We Need To Talk About Black Women In Anime...

being a black woman watching anime is an experience to say the least if it's not certain fandoms questioning my validity as an anime fan or my opinions being critiqued because I said something that goes against what other people think or any other reason people can come up with besides literally saying you're black so you can't be in the club black people also have to deal with the fact that usually most depictions of black people in anime series tend to not be that great and some are so terrible that it makes me wonder why I ride so hard for the medium in the first place [Music] but instead of rehashing what friend of the channel basic boy put in his video about the topic of anti-blackness in anime I'm going to focus instead on depictions of black wom in anime most of which tend to be actually pretty good and done with some level of respect even when they still fall short in some areas welcome in May friends happy Black History Month my name is Phoenix before you begin though before you even grab your cup actually I also want to say that I stand with the people of uh Palestine I stand with the people of Sudan I stand with the people who are going through situations that are just horrendous that are being attacked that are that are going through genocides I've been doing research on different programs and websites and things to learn information about what's happening um and I'm going to be linking them in the description down below if you want to check them out as well and I also just want to say just because we're anime fans just because we're manga fans just because we talk about fun entertainment and media doesn't mean we don't have to acknowledge what else is going on in the world please educate yourself and share the information if you can now let's grab our cups because it's time to Spill the enemy tea shinro Watanabe is known for his Works inspired by American Music most of which is deeply rooted in Black American culture such as using Jazz as a backdrop for his space Bounty Hunter series Cowboy bbop or hip-hop in his series that remixes Japanese history Samurai shamp in fact if wat's name is on a series even if he's not the director you're guaranteed to hear a memorable or unique soundtrack not only that but his works are known to include diverse characters with various skin tones and ethnicities ranging from places from as far and wide as space to the historically isolated Japan with their quiet history of mostly underrepresented native people from various lands and Islands but despite how much inspiration watab often took from American culture it still came as a huge surprise to hear that one of the characters in his newer series back in 2019 of course would be a black girl let me say that again for y'all in the back a black girl was going to lead a shural watab work this was a huge freaking deal Carol on Tuesday is a series set on Mars about two girls who become musical soulmates despite how different they are one a refugee from Earth the other a daughter of a politician with an anti-immigration agenda it follows a journey of the two trying to become authentic musicians in a futuristic city set on Mars where most music is created by AI Carol Stanley is an orphan originally from Earth who was sent to Mars at a young age growing up mostly alone she learns to take care of herself by taking on various part-time jobs many of which she gets fired from because of her straightforward personality despite her background she's a genuinely optimistic person who takes things and stride and isn't afraid to stick up for herself she plays keyboard and makes Melodies which is how she ends up finding her musical soulmate Tuesday one afternoon when she performs on a bridge she also has a tomboyish nature and style opting to skateboard through the streets of Mars to get places and dressing in overalls and Timberlands as her preferred outfit speaking of Carol Style her character design is also surprisingly beautiful I only say surprisingly because black characters in anime tend to be based on a certain misunderstanding of how black people should be drawn Carol's design is clearly representative of black women though simple she has traits like a more defined nose and more defined lips as well as of course most importantly her hair Carol's hair is put into locks and even when we see images of Carol in different areas of her life like when she's younger we see her rocking other kind of traditionally black hairstyles or at least hairstyles that black women often wear including like the double buns and the curly frob buun on top of her head which I do appreciate because black women anime characters don't always get like Afrocentric hairstyles as you know anime tends to opt for like straight hairstyles like with most of their characters it's nice to see that Carol is more of a representation of a person not a car which is how we often unfortunately see black representations in other anime series but I think for the most part character designer asaku Kubo noi did a great job designing not just Carol but most of the characters in the series GK is another singer that we get to see in the series um for a couple episodes and she's kind of this ephemeral girl who's drawn to the universe I appreciate that she also looks physically different from Carol and other black characters because her facial structure is different and of course is her hairstyle is different not only were the character designs given a fair amount of consideration but so were the musical voices behind them since