How long until Mr Popo gets cancelled?

[Demon Prince Piccolo]

I defer to black people on this subject. I haven't seen anyone raise a serious issue about it. I assume this is because while his physical appearance is...questionable, he doesn't embody any kind of stereotype that would make someone think, "this is what Toriyama thinks black people are like".

I'm black. I've never given Popo much thought one way or another. Is he a racial stereotype? I mean, visually he's a bit in line with other cartoon racial stereotypes, sure. That said, idk, nothing about the characters persona has been outright offensive to me. I don't presume to speak for other black people on the matter, but that's just my take. Maybe if he was a more prominent character and was actively made to be an idiot, I'd take issue. I'm not sticking my head in the sand to say that there isn't something problematic about racial stereotypes, however minor, but I'm not so sure that energy is well spent on a minor character in a 30-year-old manga/anime.

[MasenkoHA]

You mean besides the simpleton speech?

I mean maybe I've got Ocean on the brain but I never looked at it that way? He's just a very inconsequential character who doesn't get exposition. When I look at a scene like this I don't really get "simpleton" vibes.

I’m talking about the Japanese version

[Hellspawn28]

Cancel Culture has become an Internet boogieman at this point. People freak out of their favorite thing being canceled and they are worried that no one will be allowed to like it. You have more people that scared of their favorite thing being canceled than real life issues. Besides, Cancel Culture has existed for ages. People in the 80s wanted Slayer and Metallica to be canceled because they view them as music for Satan. In the 90s, people wanted Mortal Kombat and Pokemon to be banned. In the 2000s, people wanted GTA to remove from the stores.

[super michael]

Cancel Culture has become an Internet boogieman at this point. People freak out of their favorite thing being canceled and they are worried that no one will be allowed to like it. You have more people that scared of their favorite thing being canceled than real life issues. Besides, Cancel Culture has existed for ages. People in the 80s wanted Slayer and Metallica to be canceled because they view them as music for Satan. In the 90s, people wanted Mortal Kombat and Pokemon to be banned. In the 2000s, people wanted GTA to remove from the stores.

People actually wanted Pokémon to get cancelled? That is the first time hearing about it. I haven't heard of Mortal Kombat people wanting that to get cancelled.

As for the 80s music I have no clue.

[MasenkoHA]

Cancel Culture has become an Internet boogieman at this point. People freak out of their favorite thing being canceled and they are worried that no one will be allowed to like it. You have more people that scared of their favorite thing being canceled than real life issues. Besides, Cancel Culture has existed for ages. People in the 80s wanted Slayer and Metallica to be canceled because they view them as music for Satan. In the 90s, people wanted Mortal Kombat and Pokemon to be banned. In the 2000s, people wanted GTA to remove from the stores.

People actually wanted Pokémon to get cancelled? That is the first time hearing about it. I haven't heard of Mortal Kombat people wanting that to get cancelled.

As for the 80s music I have no clue.

Did you live under a rock in the late 90s/early 2000s? Christian Groups saying Pokemon was teaching kids to worship the devil were everywhere

[Hellspawn28]

People actually wanted Pokémon to get cancelled? That is the first time hearing about it. I haven't heard of Mortal Kombat people wanting that to get cancelled.

As for the 80s music I have no clue.

With Mortal Kombat and Doom, people thought they were so violent that they were scared that people will start real life murder. It's the reason why Jack Thompson got popular in the first place because he believe in stupid nonsense like that. When I was a kid, I do remember Pokemon having controversy around it. You had Fundamentalist Christian groups have accused Pokémon as being linked to Satanism and wanted it ban from schools.

[super michael]

Cancel Culture has become an Internet boogieman at this point. People freak out of their favorite thing being canceled and they are worried that no one will be allowed to like it. You have more people that scared of their favorite thing being canceled than real life issues. Besides, Cancel Culture has existed for ages. People in the 80s wanted Slayer and Metallica to be canceled because they view them as music for Satan. In the 90s, people wanted Mortal Kombat and Pokemon to be banned. In the 2000s, people wanted GTA to remove from the stores.

People actually wanted Pokémon to get cancelled? That is the first time hearing about it. I haven't heard of Mortal Kombat people wanting that to get cancelled.

As for the 80s music I have no clue.

Did you live under a rock in the late 90s/early 2000s? Christian Groups saying Pokemon was teaching kids to worship the devil were everywhere

In the 90s I was a kid and I didn't have internet until around 2004. Internet wasn't that well known until the PS2/GC/Xbox gen where I live.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, my family is still spouting shit about anime corrupting children and shit. It's...yeah. Yikes.

[Soppa Saia People]

my parents let me watch azumanga daioh at 7 and now I'm a psychopath.

[MyVisionity]

Yes, Mr. Popo is clearly racist. You don't have to be Black to understand this.

No, not everyone will recognize the racism when they see it. Plenty of viewers Black, white, or otherwise have never noticed it.

Toriyama's intentions behind the character are irrelevant. That has nothing to do with how racist the character is.

As for Popo's future, I certainly would never want to see him censored in the original material. But if anyone ever decided to get rid of him in any future material, that's fine. The character is not necessary and could easily be written out.

[ABED]

I still wonder what the hell Toriyama was thinking when he designed Popo.

[Polyphase Avatron]

People actually wanted Pokémon to get cancelled? That is the first time hearing about it. I haven't heard of Mortal Kombat people wanting that to get cancelled.

As for the 80s music I have no clue.

With Mortal Kombat and Doom, people thought they were so violent that they were scared that people will start real life murder. It's the reason why Jack Thompson got popular in the first place because he believe in stupid nonsense like that. When I was a kid, I do remember Pokemon having controversy around it. You had Fundamentalist Christian groups have accused Pokémon as being linked to Satanism and wanted it ban from schools.

