I decided to post this for anyone who ever had a question regarding the topic of Race in Anime and Videogames. Because I think the whole Videogame and Anime/Manga world is much closer to our sphere than ever before, let me say this. Yes Virginia, Japan is racist. While a character like Usagi Tsuniko (from the ubiquitous Sailor Moon Series)exists as a native Japanese character [Series creator Naoko Takeuchi swears the young girls represent Normal Japanese girls] , as well as countless other Nordic lookalikes posing as native Japanese--Please dont make me pull a "first-new-episode-of-Family Guy-after-being-cancelled" naming of names--black charcters are relegated to old hollywood roles.
How could anyone forget Jiro's slave in the ninja masterpeice, Dagger's of Kamui. Anyway I've decided to post this little blurb for anyone that has ever googled the term "is Anime racist?" and found that stupid Animesuki forumn where braindead idiots defended Japanese exclusion of African Americans with brain rotty statements like this "There aren't alot of African Americans in Japan, so why would they include them in their shows?". For any mental Zombies out there; Japan has a 1% foriegn population. That means there are noooooo foreigners in public life in Japan not just Blacks. So, why does an anime/manga series like Chobits or Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z or Peach girl for Godsakes feature White leads posing as Japanese?
One would forgive me for being a bit accusatory here, simply because Anime, which when I was a kid was relegated to a few late night airings and was popular for comicbook dorks, has become a cheap ass way to fill saturday morning cartoon blocks without creating new content. Thus, young black kids have to watch these shows, and become fans of them and yet be totally excluded. That is of course unless a black kid is fond of the dark skinned mr. popo of Dragon ball Z fame. This is why I am totally against any simple answer to this. There is a deeper issue here. Who could forget Japan's former Prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's wonderful statements linking credit card debt and school failure rates to African Americans and hispancics? Does this attitude permeate Japanese culuture?
Japanese pop art alludes to a proposed greatness in being white--blond with traditional European looks--Why else would some of the only "Japanese looking" characters in anime (namely the Dragon Ball Z gang) transform into "Norwegians" in order to become "super" Saiyons. Or what of the strange moment in the Sailor Moon Comic where blond/blue Tokyo native Usagi Tsuniko refers to Japanese dead ringer, Rei Hino as "exotic"? While an anime series like Captain Harlocke floats beyond Japan within the scope of its story, thus characters in it could technically look like anything, a series like Peach Girl which features a hyper-tan, hyper-blond Japanese high-school protaganiste seem to tease the notion that "white is right". Commentators are entitled to their own opinions, but think before you post. The whole "Japan is a Homogenious population playing with hair/eye color to escape the sameness" argument is trite and makes no sense in this case.
I feel that in this case noone has stood up for the black kids. It is february.
What of videogames? Who hasn't seen the mamoth Playstation 2 wall in Gamestop stocked to the brim with Final Fantasy titles? We'll talk about that next time...
How could anyone forget Jiro's slave in the ninja masterpeice, Dagger's of Kamui. Anyway I've decided to post this little blurb for anyone that has ever googled the term "is Anime racist?" and found that stupid Animesuki forumn where braindead idiots defended Japanese exclusion of African Americans with brain rotty statements like this "There aren't alot of African Americans in Japan, so why would they include them in their shows?". For any mental Zombies out there; Japan has a 1% foriegn population. That means there are noooooo foreigners in public life in Japan not just Blacks. So, why does an anime/manga series like Chobits or Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z or Peach girl for Godsakes feature White leads posing as Japanese?
One would forgive me for being a bit accusatory here, simply because Anime, which when I was a kid was relegated to a few late night airings and was popular for comicbook dorks, has become a cheap ass way to fill saturday morning cartoon blocks without creating new content. Thus, young black kids have to watch these shows, and become fans of them and yet be totally excluded. That is of course unless a black kid is fond of the dark skinned mr. popo of Dragon ball Z fame. This is why I am totally against any simple answer to this. There is a deeper issue here. Who could forget Japan's former Prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's wonderful statements linking credit card debt and school failure rates to African Americans and hispancics? Does this attitude permeate Japanese culuture?
Japanese pop art alludes to a proposed greatness in being white--blond with traditional European looks--Why else would some of the only "Japanese looking" characters in anime (namely the Dragon Ball Z gang) transform into "Norwegians" in order to become "super" Saiyons. Or what of the strange moment in the Sailor Moon Comic where blond/blue Tokyo native Usagi Tsuniko refers to Japanese dead ringer, Rei Hino as "exotic"? While an anime series like Captain Harlocke floats beyond Japan within the scope of its story, thus characters in it could technically look like anything, a series like Peach Girl which features a hyper-tan, hyper-blond Japanese high-school protaganiste seem to tease the notion that "white is right". Commentators are entitled to their own opinions, but think before you post. The whole "Japan is a Homogenious population playing with hair/eye color to escape the sameness" argument is trite and makes no sense in this case.I feel that in this case noone has stood up for the black kids. It is february.
What of videogames? Who hasn't seen the mamoth Playstation 2 wall in Gamestop stocked to the brim with Final Fantasy titles? We'll talk about that next time...
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