Carol and Tuesday is an anime about music and because watab expressed wanting to make it a universal series that a lot of people could find and listen to and relate to a lot of English musical Talent was chosen including the singing vocals for Carol done by American Artist NY bricks Ranna matics which adds an additional level of representation to her character there is one only one other example that I can think of of a black woman providing vocals for a song that was used in an anime Hazel Fernandez doing the vocals for io's theme track title number one for the series bleach and Not only was NY brics's voice as Carol in Caroline Tuesday a big deal but there were also multiple other black creators who were the vocals for characters in the series as well for example GK my favorite ethereal girl had her vocals done by black American Artist Madison mcfarren Ezekiel AKA both of his raps were performed by Densel Curry and skip song was performed by Thundercat Carol as a character is enigmatic and likable she's strong willed yet emotional and she sings with quiet passion Carol at her simplest form is a beautiful representation of a black girl in anime and definitely the most wholesome out of the lineup of the very few black female leads in anime and especially out of the ones that I'm going to be talking about and I am hesitant to criticize her character because of how much I hyped her up but despite how happy I was and continue to be to see Carol on screen singing her heart out melanin reflecting in the Golden Light the series loves to shine on her Carol and other characters in the series that represent diverse people are still flawed I hate to say it but Carol falls into a stereotype specifically the strong black girl who can take care of herself her being an orphan her father said to have been imprisoned but if you're unfamiliar with black representation in media these aspects on the surface don't sound like such a bad thing and honestly they wouldn't be if it wasn't for the fact that these narratives have been used hundreds of times in media to depict black women to depict black people in our stories and though yes this can reflect real black women's experiences this can reflect real black people's experiences it is not every black person's story it makes it seem like black woman can also be more like Tuesday who is uh more reserved and awkward Shai she kind of gives off the energy of a stereotypical show Joe girly in a romance series I honestly personally related more to Tuesday than Carol because she's softspoken because she likes to be girly and even NY bricks vocals for Carol says she initially related more to Tuesday as well words the beginning of everything I felt like me and Tuesday were more alike and then as the show as I got to watch the the show and it started to progress um I feel more and more like Carol or at least I'm growing into someone like Carol but also says that she would like to be more like Carol and honestly I agree like Carol's outlook on life is inspiring but the series often makes it seem like her strength and Independence is all she is and we never really get to see her flaws or insecurities or even her internal motivations as to why like music is so important to her as to why uh Tuesday is important to her or even what is important to her beyond music my point is not that Carol as a character is inherently bad it's just that she lacks depth in Nuance which honestly is something that not only afflicts Carol but also Tuesday they both seem to be lacking depth which is a little bit disappointing because they're literally the main characters for one of the only anime series that has a black woman lead that is like actually anime uh I couldn't be too disappointed in her shortcomings because at least she exists if her existing at least shows that black women in anime are worthy of being being in the spotlight that I think her existence is still important and I deeply appreciate it fortunately I can't say the same for the lgbtq plus representation in Carol and Tuesday I don't think that the inclusion of the characters provided good representation and highlighted like the existence of these people in a positive way unfortunately don't have time to cover that in this video but there are several articles that I read through you should go read them I'm going to leave them in the sources list in the description and maybe this will be a possible video in the future but moving on to another series that would explore the complexities of stereotypes of black women in a way that is so flawed it's almost perfect would be another series that Shinra watab had a hand in creating mitchko and Hain is a story about the rawness of Womanhood written by a woman inspired by the raw beauty of South America following the story of a young girl named Hana abused by her foster parents who one day gets rescued or kidnapped depending on your perspective by a woman claiming to be her mother Mito mandro together the two go on a Manhunt to find hana's father and mito's lover Hoshi marinos though wat's biggest contribution to the series was just its soundtrack which is incredible by the way elements of his style are still all over the series especially since it's a story that focuses on the characters first and the adventures they go on leading up to like a main ending like many of his Works tend to do which makes sense because the actual director of the series also worked on Samurai shampo with watan AB you may not know her name but you might know another series she is famous for creating and directing Yuri on Ice before