I thought the complaints about Pokemon were because it involved evolution (although ironically, evolution in Pokemon works nothing like it does in real life).

[Demon Prince Piccolo]

I totally forgot about the Pokemon=Satan discussion that was going on back then. I was incredibly young, as I became a Dragon Ball at age 8 and was mainly into Pokemon prior to that, but I definitely remember hearing that brought up. And of course there's Harry Potter.

I will say that among a lot of the talk of "cancelling" things nowadays, there seems to be selective memory depending on what side of the political spectrum one is on.

[JulieYBM]

I can only vaguely remember the fad era of Pokemon due to health issues but I do recall there was a lot of talk about it being Satanic. It was borne of the superstitious 1980s thanks to major religious leaders and Reagan working to mainstream the US as a Christian nation.

Anyway, they've mostly moved on to calling transgender visibility the new Satanist evil, although my brother still doesn't want his daughter watching anime.

[WittyUsername]

I still wonder what the hell Toriyama was thinking when he designed Popo.

Blackface has always been pretty common in manga and anime, especially back in the 80s. I doubt Toriyama put any thought into whether or not Popo’s design would be seen as offensive.

On the subject of Pokémon, there was definitely some controversy towards it back in the day. It ranged anywhere from it supposedly promoting violence (which has always been a common complaint against video games), evolution or animal cruelty.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I really don't see them doing a Jynx/Rougela type of thing here, as Mr. Popo is overall a nonentity character these days and i don't think he's recieved anywhere close to the same degree of controversy as the former to the point of having a similar thing done. Viz's release of the manga and Toonzai/CW4Kids edited version of Kai are the only places i've seen him altered appearance wise in any form, while being left as is virtually everywhere else.

As a side note about the "Pokemon is evil" stuff, there really seemed to be a thing at the time about some people making a stink about ridiculous things (Some of which was never there, they apparently reached and even invented stuff out of thin air) when the series was at it's highest blitz of massive popularity here. Reading things these said people spouted back in the day made me face palm and think "Really? You don't have better things to do than complain about a show for kids???" and i was amazed at how ignorant people in the below articles seemed to be. Some of them were so off the wall in their denouncements that i almost burst a gut laughing so much.

https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/satanic.html

https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/ ... kemon.html

https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/ ... wkcab.html

https://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/genitalia.html

[PurestEvil]

Considering how Japan does not have a significant minority of African communities to disrespect and that anime/manga companies rarely listen to the gripes of western consumers, TOEI probably won’t do much about “cancelling” Popo.

[Aim]

Intentional or not, framing this as "cancelled" is needlessly dog-whistling for a certain demographic. As a general reminder, there's no such thing as "cancel culture" -- people facing repercussions for their own actions and statements is a good thing, and people feeling empowered and supported to speak up for themselves is a good thing.

"Some companies" changing Popo to blue is, to my knowledge, just the CW4Kids broadcast of Dragon Ball (Z) Kai. Not the Nicktoons broadcast, not the Toonami broadcast, and not the home video version. This decision was likely modeled around what has been done with Jynx/Rougela in the Pokemon franchise, another character clearly based in the same stereotypes and cultural ignorance.

Viz has consistently edited out Mr. Popo's lips in their English release of the various Dragon Ball manga series, another attempt at distancing the character from some of the more blindingly obvious stereotypes.

But with regard to your question/point about "how long" until something happens with regard to Popo... these discussions have been taking place forever. There's nothing new about them, and there's nothing new to them (other than perhaps the CW4Kids addition). We were having them on Usenet before web-based message boards existed, and I'm sure folks were having them on their university listservs before that. This question has always been a question. My bet is that Shueisha/Toei want to simply avoid acknowledging it by way of doing nothing, rather than bringing any attention to it by... uhh... doing anything at all.

I don't think there's a good way to avoid using Popo considering they still want to use Dende as Earth's God. It would be a glaring omission. At the same time, like, good riddance if he fucks off forever, right? I don't think he needs to stay out of inertia and purity to the "original vision." Dragon Ball, since its very beginning, has consistently swapped in and out new characters.

I fucking love you sometimes, what’s the chances we get the most OG DB sites admin whose not a righty? I guess by nature of the series the demographic is bound to be somewhat toxic.

[Shineman]

I still wonder what the hell Toriyama was thinking when he designed Popo.

Blackface has always been pretty common in manga and anime, especially back in the 80s. I doubt Toriyama put any thought into whether or not Popo’s design would be seen as offensive.

On the subject of Pokémon, there was definitely some controversy towards it back in the day. It ranged anywhere from it supposedly promoting violence (which has always been a common complaint against video games), evolution or animal cruelty.

I’m not so sure about that; at least, when you look at other instances where Toriyama draws Black characters. To say that “well, maybe he didn’t put any thought to it” downplays it significantly. There is a great Twitter thread regarding Mr. Popo and his origins, along with the mindset at the time of Japan.

In addition, here is an compilation of Twitter threads by the same user that bring about all Black characters that appeared in the manga thus far. Whether or not Toriyama harbors any negative sentiments is up to debate (whether intentional or cultural ignorance, although the latter is harder to sell), but I don’t think he simply was all “Okay, uh uh, Mr. Popo!” and that was the end of it; there’s clear effort into creating such character.

[MasenkoHA]

I can only vaguely remember the fad era of Pokemon due to health issues but I do recall there was a lot of talk about it being Satanic. It was borne of the superstitious 1980s thanks to major religious leaders and Reagan working to mainstream the US as a Christian nation.

Ironically enough Pokemon likely never would have crossed over to the US if the Reagan administration hadn’t deregulated advertising toward children go figure.