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Racism In The Anime Community, And Where It Stands Today

Posted on by Theo J Ellis
anime girl disgusted

One thing I don’t think about often but have realized is this: people with BIG anime platforms don’t talk about racism.

It’s baffling.

Some of these publishers and bloggers will even say they care about the anime community, and they’re all about “supporting” each other.

I just never see any evidence when it comes to anime racism in particular (except smaller platforms).

 

Anime Racism is alive and well in the industry

On a smaller level you’ll see White American anime fans being racist towards the same Asians who created anime in the first place. This is more on the extreme side but it does exist.

And you see a lot of racism, whether it’s systematic or blatant towards the black community.

And even towards Asians, the very people who created anime in the first place. Which is mental.

With that said..

 

Examples Of Racism In The Anime Community:

 

1. Naomi Osaka’s Portrayal in Japanese Media

Naomi Osaka is a half Haitian, half Japanese woman who’s a champion Tennis player.

She signed a deal with a company called Nissin, a global noodle brand with a lot of clout.

While this deal was a lucrative one, that didn’t matter when Nissin lightened Naomi’s skin in the media through an animated AD.

osaka naomi ad nissin

They went out their way to whitewash and misrepresent Naomi Osaki by lightening her skin in the AD.

And in a separate occasion they made a racist joke saying she looks “too sunburned”.

japan naomi osaka

This was in Japan itself.

Whether it represents the majority or not doesn’t take away from the racism and that’s the point here.

 

2. Is The Order A Rabbit? Season 1

For a cute anime series like “Is The Order A Rabbit?” you’d think everything in this anime would be fluffy and lightweight like a teddy bear.

That’s true.

It IS like that. But for some reason within the first few episodes of season 1 – they “drop” a racist stereotype to make a point.

In this scene – Sharo Kirima has a flashback from a time Rize saved her from “thugs” or the equivalent.

Of course – her memory ain’t even a real memory, as you see when Rize describes what actually happened.

But only after depicting 2 black Men with stereotypical designs, and painting them as thugs who do bad things in a dark alleyway.

This is subtle racism that tries to play it off as someone innocent and no big deal. But it’s a clear negative stereotype drawn from the western world about how black men look, act and behave.

 

3. Black Cosplayer Who Cosplayed As Nezuko (Demon Slayer)

This example is a LOT more recent than others on this list.

There was a black cosplayer on Twitter, relatively new to the industry who cosplayed as Nezuko.

As you can imagine – she didn’t think anything of putting it out there on Twitter.

She loves Nezuko’s character, and she was having fun doing it.

And then the racists came crawling out of their caves to bash her over the head with their clubs.

It got to a point where she was driven off Twitter because of the hate and abuse for “being a black Nezuko”.

 

The hypocrisy of American anime fans with a superiority complex

One thing that baffles me about this situation is the group of people who started this nonsense.

I’ve never in my life seen white cosplayers being “bashed” for NOT being Japanese. And this is the hypocrisy in the anime cosplay community that makes me shake my head.

Mostly in the US of course.

But even with that said – the immense backlash against these racists was positive and a lot of fans didn’t tolerate it.

I’ve always said that America has a race issue, regardless of which side of the fence you’re on. And this to me is just a sad highlight of the fact this still takes place.

Related: 19+ Of The BEST Black Female Anime Characters You Should Know

 

4. Black Pokemon Sword Shield Gym Leader Depicted As A “Monkey”

nessa pokemon sword and shield

For context – this is Nessa from Pokemon Sword And Shield. The latest Pokemon RPG in the successful franchise.

As with any character of color or otherwise, fans celebrated Nessa as the new water Gym Leader in Sword and Shield.

And of course – there’s always that one guy who spoils it for everyone by drawing a monkey version of Nessa as fan art.

328 people actually “liked” the photo, which makes me chuckle a bit at the absurdity.

And even though the artist got called out for their BS, a surprising amount of Tweets gave their typical “it’s a joke” comments as they do because they love racism.

