Why were African Americans represented so poorly in DBZ

[Duo]

And General Blue/Zarbon parodied the LGBT community. What's the big deal? As Rocketman said, it's Japanese. As various other posters said, FUNImation exaggerated a lot of these negative perceptions when they dubbed Z. The basis of this thread is reading prejudice into something that doesn't have an ounce of hatred for any group of people.

[Rocketman]

And General Blue/Zarbon parodied the LGBT community. What's the big deal? As Rocketman said, it's Japanese. As various other posters said, FUNImation exaggerated a lot of these negative perceptions when they dubbed Z. The basis of this thread is reading prejudice into something that doesn't have an ounce of hatred for any group of people.

Prejudice doesn't mean hatred. Dragonball is prejudiced as fuck, but it's not (generally) hateful.


The anime deciding Blue was a paedophile was pretty disgusting, though.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I know for sure the Japanese are very uneducated on how to portray black people, reading into it the racist black-fce dolls created during the hate-era was actually something popular in japan but not as a slur, they saw it as how white girls saw barbie. Then the Ganguro thing came about inspired by it. They honestly think this is something embracive.

Though I do find it rather frustrating to see how often newer anime insists on featuring half-japanese half-britsh characters or blond haired, blue eyed japanese girls in their cast as opposed to japanese half black. They exist. Though as opposed to at least having one confirmed, strong equal black character. Soul eater did, I'd like to see more. With the quite large amount of black anime fans, it would be nice. That is if the anime comunity doesn't just out right refuse to accept these characters as black: like Iris in Pokemon. Not being African with or without big elastic lips doesnt make a non-asian dark anime character less black. Granted that not all dark anime characters are by default, the ones that can implied to be should be al that debatable unless its counter-confirmed.

[Casual Matt]

The anime deciding Blue was a paedophile was pretty disgusting, though.

I can see why someone would be offended by that since there are hateful people who will equate homosexuality and paedophilia.

However, I just saw them as two separate aspects of the character. Of course one of those aspects was reprehensible, but this is a character who wears something akin to a Nazi uniform, which tends to be visual shorthand for 'this guy is evil.'

That being said, who knows what the anime staff were thinking when they made that decision?

[Cipher]

Because it's Japanese.

Well, it's Japanese in the '80s.

But, yeah, this thread could have ended here. That's the unfortunate reality.

[Payne222]

To upset butthurt people like you.

[Cipher]

To upset butthurt people like you.

Woooaaaah. Someone call the whambulance because this guy doesn't want to read into the cultural privileges and biases influencing a 20-year-old piece of media this board is dedicated to discussing!

The OP is going to need some ice for your sick burn.

[WittyUsername]

What do you mean "African Americans?" Dragon Ball doesn't even take place in America.

[WittyUsername]

Mr. Popo isn't black, he's just dark because he's the incarnation of a cosmic singularity.

"Pretty creative excuse but not good enough for me. I see him as a slurr to Arabs above anything else. A cosmic entity does not need big red lips and creepy-looking eyes."

Arabs are stereotyped with having big lips and black skin?

[Gokuden]

Who are we to push our views onto the Japanese? That would be ethnocentric. They have their own customs, on their own island.
Just look at this, you don't see gaijin losing it.

http://kotaku.com/5946130/hey-foreigner ... e-in-japan

Here's a +

At least the gays are generally regarded as good looking, look at Zarbon and General Blue...


I also based a study on the portrayal of Blacks in dbz, but I regret it. Who am I to call out a cultural view?

[WittyUsername]

When was Zarbon ever confirmed to be homosexual?

[Cipher]

When was Zarbon ever confirmed to be homosexual?

Never?

[Duo]

Zarbon isn't a homosexual (as far as we know), he's just a very effeminate male who openly expresses love for his own beauty. He could really go either way.

[RandomGuy96]

"As could I, Lord Freeza".

(oh wait, that doesn't work if you're already talking about Zarbon, does it?)

[Duo]

"As could I, Lord Freeza".

(oh wait, that doesn't work if you're already talking about Zarbon, does it?)

It works because I want it to work. I miss Zarbon.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I like how TFS portrayed him as camp straight

[RocktheDragon]

Zarbon isn't a homosexual (as far as we know), he's just a very effeminate male who openly expresses love for his own beauty. He could really go either way.

Always thought the same thing. Seems a bit silly to say this but Zarbon always struck me as the kind of "guy" that would probably fit into the niche of being a metrosexual. Guy definitely had some style with his outfit and hair and he knew it.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

Pretty much what Rocketman. They're racially insensitive, but Killa did at least have an understandable dialect in the subbed version of the anime.

I find it Funimation more racist than the original japanese version. Funimation ALWAYS gives black characters really stupid voices often reflecting stereotypes they can come up with on the spot. "Killa" the tall Boxer guy, to Ultimate Tenkaichi. TBH, It's rather frustrainingly immature of a company to do that purposely. Its enough they don't have any black VAs on staff as far as I know but, really. The other extra characters never get race-reflected voices, they get simple cartoony voices. Just the black ones get the clearly insulting voice-overs.

Arabs are stereotyped with having big lips and black skin?

Desi-Indians are. At a point in time a lot of the known slurrs for blacks applied to everyone of colour, even Asians...however something in time kept it initially focused on Blacks and kept popular today; but even indians, cambodians, and other darker-skinned people were all portayed the same way. The only difference is, it wasnt considered a slur in japan.

Who are we to push our views onto the Japanese? That would be ethnocentric. They have their own customs, on their own island.
Just look at this, you don't see gaijin losing it. I also based a study on the portrayal of Blacks in dbz, but I regret it. Who am I to call out a cultural view?

What Asian countries call foriegners is their buisness. However TV is international and seen by everyone, thus more respect should be taken into consideration regardless of your own biases. I wish America was more morally straight with their own portayals of POC but they've already done enough damage they arent soon going to negate. I know I have no place to condemn the japanese for racist depictions considering they only learned of them from the Americans. However I would at least prefer if they didn't enforce so much blonde worship in their anime and get a bit more realistic. Americans arent all blondes.

[Herms]

That's great and all, but...this thread is almost four months old. If you've got something to say about a topic and there are no active threads about it, it's better to just start a new thread rather than revive a really old one.

[Thouser]

Does Toriyama exacerbate Asian eyes? No.

No, but a lot of current American animation does, despite the fact that terms like "squint eye" used to be used as racial slurs. But somehow people accept the fact that, yes, Asians do have epicanthic folds, and acknowledging that is not offensive. It's just the way they are. (And for arguments' sake, since there is no Asia in Dragon Ball, how can we say for certain we've ever met any "Asians" anyway?)

Old posts, but I figured it's worth pointing out that Toriyama said he imagined Yajirobe as Japanese (saying why he chose his name), and if you look at his eyes, they are drawn differently from most other characters, with lines representing the folds. Kuririn's eyes were drawn the same way in his earliest appearances, although eventually his eyes were drawn the same as Goku's. So yes, Toriyama has drawn some "Asian" characters with different eyes.