"Whitewashing" Sailor Moon Controversy
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- čas přidán 15. 04. 2021
- Today I'm participating in the DTIYS Sailor Moon Redraw Challenge while also trying to cover a somewhat controversial topic.
Long story short, stop trying to bend and shape what is into what you think it should be. Try to appreciate what it is, as it is and all the good that it has done.
My friend Artfinitii: (who did the challenge with me)
• Don't feel bad Drawing...
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Bounding Into Comics: (The article that my friend found)
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The amazing Silverjow: (Beautiful artwork omg)
/ silverjow_art
silverjow?...
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Watercolors
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It's weird anime characters are created to look like simplified Asian characters and are drawn in a way to be easily animated and redrawn for Manga. I think it mostly people don't actually research any of these things and just get to easily offended because things are what they want. Also you can tell when they draw foreign or American characters. Oh! Also twitter is toxic I don't go there unless I hear about the bog.
When it comes to them drawing foreign characters it really depends on the series and the characters role in said series. It really goes both ways from what I have seen. A foreign character with a smaller role or comedic etc may have exaggerated features... But if said character is part of the main cast, there may be nothing in the design that differentiates them from any other character.
depending on the series the names of the characters will help distinguish the character's origin. ( I wasn't sure where to leave this comment )
I’ve seen this too often with the dtiys hashtag. They want you to do this in your style (which in my books means recreating into YOUR interpretation) but then the internet spews negativity and throws a hoard of comments saying they should be ashamed or offended for changing skin color & ethnicity. It. Does. Not. Make. Sense. This thing can fall into a rabbit hole. .. 🤦🏻♀️
Sailor Moon is an alien, argument invalid.
But seriously; most anime characters have big eyes for expression, Moon was originally gonna have silver hair but Naoko worried it might make her look too old, and blue eyes match her colors.
I didn’t even know there was a “controversy” about sailor moon. As an animator, I just want to say (full disclosure) that for animation purposes certain characters have to be colored in a way that might make their skin look lighter than normal. Whereas the manga is different. Manga is drawn in black and white 99 percent of the time. I don’t think artists intend to have a racist connotation when making these characters into something that fits them. So therefore, I don’t think anyone has done anything wrong. People are just so easily triggered by everything these days. Hope all is well with ya Lemi!
Agreed! And with black and white, shading can have people be silly too. A manga I was hoping would get a English adaptation had a character with tan skin. The darker shading made people think she was darker skinned or something, they called her chocolate. So when the story had her "blessed" by a light spirit and she lost her shaded skin it threw everyone into a tizzy. I'm gonna say it was partly bad timing but seriously there was a story element that needed the change to show how stupid those around her were being. Ultimately the author gave in but I'm really not okay with that.
I feel unless the mangaka states an anime character is Caucasian then they aren’t that race. Most of the time the anime state when they have a Caucasian person in the show by saying their from America which is their go to place to say lol. Sadly they do give them Blonde hair and blue eyes so I can see some would think she is Caucasian if they never watched it.
However; the challenge was to make a redraw of Sailor Moon an Asian character. I’ve seen people make her black, Indian, a man, etc but when someone makes she look realistically asian it’s a problem .? The fact people got mad at him rubbed my the wrong way because Sailor Moon is Asian. I haven’t seen anywhere were it said she wasn’t Asian. What made me even more bothered him saying he based it off his sister and having to defend his art because Twitter people acted odd.
Totally agree with you.. Japanese cartoon in anime or manga are japanese unless are stated as other race by the creator.
I personally remember it staring when a bunch of people(article included) said it was the only way someone should redraw it, and anyone who redrew her to look "white" was racist. Then there was a bunch of push back from that, which is where people criticizing it being too asian came from.
I remember the artist making a statement saying his intention was never to imply Sailor Moon should look like that, and he didn't want to be praised for it or otherwise. It was just a fun thing he did.
