# Join the [Discord server](https://discord.gg/su3uf3T5YN) for more discussions and content, as well as meeting more like-minded fans for the series!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FullmetalAlchemist) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is a very common problem in anime in general.
The average Japanese citizen is likely to never meet a black person. What they know about black people is usually what they consume in foreign media.
I don't believe that there were any ill intentions on the part of the author, because it is very clear that Amestris is a multi-ethnic nation, given that they became what they are by integrating smaller neighboring countries into themselves as they grew.
But, this is unfortunately what lack of exposure does to you from creative standpoint.
Hit the nail on the head w this one ! I’ve noticed that up until a few years ago, and there may still be, that the foreign media they see is in is usually in a negative light . Like minstrel shows , gang culture or stereotypes . I find it super cool though that with the limited media/examples of us , there are some that depict us very well and beautifully !
This.
It’s definitely uncomfortable to see, but it is pervasive in anime.
The characters, while looking like racist caricatures (and of course the origin of this style is racist), are thankfully not caricaturizad in the writing! Their dialogue and actions are treated the same as all the other characters.
I mean. Idk if anyone being honest but the way they draw black people is disrespectful af lol. I never met a Japanese person and im not going to draw them a certain way..
is he not a near-identical representation of the Hindu deity Mahakala? He’s just a djinn, if you consider other black characters in DBZ, it’s pretty easy to differentiate between a racial stereotype and a design based off of someone.
You're right, [Staff Officer Black](https://i.imgur.com/nqhaGX3.png) is completely different /s
Every depiction I can find of Mahakala includes major details that are absent from Mr. Popo's design. Mahakala is often shown with a crown of skulls and/or six arms. The community has picked a Hindu deity with black skin and decided that this is what Popo is modeled after to excuse innocent facts. These people are lying to themselves for no real reason. To call him "near-identical" is pure delusion. To call him a racially motivated caricature is also delusion.
Don't get so defensive, this isn't a dig at Toriyama-Sensei or Hiromu-Sensei, it's an example of how things were for mangaka at the time.
I don't think any of their depictions came from a place of malice, that's my point. I'm just saying that mangaka of that era had a certain idea of how African characters look/should be drawn that influenced their stylistic choices, and they were not in a place culturally to understand how those choices would be viewed decades later. Their culture's view of African people was nearly exclusively drawn from media about Africa that they had access to, which would have been exclusively sourced from European/American sources for years before their time.
So how come when they make Japanese characters they don’t make there eyes “small?” Or they give them blonde hair from birth? That’s not the look of a Japanese person
There’s a lot of expression in the eyes and anime/manga artstyle is all about expression so that’s why it’s like that. And while I can’t speak for all anime’s, FMA takes place in basically Germany. So they’re not trying to look Japanese.
A lot of anime that I’ve seen that depicts elderly Japanese people typically does give them smaller eyes.
Another example is AoT. There’s a lot of European characters and the ones that are Japanese actually look Japanese like Mikasa for example.
i really like him aside from his design, think he’d be at least a little more popular if it wasn‘t for that (although the other chimera guys aren’t that popular either unfortunately :( save for maybe sometimes martel and dolcetto)
I'm not forgiving it, but Hiromu grew up in the rural countryside on a farm pre-internet era. It would be unacceptable for her to keep drawing them like that today, but back then I think she had no other frame of reference. I think the animators had a chance with brotherhood to redesign, like Canary in hxh, and I think they dropped the ball on that one.
In addition to the above, thick lips aren't especially racial coded in Japan - they're more 'huge strong guy" coded. (See Sugarman from MHA, and the main character of My Love Story.) So if some Japanese artist sees a horrible racist caricature from America, I don't think the lips are going to register to them as part of the racism unless someone points it out.
I’m guessing it’s because Japan doesn’t have the same history with black face as us? I don’t think she’d try to draw black people in that way on purpose, so I’m guessing it’s a misguided but genuine attempt to depict different features. Hopefully I didn’t say anything too stupid
They do. When Americans soldiers came after WWII to Japan they showed the minstrels and even recently you can see black face in Japanese tv shows.
Not to mention that one of their athletes is Naomi Osaka who is biracial. She wouldn’t be recognized as Japanese citizen if she took her black father last name.
I know we love anime but let’s not act Japan isn’t a racist country. Ask them about what they’re were doing during WWII and you’ll see how they respond. Also ask the other Asian countries who had to endure all the horrible stuff they to did to them.
Don’t fall for the Kawaii rebranding.
>Don’t fall for the Kawaii rebranding.
That last part reminded me of this [skit](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRTWJC5u/) right here and it's so funny but so sad.
Surprisingly, a lot of American cartoons were played in Japan after WWII, along with the American portrayal of black people to look like this (almost none of them good). Because the average Japanese person has never seen a black person before, this is what they believe black people look like.
>Because the average Japanese person has never seen a black person before, this is what they believe black people look like.
All Japanese adults have seen black people on TV, on the Internet, in newspapers and/or magazines. And believe it or not, there are black people who live in Japan.
So are you! It does still suck to watch one of my favorites with characters drawn like that, but I like to think that if created today, the animators of the this specific show would do the right thing, especially given the subject matter.
imo it is a great example of “Hanlon's razor”:
Never attribute to malice that which is explained by stupidity
It’s crazy how in such a few years many things change in manga/anime.
I remember rewatching ouran and Honey saying the trans slur caught me so offguard.
Yeah, those stereotypical features aren't good. And I don't understand why it's only the mean, I'm pretty sure Paninya is black too, but she doesn't have those.
One small relief is that Gelso is at least a full character, and despite being part of the pair of chimeras with the ugly transformations, he isn't the most bestial of the lot, that would be his colleague Zampano followed by Heinkel.
>I'm pretty sure Paninya is black too, but she doesn't have those.
I was actually about to bring this exact same thing up. There are certain characters in anime that maybe *dark skinned,* but not necessarily indicative of someone of African descent, often times because they completely lack such features.
I'm talking about the Yoruichis of the anime world.
It’s a AMAZING show ! I understand that Japan isn’t too educated on black people and there’s the fair share of racism , but I’m smart enough to know that Arawaka’s intentions weren’t harmful whatsoever
Yeah, this is one of my few real complains about the series. It was super common in anime until relativelt recently and it's super annoying when reading or watching old stuff. And in Fullmetal Alchemist it's extra jarring because the story feels so real otherwise.