she made fans fall in love with the Romantic ice skating series though Sayo Yamamoto created Mito and haen a series that was initially inspired by an unsettling trip to Mexico that she wanted to use as the backdrop to a story that Japanese people didn't often see but the study from Mito to Hain is actually Brazil which Yamamoto says she was inspired to pick because of how vibrant and stylish that it is which definitely reflects in the endlessly stylish and vibrant story of mcho and Hain this anime is one that even if you've never watched the series you're probably familiar with its characters especially if you are in Black anime spaces online at all because the characters are often used as profile pictures this is because the characters of Mito toachi are regarded as some of the best dep picture of black people in anime I can't speak to how well or poorly this series actually reflects the nature of women in Brazil or of Brazil itself I can speak to the design and characteristics that are prevalent in my own area of diaspora of black Womanhood starting with one half of the titular Duo Mito mandro she's not a good person by any means she's stubborn she's headstrong she's Reckless and she's violent she's also a literal criminal that has escaped prison despite serving time for a crime she may have not committed but is all these elements of mito's character that makes her so chaotic but also fun to watch there is rarely a dull moment when Mito is on screen but if there is a moment where she is quiet or contemplative for any reason it stands out because she's often not like that and usually when we see her like this it's because she is being exploited by her biggest weakness which is men who claim to love her uh AKA boys and it's honestly seeing how her weakness affects her that subverts a lot of mito's stereotypical Behavior really takes his time exploring the nature of these two characters as individuals and together which is something that I wish we got more of in Carolyn Tuesday's story we could still acknowledge the fact that Mito is also based off of a lot of stereotypes such as the idea that black woman women Latin women often are thought to be loud belligerent boyish strong independent difficult Etc lots of mostly not great things and Mito is all of these things and it doesn't mean that it's still not kind of stereotypical and kind of hurtful to see that like black and brown women are only seen this way but because she is the biggest focus in her story she doesn't feel entirely weighed down by her stereotypes and the other people in her life remind us that yes mito's flawed she's deeply flawed but they still end up caring about her another aspect of Mito that's explored is her role as a mother figure which mitchko is terrible at she's essentially still a child at heart but she's she's in an adult body she is a woman child and hin is an actual child because she literally turns 10 in the middle of the series mitchko and hotchin have a turbulent relationship where both of them struggle to express how they're actually feeling throughout the entirety of the series and they their relationship by no means is good or even healthy at times as the two express their emotions through violence through slapping each other and stepping on each other's toes but they always find a way to make it back to one another and they take care of each other in their own flawed ways oo is micho's best friend turn enemy but she's also deeply in love with Mito something that Mito unfortunately points out in like the most homophobic way possible but despite how mitko addresses oo oo still gets a lot of agency in the series we learned so much about her because of her relationship with Mito oo is also violent and also stubborn which you could say stereotypical but it's in a way that's different from Mito we see that her stubbornness comes from her inability to let Mito go and we see that she's violent because that's the only way she can get Mito to notice her but whenever she's given the opportunity to actually hurt Mito she does not hurt her and we often see how her feelings outweigh her Duty as a police officer to capture Mito and bring her back to to prison the level of complexity to ASO Anders sexuality makes her a really robust character that I was surprised to find in this series that highlighted women who are obsessed with men but also exploring like being gay and in love with a straight woman it's the crushing nature of this this fact and then the fact that of course they also live in a world in a society that is also dominated by men um who use and abuse women and another great side character who really is only in a few episodes but I think deserves to be talked about is Rita Rita is a girl who is the same age as Hain they're both around 10 years old the first thing the series points out is the differences between Rita and Hain most importantly they're the overt sexuality of Rita compared to Hain which is why they mentioned that she's like already on her period and hin is not shows how like black girls are often sexualized their bodies mature faster sometimes and therefore men sexualize them and therefore they have to learn like at an earlier age how to navigate in a world where men want to like use and abuse you and it sucks like it's terrible but it is real it does happen I think mostly the series wanted to kind of use her as a way to double down on the fact that no matter how mature or immature or young or old you might be you're a girl in the world of Mito and Hain you're more than likely in love with a man who doesn't love