But the thing is though, she does look japanese, she's just extremely cartoonized. Americans expect very specific things when they look for a character to have the features of a certain ethnicity, and when they just look at waiting big eyes and small nose that points out, they assume the person's white. In fact, something that Japanese animators did in the 50s, after world war ii, was the purposefully try to make the characters as stateless as possible, to make them relatable to people from around the world, to combat the awful stereotyping especially in the west that went the other direction, overly accentuating facial features to be a racist caricature. Things have shifted since then, and around the 60s and specially the '80s and '90s, anime started to show Japanese characters more and more looking Japanese but yet cartoonized at the same time, a perfect balance. Nowadays, if somebody is intuitive enough, they can tell the difference between the different ethnicities of the characters, although if they are an sjw american, all they're going to see is white, because they've seen way too many propaganda posters I guess
By the way, I myself am a politically correct manga artist, I do try to accentuate certain features, but I've had people tell me, that they couldn't tell my characters were Japanese, and sometimes assume that they were white women, when they were in fact Japanese men, with facial hair! I don't know how you can freaking miss stubble! Anyway, I based it off of the actual entropological studies and studied people's faces in order to get it this accurate, and for the most part, I'm doing it for those in America who need to see a beautified representation of people of Asian descent, because for so long, either they are actually legitimately white washed, or just straight up misrepresented and or straight-up controversial.
Always twitter
It sucks that people did that. His drawing was beautiful. People always have to find a reason to be mad at something. Also, your rendition of sailor moon looks awesome as well!
This was such an engaging and thoughtful discussion. I'm in agreement with your viewpoints. I missed the controversy but it does seem odd that many people don't seem to understand that Sailor Moon's creator is Japanese. And why people would even think to criticise SilverJow's beautiful artwork is beyond me. It's especially cringe since, as you pointed out, he was using his little sister as a reference (and likely to hopefully inspire her by turning her into a magical moon goddess).
I also wanted to say that I am so impressed by your painting style these days. Your foundation washes and bold strokes with flat brush work are so well considered and a joy to watch. You seem to really have deepened your grasp of shadows and light, and you are really able to play into the soft dynamics and slightly chaotic nature of watercolours. It is a joy to watch you tighten up the piece in your final layers to create something really impactful. Rad stuff.
We can't even draw pretty pics, without ppl trippin.🤦🏾♀ If u don't have anything nice to say, dont say it at all, u know
Y’all know other races can have white skin or blue eyes too right...
No, actual race doesn't even exist. We are just different breeds of one species just like dogs.
Sailor Moon is an alien. So race shouldn't even be an issue here to begin with.
He’s actually had another minor controversy on Twitter and he handled it amazingly. There was someone who quite obviously had looked through his gallery and asked why he only drew “white” characters and never any black ones, and they seemed to have completely missed his whole campaign of “Black Beauty” which he did not even a few months prior. He responded basically turning it back on the person, politely of course, and stating that “I can’t help you with your insecurities if the only type of body you see as hot is white” or something like that. Either, it was nice to see that he didn’t just bend to the whims of some randy on the internet
Pls come back, we miss u
@@HitlerLovesAnimeI really don’t know she just went missing
I agree to a degree. The original art for the series doesn't look like the anime art (anime looks more "traditional" anime; the eyes are wider compared to the manga where Naoko's art has narrower eyes). The thing about manga and anime that so many (usually white) people forget is that 99% of the time (unless it is explicitly said to take place in another country and have characters of a certain race) the characters are always Japanese despite having "white" features. The general way that white/European races are depicted in manga/anime is VERY different from the way main characters who are Japanese are depicted. So I personally feel that anyone specifically saying that the original anime whitewashed the characters too much is just still of the mindset that anime traits = white traits when that's not actually the case. For everyone mad that she looked more like a realistic Asian person (which she is meant to be) versus her original stylized design (which again, despite the "white" large eyes and stuff, is how Japanese characters are pretty much always depicted), they're just crazy. I'm sorry but come on. The character is Japanese regardless of features (hair color, eye size/color, etc) so being upset she looks more realistically Japanese is just 😐.
I feel like the subject of whitewashing and anime is way too big and complex of a conversation for Twitter. There’s a lot of history and culture difference mixed together that run very deep.
i've always loved seeing different artist's ways of drawing popular characters, especially when theyre drawn to reflect the artists own culture/background. i think it marks the success of that character to connect to so many people :>
The drawing turned out super cute lemi! The discussion was super interesting. Really makes you think! It just gets tough because everyone has their own personal interpretation of how something is, but the internet makes everyone's opinions visible. So you get to see how people miss the point... and it can be frustrating.