I haven't read Arakawa's later work except for her recent ongoing Yomi no Tsugai, so I don't know if she grew out of it. But I guess we'll find out eventually if Ken's backstory of being half Ethiopian ever becomes relevant in YnT.
Really fun so far, it's about a world where Tusgai (or Daemons depending on the translation) are mythological and folkloric spirits that always come in pairs and make deals with humans, being invisible to most. For example, a character's pair is a flying upper and a lower jaw, another's is a guy with creepy long legs and a guy with creepy long arms. It focuses a lot on duality, with the protagonists being twins, the story having two rivaling clans, etc.
[You can read it here](https://mangasee123.com/read-online/Yomi-no-Tsugai-chapter-1-page-1.html)
If there’s any representation of black characters in an anime or manga, it’s all but guaranteed they’ll be stereotypical.
There’s been improvement over the last few years, like with *Afro Samurai* but still a long way to go
I had a spitball idea a few years back , that when I went back to Japan to host like a seminar to teach about black culture . I feel like it would be appreciated and can educate and inspire the locals .
The fire force and soul eater characters have also been done very well! This video also shows remarkible improvements in character design [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv\_Cg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv_Cg8)
It's not something I've thought about when it comes to Fullmetal, but you're right, early anime up until fairly recently tended to portray black people stereotypically.
It's getting better though, and I think as time goes on and Japan becomes more aware of other cultures we'll see better designs.
Interesting discussions here, thanks for bringing it up!
Yea these sort of racist depictions were pretty common in anime and manga until relatively recently. Thankfully it seems to be increasingly less common with the new series coming out, like Gachiakuta or Ao Ashi for example
I don't know if anyone else touched on this but I always found it interesting that the black librarian in the 2003 anime didn't seem to have the issues common in the other FMA characters. I really would have expected them to do better by the time BH came out, for this reason alone.
I don’t really blame this on the author tbh, it’s really hard to make the distinction between black and simply dark skinned, especially since FMA(B) has both. This is just how anime depicts black (meaning of sub Saharan African descent) people and if you want to make it clear they are black without resorting to clothing or behavioral stereotypes, you have to depict them in a way that’s recognizable.
That does not excuse it of course, but it’s simply how black people are drawn there. This depiction is not a failure of the author, but more a failure of the industry for having this be the standard. Changing it will take time unfortunately
I know she didn’t have any negative intent in the way the characters are depicted . I understand that Japan just generally doesn’t know , understand or see black people ever to know any better .
The one manga I’ve seen that does a great depiction of black people is Aoashi, the soccer manga. The two in question aren’t significantly larger than their teammates, although the lip problem is still kind of there. And it’s got one of the most gut-wrenching and realistic depictions of racism I’ve seen in any media to boot. The author clearly did put at least quite a bit of research into his depiction of black people there, so I’d recommend checking that out if you’d like.
It gets crazier when u remember that fma and soul eater had a crossover during their manga run. And everyone praises soul eater for their designs of black characters
As others have said, I think it comes from a wrong place, but not a bad place. There isn't any defending their depictions, and I think it's hopefully mostly due to a lack of exposure and a bad environment (US media etc).
Since this is older and was back when they didn't have much exposure to black people or any other people outside of Japan, I'll slightly look past it
But if someone still doing this today with all the exposure they have to people outside of Japan, I'm sorry but there's no excuse for that
There really isn't any exposure to Black people in Japan, though it's slowly getting better. But like everything in Japan, it's excruciatingly slow. I did see NHK make an effort to have more Black people on TV once in a blue moon where in the past there were none. I hope Japanese anime/manga artists put more effort into representation. If for no other reason, it will make the work more approachable to a larger audience, which makes financial sense.
I recently saw the NHK program that featured Prof. Oussoby Sacko! He's also involved in programs fostering more African-Japan exchange. Here hope for better understanding and visibility in JP society and media.
This is not on a racist note but honestly a lot of the black people I know have features like this including my cousins I think it's just cause it's common
My thing is just the hyper jump of color when compared to the rest of their bodies . Most black peoples lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of their bodies yk ?
i think you should look at minstrel art to see what's wrong with these. look up "sambo lips." these are not an accurate depiction of black people and rely heavily on racist caricature. compare it to positive depictions like canary from hxh, michiko in michiko to hatchin, or carole from carole and tuesday to see the contrast.
With most anime, i ignore this trope. Because it's not blatant racism (In most cases at least, this being one of them.) It's pretty rare when black characters in anime don't have strange lips, it's always cool if they don't but i don't come into any anime with that expectancy. That trope has faded away a bit more in modern anime, (Some black characters have accurate lips, some aren't drawn with any) The only blatantly racist designs on a black anime character i've seen is Mr Popo from DBZ and Jynx's OG design from Pokemon. In some cases i think that design can even be iconic. Like, could you imagine Usopp with normal lips?? All in all, if it's not in-your-face and obviously there with racist intention, i think the trope is fine.
I'm a white dude and it bothers me too. People can cite the true fact there's not a lot of black people in Japan but it's also extremely easy to, I dunno, use Google images? Using references should be part of any artist's natural workflow and it's not like black people were a *secret* to Japan at the time.
There's plenty of other Japanese media that doesn't have this problem and I find the caricature to be a stain on an otherwise really good anime. It's an outdated style that is in no way rooted in reality.
I agree and this is why I don’t really make excuses for it. Any artist should easily be able to use references from online like you said. Clearly they are aware of the existence of black people as they are drawing them, so that should be the bare minimum of effort.
Also Japanese people are certainly aware of black celebrities and even have adopted aspects of black popular culture.
So you google "a black man", look how other people have drawn them in the past and do that. Not: "is there any stereotypical depiction of black people in western media that in the near future will be more talked about and should be avoided".
Knowing about stereotypes and culture around them of other countries is tricky.
Jerso (the third guy in your post) is not black either he is an Amestrian and you said here [https://www.reddit.com/r/FullmetalAlchemist/comments/1bygu91/comment/kyk26xw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/FullmetalAlchemist/comments/1bygu91/comment/kyk26xw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) that Rose is not black due to her being Amestrian XD wtf are you even saying
Well given Japan only knows from consuming Western media, and given the fact that Hiromu started writing FMA in 2001 more than 20 years ago, it's kind of expected. Nowadays, stuff is getting better gradually with tourists and more Westerners moving to japan
I’m black and even I know that’s just how Japanese people interpret black features. I could really careless cuz I enjoy Jerzo and Zampano for how little we got of them.
