AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Occidentalism in Isekai and how efforts are being made to diversify the genre

Nymene · 2022-12-20, 21:38

So I noticed that Japanese people in general have quite the stereotyped image of "the West", especially concerning Medieval Europe, and one of their stereotypes is the myth of a purely "All-White Medieval Europe" which is not the case at all in real life history.

For you see, in Isekai there are indeed dark-skin characters, but 90% of the time they're demihumans or beastmen.

This is something that even Japanese people are starting to discuss themselves as you see here on a JP site that talks about elements of the "Swords and Fantasy World setting inspired by Medieval European background" here :

https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/51595.html

For those of you who can read Japanese please read to the end. If not, just use Google Translate.

I'd like to quote this excerpt here :

・人種が違う
中世ヨーロッパには白人だけでなく黒人やアジア人が少数派として住んでいたはずだが剣と魔法の世界には存在せず、出る場合は「異国からやってきた」という設定になることが多い。
特に主人公が黒人である作品はほぼない。

I can translate myself but since I'm particularly lazy now I will use Google Translate :

"In medieval Europe, not only whites but also blacks and Asians should have lived as minorities, but they don't exist in the world of swords and sorcery, and when they appear, they are set as "coming from a foreign country". There are many things.
In particular, there are almost no works where the main character is black."

So there you go. I really think minority representation is extremely important, because minorities deserve their chance to star as Main Characters too, even in the realm of fantasy.

Besides, having minorities be Protagonists in opposite of the mainstream race or color of the local population is something that has been done many times in fiction.

1. Superman
Is a minority on Earth because he's the only Kryptonian there in a sea of local humans and yet he is the story's MC.

2. DBZ.
Similar. DBZ's Earth only as has an extreme minority of Saiyans and yet a Saiyan like Goku is the MC and not a native human like Krillin.

3. Isekai
The setting is European-like with many European named-characters and architecture, but the MC is an ultra-rare Japanese/Asian MC in a sea of white people.

So I think it'd be cool if Western creators could make an Isekai Visual Novel or something but with an African-American or African-French MC teleported to another world similar to Mushoku Tensei or something.

Minority Representation Matters.

2022-12-20, 21:38	Link #1
Nymene Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2018	Occidentalism in Isekai and how efforts are being made to diversify the genre So I noticed that Japanese people in general have quite the stereotyped image of "the West", especially concerning Medieval Europe, and one of their stereotypes is the myth of a purely "All-White Medieval Europe" which is not the case at all in real life history. For you see, in Isekai there are indeed dark-skin characters, but 90% of the time they're demihumans or beastmen. This is something that even Japanese people are starting to discuss themselves as you see here on a JP site that talks about elements of the "Swords and Fantasy World setting inspired by Medieval European background" here : https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/51595.html For those of you who can read Japanese please read to the end. If not, just use Google Translate. I'd like to quote this excerpt here : ・人種が違う中世ヨーロッパには白人だけでなく黒人やアジア人が少数派として住んでいたはずだが剣と魔法の世界には存在せず、出る場合は「異国からやってきた」という設定になることが多い。特に主人公が黒人である作品はほぼない。 I can translate myself but since I'm particularly lazy now I will use Google Translate : "In medieval Europe, not only whites but also blacks and Asians should have lived as minorities, but they don't exist in the world of swords and sorcery, and when they appear, they are set as "coming from a foreign country". There are many things. In particular, there are almost no works where the main character is black." So there you go. I really think minority representation is extremely important, because minorities deserve their chance to star as Main Characters too, even in the realm of fantasy. Besides, having minorities be Protagonists in opposite of the mainstream race or color of the local population is something that has been done many times in fiction. 1. Superman Is a minority on Earth because he's the only Kryptonian there in a sea of local humans and yet he is the story's MC. 2. DBZ. Similar. DBZ's Earth only as has an extreme minority of Saiyans and yet a Saiyan like Goku is the MC and not a native human like Krillin. 3. Isekai The setting is European-like with many European named-characters and architecture, but the MC is an ultra-rare Japanese/Asian MC in a sea of white people. So I think it'd be cool if Western creators could make an Isekai Visual Novel or something but with an African-American or African-French MC teleported to another world similar to Mushoku Tensei or something. Minority Representation Matters.