SJW Art and Extremes

[Meowthkip]

It makes me wonder if, deep down, these people want to make their own OCs, but since they don't actually have the talent to do one from scratch they resort to bastardizing something else and calling it representation.

I think they do, but they also know that fanart gets more attention than OCs.

 

[Hummingbird]

The real character image won't show.

 

[TheClorax]

What the hell is wrong with bowser
Why is Dimentio's face melting
View attachment 395829
Luigi looks like a twink

Don’t touch that masterpiece of a game.

 

[toothpick]

I honestly thought the racebending fanart was neat at first. asieybarbie did gorgeous Sailor Moon fanart where they were black, taking into consideration the hairstyles and coloration, and the art was incredibly skilled as well. and the whole thing with black Hermione was a cute and plausible idea, same with indian Harry. but it very very quickly snowballed into "if you don't draw them black and indian you are racist bc that's the only reason you wouldn't adopt this headcanon!!!!" which THEN snowballed into this culture where you have to darken every character and/or make them a POC, and if you don't.... well why the fuck don't you!! you are racist!!!

it's so fucking stupid.

let's not mention that Sailor Moon is a japanese woman; anime plays fast and loose with hair colors so even though she's blue-eyes-blonde-hair she is japanese. she's already a POC. so you're erasing her POCness for a "better" race. sounds racist to me. (IMHO a better exploration would be to draw her with black hair and dark eyes like a "real" japanese person.)

 

[Bani]

I honestly thought the racebending fanart was neat at first. asieybarbie did gorgeous Sailor Moon fanart where they were black, taking into consideration the hairstyles and coloration, and the art was incredibly skilled as well. and the whole thing with black Hermione was a cute and plausible idea, same with indian Harry. but it very very quickly snowballed into "if you don't draw them black and indian you are racist bc that's the only reason you wouldn't adopt this headcanon!!!!" which THEN snowballed into this culture where you have to darken every character and/or make them a POC, and if you don't.... well why the fuck don't you!! you are racist!!!

it's so fucking stupid.

let's not mention that Sailor Moon is a japanese woman; anime plays fast and loose with hair colors so even though she's blue-eyes-blonde-hair she is japanese. she's already a POC. so you're erasing her POCness for a "better" race. sounds racist to me. (IMHO a better exploration would be to draw her with black hair and dark eyes like a "real" japanese person.)

No, it was stupid the moment it was concieved regardless of the quality of the final execution.

Imagine how fucking bizarre it would be if some rando in Japan drew the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a Japanese guy. Tumblr would shit its pants, cry racism, and dox his dog, even though both cultures are "POC" by American standards.

Also, it's a cartoon. There are Japanese characters with blue hair and red eyes, but that doesn't make them any less Japanese. All Might from BNHA is blond with blue eyes, but he's still stated to be Japanese. Giving characters weird hair colors is just an easy way to distinguish character designs and indicate personality traits; it doesn't negate the cultural context and identity of the artwork.

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

I honestly thought the racebending fanart was neat at first. asieybarbie did gorgeous Sailor Moon fanart where they were black, taking into consideration the hairstyles and coloration, and the art was incredibly skilled as well. and the whole thing with black Hermione was a cute and plausible idea, same with indian Harry. but it very very quickly snowballed into "if you don't draw them black and indian you are racist bc that's the only reason you wouldn't adopt this headcanon!!!!" which THEN snowballed into this culture where you have to darken every character and/or make them a POC, and if you don't.... well why the fuck don't you!! you are racist!!!

it's so fucking stupid.

let's not mention that Sailor Moon is a japanese woman; anime plays fast and loose with hair colors so even though she's blue-eyes-blonde-hair she is japanese. she's already a POC. so you're erasing her POCness for a "better" race. sounds racist to me. (IMHO a better exploration would be to draw her with black hair and dark eyes like a "real" japanese person.)

here's Sakura from Naruto drawn to look more Japanese, presumably by an actual Japanese person.

racebending is better when it's not solely for PC cred

 

[Xerxes IX]

No, it was stupid the moment it was concieved regardless of the quality of the final execution.

Imagine how fucking bizarre it would be if some rando in Japan drew the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a Japanese guy. Tumblr would shit its pants, cry racism, and dox his dog, even though both cultures are "POC" by American standards.