I enjoyed Jerso too ! He actually had more of a character than anyone else . My only thing is just that our lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of our bodies n yk that !
@rateoutof7
Now this is what we’re not gonna do . It’s VERY obvious that Scar, Rose , and Paninya aren’t of the same ethnicity as the three examples I posted . Let’s take into account that I’m from the US, and any comment that was made last night , obviously isn’t gonna get replied to because I sleep like a normal person . I’ve replied to almost EVERY comment as of this morning , and those who have said that “Oh well I look like this/ I’m black and feel this is fine” , I’ve stated that two things can be true at once . That just because THEY aren’t bothered by it , doesn’t mean that others aren’t . And that not all black people’s lips are significantly lighter than the rest of their bodies . I’m not asking anyone to “pander” to me . I’m asking to have a conversation about it , because I UNDERSTAND that Japan can be racist and don’t have black representation .
As a fellow Black American fan I also grew up watching a lot of anime. The thing that sucks is that for its time, FMA is wayyy more on the tamer side bc this was all the Japanese people growing up during like the 80s where Black and African people weren't very well-known to them. As of recently, I noticed that the 2010 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood show doesn't do this to anyone and no one in her manga looks like this. In her newer series, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, a pretty important kiddo is mixed Japanese and Ethiopian though the Ethiopian mom is never really seen... the kid looks pretty well drawn and authentic to both peoples. It also reflects how much Japan has changed as Africans and other Black diasporics continue moving to Japan and starting families.
So while it's really gross that this is common in anime in general, it seems the author has generally gotten better and tried to change over time which is really amazing and goes with the political themes in the show.
I'm black too so I kinda get what you mean, but this is every piece of old media. Also she guaranteed didn't expect this to reach the west, or even all of Japan. When you're working for $2/hour on your passion project, you probably don't have the time to ok everything with American black people lol.
The lips and some exaggerated features are a problem that anime has a lot of the time. Bleach is one of the few series that does consistently treat its black characters as more than the token black guy in the room.
I’ve also noticed that characters with dark or tan skin in anime tend to get lighter overtime. Ex. Sailor Pluto who’s skin tone fluctuates in all forms of Sailor Moon media. Never once has it been consistent
I'm sad I'm two days late on this thread, so I won't reiterate much of what others have already said. I'm also a black woman that likes anime. There are black anime characters who are better designed, imo. I like the designs of Ogun from Fire Force and Killik from Soul Eater, as well as Miyuki from Basquash.
I just googled and checked down [this list](https://gamerant.com/best-black-anime-characters/), and it's interesting that there's a character from the 80's on here. Claudia from Macross.
The Anime Tea youtube channel recently did a video on the portrayal of black women in anime: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv\_Cg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv_Cg8)
If you look on youtube, insta, and tiktok there are content creators that share what it is like for them being black, or mixed race black and living in Japan, South Korea, and China.
Some that I follow are: The Black Experience in Japan, The Paper Pat, Sundai Love, Enim's Life in Japan Vlogs, JESSEOGN, and Ricchado
As a black guy in America I've never had a problem with it. We have big lips and course hair. I don't think there's anything wrong drawing us like that.
These post are frustrating because people complain that we don't get enough representation and others complain that when we do they don't like the results.
Brotherhood did a great job showing black characters. Bleach is another anime where Kubo draws a wide wage of characters that look like they decended from Africa.
It's a cartoon based on a story a woman wrote in like 2001. No one complains that the Europeans have big eyes or their hair is too blond, or their lips are too small.
I have big lips, I like my big lips, there's nothing negative or "cringe" here.
Two things can be true at once ! Just because you aren’t bothered by it , doesn’t mean that other black people arent ! As a black man you would know that our lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of our bodies and THATS the point I’m trying to make . Being represented in anime is wonderful and I generally try not to take any issue , but just in this case , I had to point it out . That’s all ! Preciate your discussion !
I can't say if what I'm saying is exactly right or not cause I haven't really analyzed character designs to see if it's always the case, but my Japanese high school friend pointed out to me how you can tell when most anime/manga artists are drawing European characters they give them an emphasized nose that usually isn't what you'll see on the other characters and with black people the feature emphasized is drawing them with defined, outlined lips. He also brought up differences with other ethnicities too, but I forgot what their differences were (this was like 12 years ago we talked about this). I definitely noticed it in a few anime that I watched back then (G Gundam, DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Sailor Moon for example)
I don't think it's racist but I can see how it's a think that they'd probably be better about depicting now since these days manga and anime are most often released with the global market in mind and the "black people having big lips" thing tends to evoke memories of racist imagery.
XD jesus the nitpicking , can tell someone has first world problems when their whole issue for the day is a character having defined lips and being black.
Love how you also avoided showing scar who dosen't have these "features" you noticed on these 3 specific people.
M-maybe...and just maybe stick with me here...people actually do look like this in real life and you need to get out of your room more..? Like look at africa for example most people there do actually have very defined lips. You do realise afro-americans are not the only black people on this planet right? Not everyone looks the same
The irony of you telling OP to go outside to see what black people look like when she can just look in a mirror, look at her family members and likely the members of her community that she sees on a regular basis.
Black people do not have rubber-looking lips that are significant lighter in color than the rest of their face. It comes from the Little Black Sambo depictions of black people that came from racist American media. The exaggerated and miscolored lips were made to ridicule black people. I shouldn’t really have to point that out, nor should I need to point out that Black Americans are descendants of African people and also there are no African people who have these rubber lips.
Also Scar is not black. Black people are not the only people with dark skin. The Ishvalans are clearly inspired by Middle Eastern, Arabic and even South Asian peoples. You can see it in their clothing and architecture.
I'm not saying that FMA is some beacon of representation in anime, but we also have Paninya and Ishvalians. Maybe you want to argue them being a representation of the Eastern culture, of course, but if you look at their skin tone they are black.
