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FADE_FROM_BLACK

                                             May 11, 2021

Looking for commentary on the racial subtext
of "Revolutionary Girl Utena", I turned up        My take is that Anthy
a fan encylopedia page that declares that         is pretty clearly a
Anthy's appears to be from India, remarking       black girl.
that she's shown wearing a bindi.
                                                  Call her a POC if you
I've never seen this character wearing a          like-- Japanese anime
bindi that I can remember, and I've               is a little strange on
watched a few dozen of the episodes.              ethnic backgrounds--
                                                  but I'd say she
The one illustration of the character             registers as "black girl".
that appears on this page looks nothing
like the character from the show-- I                        UTENA
gather they lightened up her skin
tremendously for the movie version.

Myself, I'd never even heard that there
was a movie: I don't see why you'd
consider this later version as canonical.

Further, I think that shift should set off
alarm bells: turning a black girl white
to improve her audience appeal?


And this is not the first time I've seen this
phenomena: in the 90s anime "Macross 7",
there's a black guy named Ray who's actually
a positive, counter-stereotype character:
mature and level-headed, he acts as the band's
manager.  Later in the show, there's a retcon
where they "reveal" that he's really a white
guy with a deep tan.  (like, wtf?)


                     MACROSS_BACKWARDS


    I sincerely hope that this is a
    fading set of attitudes, but it
    really does seem that white
    American kids in the 90s were         You might consider the case
    plagued by a kind of low-grade        of Lando Calrissian, for example...
    unconscious racism...
                                                      COLOR




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