Is Anime racist?

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SacremPyrobolum

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Yes, it can be. And it's hilarious when it is.


Unfortunately, it rarely gets a chance to be. Japanese high schools are not very diverse.
 

SUPA FRANKY

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SacremPyrobolum said:
Yes, it can be. And it's hilarious when it is.


Unfortunately, it rarely gets a chance to be. Japanese high schools are not very diverse.
Not really sure about the context, but she looks like she is practicing the fashion subculture known as Gyaru. It involves a deep tan.
 

SacremPyrobolum

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SUPA FRANKY said:
SacremPyrobolum said:
Yes, it can be. And it's hilarious when it is.


Unfortunately, it rarely gets a chance to be. Japanese high schools are not very diverse.
Not really sure about the context, but she looks like she is practicing the fashion subculture known as Gyaru. It involves a deep tan.
Unfortunately, this was the best video I could get of it. The whole scene is about that girl explaining to the other how she wants to be a "soul sister" to attract boyfriends.
 

Hectix777

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Fox12 said:
Not really, though that's a pretty broad topic. Obviously there's some xenophobia in Japanese culture, but that's fairly normal. The Japanese may dislike the South Koreans, but there are elements of American culture that dislike Hispanics. Japanese WW2 vets may dislike Americans, but there are American vets who feel the same about them. As a whole I would say no, at least not intentionally. Obviously they have a more homogenized society, but I haven't seen anything in anime that shows a clear dislike of other races. The worst I've seen are some of their old fashioned depictions of black culture, but they don't have the history of persecution we have, so they don't necessarily see certain images as racist in the same way we would.

You could make a stronger case for sexism, though even this only represents certain parts of the culture. The same can be found in aspects of American society (like in some comics). Miyazaki is the biggest feminist around.
One thing to note about anime is the fact that there are more characters of differing sexualities and ethnicities in an anime (like Black Lagoon or Hunter x Hunter) than most prime time sitcoms.

A nation whose diversity (at least in terms of residential foreigners) is 1.6% somehow manages to have more diverse character casts than a nation whose entire history is written around diversity.