Thank you Gamewizard for the news tip! It seems that boring, strange, people with too much time on their hands have found the new target for their faux outrage-
Gamewizard02 tipped us off to a report from the esuteru blog, which reported on complaints from westerner’s regarding Bea’s skin tone in her anime appearance for Pokemon Sword and Shield.
A short Kotaku article on the topic began to circulate, the title of the article “Pokemon Anime Accused of Whitewashing“. However, there’s something odd.
The Kotaku article doesn’t really show you the accusations, which given the title you’d expect to be a large part of the report, no? They link to the same esuteru blog I linked to above.
That blog contains…7 complaints…. all under 2 likes…
Was Kotaku just reporting on this to try and get more outrage generated, perhaps?
If so, it worked.
The Kotaku article was posted to the very lame subreddit GamerGhazi. A subreddit where people look for things to complain about, great use of time /s ;
Responses there were…interesting.
/u/ContraryConman’s posts are especially bigoted sounding;
” Light skin as a beauty standard is a feature of Japanese culture, but it overlaps with global attitudes of whiteness and beauty when exported. Saying “but that’s what the Japanese like” also ignores the fact that such a standard is problematic in Japan itself. So overall this is an important conversation to start having”
As if Japan must conform to western culture, because their culture is “problematic”. Very bigoted take.
Twitter user @lastraven1985 pointed out how Bea’s league cards in game display, arguably, lighter skin.
For comparison here are images from her appearance during gym battles;
Whether or not Bea’s design was actually changed ( which it doesn’t seem to be changed, mainly due to the anime animation/lighting being different, and Bea apparently never being POC in canon anyways, simply tan ) the main point here to me is that this argument is just boring and pointless.
The people complaining want their cake and to eat it too.
They are the same types to complain about a character being “lightened” ( even if it’s not true ) but praise works ( animation, cosplay, etc ) when it’s the opposite – when a character is darkened, they praise it.
It’s hypocritical and the bigoted people who attempt to stand on such weak moral high-ground, are often able to be accurately labeled the same buzzwords they like to pin on others.
5 Response Comments
The difference is that one picture of Bea is indoor and another picture is outdoor when outdoors her skin is lighter and indoor its darker because there a roof above the stadium and less light is touching her skin.
Also the spotlight is on her face to that’s why her fave is brighter than usual.
Chances are, it’s just a miscommunication between two completely different art departments, but everyone wants to turn it into a race issue because they’re the great heroes of the universe, fighting against the injustices of…Pokémon. So brave.
Don’t give those evil puritanical regressive motherf**kers K*taku your clicks:
Here’s an archive: https://archive.is/Z3mR9
Saitou (Bea) did nothing wrong and the people who complain about “whitewashing” fictional characters need to get a f**king life or something.