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Answerman - Why Aren't More Races Represented In Anime And Manga?


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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1733
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:57 pm Reply with quote
LilyChan wrote:
animechic420 wrote:
Once....just once I'd like to see an animanga with a black/African-American girl MC. She could be a transfer student, young model, housewife, business mogul, singer. Whatever. I just wanna see that!


they're brazilian but have you checked out "michiko to hatchin"?

Michiko sure behaves like she's black. Laughing

Probably the closest thing to a black chick as a MC, huh???
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GVman



Joined: 14 Jul 2010
Posts: 730
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:58 pm Reply with quote
Souther wrote:
There are quite a bit of anime/manga that have whites/asians in them. I've seen a few manga with black male MCs like Me and the Devil's Blues, and Blaster Knuckle, a manga about a black ex-heavy-weight boxer who goes around punching demons disguised as KKK members with an explosive gauntlet.


Me and the Devil Blues just had a new volume published this year, too. I thought it had ended for good.
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GhostStalkerSA



Joined: 17 May 2015
Posts: 425
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:00 pm Reply with quote
Levitz9 wrote:
Mana gets bonus points, because she's also half-Puertorican!)

Half-Puerto Rican, half-Japanese, and half-demon as well. Can't forget about that last part.

But yeah, Japan isn't really gonna include more diversity in their anime and manga for the sake of some American ideal of diversity. They are pretty much a homogeneous population over there, much the same way as other East Asian cultures. They don't interact much with people of other cultures, especially blacks or hispanics, even now, and the best you'll probably get is a non-offensive stereotype.

Hell, even some American ideal of diversity isn't playing well with the big movie studios as they chase foreign box office profits. The Sony email leaks earlier this year said as much when a couple of emails back and forth from Sony movie execs blamed a certain action movie (I'm drawing a blank on the name right now)'s anemic performance overseas (as well as a reduced domestic box office) on the decision to cast Denzel Washington as the lead role, which turned away certain foreign audiences (read: China, the biggest foreign movie territory that the big studios are going after at the moment) just because he was black and in the lead role. So yeah, we still have a long way to go with acceptance of foreign cultures all over the place.


Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:22 pm; edited 5 times in total
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Eigengrau



Joined: 09 May 2015
Posts: 107
Location: Belgium
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:08 pm Reply with quote
animechic420 wrote:
Once....just once I'd like to see an animanga with a black/African-American girl MC. She could be a transfer student, young model, housewife, business mogul, singer. Whatever. I just wanna see that!

Let us not forget about Nadia from "Secret of Blue Water", who was even more African looking in the early designs and was the most popular female anime character of the early 90s.
Quote:
WHY DON’T THOSE JAPANESE PEOPLE MAKE THEIR ENTERTAINMENT MORE AMERICAN??!!

Maybe you should take a step back and think about what you’re demanding there. This might be difficult to grasp for burgerlanders but most countries on this planet are pretty damn homogeneous. American culture is defined by not having any culture, not any specific one at least, everyone is welcome so entertainment should be more “inclusive” and feature any and all immigrants, it’s still American as long as you slap fast food, guns and the US flag on top of it. If you however sprinkle random races all over a work from an ethnically homogeneous country it definitely becomes less authentic, feels less like a work from that country and more like yet another globalization driven EVERYTHING MUST BE AMERICAN work.

This isn’t about “not knowing any better”, any country is allowed to have its own culture and respect its own ethnicities, and when people on Walmart scooters try to change this you call it cultural imperialism.

Well, I'm the whitest European I can think of at this moment and I want to see more ethnically diverse characters in anime and manga too. And I don't care if the push for it is American, Moldavian or Luxembourgish, because it's still a bloody good idea regardless.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5500
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:09 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Quote:
little to no other manga shows White, Black, Indian and Asian looking characters as of late. How do you believe this hinders growth of the genre?

Oh please take your political correct BS elsewhere, many people get by without having to relate ethnically to the characters.
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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:11 pm Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
animechic420 wrote:
Once....just once I'd like to see an animanga with a black/African-American girl MC. She could be a transfer student, young model, housewife, business mogul, singer. Whatever. I just wanna see that!

