipHop etc is too?
Certainly. But it’s still stereotyping. Though US media tends to portray minorities in stereotypical ways, so some of that is understandable to a degree.
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I thought it came from copying Betty Boop. Astro Boy definitely has Betty Boop eyes.
Now, the other thing I’ve seen before, and I’m not finding a source, but I remember years ago seeing either stills from anime, or possibly manga, depicting black Marines raping Japanese women, as a way of protesting the Marine base in Okinawa, a city that definitely had a rape problem at the time.
So yeah…American export.
I’m not touching that one, but I can’t help but think of that Feministing contributor who blased Lorde for being racist, and instead imploring her to critique American culture. Which would be weird, given that she’s not an American…look, if mainstream hiphop is your exposure to “black culture” in 2015, you might be tempted to think that that’s what black people are like. I don’t know. I don’t buy the argument though, that anywhere you find racism, you’ll find a white person pulling the puppet strings. I’d be willing to wager that racism is one of the few constants around the world.
Ehm no … I think I said the exact opposite.
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