Black Washing Anime Characters

Race Swapping is defined by ignoring a stated characters’ and replacing the race for the sake of diversity and inclusivity, mostly characters that were originally white before the change. These actions have led critics to heated debates on whether this should be encouraged. Within anime where it’s not as prevalent but through fans creating fan art where the characters have been swapped to fit their imaginings or their ideals but had led to outroar to other fans of the communities. 

On November 30th an X user “Lynn6Thorex” uploaded fanart of a reimagining of characters “Okarun” and “Momo Ayase” from the hit anime “Dandadan” that was released this year, which depicted the two as race swapped iterations of themselves. This caused massive outroar amongst X in which many were outraged for changing the characters to what they weren’t initially and also leading to some racist remarks to the black community as well the debate even reached japanese community where there are those that heavily disagree with the western idea of changing the race to include separate races. There were those who came to defend the artist including the official English voice actors of the anime AJ Beckles and Kari Wahlgren and admonishment of the criticism of the artist, due to the backlash the artist to briefly disabled her account but then later activated her account due to some of the support from the community. 

When creating media that includes race swapping the idea is mostly for inclusivity. Many people of colour, me included, have enjoyed a wide variety of media from anime, video games and cartoons when growing up but, many of us didn’t feel included when we saw a majority of protagonists heroes and characters they tend to be fairer skinned or didn't truly encapsulate the idea of people of colour, in the modern age we do have a vast number of characters of different races to identify with or relate to, but in those certain shows there would be times where we want to feel included but the majority cast were of a different colour. Personally, when it comes to fan art, I believe it can be an expression and cultivate a person’s mindset, interest and creativity and of course expressing themselves and when it comes to this user’s artwork, I believe it is more a way for the user to relate and feel more inclusive to the show 

There are many point of criticism people like to point out when talking about race swapping to more ethnic minorities such as the hypocrisy on the matter as if a character of colour was race swapped to be fairer skinned or Caucasian there would be massive outrage and claims of racism with the artist and such things has happened an example that comes to mind is when X User “Tsuki_S_0623” uploaded their fan art of what is to be humanised versions of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles and the user was harassed and even sent death threats to change Knuckles skin tone darker to appease them. When the artist Lynn6Thorex posted their artwork, some users claim that the art further pushes segregation as the change in race causes this and the praise for the change solidifies it as changing the race makes the anime or media “better” and thus discarding the importance of the original character. 

In recent history anime has been a worldwide phenomenon that creates a wide spectrum of media and culture from dedicated fan bases to conventions celebrating everything anime, and with the western having such a different way of consuming the media also comes ways of different ways of interpretation in which there may lie a cultural disconnect between the western and east audiences. With social media being a way to express topics and discussions it can also be a way for the two divisive opinions to come in clash with each other, in which one point can be overlooked by one audience the other cherishes and acknowledges that point creating some sort of friction between the two polarising audiences. 

Art can be a way for people to express a person’s beliefs and amusements but also a message that could be interpreted in several ways. The incident with “Lynn6Thorex” brings up a very delicate subject about representation and the ways you go through being inclusive with media but also respecting artistic freedom. Many shows in the west have taken the approach for more inclusion; perhaps it's time for anime to make that leap too. 

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