#1. If you mean actual anime/manga, in ALMOST all anime/manga the main character is supposed to be Japanese, because the target audience for the stuff is JAPAN. Yes, you get random foreign MCs, but it is exceedingly RARE as Justin noted.
#2. No, no you wouldn't. Unless you're into unintentional racism potentially on par with blackface of the American 20s, then "no" you don't want to see what a somewhat xenophobic, 99% homogeneous nation with little to no experience with your race will do. Maybe you get "lucky" and it's the standard "valley girl" (blond hair, blue eyes, big boobs, usually in an American Flag bikini) or maybe you get Mr. Popo.

1. Um....I'm just stating a wish that may or may not be fulfilled. Chillax.
2. Um....I am black and from what I've seen in Afro Samurai and Cowboy Bebop(Mushroom Samba), I wouldn't care.
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KutovoiAnton



Joined: 03 Mar 2013
Posts: 958
Location: Vladimir, Russia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Em... Did people forgot about Berserk's Casca?
There's also this season's Gangsta, which have dark-skinned Alex Benedetto.
As for the guys, there's Mohammed Avdol from JoJo. I think Prince of Tennis had a black guy in the cast. Legend of the Galactic Heroes had more or less major black guy. Some of the series about Oda Nobunaga have Yasuke, his bodyguard from Africa. Arslan Senki have a middle-eastern setting, so there's all types of character.
If I'll try, I'll remember much more.


Last edited by KutovoiAnton on Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 606
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:13 pm Reply with quote
GVman wrote:
Me and the Devil Blues just had a new volume published this year, too. I thought it had ended for good.


Heard the author was starting it up again, but I had no idea about the new volume. Confused

(Can't believe I forgot about Nadia lol.)
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Science fiction, on the other hand, often considers different ethnic groups, particularly if it takes place in outer space. The various Macross and Gundam series often feature characters with different racial backgrounds.


Yes, the Japanese have a fascination with strange other people and countries, they just don't actually want to go there and meet them.

Hence, they don't know very much about people of other countries (except England where they all have blonde hair and blue eyes, and America where everyone's last name starts with "Mc--"), and the key neato factor of a sci-fi premise about an "international" team will have the amazement factor of international stereotypes.
Again, like Macross, where you knew it was a worldwide effort because Claudia was WESTERN! And BLACK! Very Happy

Sort of like everyone on the 60's Star Trek was supposed to be from a different country, and we got Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Terra Formars was pretty...diverse.
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GWOtaku



Joined: 19 Jul 2003
Posts: 678
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Gattix wrote:


This isn’t about “not knowing any better”, any country is allowed to have its own culture and respect its own ethnicities, and when people on Walmart scooters try to change this you call it cultural imperialism.


Some of us would call it simple imagination. Or is it cultural imperialism every time a Japanese work is created that depicts non-Japanese people and societies?


Last edited by GWOtaku on Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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LilyChan



Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 101
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:26 pm Reply with quote
animechic420 wrote:
Michiko sure behaves like she's black. Laughing

Probably the closest thing to a black chick as a MC, huh???


i mean, i suggested it cause i thought it'd be something you'll be interested in. you don't have to watch it if you don't want to. Anime exclamation
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Wrial Huden



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 149
Location: McKinney, TX
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
There are plenty of bizarre American stereotypes in anime and manga involving white people, and most of them are not flattering.


Like the Americans portrayed in Marmalade Boy. Michael, in particular. Not only is he annoying, he brags that his fluency in Japanese is a result of watching old samurai movies Rolling Eyes I suppose it's cheaper than Rosetta Stone. BTW, I wonder how Yuu's classmates at St. Andrews are so fluent in Japanese Laughing
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doubleO7



Joined: 17 Jul 2009
Posts: 1072
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:30 pm Reply with quote
KutovoiAnton wrote:
There's also this season's Gangsta, which have dark-skinned Alex Benedetto.


Gangsta is a good, recent example, but it goes far beyond just Alex. It's not set in Japan, but seems to be some European country. The ONLY Asian characters in the series (at least up to the point the anime is at) are Nicolas and Yang, one of Monroe's subordinates. I suppose Alex is still the token dark-skinned character though.
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Animechic420



Joined: 25 Sep 2012
Posts: 1733
Location: A Cave Filled With Riches
PostPosted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:34 pm Reply with quote
LilyChan wrote:
i mean, i suggested it cause i thought it'd be something you'll be interested in. you don't have to watch it if you don't want to. Anime exclamation

No, no, I am watching Michiko and Hatchin. They is some badass girls and it's one kickass anime! Razz


Last edited by Animechic420 on Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
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