Twitter is not a good platform for having a civil discussion and the fact the artist that got backlash simply for drawing Sailor Moon in a more realistic interpretation (both race and art style wise) that was meant for an art challenge to interpret the character however they wanted to just shows how stupid this was to begin with. What drives me even more crazy is the fact that the person who said the artist in question shouldn't have done it was essentially saying that he shouldn't ever have posted his artwork in order to not offend anyone, which is straight up censorship. The people on both sides are wrong, especially when you consider the fact that Usagi is an alien who happens to have been reborn on Earth as a Japanese girl. As soon as you've mentioned that he based his artwork off of his little sister, I can't help but feel more sympathy for him and all of the people who got angry over this should be ashamed of themselves and they most certainly owe him an apology.
Okay but whoever thinks they're supporting asian people by saying an anime character looks too white because her eyes are too big, like bruh that's just. Kinda fucked up when you think about it for longer than 15 seconds. This is a case where mostly white people are complaining about how asian people draw their own people because they don't have the stereotype of small eyes. You know, the stereotype that racists often use to make fun of them.
I can get the argument if you're saying that people are redrawing the characters too white if they're using a more realistic style, but the original design? Maybe calm down???
Since I ranted in my first comment, I thought I leave one about how pretty I think your drawing is :3
I first was a bit worried that it wouldn't turn out well becouse it looked kinda "muddy" and unclear, but I'm really happy that it turned out so pretty in the end! ^^
I did the same thing 🤣! The drawing is spectacular as always!
LOL Omigosh! That's so funny, because I was so concerned about the muddiness also! Around the 2 minute and 53 second mark especially. XD
About the other comment, I always wondered how these things appear to others around the world. Thank you for taking the time to write an interesting perspective.
When I watch a anime or I read a manga I almost always assume the character is meant to be japanese because it is set in japan and they have japanese names. Unless it is stated otherwise like it is in attack on titan. That manga makes a point that misaka is one of the few Asian characters. She is mixed race. Same applies for Jotaro he is also mixed race.
Lemi! It's me, Libra! My old channel kinda got lost but oh well xD Loved that little mention of Cardcaptor Sakura
draw asian character, get called racist for stereotyping
draw a cartoon, get called racist for whitewashing
no matter what you do some idiot will call it racist anyways.
it's weird how everyone is taking this fun challenge and making it about things other than the art. It doesn't matter if they're depicted as Asian or black (we love the representation) but at the same time it's just something fun to do. And if people are sooooo upset about them being a specific race then they can draw their own depiction of it
Good video. Didn't know this happened, doesn't come as a surprise considering twitter. But it's rlly sad. Agree with you. Always nice to listen to your videos. Your voice is soothing in some way. Love your version of the challenge!
The art is lovely as always, that's my gurl Lemi for ya, and the topic is relevant and the discussion argues great points 👍 you are amazing hunni ❤
I remember hearing the controversy about the challenge when it first came out, it was like these whackadoos that were criticizing the challenge have never watched any anime, and in regards to SilverJow's art there seems all last year and this ear that a lot of Asian artists are genuinely getting attacked to the point where Asian artists, especially Japanese ones are actively being told to keep an eye out for the people attacking their art and pointing out certain indicators in bios on accounts.
The remake version that you did on this looks great I really liked how you painted this with watercolor I want to see more art videos like you so I can get better like you
I remember when I was first watching Sailor Moon I thought she was white but I realized it was set in Japan; I just figured her parents were diplomats or something. As I learned more about manga and anime, I realized it was just the style of art. I think it's a normal reaction to anything that may be ambiguous in terms of race (especially if you don't know much about the culture); people tend to assume that characters with ambiguous race are whatever their default character is. Sometimes that happens even with characters who are described clearly as being a particular race (see: Rue in The Hunger Games). That definitely doesn't make it okay, and it's actually something we need to be careful of so that we don't fall into that way of thinking so easily.
Love your rendition of this image. So beautiful.
