Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "The Double Standards of Cosplay | Been Here" video.

  1. I dunno how things are where you live and in your environment, but I have to say that where I live and the conventions and groups I used to be a part of when it comes to anime, cosplay and this side of fandom... one of the things that attracted me to the whole thing was all about acceptance. Obviously, prejudice and racism is everywhere you go no matter how forward thinking people are, but the specific conventions that I used to go, one of the aspects that always brought me back was inclusivity... not only around skin color, but also gender, people with disabilities, wide age range, no niche tastes or interests excluded. You be you, we´re all here because of the shared interests. Which is something a bit weird if you think about it... fandom often times tends to be exclusive rather than inclusive. But I think it has a lot to do with the messaging of most mainstream anime titles. The only thing I have to unfortunately disagree with a bit on the interviews and whatnot, is the bit about authors knowing about their audience... I might be wrong about this, but afaik, the absollute vast majority of anime and manga to this day is done mostly from a japanese exclusive point of view, targetting a japanese audience mainly. And more than that, it might be what made it explode in popularity in the first place. The lack of representation does not come from a discriminatory standpoint, but mostly from an ignorance standpoint. Japan is still something like 98.something per cent japanese people. Number of immigrants grew up in recent years, but the numbers are still... world record lows. Not sure if theres any other country in the world with least diversity in the population. Japan remains a country that is mostly uniform, and the majority of people there will experience a life where they only meet and get in contact with japanese people. So the reality of it is, apart from very few manga and anime authors, they just don´t know enough about black history, other cultures, and pretty much anything outside Japan. What they do know comes heavily filtered by international media coverage and cultural products, which is exactly the same way we consume japanese culture - it´s heavily distorted, superficial, clickbaity and warped. People are gonna say that there are animes with foreign country themes, trying to portray other cultures, and whatnot - particularly european countries... but if you pay real good attention to it, you´ll know it´s a portrayal of another culture as shown in japanese mainstream news or subconscious - it´s not really all that representative, as perhaps the idea japanese people have of another country, superficially, in a heavily romanticized manner. Now, here´s the dilemma on all of this. For me, a 3rd gen japanese descendant born in the other side of the planet to Japan, the whole reason I became an anime fan had nothing to do with my ancestors origins, but because anime is produced with such an unique perspective on things. It´s kind of a cultural perspective and portrayal that is unique to it´s own situation. It´s part naive part disconnected from all the regular western problems and history, which might at times come off as ignorant and non representative, sometimes outdated, sexist, problematic and whatnot, but also sometimes more focused, following a different set of rules and constraints, less related to the barrage of sensitive topics western authors have to constantly worry about. It cannot escape the outlook of fans and cosplayers that, most mainstream titles they love and are fans of, do often times display a degree of ignorance around gender portrayal, roles and whatnot. And yes, most mainstream anime titles are made by male authors targetting young male demographic, that remains true. But perhaps the richness in manga and increasingly in anime is that you can shop around for an incredibly high diversity of standpoints and outlooks. There are manga and anime targeted for young male audiences, yes, but also young female, adult female, and a whole bunch of other audiences, in all sorts of genres and subjects. I don´t personally think inclusivity is a bad thing per se in anime and manga, but I also don´t think it should be forced. Number one, because I don´t think it´s right to demand japanese authors to write about something they don´t really know, understand, or that has been part of their culture and history - nor it´s really desirable. I really don´t think it´s the right way to go. Anime and manga will overtime become more inclusive as Japan becomes are more culturally diverse country. Number two, because if I´m honest about it, that´s not really what I´m looking for in anime all in all. I mean, it´s great if anime can have a messaging of acceptance and against prejudice overall, but in a way, I think this type of messaging is already there - it doesn´t really need to become more explicit or specific about it. Weird as it may sound, the absolute vast majority of anime don´t come off to me as character designs being representative of real people. They are more like abstractions. What I see represented are feelings and ideals. Moral concepts, ways of living, personality traits, story. If you think about it, for the vast majority of characters in anime, there is a representation that is often lacking looks wise - that of japanese people themselves. There are exceptions of course, but in general, you really don´t see a whole lot of specific japanese looks in anime, and when you do, it´s treated differently as to "regular characters". This is no coincidence, it´s because anime and manga authors are not thinking about representation in characters through looks most of the times. Looks are abstracted on purpose. They are also not aiming at caucasian, white people, etc - as some people often mistake it to be. It´s more like an absolute abstraction - anime characters look like anime characters, any character that reflects a specific culture, skin color, or whatever is treated as different or special in the stories. People often get into fights and discussions about this, but to me it has a pretty straightforward explanation - anime characters, unless explicitted, are not made to look like any specific group of people, nationality, race, skin color, etc. Looks are generally abstracted. You have general tropes, standards, but that´s mostly it. Reason why you have a bunch of anime where characters all kinda look the same - wide eyed, huge head, samey look, or that you sometimes have animes where it seems characters are as unrealistic or physically impossible as they might be. Super deformed characters, anime that have sketchy look art, etc. Because looks are treated as secondary, what is important is personality and other traits that comes through from that - the internal monologues, the way they react to the situation, etc. And so, comes a personal opinion that is sometimes at odds to other anime and manga fans. I really don´t want anime and manga stories to become more like Hollywood, more like american TV series and dramas, more westernized, more worried with representation, more this or that. I want them to keep being a different thing. A product of japanese culture, not a westernized or artificially inclusive thing. And I know a whole ton of peole will disagree with me, but that´s fine, it´s just a personal opinion. And do understand, I´m saying this as an anime and manga fan that has been consuming both for around 20 years now... the number of animes and mangas I´ve watched are on the thousands. I became a fan pretty late in life actually, when I was around 19... and never stopped apart from a few burn out years. xD And yes, after a while it gets very samey looking, with lots of tropes and plot devices that do get tiring after a while, honestly. Which is not all that different to several other mediums, including Hollywood movies, TV series, western comics, and whatnot, which I´m also a fan of. But this doesn´t mean I want it to change. I want those anime characteristics to still be there for other generations to enjoy. It´s a different perspective on things. A very important thing anime and manga has to offer is an outlook that comes from a different culture and perspective. Reason why I treat manga differently than I do manwa, manhua, and other variations (south korean origins, chinese origins, etc). They have different backgrounds and comes from different cultures even when they are trying to copy japanese manga. I could go on and on about this, but you know. Anyways, back on topic, cosplayers of the world, do not feel intimidated to portray your favorite characters, and your skin color, nationality, backgrounds and whatnot shouldn´t matter. Critics, racists, sexists and assholes are everywhere, but do know that there is a large portion of anime, manga and cosplay fans that do not discriminate - we share the same fandom, and there´s nothing wrong with that.
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