Mr. Popo and Jynx a reference to racism?

[GarrettCRW]

Let me use another example: there's a great Polish comedy Vabank. All of its main characters are thieves/con-men. One of them also works in a casino as a singer - and at one moment in the movie he sings a song that bears the title of the movie, wearing some make up that gives him precisely the same kind of look as both Mr Popo and Jynx have.



This scene wasn't ever meant to showcase any prejudice towards Black people. It only suggests that the casino wanted someone to sing what they considered to be "American music" and in America (also meant probably as "the US") some of the most famous singers are Black - so why not "paint" an employee to resemble them? The whole scene can be seen here. And the fact that his make up is done in a simplified version also implies only that the people in the casino who did this were lazy about it.

Again, context. That scene would play extremely poorly to an American audience, as it's the visual template of the old minstrel shows. This isn't to blame any filmmaker who uses it without knowledge of the American context, but we've got to accept that it's going to upset people who are aware of the negative context.

[Tzigi]

Again, context. That scene would play extremely poorly to an American audience, as it's the visual template of the old minstrel shows. This isn't to blame any filmmaker who uses it without knowledge of the American context, but we've got to accept that it's going to upset people who are aware of the negative context.

You're right but that doesn't mean that any actual racial prejudice was meant by the creator (be he a mangaka or a filmmaker). And that was what I was trying to show. I doubt it highly that Toriyama wanted Mr Popo to be a "reference to racism" any more that he wanted Super Saiyan to be "Aryan". But, as this thread shows, some people may read things into a story that weren't originaly there - as it has happened here with Mr Popo and Jynx.