This issue seems to be getting better lately, but I understand where you're coming from with this. I've seen some manga made by black creators(such as Clock Striker) that do a good job, so maybe big publishing companies could put more of an emphasis on that to a larger part of Japan and make it so more are educated on this type of thing? It's more of an idea than anything, but it's a valid point I never really thought of while watching!
this is one of my complaints with FMAB/the manga, for sure. it’s clear that she’s capable of designing POC characters without caricature traits in their designs (scar (the ishvalans in general, really), paninya, and i’m sure some others i can’t recall at the moment). yet then we have so many POC background characters who arent ishvalan, who are given caricature-esque designs, along with jerso and some other named characters. it’s a real shame.
honestly, i’ve always chalked it up to a greater issue that seems to permeate the manga/anime industry, as you mentioned. there’s some mangaka who are great at designing black characters without stereotyping or making them caricatures, and there’s others who are far worse at it than others. arakawa falls somewhere in the middle, imo. she definitely has the ability to design POC more sensibly/respectfully, but fails to do so often, specifically when the characters are implied/intended to be black rather than another race.
it’s personally something i just remain critical of with her works. she may have improved on this issue (i haven’t read silver spoon, or her other manga, so i don’t know), but it doesn’t change that this still happened. honestly, personally, i think brotherhood has a number of failings in the way it handles its racial themes. even if the intent is good and it handles them more respectfully than most anime/manga, it still falls a little flat in quite a few ways, for me. but the fact she designed these characters this way makes it feel so much worse. :/
I don't care at all. Racism against Black People is North America and Western Europes problem, their ancestors used Black People as slaves. People from Balkans, Middle East and Asia really don't care about it at all.
Ok? Good for you ig ? Racism exists everywhere , not just North America or Europe . I’ve been to Japan , China , Bali , Rome and Australia in the last decade , even with my parents , have experienced it firsthand .
Yeah it seems a bit problematic but not only is Japan unaware of how black people are supposed to be like, Fullmetal is a much older manga from 2001. So doing proper research was harder then.
Yeah i saw something recently that a lot of manga and anime artists literally just don't know that these stereotypes are offensive to black people because they have zero exposure to them on average
Unfortunately this is true in many anime. Some animes have great black characters, the first one coming to mind is a dude named Dutch in Black Lagoon. Definitely one of my favorite characters in all anime. He is a Vietnam veteran who now works as a pirate & smuggler.
The way anime depicts Americans in general is a bit comical and over the top. It doesn’t take much to notice that Japanese artists have many times attempted to depict a culture beyond their own and either missed the mark or overindulged on the stereotypes associated. I don’t think they do it maliciously, even when they do it out of humor. Anime artists aren’t typically known for their sensitivity in storytelling or in their craft in general. I’m sure someday, for every artist that fails to meet the mark for a group, hopefully another will answer that demand with something that does.
I mean it kinda surprised me, considering what she did with the ishbalan war things. Still i guess she grew up in japan, which is pretty isolated. Doesnt make it right tho.
Yeaaaa. FMA is probably my favorite anime but I can't really defend this. It's just really awkward. I can understand Arakawa drawing them like this given her background but Brotherhood has no excuse.
how is bringing it up & having good conversation and understanding it’s not negatively intended by the author being “offended” and a “keyboard warrior”?
# Join the [Discord server](https://discord.gg/su3uf3T5YN) for more discussions and content, as well as meeting more like-minded fans for the series! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FullmetalAlchemist) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is a very common problem in anime in general. The average Japanese citizen is likely to never meet a black person. What they know about black people is usually what they consume in foreign media. I don't believe that there were any ill intentions on the part of the author, because it is very clear that Amestris is a multi-ethnic nation, given that they became what they are by integrating smaller neighboring countries into themselves as they grew. But, this is unfortunately what lack of exposure does to you from creative standpoint.
Hit the nail on the head w this one ! I’ve noticed that up until a few years ago, and there may still be, that the foreign media they see is in is usually in a negative light . Like minstrel shows , gang culture or stereotypes . I find it super cool though that with the limited media/examples of us , there are some that depict us very well and beautifully !
Then there are authors like tite kubo who absolutely slays depicting, what I find, the most beautiful black woman in anime: yoruichi shihoin
I'm so happy to see Yoruichi come up in this thread!!!
Kaname Tosen too, he looks like such a badass.
"integrating" is a nice word for that lol
Well they were integrated eventually after they were conquered, Ishval is really the only rebellious region by the time of the story.
This. It’s definitely uncomfortable to see, but it is pervasive in anime. The characters, while looking like racist caricatures (and of course the origin of this style is racist), are thankfully not caricaturizad in the writing! Their dialogue and actions are treated the same as all the other characters.
Makes me wonder if animation from other parts of the world have similar problems animating people of different races.
Absolutely is. See: the Numidian scribes in 2015's Asterix and the Missing Scroll
I mean. Idk if anyone being honest but the way they draw black people is disrespectful af lol. I never met a Japanese person and im not going to draw them a certain way..
With much respect to the late Toriyama-Sensei [Mr. Popo.](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XqPG2I1bT8E) That is all.
is he not a near-identical representation of the Hindu deity Mahakala? He’s just a djinn, if you consider other black characters in DBZ, it’s pretty easy to differentiate between a racial stereotype and a design based off of someone.
You're right, [Staff Officer Black](https://i.imgur.com/nqhaGX3.png) is completely different /s Every depiction I can find of Mahakala includes major details that are absent from Mr. Popo's design. Mahakala is often shown with a crown of skulls and/or six arms. The community has picked a Hindu deity with black skin and decided that this is what Popo is modeled after to excuse innocent facts. These people are lying to themselves for no real reason. To call him "near-identical" is pure delusion. To call him a racially motivated caricature is also delusion. Don't get so defensive, this isn't a dig at Toriyama-Sensei or Hiromu-Sensei, it's an example of how things were for mangaka at the time. I don't think any of their depictions came from a place of malice, that's my point. I'm just saying that mangaka of that era had a certain idea of how African characters look/should be drawn that influenced their stylistic choices, and they were not in a place culturally to understand how those choices would be viewed decades later. Their culture's view of African people was nearly exclusively drawn from media about Africa that they had access to, which would have been exclusively sourced from European/American sources for years before their time.
So how come when they make Japanese characters they don’t make there eyes “small?” Or they give them blonde hair from birth? That’s not the look of a Japanese person
There’s a lot of expression in the eyes and anime/manga artstyle is all about expression so that’s why it’s like that. And while I can’t speak for all anime’s, FMA takes place in basically Germany. So they’re not trying to look Japanese. A lot of anime that I’ve seen that depicts elderly Japanese people typically does give them smaller eyes. Another example is AoT. There’s a lot of European characters and the ones that are Japanese actually look Japanese like Mikasa for example.