you the fact that say Yamamoto took direct inspiration from the diverse people of Brazil and South America really gives the characters in micho toachi more life each of the characters is unique not just because of anime design principles but because they are also reflective of real people Brazilian people are diverse some people have eurocentric features some have Latin American features some have Afrocentric features and Mito and hin reflect this diversity in its cast especially this is seen through hair texture and style Yamamoto also mixing in a little bit of Japanese I think even Chinese culture into the designs and the names also a fun touch the characters in Mito and Hain are the most fashionable characters I have ever seen I don't believe there's a single episode where Mito or Hain repeat an outfit in the series at a glance mitchko and Hain might seem like a series for men because of the openly sexual nature but it's not it's a show made by a woman about the complexities of Womanhood it's really a story for women outside of the male gaze similar to how The Boondocks is often said to be a show uh for black people outside of the white gaze the series is by no means perfect I mean we still have to acknowledge that it comes that this series comes from a perspective of a woman who just visited um Brazil and the places that Mito and hajin is inspired by she is not representative of the people who are actually from that area and so her perspective will always kind of be from an outside perspective and that probably leads to flaws and things inherently that I can't even talk about because I am also not from that area but one recent series that made sure to include black women in the character creation process is Castlevania nocturn now I know before y all say it don't type it technically Castlevania noct is not an anime but I think it's close enough for me to talk about it I mean it's inspired definitely inspired by anime Castlevania uh is a series that ran a couple years ago it's an original Netflix series that it's inspired by the video game franchise of the same name but they recently came out with like a sequel called Castle pania nocturn and this follows the story of RoR Belmont to moved to France after the death of his mother deep into the French Revolution where a self-proclaimed vampire Messiah starts to rise up during the chaos RoR and family friend Maria and her mother who are fighting for the revolution meet two travelers from the Caribbean who are tracking down a vampire which is where we meet instant fan favorite Annette Annette being a black woman was also a point of contention for Castlevania fans since she was remade or more are more likely given the same name as an NPC this isn't the first time that Castlevania the original anime has taken liberties with the characters of the series remix them until they're basically not even the same characters anymore even though they keep some they kept some things similar to the Annette of the game like Annette having a romance with RoR basically everything else was changed and it made her character so much more cuz Annette is is her past she is the love that she feels for ED who is a person who helped free her and who she also sees as a brother as family she is also the girl who lost her mother she was a girl who was a slave and who freed herself and who fights to free others she is a witch she's the powers passed down to her from her ancestors the Risha that has been passed down through songs and incantations like through the generations of Slavery to make it to her which is so powerful to see she is a representation a of how vampires have spread across the world of Castlevania leaving chaos and evil in their wake she's also strong but not cocky she's brave but still acknowledges her fear and she's not just one or two characteristics because instead of focusing in on her suffering because she was a slave because her mother was killed because of so many things we instead get to see her finding freedom and community and empowerment outside of slavery as her own person so yes you may hear black people say that they're tired of the slave narrative but only because it's been mostly used to Showcase black people's suffering instead of highlighting their resilience and centering them instead of their trauma anyway Anette is so much more than the character from the game that people wanted instead could the team behind Castlevania have chosen a different name for her yeah I think so but like with Isaac and Castlevania who fans ended up loving despite gripes of also having his race changed in the beginning we obviously know that Castlevania the writing team at least behind cast Castlevania clear clearly knows what they're doing Anette provides representation in an authentic way that still aligns with the time period that the story is set in allowing her existence to broaden castlevania's World building showing just how much control vampires have over the world and this can also be said for other characters such as old old rocks and even jolta to an extent I think if you want to hear more detailed information about why anette's character was race swapped and why she's important please go check out these videos uh one is by Sister Punk and the other by by Lon Reus they do an incredible deep dive on inette as a character both in the game and in the anime original adaptation and give you extra information that I could not provide here another black character of the series that needs to be talked about which is drta who is also I have to point out a character that is in