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A 16-year-old artist’s fan art reimagining Dandadan protagonists Ken Takakura and Momo Ayase as an African American and a Latina respectively has ignited a significant online debate concerning racial representation and artistic liberties.
The artist, who goes by the name Lynn on X, posted a fan-art in late November 2024. However, it was immediately met with severe criticism, especially from those who claimed they were from Japan.
The controversy created by the artwork:
The sentiment of the criticism was an overwhelming rejection of characters’ ethnicities being changed. What started as a war on X soon reached Japanese forums such as Yaraon and Otakomu, with similar reactions reported there too.
The naysayers contended that while lightening the skin of dark-skinned characters is widely condemned, darkening the skin of Asian characters is often overlooked.
“There are still many racists who believe that changing the race of Japanese characters is not discriminatory. As you can see from the quotes, they say it’s a wonderful picture because it’s not Japanese. If you point this out, you’re called a racist. Their IQ is so low that they don’t even understand what discrimination is,” one user wrote.
Another user who claimed to be from Japan voiced that they were not Disney characters, poking fun at the political correctness that’s aimed by the company.
These responses ended up gaining a lot of traction, with the second one reaching over 50 million users. The artist themselves got a lot of followers following the post in question went viral.
Another perspective:
While much of the backlash against Lynn’s Dandadan fan art centered on the racial reimagining of Asian characters, there were others who offered a different critique.
These users pointed out that reimagining existing characters as Black, rather than promoting original Black characters, does a disservice to meaningful representation.
Some argued that efforts should focus on elevating characters like Yoruichi& Tosen (Bleach), Nessa (Pokémon), Dutch (Black Lagoon) and Mohammed Avdol (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure), who are already beloved within the anime and manga community.
Others suggested that creating new and authentic Black characters or stories is a more impactful and valuable approach in the long term. Instead of altering established characters, they advocate for original narratives.
The backlash eventually made the artist go private on Dec 7, 2024. However, they returned to the platform within a day brushing off the criticism.
While a certain section of the online community were against Lynn’s fanart, there were a lot of others who were also supportive of what the user had created.
They not only praised the fanart, but some even decided to keep it as their profile picture in order to show their support.
The ‘whitewashing’ vs ‘blackwashing’ debate:
The anime and manga industry has faced ongoing debates over racial representation, particularly concerning the practices of ‘blackwashing’ and ‘whitewashing’—terms used to describe altering a character’s race from its original depiction.
A prominent example is the controversy surrounding Usopp and Robin from One Piece anime. Both these characters had darker skin tones in the anime when it started airing.
However, their tones were changed down the line, particularly after the series’ time skip.
The inconsistencies in depicting these characters had prompted fans to question the industry’s commitment to authentic representation.
And in this case, the frustrated netizens were arguing that just as whitewashing is criticized for erasing original racial identities, ‘blackwashing’—reimagining non-Black characters as Black—should be scrutinized similarly.
Animanga and the issue of representation:
Japan’s approach to racial representation in media often differs from Western expectations.
Veteran animator Terumi Nishii, known for work on series like Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, had, in the past, expressed frustration with demands for political correctness in anime production.
Terumi recounted an incident where an overseas client requested that Black characters be given defined noses to distinguish them from others, which she argued would disrupt the visual balance and consistency of the series.
She noted that the Japanese method of indicating race through simple brown skin tones does not align with overseas expectations of realism, emphasizing that Japanese animation traditionally doesn’t prioritize racial representation.
Its not just who had spoken out against political correctness. Vinland Saga editor Akira Kanai too had rejected in when it came to storytelling.
Despite these challenges, there has been a gradual increase in Black representation within anime.
Recent examples include anime like Carole & Tuesday and Fire Force, that have introduced well-developed Black characters, reflecting a positive shift towards inclusivity.
But then, like Kanai pointed out, forced inclusivity is not something that creators and staff members appreciate. He had questioned the notion of creating content that aims to balance between local and global appeal, suggesting that such an approach might not be effective.
Given how badly manga and anime have depicted blacks in the past — Dutch from Black Lagoon was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the minstrel-level depictions I’ve seen from the 80’s and 90’s especially (but not only) since I dove back into both forms a couple of years ago (I’m about 12 books into One Piece and IMO Usopp’s visual design is problematic) — it seems to me that animators and manga-ka could use a reminder that they need to keep doing better, keep following in the footsteps of the creators who get it right.
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Also, the otakus in Japan should unclench because this art shows how DanDaDan could be localized for adaptations (not translations) in the US, UK and other ethnically diverse nations.