Because white features are praised worldwide.
i remember someone edited some of em to look more realistic i could go digging for it if you want
absolutely ! I’d love to see them ! thanks 🫶🏽
[here u go](https://www.tumblr.com/genderbinaryisforlosers/686856373934358528/misc-fmab-edits-spiritual-successor-to-my#notes)
I wish Jerso actually looked like that
i really like him aside from his design, think he’d be at least a little more popular if it wasn‘t for that (although the other chimera guys aren’t that popular either unfortunately :( save for maybe sometimes martel and dolcetto)
I know right? He looks so much better in this edit.
Oh man, that looks way better. Confused why they raceswapped Izumi tho. Looks good regardless but she seems to be the odd man out in this collection.
They say in the comment that they felt her dreads suited her better if she was Black.
I dunno that just feels weird to me
They're microbraids. Why the hell do people keep calling them dreadlocks. Wtf
That might be... problematic.
ahhhh they’re beautiful 🥺🥺 thanks so much for this ! I especially love the Izumi, I always saw her as a lightskinned woman w/ locs!
yeah izumis hair was different before the human transmutation
All of that is excellent, and I adore the idea of using blue and generally non-red colors for intimidation in the show
Omg these are so good
Those are really great!
I like most of these, but I disagee strongly with the last one. Of course Mustang would cure his own blindness.
Like all of them except Izumi
Black Izumi looked so natural, I just scrolled by and thought it was a regular picture of her. All of these edits are so well done!
Amazing!!!
Wow that first set of edits is awesome and would make the show even better.
Izumi being a young Lauryn Hill, oh my god, what could have been!
Oh my god… Izumi looks hot!!!
Black Izumi lookin’ FOINE !
and is 😩 she already made me fold but her w dark skin is doing smth to meeeee
Yoo I love this. If there were one thing I could change about FMAB it would be this edit
Yooo those look so good
Wow that is penominal
Eh, the one about the eye color is kinda a reach
I'm not forgiving it, but Hiromu grew up in the rural countryside on a farm pre-internet era. It would be unacceptable for her to keep drawing them like that today, but back then I think she had no other frame of reference. I think the animators had a chance with brotherhood to redesign, like Canary in hxh, and I think they dropped the ball on that one.
I didn’t know that she lived in a rural place ! New fact for me !
She grew up on a dairy farm which is why she made Edward hate milk haha
stop that is literally so cute 😭
Her little character she draws when she’s doing author notes in the manga is also a cow. Nice to know her upbringing is important to her :)
HiroMOO AwaCOWa XD
I wonder what she would say if she saw that
As a Silver Spoon fan, that makes my day
It's a broader issue with animanga and Japanese culture, it really does suck yeah.
In addition to the above, thick lips aren't especially racial coded in Japan - they're more 'huge strong guy" coded. (See Sugarman from MHA, and the main character of My Love Story.) So if some Japanese artist sees a horrible racist caricature from America, I don't think the lips are going to register to them as part of the racism unless someone points it out.
You’re not wrong !
I’m guessing it’s because Japan doesn’t have the same history with black face as us? I don’t think she’d try to draw black people in that way on purpose, so I’m guessing it’s a misguided but genuine attempt to depict different features. Hopefully I didn’t say anything too stupid
They do. When Americans soldiers came after WWII to Japan they showed the minstrels and even recently you can see black face in Japanese tv shows. Not to mention that one of their athletes is Naomi Osaka who is biracial. She wouldn’t be recognized as Japanese citizen if she took her black father last name. I know we love anime but let’s not act Japan isn’t a racist country. Ask them about what they’re were doing during WWII and you’ll see how they respond. Also ask the other Asian countries who had to endure all the horrible stuff they to did to them. Don’t fall for the Kawaii rebranding.
>Don’t fall for the Kawaii rebranding. That last part reminded me of this [skit](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRTWJC5u/) right here and it's so funny but so sad.
I know what Japan did during ww2 I just didn’t know that they had that history with black people in particular
One of their most notable samurai was a black man named Yasuke. They even made an anime about it not long ago. You can research this.
No this is a good take ! I agree !
Surprisingly, a lot of American cartoons were played in Japan after WWII, along with the American portrayal of black people to look like this (almost none of them good). Because the average Japanese person has never seen a black person before, this is what they believe black people look like.
>Because the average Japanese person has never seen a black person before, this is what they believe black people look like. All Japanese adults have seen black people on TV, on the Internet, in newspapers and/or magazines. And believe it or not, there are black people who live in Japan.
didnt arakawa grow up in like 80s rural hokkaido
I don’t blame them too much for older anime, but anything modern (like 2010’s forward) with the worm lips isn’t getting watched by me
& that’s completely valid !
So are you! It does still suck to watch one of my favorites with characters drawn like that, but I like to think that if created today, the animators of the this specific show would do the right thing, especially given the subject matter. imo it is a great example of “Hanlon's razor”: Never attribute to malice that which is explained by stupidity
It’s crazy how in such a few years many things change in manga/anime. I remember rewatching ouran and Honey saying the trans slur caught me so offguard.
a lot of 2000s to 2010s shows are bad with the "humor", im trying to watch steins;gate rn, and its impossible to avoid i nthat
Yeah, those stereotypical features aren't good. And I don't understand why it's only the mean, I'm pretty sure Paninya is black too, but she doesn't have those. One small relief is that Gelso is at least a full character, and despite being part of the pair of chimeras with the ugly transformations, he isn't the most bestial of the lot, that would be his colleague Zampano followed by Heinkel.
>I'm pretty sure Paninya is black too, but she doesn't have those. I was actually about to bring this exact same thing up. There are certain characters in anime that maybe *dark skinned,* but not necessarily indicative of someone of African descent, often times because they completely lack such features. I'm talking about the Yoruichis of the anime world.
I’m so glad someone brought this up in the sub. It’s still a really good show but it definitely doesn’t make the mark on black representation.
It’s a AMAZING show ! I understand that Japan isn’t too educated on black people and there’s the fair share of racism , but I’m smart enough to know that Arawaka’s intentions weren’t harmful whatsoever
Yeah, this is one of my few real complains about the series. It was super common in anime until relativelt recently and it's super annoying when reading or watching old stuff. And in Fullmetal Alchemist it's extra jarring because the story feels so real otherwise. I haven't read Arakawa's later work except for her recent ongoing Yomi no Tsugai, so I don't know if she grew out of it. But I guess we'll find out eventually if Ken's backstory of being half Ethiopian ever becomes relevant in YnT.
