I’m pretty sure most of us have seen and heard this argument before…”There are enough People of Color in anime”. It’s a valid point but it is not only limited to anime, because it applies to manga, and video games. Yes there are black or other people color in anime/manga but they are never the main character. They are usually someone aligned with the main character or an underling of a villain or just disposable.
I can’t/won’t be mad at anime and manga creators because they don’t HAVE to include people of color if they don’t want to. In the countries most anime/manga is created, they only see others like themselves. Their not seeing black people on the daily outside of watching American television so they don’t have a need to portray characters that don’t look like them. In most aspects, the black characters in an anime or manga are shown as exotic, mysterious but very powerful. Or they are stereotypical tropes of PoC used to filled empty character voids.
Now I’m not saying to boycott anime and manga but we should want more. When I say more, I mean more in the aspect of stories and characters. Shit, why can’t we have our own manga or anime show with nothing but PoC populating them? We have the creativity and drive to create whatever we like. Hard to cosplay characters that have none of your features but you dead set on being Spike for a Con. I want us to create and have a say in the nerd things we consume. It’s great that we come together on watching/reading different series and even connect with the characters. But why not a series highlighting characters that look like you? Sorry for the Twitter-esque rant but had to be done. Ya’ll go out and continue to be great. Nerd Out!