But it’s far from a joke as this next tweet will show:

This artist draws these comparisons to black people on more than one occasion, and hasn’t said a word about any of it.

There’s no need to because actions always speak louder than words ever will.

 

5. Anime whitewashing In Hollywood

This has been going on since the early 1900’s in the USA for media in general. But within the last decade or so, anime characters are constantly whitewashed when adapted into Hollywood.

Let’s take the Death Note film as an example of whitewashing.

death note whitewashing

Light Yagami was depicted by a white actor instead of an Asian one. Or more accurately – a Japanese.

No anime fan took this seriously as proven by Twitter at the time.

The same thing happened with Ghost In The Shell, and we all know how that went down.

At the end of the day – if a film gets adapted, it’s only right to have people play roles who fit the characters race.

In this context it’s different to cosplay, as cosplay is more of a fun activity and nothing full-blown or strict like a film is.

It’s a common thing to be told “we don’t want people like you playing this role”, usually in a round about way.

That’s typical for any race when it comes to Hollywood’s whitewashing BS.

 

6. Japanese Light Novel Creator’s Racist Tweets

young agani in another world light novel

Back in 2018, the light novel: Young Again In Another World was adapted into an anime series.

The release date was set for October 2018. But it ended up getting cancelled that same year in June.

Why?

The creator of the series went on a racist Twitter rant about Chinese and Korean people (old Tweets).

Or as Wikipedia puts it:

“Commentators discovered several tweets by the author from 2013–2015 allegedly containing derogatory and racist statements about China, as well as tweets from 2012–2014 that contained similar racist messages directed at South Korea.”

The Twitter mob dug up old Tweets with a shovel and found racist, derogatory Tweets towards China and Korea.

This was the nail in the coffin for Young Again In Another World. And everyone jumped ship to avoid being associated with the author and the drama that came from it.

Related: The MYTH Of Anime Characters Looking White

 

7. #SailorMoonRedrawChallenge Racism

sailor moon original character

As you can see – this is Sailor Moon (Usagi) from the Sailor Moon series.

This is her as-is, without any changes or whatever.

So what’s the issue?

There was a Sailor Moon redraw challenge on May 18th 2020 where artists did their own “spins” on Sailor Moon‘s design.

Examples:

 

Everything seemed OK and nobody batted an eye.

 

But then comes the racism from American SJW’S

It all started with this.

Someone did a redraw of Sailor Moon, this time with a more homegrown look. Meaning a Asian version of Sailor Moon down to the T.

After all – Sailor Moon‘s heritage IS Japanese and anime is made in Japan. So why not?

It’s all for fun.

But Americans were quick to show their racism…. again. This time towards Asians and Japanese in particular.

THIS tweet says it all.

twitter mad japanese sailor moon racism

 

The racism continued

This time the focus is on a black redraw of Sailor Moon.

Once this artist did their redraw of Sailor Moon as a black character (just like with the Asian redraw) racism and prejudice followed.

Not surprising knowing how SJW’S operate on Twitter, and how a portion of Americans can be towards other races.

All you’ve gotta do is look at the comments to see it in action.

Just like the case with the Asian redraw.

 

Anime controversy that WAS NOT racist:

one punch man season 2 racism controversy blackluster 1175667

When the blackluster controversy took flight in 2019 I thought the whole thing was an absolute joke.

The problem with “fake” racism on the internet is it all stems from America.

America is a country where no matter WHAT your skin color or culture is, everyone is overly sensitive to racism. And will outrage about things that aren’t even racist to begin with.

This minority ruins it for everyone else in cases like this. And the Blackluster case from One Punch Man S2 was one of em.

After all – Blackluster existed before the anime even aired this episode.

 

–

What do you think about racism in the anime community?

 

Recommended:

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Theo J Ellis

I'm the Founder of Anime Motivation. Featured as a judge in Crunchyroll's 2021 anime awards. The 1st anime I watched was Dragon Ball Z. I've seen 100's since then, with Saiki K being one of my all time favorites.

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