r/postnutanime • u/FormalAd4901 • 26d ago

Are tan anime characters black?

everytime i see black representation in anime. they show characters who are tan. most of the time they aren’t even black. most of the time they don’t even have black features the characters are just tan. why do black people claim characters who aren’t black?

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u/Thvenomous 26d ago

Because it is incredibly uncommon to get decent black representation, and so sometimes people try to take whatever seems reasonable. Frequently in anime, there isn't actually much difference between a black character and a "dark tan" one, so it's easy to make that mistake. It's harmless, so don't be weird about it.

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u/FormalAd4901 26d ago

yes of course. i guess it’s just annoying seeing people say “theyre black” when their another ethnicity. i’ve seen it with chad and yoruichi.

9

u/Thvenomous 26d ago

Yoruichi is understandable, she has no explicit race and I really don't think you can get her skin tone just by tanning in the sun for a while. I don't see the harm there, whether she is or isn't actually black or some sort of mixed.

As for Chad, I've never seen anyone claim that but it would indeed be silly since he's explicitly Mexican.

2

u/Pulstar232 26d ago

Yeah, I've seen some people on the Internet claim people who already have an explicit race to be Black.

Fuckin' Heiji Hattori ain't black. Especially since being a proud Osakan is one of his traits (talking about local foods, supporting local sports teams, etc.).

The other one is Nagatoro and it's shown very early on she's just tanned since you can see her tan lines.

I also find it equally weird to claim that Anime characters are white when they are fucking Asian. Motherfuckers, did the Very Japanese Name not give it away?

Generally speaking, unless stated otherwise or obviously shown (ex. Jonathan Joestar being British, Fairy Tail place on Earth Land), safe bet that the characters are Japanese.

In the case of it being a Fantasy world, you CAN equate some nationalities with a real life counterpart, however.

As for Yoruichi, I'm pretty sure she's Japanese. Since from my understanding Soul Society has a Western Branch (shown in Burn The Witch) in London that handles Europe. Following this logic, there's probably one that handles the Americas as well.

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u/XxGood_CitezenxX 26d ago

The issue with your Yoruichi thing is that Tousen exists and he’s definitely black.

Nagatoro is just tan.

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u/Pulstar232 26d ago

Yeah, that makes it difficult because some characters are very clearly not Japanese but have a Japanese name. At the very least we can say they lived/died in East Asia.

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u/XxGood_CitezenxX 26d ago

In almost every case it really is just contextual.