Also, it's a cartoon. There are Japanese characters with blue hair and red eyes, but that doesn't make them any less Japanese. All Might from BNHA is blond with blue eyes, but he's still stated to be Japanese. Giving characters weird hair colors is just an easy way to distinguish character designs and indicate personality traits; it doesn't negate the cultural context and identity of the artwork.

Remember that Japanese artist who got shit on for drawing SU fanart where Garnet looked "whitewashed" (which was probably just lighting)? I can bet you his frame of reference for people with light skin is not white people.

 

[Alberto Balsalm]

here's Sakura from Naruto drawn to look more Japanese, presumably by an actual Japanese person.
View attachment 397311


racebending is better when it's not solely for PC cred

This is basically just racebaiting, though. Japanese people make these to troll racial supremacists by comparing average-looking Japanese women with white supermodels. It's generally accepted that anime characters have roots in Japanese ideals of beauty, while also not actively trying to look Japanese, because it's a 98% Japanese country and white people are the exception.

In fact, a bunch of Japanese shows exaggerate features on white people to show that they're white, much like how most American cartoons draw slanted eyes on Asian people.

 

[Bani]

here's Sakura from Naruto drawn to look more Japanese, presumably by an actual Japanese person.
View attachment 397311


racebending is better when it's not solely for PC cred

Why did they pick supermodels for the white girls but randos for the Japanese girls? At least have either both sides be normal girls, or both sides be models. Also, her point is kind of undermined by the fact that she misunderstood a lot of Kishimoto's stylistic choices. Duh- it's manga, of course the character is going to have big eyes/eyelashes and no upper lip.

Just for shits and grins, here's how I would have made her more "realistic" (without deviating from the art style):

Literally all I did was give her a monolid, black eyes, and black hair. Thing is, even the monolid wasn't necessary, because not all Japanese girls have them.

Thing is, now she's not as easily recognizable. She actually looks less annoying with black hair, though, so I guess maybe the reason she had pink hair in the first place is because he wanted to emphasize how annoying she was. There's a lot of overlap between "annoying" and pink hair in anime, but that might just be projection on my part.

Why am I even talking about this. Naruto is sucks either way.

This is basically just racebaiting, though. Japanese people make these to troll racial supremacists by comparing average-looking Japanese women with white supermodels. It's generally accepted that anime characters have roots in Japanese ideals of beauty, while also not actively trying to look Japanese, because it's a 98% Japanese country and white people are the exception.

In fact, a bunch of Japanese shows exaggerate features on white people to show that they're white, much like how most American cartoons draw slanted eyes on Asian people.

I was about to bring up the same thing. Check out how Kohei Horikoshi drew these American (white) cheerleaders.

They all look like Pearl from SU. Ridiculously tall with lidded eyes and huge noses... well then.

 

[Pina Colada]

“Hey, there’s this awesome reference book that explores the concepts of combining different clothi-“
“Impractical dragon armor? Fuck this, I hate it now.”

Spoiler: Not to scale

 

[Hummingbird]

“Hey, there’s this awesome reference book that explores the concepts of combining different clothi-“
“Impractical dragon armor? Fuck this, I hate it now.”

Spoiler: Not to scale

View attachment 397560

Ah, those little harpies. If they're not drooling over scantly clad men, they're being thin-skinned about something.

I honestly thought the racebending fanart was neat at first. asieybarbie did gorgeous Sailor Moon fanart where they were black, taking into consideration the hairstyles and coloration, and the art was incredibly skilled as well. and the whole thing with black Hermione was a cute and plausible idea, same with indian Harry. but it very very quickly snowballed into "if you don't draw them black and indian you are racist bc that's the only reason you wouldn't adopt this headcanon!!!!" which THEN snowballed into this culture where you have to darken every character and/or make them a POC, and if you don't.... well why the fuck don't you!! you are racist!!!

Or they act like their headcanon is the real one and that everyone should acknowledge that.

EDIT:
Here's a redesign from BABD where I like the original more. The white shirt is just a little plain for me.

