Mr. popo's creation

Blackmegaman · Post by **Blackmegaman** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:02 am

I just want to know if Toriyama knew that he was drawing a blackface or did he Unintentionally draw him like that ?

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:13 pm

See Sambo.

Conveniently, the kindly folk at Wikipedia already have an image of Mr.Popo as one of their examples.

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:59 pm

Blackmegaman wrote:I just want to know if Toriyama knew that he was drawing a blackface or did he Unintentionally draw him like that ?

I don't think Toriyama knew he was drawing a racial stereotype. Its not like Japan has a lot of people of African descent.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:00 pm

A "blackface"? That doesn't even sound remotely friendly to be honest with you lol

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:02 pm

Raki wrote:
Blackmegaman wrote:I just want to know if Toriyama knew that he was drawing a blackface or did he Unintentionally draw him like that ?
I don't think Toriyama knew he was drawing a racial stereotype. Its not like Japan has a lot of people of African descent.

That's exactly it, he knew he was drawing one but he figured nobody is going to give a fuck especially in an area like Japan. Nobody really did until some soccer moms in America laid their eyes upon him.

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:09 pm

Why would soccer moms be offended by Mr. Popo? He's pretty far from stereotype. If anything, he seems more like a peaceful Indian really. It's not like he's portrayed in some bad light. Now if we had a cartoon with a Mr. Popo type character who ran around blowing things up, then I'd understand. But Mr. Popo is far from a bad character.

Saiyan · Post by **Saiyan** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:08 pm

Apparently you never heard of the blackface situation back in the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface

TheGreatness25 · Post by **TheGreatness25** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:19 pm

Well Borat called black people "blackface". It just doesn't sound nice. Though I guess Mr. Popo literally is a "blackface". His face is literally black lol

Freeza93 · Post by **Freeza93** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:10 pm

I thought mr popo was an alien when i was younger because there wasn't anyone in the manga who looked like him. I think he wasn't being racist. It was just his style.

Drunken Master · Post by **Drunken Master** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:11 pm

Lol, never even noticed Jynx was a blackface, haha.

That's ridiculous, lmao. That pokemon definitely represents a black female soul/chapel singer.

Freeza93 · Post by **Freeza93** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:22 pm

Drunken Master wrote:Lol, never even noticed Jynx was a blackface, haha.
That's ridiculous, lmao. That pokemon definitely represents a black female soul/chapel singer.

It can't really be racist because jynx is a pokemon! Not a human! When i saw jynx i didn't even think about that.

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:45 pm

It can't really be racist because jynx is a pokemon! Not a human! When i saw jynx i didn't even think about that.

Well, Jinx looks human so thats all people see. People who don't know about Pokemon just see a racist character. They colored Jinx purple in the later versions of the cards (and cartoon ?), they probley could have done the same to Mr.Popo. Good thing they didn't.

NeptuneKai · Post by **NeptuneKai** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:45 pm

Drunken Master wrote:Lol, never even noticed Jynx was a blackface, haha.

That's ridiculous, lmao. That pokemon definitely represents a black female soul/chapel singer.

Well this could be, but I think Jynx is based off of the ice princess legend. The princess was trapped in an ice castle for so long her skin turned very frost bitten so much so that she appeared to be pitch black. It would also explain why she is an ice type.

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:04 pm

Tanooki Kuribo wrote:Well, Jinx looks human so thats all people see. People who don't know about Pokemon just see a racist character. They colored Jinx purple in the later versions of the cards (and cartoon ?), they probley could have done the same to Mr.Popo. Good thing they didn't.

In 2000, children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford published an article complaining that the original design bore a striking resemblance to blackface actors, a racist image from America's past. She has described the Pokémon as "a dead ringer for an obese drag queen," In response to this controversy, in 2000 Nintendo changed Jynx's face from black to purple and its hands from blue to purple in localized versions, a change which would be reflected several years later in the Japanese versions of the games and the Advanced Generation anime. The newly-redesigned Jynx has white arms, whilst the arms of the original Jynx were red.

Yes. Jynx is an obese, black drag queen. And Mr.Popo is an over-weight black man doing an impersonation of an Indian. Totally racist.

Ms.Weatherford also seems to be the same woman who got them to erase Mr.Popo's lips, according to her wiki article.

Gyt Kaliba · Post by **Gyt Kaliba** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:14 pm

I'm all for people not begin offended, but for God's sake, why do they have to be so god-damned sensitive? In both cases (Jynx and Mr. Popo), they are animated character/comic characters, so why the hell are they so offensive? Neither one is definitevely human either, so what's the big deal?

russ869 · Post by **russ869** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:19 pm

Some people have nothing better to do than try to find things to be offended about. Then they proceed to tell everyone else how they should be offended too.

MisterFlashdude · Post by **MisterFlashdude** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:23 pm

Gyt Kaliba wrote:I'm all for people not begin offended, but for God's sake, why do they have to be so god-damned sensitive? In both cases (Jynx and Mr. Popo), they are animated character/comic characters, so why the hell are they so offensive? Neither one is definitevely human either, so what's the big deal?

I d'no. You should totally ask Eddie Murphy, he's an expert.

I wonder if that'd qualify as 'Whiteface'?

I wish I cared enough to get offended at crap like that.

FindKenshi · Post by **FindKenshi** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:44 pm

This topic reminds me of a scene from Dragon: The Bruce Lee story.
Bruce Lee and his wife are in a movie in America, (I think it was Breakfast at Tiffany's) and there is a scene in the movie where there is this absurd looking asian sterotype character, all yelling and talking really fast in hard to understand diallect, with classic small glasses on him, and the steroptyical hairstyle and what not.

Everyone in the audience, including Lee's wife are laughing heartily, then the camera zooms out and shows that Bruce Lee is staring hard at the screen and basicaly choking back tears of shame and frustration.

testing223 · Post by **testing223** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:53 am

TheGreatness25 wrote:Why would soccer moms be offended by Mr. Popo? He's pretty far from stereotype. If anything, he seems more like a peaceful Indian really. It's not like he's portrayed in some bad light. Now if we had a cartoon with a Mr. Popo type character who ran around blowing things up, then I'd understand. But Mr. Popo is far from a bad character.

Because in the USA, people find reason to be offended by ANYTHING and then yell as loudly as possible about it.

Drunken Master · Post by **Drunken Master** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:42 am

Tanooki Kuribo wrote:Well, Jinx looks human so thats all people see. People who don't know about Pokemon just see a racist character. They colored Jinx purple in the later versions of the cards (and cartoon ?), they probley could have done the same to Mr.Popo. Good thing they didn't.

Didn't they, in the FUNi anime, or Viz manga, remove Mr. Popo's red lips? I know one of them did.

EDIT -

It was the Viz manga, heh.
http://www.daizex.com/general/ask/archi ... 7_04.shtml

Kanzenshuu

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