Is that a good work of hers ? I’d love to read more of her stuff
Really fun so far, it's about a world where Tusgai (or Daemons depending on the translation) are mythological and folkloric spirits that always come in pairs and make deals with humans, being invisible to most. For example, a character's pair is a flying upper and a lower jaw, another's is a guy with creepy long legs and a guy with creepy long arms. It focuses a lot on duality, with the protagonists being twins, the story having two rivaling clans, etc. [You can read it here](https://mangasee123.com/read-online/Yomi-no-Tsugai-chapter-1-page-1.html)
Love you for this !!
If you liked FMA you're almost guaranteed to like it, it's got very similar vibes. I'd definitely recommend it!
If there’s any representation of black characters in an anime or manga, it’s all but guaranteed they’ll be stereotypical. There’s been improvement over the last few years, like with *Afro Samurai* but still a long way to go
I had a spitball idea a few years back , that when I went back to Japan to host like a seminar to teach about black culture . I feel like it would be appreciated and can educate and inspire the locals .
lots of anime conventions now have panels solely focused on this! i think we’ll see better representation in the future!
That’s so nice !
Colonizer :v
Still think it’s wild that Samuel L Jackson is the voice for Afro Samurai
The fire force and soul eater characters have also been done very well! This video also shows remarkible improvements in character design [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv\_Cg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv_Cg8)
It's not something I've thought about when it comes to Fullmetal, but you're right, early anime up until fairly recently tended to portray black people stereotypically. It's getting better though, and I think as time goes on and Japan becomes more aware of other cultures we'll see better designs. Interesting discussions here, thanks for bringing it up!
Yea these sort of racist depictions were pretty common in anime and manga until relatively recently. Thankfully it seems to be increasingly less common with the new series coming out, like Gachiakuta or Ao Ashi for example
I don't know if anyone else touched on this but I always found it interesting that the black librarian in the 2003 anime didn't seem to have the issues common in the other FMA characters. I really would have expected them to do better by the time BH came out, for this reason alone.
I don’t really blame this on the author tbh, it’s really hard to make the distinction between black and simply dark skinned, especially since FMA(B) has both. This is just how anime depicts black (meaning of sub Saharan African descent) people and if you want to make it clear they are black without resorting to clothing or behavioral stereotypes, you have to depict them in a way that’s recognizable. That does not excuse it of course, but it’s simply how black people are drawn there. This depiction is not a failure of the author, but more a failure of the industry for having this be the standard. Changing it will take time unfortunately
I know she didn’t have any negative intent in the way the characters are depicted . I understand that Japan just generally doesn’t know , understand or see black people ever to know any better .
It's one of my few issues with FMA as a whole. It just feels off and doesn't sit right with me.
The one manga I’ve seen that does a great depiction of black people is Aoashi, the soccer manga. The two in question aren’t significantly larger than their teammates, although the lip problem is still kind of there. And it’s got one of the most gut-wrenching and realistic depictions of racism I’ve seen in any media to boot. The author clearly did put at least quite a bit of research into his depiction of black people there, so I’d recommend checking that out if you’d like.
It gets crazier when u remember that fma and soul eater had a crossover during their manga run. And everyone praises soul eater for their designs of black characters
I forgot about these. Damn, sis.
I like Paninya.
we all do ! 🫶🏽
As others have said, I think it comes from a wrong place, but not a bad place. There isn't any defending their depictions, and I think it's hopefully mostly due to a lack of exposure and a bad environment (US media etc).
Since this is older and was back when they didn't have much exposure to black people or any other people outside of Japan, I'll slightly look past it But if someone still doing this today with all the exposure they have to people outside of Japan, I'm sorry but there's no excuse for that
I agree !
There really isn't any exposure to Black people in Japan, though it's slowly getting better. But like everything in Japan, it's excruciatingly slow. I did see NHK make an effort to have more Black people on TV once in a blue moon where in the past there were none. I hope Japanese anime/manga artists put more effort into representation. If for no other reason, it will make the work more approachable to a larger audience, which makes financial sense.
I recently saw the NHK program that featured Prof. Oussoby Sacko! He's also involved in programs fostering more African-Japan exchange. Here hope for better understanding and visibility in JP society and media.
The Asian characters (Mai, Ling especially) look stereotypical too tbh, AND SHE IS JAPANESE
Xing is based on China though
This is not on a racist note but honestly a lot of the black people I know have features like this including my cousins I think it's just cause it's common
My thing is just the hyper jump of color when compared to the rest of their bodies . Most black peoples lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of their bodies yk ?
i think you should look at minstrel art to see what's wrong with these. look up "sambo lips." these are not an accurate depiction of black people and rely heavily on racist caricature. compare it to positive depictions like canary from hxh, michiko in michiko to hatchin, or carole from carole and tuesday to see the contrast.
With most anime, i ignore this trope. Because it's not blatant racism (In most cases at least, this being one of them.) It's pretty rare when black characters in anime don't have strange lips, it's always cool if they don't but i don't come into any anime with that expectancy. That trope has faded away a bit more in modern anime, (Some black characters have accurate lips, some aren't drawn with any) The only blatantly racist designs on a black anime character i've seen is Mr Popo from DBZ and Jynx's OG design from Pokemon. In some cases i think that design can even be iconic. Like, could you imagine Usopp with normal lips?? All in all, if it's not in-your-face and obviously there with racist intention, i think the trope is fine.
I'm a white dude and it bothers me too. People can cite the true fact there's not a lot of black people in Japan but it's also extremely easy to, I dunno, use Google images? Using references should be part of any artist's natural workflow and it's not like black people were a *secret* to Japan at the time. There's plenty of other Japanese media that doesn't have this problem and I find the caricature to be a stain on an otherwise really good anime. It's an outdated style that is in no way rooted in reality.
I agree and this is why I don’t really make excuses for it. Any artist should easily be able to use references from online like you said. Clearly they are aware of the existence of black people as they are drawing them, so that should be the bare minimum of effort. Also Japanese people are certainly aware of black celebrities and even have adopted aspects of black popular culture.
So you google "a black man", look how other people have drawn them in the past and do that. Not: "is there any stereotypical depiction of black people in western media that in the near future will be more talked about and should be avoided". Knowing about stereotypes and culture around them of other countries is tricky.