 

[Hummingbird]

I know this is double-posting, but this had to be shared. The optimist in me believes this modernization of Little Women with the girls as mixed race and one of them will LGBTQIA+ will be well intentioned. The cynic feels like this will be an obnoxious SJW grab. (Amy looks like Steven Universe.) I'm going with either Jo being bisexual/gay or Beth being a tranny.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

I know this is double-posting, but this had to be shared. The optimist in me believes this modernization of Little Women with the girls as mixed race and one of them will LGBTQIA+ will be well intentioned. The cynic feels like this will be an obnoxious SJW grab. (Amy looks like Steven Universe.) I'm going with either Jo being bisexual/gay or Beth being a tranny.

This isn't really the worst thing anyone's wanted to do to the book. Anyone remember how they were going to do a post-apocalyptic version?

 

[Ceiling Kitten]

I know this is double-posting, but this had to be shared. The optimist in me believes this modernization of Little Women with the girls as mixed race and one of them will LGBTQIA+ will be well intentioned. The cynic feels like this will be an obnoxious SJW grab. (Amy looks like Steven Universe.) I'm going with either Jo being bisexual/gay or Beth being a tranny.

An Amy March with any hair color BUT blond is NOT Amy March for me. Period. And Beth looks pretty cute, but blonde!Jo and black!Meg are all made of WTF.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jo as a prospect trans kid or genderspeshul. I remember some morons speculating about Jo being trans years ago on either LJ or Tumblr, and the idea of making a tomboy like her trans just for not liking girly stuff is still deeply annoying to me even after all these years.

 

[Hummingbird]

An Amy March with any hair color BUT blond is NOT Amy March for me. Period. And Beth looks pretty cute, but blonde!Jo and black!Meg are all made of WTF.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jo as a prospect trans kid or genderspeshul. I remember some morons speculating about Jo being trans years ago on either LJ or Tumblr, and the idea of making a tomboy like her trans just for not liking girly stuff is still deeply annoying to me even after all these years.

Any is supposed to be beautiful and while this girl is alright looking, I expect a better design than black, female Steven Universe. I wonder if they'll keep Amy's vanity and desire to marry a rich man. I don't mind mixed-race Amy, as I said, they needed to try harder. Just look up black child beauty pagent contestants and you'll have plenty of inspiration.

I can see Jo being the trans one as well or Meg being a lesbian.

 

[Donovan the Man]

Girls just can't be tomboys anymore, Jesus wept.

You just know Laurie's gonna be half black with a racist grandpa.

 

[Meowthkip]

I honestly thought the racebending fanart was neat at first. asieybarbie did gorgeous Sailor Moon fanart where they were black, taking into consideration the hairstyles and coloration, and the art was incredibly skilled as well. and the whole thing with black Hermione was a cute and plausible idea, same with indian Harry. but it very very quickly snowballed into "if you don't draw them black and indian you are racist bc that's the only reason you wouldn't adopt this headcanon!!!!" which THEN snowballed into this culture where you have to darken every character and/or make them a POC, and if you don't.... well why the fuck don't you!! you are racist!!!

it's so fucking stupid.

let's not mention that Sailor Moon is a japanese woman; anime plays fast and loose with hair colors so even though she's blue-eyes-blonde-hair she is japanese. she's already a POC. so you're erasing her POCness for a "better" race. sounds racist to me. (IMHO a better exploration would be to draw her with black hair and dark eyes like a "real" japanese person.)

It was interesting because it was novel and different and everybody and their grandma wasn't doing it. That happens a lot in art.

Once everybody's doing it, anything that was unique about it is gone, therefore it becomes tired and nobody cares anymore.

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

I know this is double-posting, but this had to be shared. The optimist in me believes this modernization of Little Women with the girls as mixed race and one of them will LGBTQIA+ will be well intentioned. The cynic feels like this will be an obnoxious SJW grab. (Amy looks like Steven Universe.) I'm going with either Jo being bisexual/gay or Beth being a tranny.

are they still supposed to be from massachusetts, if so having three whole black people isn't very realistic

 

[Hummingbird]

are they still supposed to be from massachusetts, if so having three whole black people isn't very realistic

The girls are mixed race (black and white).

 

[Bani]

Diversity politics aside, was there a single human being out there chomping at the bit for a reboot of Little Women?

I respect cartoonish diversity more when it's at least in an original story. Would it have been that challenging to just make the story a new one about a large, biracial family?