Hi. I was reading a post about other Asian characters (Korean and Chinese) anime and one comment said that manga writers don’t include them because the Japanese hated or were racist towards other Asians. I just wanted some clarification on this because I’m starting to feel bad about liking anime.
8 comments
All cultures have dark sides.
Like what you like, just do not let it influence you in a negative way.
Depends on the anime.
One of the most popular manga/franchises right now is Kingdom, which is set in China. The entire cast is Chinese.
Sometimes.
Japan isn’t a monolith.
Just like some American movies will have less than favorable depictions of other ethnicities and nationalities, some manga and anime will not.
It’s up to us as readers and audience members with critical faculties to approach our media with a critical lens and decide for ourselves rather than make blanket statements
There’s a whole subgenre around pseudo-China historical fantasy – stuff like Saiunkoku Monogatari and Raven of the Inner Palace.
Don’t get your opinions on Japanese racism/xenophobia from Reddit – so many people are just parroting each other with no real insight.
There are extremely many Chinese anime and manga (mostly related to ancient Chinese histories)and also a lot of characters.
I don’t understand why you think so even though you like anime.
No. Maybe some are. But most aren’t. Think, if you have watched anime, have you noticed anything racist about other asians in them? Personally I haven’t. And never feel bad for liking something just because some idiot online says theres something wrong with it.
Sort of? But it’s probably more useful to try and learn about problematic tropes rather than follow blanket stereotypes about Japanese attitudes.
“Ranking of Kings”, for instance, led to a lot of useful commentary regarding its use of problematic tropes common to Japanese stereotypes about Koreans. Speaking of Korea, we might note that the ongoing anime adaptation of “Why Raeliana Ended Up At the Duke’s Mansion” (a South Korean webnovel) changed the protagonist’s country of origin to Japan.
Are all of these moves nefarious? No, of course not. Someone at Typhoon Graphics probably said “I think audiences will relate more easily to a Japanese protagonist than a Korean one”, and nobody even blinked. Are these moves connected to each other on a cultural level? Maybe! It’s not like Japan is particularly shy about works with European leads.