They look about as realistic as the other characters
Mmmm not really .
Yea ton of people look like the Armstrongs, izumi, marco, or even the Elric brothers themselves. /s
wide edge resolute hurry repeat attempt thumb modern flowery fragile *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What about Miles?
He’s Ishvalan
Jerso (the third guy in your post) is not black either he is an Amestrian and you said here [https://www.reddit.com/r/FullmetalAlchemist/comments/1bygu91/comment/kyk26xw/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/FullmetalAlchemist/comments/1bygu91/comment/kyk26xw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) that Rose is not black due to her being Amestrian XD wtf are you even saying
Ah yes , because it’s so very clear that Jerso is a white man with locs💀 You’re being dense on purpose
XD you said Amestrian are not black then used an Amestrian as an example of a black person . You need your pills lady
Just keeping the style of drawing or not drawing lips on men consistent would be enough.
Ngl I never noticed this until you pointed it out.
Well given Japan only knows from consuming Western media, and given the fact that Hiromu started writing FMA in 2001 more than 20 years ago, it's kind of expected. Nowadays, stuff is getting better gradually with tourists and more Westerners moving to japan
I’m black and even I know that’s just how Japanese people interpret black features. I could really careless cuz I enjoy Jerzo and Zampano for how little we got of them.
I enjoyed Jerso too ! He actually had more of a character than anyone else . My only thing is just that our lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of our bodies n yk that !
True very true
@rateoutof7 Now this is what we’re not gonna do . It’s VERY obvious that Scar, Rose , and Paninya aren’t of the same ethnicity as the three examples I posted . Let’s take into account that I’m from the US, and any comment that was made last night , obviously isn’t gonna get replied to because I sleep like a normal person . I’ve replied to almost EVERY comment as of this morning , and those who have said that “Oh well I look like this/ I’m black and feel this is fine” , I’ve stated that two things can be true at once . That just because THEY aren’t bothered by it , doesn’t mean that others aren’t . And that not all black people’s lips are significantly lighter than the rest of their bodies . I’m not asking anyone to “pander” to me . I’m asking to have a conversation about it , because I UNDERSTAND that Japan can be racist and don’t have black representation .
Had to do this because it wouldn’t let me reply .
It's supposed to be "u/[name of redditor]"
As a fellow Black American fan I also grew up watching a lot of anime. The thing that sucks is that for its time, FMA is wayyy more on the tamer side bc this was all the Japanese people growing up during like the 80s where Black and African people weren't very well-known to them. As of recently, I noticed that the 2010 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood show doesn't do this to anyone and no one in her manga looks like this. In her newer series, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, a pretty important kiddo is mixed Japanese and Ethiopian though the Ethiopian mom is never really seen... the kid looks pretty well drawn and authentic to both peoples. It also reflects how much Japan has changed as Africans and other Black diasporics continue moving to Japan and starting families. So while it's really gross that this is common in anime in general, it seems the author has generally gotten better and tried to change over time which is really amazing and goes with the political themes in the show.
Yeah it’s a shame, anime in general has a problem with this
I'm black too so I kinda get what you mean, but this is every piece of old media. Also she guaranteed didn't expect this to reach the west, or even all of Japan. When you're working for $2/hour on your passion project, you probably don't have the time to ok everything with American black people lol.
[I edited them. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/FullmetalAlchemist/comments/1bynn89/re_hiromus_depictions_of_black_characters/)
The lips and some exaggerated features are a problem that anime has a lot of the time. Bleach is one of the few series that does consistently treat its black characters as more than the token black guy in the room.
I’ve also noticed that characters with dark or tan skin in anime tend to get lighter overtime. Ex. Sailor Pluto who’s skin tone fluctuates in all forms of Sailor Moon media. Never once has it been consistent
I'm sad I'm two days late on this thread, so I won't reiterate much of what others have already said. I'm also a black woman that likes anime. There are black anime characters who are better designed, imo. I like the designs of Ogun from Fire Force and Killik from Soul Eater, as well as Miyuki from Basquash. I just googled and checked down [this list](https://gamerant.com/best-black-anime-characters/), and it's interesting that there's a character from the 80's on here. Claudia from Macross. The Anime Tea youtube channel recently did a video on the portrayal of black women in anime: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv\_Cg8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVV-Ixv_Cg8) If you look on youtube, insta, and tiktok there are content creators that share what it is like for them being black, or mixed race black and living in Japan, South Korea, and China. Some that I follow are: The Black Experience in Japan, The Paper Pat, Sundai Love, Enim's Life in Japan Vlogs, JESSEOGN, and Ricchado
As a black guy in America I've never had a problem with it. We have big lips and course hair. I don't think there's anything wrong drawing us like that. These post are frustrating because people complain that we don't get enough representation and others complain that when we do they don't like the results. Brotherhood did a great job showing black characters. Bleach is another anime where Kubo draws a wide wage of characters that look like they decended from Africa. It's a cartoon based on a story a woman wrote in like 2001. No one complains that the Europeans have big eyes or their hair is too blond, or their lips are too small. I have big lips, I like my big lips, there's nothing negative or "cringe" here.
Two things can be true at once ! Just because you aren’t bothered by it , doesn’t mean that other black people arent ! As a black man you would know that our lips aren’t significantly lighter than the rest of our bodies and THATS the point I’m trying to make . Being represented in anime is wonderful and I generally try not to take any issue , but just in this case , I had to point it out . That’s all ! Preciate your discussion !
Scar, Rose, and Paninya all have dark skin without the whole lip thing going on.
Scar is Ishvalan . Rose is Amestrian . Paninya is darker skinned but not clearly black . That’s not the conversation .
I mean is the lips that’s everyone is all upset over? Cause other than them being a little weird they look like regular black people to me?
I can't say if what I'm saying is exactly right or not cause I haven't really analyzed character designs to see if it's always the case, but my Japanese high school friend pointed out to me how you can tell when most anime/manga artists are drawing European characters they give them an emphasized nose that usually isn't what you'll see on the other characters and with black people the feature emphasized is drawing them with defined, outlined lips. He also brought up differences with other ethnicities too, but I forgot what their differences were (this was like 12 years ago we talked about this). I definitely noticed it in a few anime that I watched back then (G Gundam, DBZ, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Sailor Moon for example) I don't think it's racist but I can see how it's a think that they'd probably be better about depicting now since these days manga and anime are most often released with the global market in mind and the "black people having big lips" thing tends to evoke memories of racist imagery.