Wow that came out STUNNING
My gosh thank you for talking about this👏👏👏
Anime characters aren’t foreigners unless they’re stated to be. You can tell which ones are foreign characters. You went in harder on people thinking she was white washed but softer on the ones claiming she was white. Call it what it is. Racist. It’s prevalent in the art community and needs to be addressed. This was an asian man drawing an asian character who was bullied for it because a character created by a JAPANESE person looked “too asian” to white fans. And the comments about the eyes being large- there’s a name for that. It’s called racial stereotyping. People only cry “why make it about race” when it’s not in favor of white people which is what I hate the most about the art community.
Great points in this video! I also would like to point out that the profiling issue is pretty well known in the mixed race community. I can't speak on those with Asian/white ancestry (I'm north African/white myself) but it's not uncommon to feel that you don't look enough like either group. But my point is, there is no one way for anyone of any group to look like. There is so much visual diversity in these groups and we shouldn't ignore that.
Awww Mama Lemi I really loved your new animation intro it’s so cute. 🥰 🥺
Yup, it's another example of when the toxic side of the internet ruins something that's meant to be fun and a tribute to a beloved series and turns it into a problem that never existed before. It was a shame how the artist was treated after he just wanted to join in and have his sister be the inspiration. I remember hearing about all this when it happened at the time, so I thought this video was an update about the controversy that I wasn't aware of. Thankfully that wasn't the case!
You may be late on the topic and participating in challenge, but I like your interpretation of Sailor Moon done in your style and agree with what you said.
Look nice and beautiful 🤗🌻🌷👍!
Great work 🤗 my dear friend!
But anime/manga isn’t very realistic all the time (big eyes and extreme features) though it can always go either way, but the artist has a semi realistic style that they were drawing in, so sailor moons not gonna have the same proportions as an anime and it makes sense that she has those proportions in his portrait in my opinion
She’s a fictional character bro 😭
This is wild, didnt know people had this type of mindset towards sailor moom.
(edit) your rendition of sailor moon is awesome.
It’s interesting that people like to criticize about anime character’s eyes because in reality, they are based off of Disney’s Bambi.
Japanese people loved Bambi’s eyes and that’s literally why anime characters have their huge eyes.
I don’t mind the huge eyes because of the expressions that they can clearly show, versus actual human sized eyes, which sometimes you can’t clearly see what the person is doing with their eyes, like rolling them.
5:04
Don't worry, it's not politically incorrect to just straight up say that this drawing looks more realistically / explicitly Japanese, because it's true! The original one does too, but the artist was trying to make her look life like, not stylized. So, in other words, it would have been okay to just straight up say she looks
It's so crazy that people on the internet are really tryna tell asian people how to stylize *their own race.* So put it this way, if you were to draw yourself as a stick figure, how would you draw your face? Two dots and a line? Now is that what you look like?
People need to just leave at, "draw this in your style" If anyone tells you from there that is is too much X or not enough Y, skip them. It is in "Your style."
the whole thing was blown out of proportion, the point of the challenge was to draw her in your own style, not everyone is going to agree/like the way you draw something. i think people were projecting their own bias thoughts onto the piece of art
You are gone here again…i hope you are doing ok! 🙂
I'm okay! Thank you so much for the concern! Just extremely poor luck! I had to move a few times and ended up hurting my arm/drawing hand. I am alright, but also unpacking (again omg!) so... when I get a desk...to actually put a computer on...LOL One day I will be back. I swear. :)
@@LemiaCrescent really glad to hear you're doing ok
@@JassyReni Aww, you too!
@@LemiaCrescent Hope you are healthy and safe Lemi may this new year bring you good fortune
This is the same crowd who wants to fix everyone into a box, while screaming "I don't want to be put into a box."
Bruh, if you're doing it right now that means I should do it too cause I didn't do a redraw when the meme was happening. And I was there when the juice was being made.
My Childhood❤
Anyone who says that Sailor Moon as she appears in the original manga and anime is supposed to be white, just doesn't understand anime.... like at all...
why u r not uploading vids. hope u r fine & still alive.😶🤐😑
Lovely picture
Btw Creators, Is a husband and wife creation. the husband is the creator of yu yu hakusho.
There’s so much hate on the internet now a days for some reason
HEY LEMI I AM SOON GOING TO UPLOAD A VIDEO WHERE I MAKE FANART FOR YOU ON MY CHANNEL.