the Castlevania game as well they are both black women that were changed from their original designs of the game but where I hear everyone shouting about how upset they are with the net character with drta no I have not heard a single peep about how they have changed this woman I know this is all rhetorical cuz everyone is down bad for jolta in Castlevania not much is known about jolta besides that she's a merciless killer who worships the vampire Messiah but I guess what I appreciate about her besides how pot she is you know I'll take that aside for a second is that she's also a black woman in a position of power like a really high position of power and a mostly white vampire hire she's also representative of vampires that come from different cultur that probably were turned into Vampires by like the original vampires of Europe sometimes it's not much deeper than that I'm down bad and I love her and JTA is hot like it's just that's just what it is okay it's sometimes that's all it is of course I also need to address the beautiful character designs of the series again Castlevania isn't an anime but it is inspired by anime despite this Anette is still given a black nose black noses are probably something really small that people probably don't really pay attention attention to in comparison to like lips and hair cuz those those things stand out a bit more so it's nice to see that even in an anime inspired medium the black girl's nose isn't reduced to like just a tiny little dot of a nose also what was cool to see is anette's lock Journey like seeing her grow out her locks in the process of learning about her back her backstory was kind of incredible I don't think I've ever seen like a full walk journey of a character something I kind of wish we got to see for Carol's character and Carol on Tuesday cuz she also has locks absolutely obsessed with jta's hair jta's entire design is incredible also really fun cuz she's a vampire she doesn't have to conform to like looking normal she can she can be extra you know and she definitely is like I love her eyes and her big giant fangs and and of course her hair which are like the Ombre black to magenta curls she actually has a curly hair which is a big deal a vampire with curly hair who's hot what what also the the fact that we got several versions of her in different outfits and hairstyles sometimes she was wearing braids and twists or you know she had her in a bun there was like there's just so many different styles anyway I could go on for days about the good and questionable aspects of black women in anime of black women and animated mediums inspired by anime but I've been talking for like an hour and a half now and I I need to stop so despite how much I mostly praised the representation of black women in these series I think it goes without saying that I never truly look to anime for the nuanced type of representation that I want to see of black womenhood even though sometimes we do get good stories or representation from these Studios and from anime uh we most often do not but I do know that there is undeniably one way to get representation that Rings truer to our own experiences than any other way and this is by supporting artists and creatives who are trying to make their own stories and one way to do that is by supporting independent projects like the incredible Kickstarter wills and Roses wills and Roses is an animated young adult Coming of Age story about a group of magical girls who roller derby a series inspired by magical girls like Sailor Moon with an emphasis on highlighting lgbtq teens and a medium inspired by anime it's literally everything I could ever ask for when it comes to authentic representation and the project is being funded right now on Kickstarter so if you want to support black stories created by black LGBT folks for black LGBT folks this is the best place to start by the time this video comes out you'll probably only have like one or two days to go support them so please go support them if you can or spread the word if you can to help them Reach their goal by the end of the month after their Kickstarter ends I'll make sure to change the link so you can still go support uh the Creator I truly think that the only way we receive accurate representation in the mediums that we love is by supporting creators who are making media that reflects both their and our own own lived experiences thank you so much for watching thank you for watching to the end of this video if you did I appreciate you I don't normally talk about things like this in my story in my little in my videos I tend to like just kind of talk about storytelling and kind of lighter subjects but this is something that was really important to me CU I am a black woman and I want to address I want to address this so thank you so much for watching Remember to support stories that help you feel represented black women in anime exists black women in animated mediums exists black women behind the scenes of the series exists and I want to see more of them so anyway that's all I have to say thanks very much for watching again and I'll see you next time peace

Channel: The Anime Tea

Views: 169,495

Keywords: carole and tuesday, shinichiro watanabe, michiko and hatchin, michiko malandro, atsuko jackson, anime review, black girl anime characters, black anime characters, castlevania nocturne, castlevania, annette castlevania nocturne, annette castlevania, #anime review, anime analysis, sister krone

Id: fVV-Ixv_Cg8

Length: 26min 43sec (1603 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2024