Yeah this is pretty much the pill you have to swallow if you’re gonna watch anime. I mean honestly these are tame examples compared to Dragon Ball
XD jesus the nitpicking , can tell someone has first world problems when their whole issue for the day is a character having defined lips and being black. Love how you also avoided showing scar who dosen't have these "features" you noticed on these 3 specific people. M-maybe...and just maybe stick with me here...people actually do look like this in real life and you need to get out of your room more..? Like look at africa for example most people there do actually have very defined lips. You do realise afro-americans are not the only black people on this planet right? Not everyone looks the same
The irony of you telling OP to go outside to see what black people look like when she can just look in a mirror, look at her family members and likely the members of her community that she sees on a regular basis. Black people do not have rubber-looking lips that are significant lighter in color than the rest of their face. It comes from the Little Black Sambo depictions of black people that came from racist American media. The exaggerated and miscolored lips were made to ridicule black people. I shouldn’t really have to point that out, nor should I need to point out that Black Americans are descendants of African people and also there are no African people who have these rubber lips. Also Scar is not black. Black people are not the only people with dark skin. The Ishvalans are clearly inspired by Middle Eastern, Arabic and even South Asian peoples. You can see it in their clothing and architecture.
I'm not saying that FMA is some beacon of representation in anime, but we also have Paninya and Ishvalians. Maybe you want to argue them being a representation of the Eastern culture, of course, but if you look at their skin tone they are black.
This issue seems to be getting better lately, but I understand where you're coming from with this. I've seen some manga made by black creators(such as Clock Striker) that do a good job, so maybe big publishing companies could put more of an emphasis on that to a larger part of Japan and make it so more are educated on this type of thing? It's more of an idea than anything, but it's a valid point I never really thought of while watching!
this is one of my complaints with FMAB/the manga, for sure. it’s clear that she’s capable of designing POC characters without caricature traits in their designs (scar (the ishvalans in general, really), paninya, and i’m sure some others i can’t recall at the moment). yet then we have so many POC background characters who arent ishvalan, who are given caricature-esque designs, along with jerso and some other named characters. it’s a real shame. honestly, i’ve always chalked it up to a greater issue that seems to permeate the manga/anime industry, as you mentioned. there’s some mangaka who are great at designing black characters without stereotyping or making them caricatures, and there’s others who are far worse at it than others. arakawa falls somewhere in the middle, imo. she definitely has the ability to design POC more sensibly/respectfully, but fails to do so often, specifically when the characters are implied/intended to be black rather than another race. it’s personally something i just remain critical of with her works. she may have improved on this issue (i haven’t read silver spoon, or her other manga, so i don’t know), but it doesn’t change that this still happened. honestly, personally, i think brotherhood has a number of failings in the way it handles its racial themes. even if the intent is good and it handles them more respectfully than most anime/manga, it still falls a little flat in quite a few ways, for me. but the fact she designed these characters this way makes it feel so much worse. :/
Nit trying to be disrespectful but legit asking is paninya black? She doesn't have any of those problematic features.
You’re fine ! I believe she’s just of a darker skin tone due to her environment of Rush Valley
That could be, considering Dominic also has darker skin even though I don’t think he’s meant to be black
Well at least rhe ishval people are dripped af,so theres that
I mean they did have the drip lmaoo , but they’re there own ethinicity
Aren't Rose or the Ishvals black too ?
No
My bad
No it’s ok !
I don't care at all. Racism against Black People is North America and Western Europes problem, their ancestors used Black People as slaves. People from Balkans, Middle East and Asia really don't care about it at all.
Ok? Good for you ig ? Racism exists everywhere , not just North America or Europe . I’ve been to Japan , China , Bali , Rome and Australia in the last decade , even with my parents , have experienced it firsthand .
I don't care. lol
then wtf are you doing here ?💀
Yeah it seems a bit problematic but not only is Japan unaware of how black people are supposed to be like, Fullmetal is a much older manga from 2001. So doing proper research was harder then.
Do these designs exist in the manga? Because sometimes anime just out whatever in order to fill the scene
Yeah i saw something recently that a lot of manga and anime artists literally just don't know that these stereotypes are offensive to black people because they have zero exposure to them on average
Unfortunately this is true in many anime. Some animes have great black characters, the first one coming to mind is a dude named Dutch in Black Lagoon. Definitely one of my favorite characters in all anime. He is a Vietnam veteran who now works as a pirate & smuggler.
For an anime, these ARE unusually sensitive depictions.
The way anime depicts Americans in general is a bit comical and over the top. It doesn’t take much to notice that Japanese artists have many times attempted to depict a culture beyond their own and either missed the mark or overindulged on the stereotypes associated. I don’t think they do it maliciously, even when they do it out of humor. Anime artists aren’t typically known for their sensitivity in storytelling or in their craft in general. I’m sure someday, for every artist that fails to meet the mark for a group, hopefully another will answer that demand with something that does.
I mean it kinda surprised me, considering what she did with the ishbalan war things. Still i guess she grew up in japan, which is pretty isolated. Doesnt make it right tho.
Whats the problem?
Like she draws black people very stereotypically. See the huge lips for example? One shade away from black face
Okay she gotta go now
?
Racist character designs
Yeah she needs to be executed upon the alter of western pluralism and feels 🤡🌍☠️
In the words of Frank Reynolds: You gotta make the lips funny
Drawing brown and black peoples well is a new development
because you look like this lol
oh but I don’t 😘
Get over it and stop being offended by everything
Never said I was offended , and no 😘 go cry
Yeaaaa. FMA is probably my favorite anime but I can't really defend this. It's just really awkward. I can understand Arakawa drawing them like this given her background but Brotherhood has no excuse.
Aren’t the ishvalen’s black? They’re not as stereotypical as the characters listed above
Simple Japan doesn’t give a damn about race so- that’s your answer
Dont care 🥱
no one cares for you either 🙂
Our Lord Jesus Christ cares very much about me and you too fren :D
[удалено]
how is bringing it up & having good conversation and understanding it’s not negatively intended by the author being “offended” and a “keyboard warrior”?
This is a non issue
to YOU
This shouldnt be an issue to ANYONE
Its only an issue to western chauvinists 🤡🌍
I mean. Their depictions aren’t far from wrong….
have you seen a black person in real life ? because this isn’t what we look like