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Or they could just look at them as versions of the characters from an alternate universe. I mean, there are *two* major black Supermans in the DC Multiverse, President Superman of Justice League Incarnate and Val-Zod of the reboot of Earth-2. If a DanDaDan Multiverse exists, thesetwo are definitely a part of it.
Given how badly manga and anime have depicted blacks in the past — Dutch from Black Lagoon was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the minstrel-level depictions I’ve seen from the 80’s and 90’s especially (but not only) since I dove back into both forms a couple of years ago (I’m about 12 books into One Piece and IMO Usopp’s visual design is problematic) — it seems to me that animators and manga-ka could use a reminder that they need to keep doing better, keep following in the footsteps of the creators who get it right.
.
Also, the otakus in Japan should unclench because this art shows how DanDaDan could be localized for adaptations (not translations) in the US, UK and other ethnically diverse nations.
.
Or they could just look at them as versions of the characters from an alternate universe. I mean, there are *two* major black Supermans in the DC Multiverse, President Superman of Justice League Incarnate and Val-Zod of the reboot of Earth-2. If a DanDaDan Multiverse exists, thesetwo are definitely a part of it.
A few stray threads regarding not only what’s being discussed around the issues at hand but what I feel is some bias in the writing. First off, Japan is a predominately homogeneous country demographic wise, but there are not only darkskinned ethnicities there, but also actual black people from different backgrounds and biracial darkskinned japanese people who live there. The japanese social media user calling other people low IQ which reads as denigrating mostly black people for having the audacity to make or support black alternative versions of white-passing characters is insipid conjecture and shows a lack of any actual consciousness of socio-economical matters outside of whatever they see on social media and their own little social bubbles. They understand up to a point until it’s intolerable for them.
Second, there are no such things as blackwashing or forced inclustivity when originally black people, particularly US Black Americans had little to no agency with anything pertaining to their existence when colonialism and imperialism began to be on the rise even after oppressive institutions like slavery where disposed of and had to literally fight tooth and nail to gain even a marginal footprint in society especially in regards of animation and videogames. In the past, my people were regularly told if we didn’t like the lack of representation let alone positive ones, we should “create our own characters, create own media.” Now that many of us are older and even have the means to do just that, suddenly diversity is being forced onto others, and yet you don’t see this level of hostility with eurocentric media and ideals being forced on everyone because that’s somehow more acceptable as the default, but not with acknowledging that the world is full of other people who would like to be seen.
Validating arguments against seeing even a minuscule of variation in the homogeneous media in the world as bigger issues than what they are is counterproductive to any meaningful change let alone minimizing efforts by not only Black US citizens, but also non-white and marginalized groups of people. No one is taking away existing characters if fan art or an alternate version of a paler character is created. It is a literal drop in the bucket compared to the sea of whiteness society as a whole has had to regularly deal with.
A few stray threads regarding not only what’s being discussed around the issues at hand but what I feel is some bias in the writing. First off, Japan is a predominately homogeneous country demographic wise, but there are not only darkskinned ethnicities there, but also actual black people from different backgrounds and biracial darkskinned japanese people who live there. The japanese social media user calling other people low IQ which reads as denigrating mostly black people for having the audacity to make or support black alternative versions of white-passing characters is insipid conjecture and shows a lack of any actual consciousness of socio-economical matters outside of whatever they see on social media and their own little social bubbles. They understand up to a point until it’s intolerable for them.
Second, there are no such things as blackwashing or forced inclustivity when originally black people, particularly US Black Americans had little to no agency with anything pertaining to their existence when colonialism and imperialism began to be on the rise even after oppressive institutions like slavery where disposed of and had to literally fight tooth and nail to gain even a marginal footprint in society especially in regards of animation and videogames. In the past, my people were regularly told if we didn’t like the lack of representation let alone positive ones, we should “create our own characters, create own media.” Now that many of us are older and even have the means to do just that, suddenly diversity is being forced onto others, and yet you don’t see this level of hostility with eurocentric media and ideals being forced on everyone because that’s somehow more acceptable as the default, but not with acknowledging that the world is full of other people who would like to be seen.
Validating arguments against seeing even a minuscule of variation in the homogeneous media in the world as bigger issues than what they are is counterproductive to any meaningful change let alone minimizing efforts by not only Black US citizens, but also non-white and marginalized groups of people. No one is taking away existing characters if fan art or an alternate version of a paler character is created. It is a literal drop in the bucket compared to the sea of whiteness society as a whole has had to regularly deal with.