I wonder if the majority of people who complain about stuff like this is just jealous of the artwork.
So basically, two opposing sides were getting mad over their equally stupid takes.
A pox on both your houses.
So you just came back like you didn't disappear 🤔 tf where have you been?
First video I made when I came back was about my disappearance. I would have been super weirded out coming back and pretending like I didn't go missing for a year. I don't appreciate when other people do it, so I wouldn't do it myself. How have you been? :)
@@LemiaCrescent Good, I'm glad your back. I didn't know you posted before this. I guess I'll catch up on your other videos 😆
I'm glad you're doing well! Also happy to be back, I've missed everyone. :)
Idk. I feel all of the cosplays and realistic drawings of Sailor Moon, and for that matter Sailor Venus look more comparable to the ones that are white. Maybe because (contrary to some of your arguments) they naturally have those features. I fully acknowledge that the artist probably made them all japanese, but differentiated with hair color/style, and uniform. Doesn't change the aesthetic though. Also, to the artist you referred to: if you think something is not worth doing due to controversy, I highly suggest growing balls and do it anyways. Maybe grow the on your head so you can look like Sailor Moon. 👺
When I got into anime my sister recommend Sailor Moon to me and I thought Sailor Moon was a white girl from America at first until I read and that she’s a young Asian magical girl who’s trying to balance magic in school life.I wanna know if anybody else felt like that when they first watch sailor moon because a lot of the old anime did not look like Asian girls
I wish people would just stop making everything about race
It is just a character, it doesn't exist in the real world.
Real world issues should not be applied to things, if those things aren't directly about that issue.
Everyone has their battles in the current world we live in, no need to forcefully bring your fight to places where it does not belong.
As long as the characters aren't racist or as long as the story isn't about race discrimition I see no point on doing this. But we all know most of the times the people doing these types of call outs are just trying to a Knight on the internet and fight for a cause that isn't theirs and if they actually need to step out of their mother's basement to fight for racism or any other REAL issue they won't do it.
Racism and representation ARE “real issues”... tf?
Yes they are real issues! Never claimed they were not
This is old, but when drawing sailor moon or any anime character, you’re not obligate to draw them with thin eyes when realistic nor are you obligated to draw her with wide eyes. Both are correct, she is Asian but her stylized look has wide eyes. Sailor moon isn’t white washed lmao and nor does she have to be drawn with thin eyes, she’s anime lol, draw her however you want. It’s not that deep lol, leave people alone if it’s not a caricature or an attack on anybody
I thought she was white? I mean she doesn't look asian and neither do most of the other characters and just because someone japanese made her doesn't mean they can only draw asians. Allot of japanese creators actually say they get inspiration from western fashion. Either way it's a cartoon.
That’s just your own projection honestly. Blonde hair or not, see looks Japanese enough to be called one.
@@trystennishioka7880 you mean she dyes her hair and wears lenses?
Anime was originally heavily influenced by Disney, with conscious intention to look more western...but the issue is less about what the style should or should not represent, and moreso that people feel entitled to impose their own interpretations without having done due diligence. Japan has a very complicated history with westernization, especially post WW2 and U.S. occupation, and there are layers upon layers of problematic actions leading to even more problematic consequences. In a nutshell, yes the controversy is pointless because the assignment was to take creative license. But no one gets to speak on behalf of the creators, period. And just because Sailormoon's creator was Japanese herself, it does not mean that her characters are automatically also Japanese. That logic doesn't add up. The ultimate irony being that the whole point of this discourse was to respect artistic license, and yet everyone talks as if they have any actual authority on who intended what and why. All with little to no actual understanding of the history, culture, and origins of anime, specifically within the context of Japan. Absolutely baffling.
Can we stop accusing people of whitewashing without a good reason? Making a piece with the skin tone a few shades lighter isn't whitewashing.
And low key, we gotta stop blackwashing characters and treating is better or the "fixed version".... I like to see different realities of characters, but I don't think people should treat as better... I think is a disrespect to the artist. Instead of doing 1000 fanarts of a black washed version of the character why not give more love to ACTUAL poc characters in anime and more importantly in our industry?