Spy x Family is probably the biggest new anime series of the year. The 2nd episode of the series just got released, and as expected, many artist show their love for anime by drawing cute illustrations of the anime. An artist redraw one of the characters from Spy x Family, Anya as a black character, which bring out the worst side of the anime community.
Twitter user @SoulKingLives is known for redrawing anime characters as black characters. He has already redrawn characters from Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Revengers, Ranking of Kings, and much more. On April 18, they shared a redrawing of Anya Forger, but the response from the anime community was very controversial.
Many fans said that it is wrong to redraw an anime character as a different race. Here are some of the replies from the quoted Tweet:
Unrealistic. Why is this necessary? I don’t care what color swapping you’re doing here it’s just weird.
People are free to do these edits, and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with them. But if racebending is okay in this direction, it’s okay in ALL directions. The people who make these can’t complain about a black character being turned white, asian, or whatever.
Spy x Fatherless Household
This image is fake because if it was real, the dad wouldn’t be there.
Looks cute, but the best thing you could do is creating her and put her next to Anya. Not taking away the Anya we know. Like twins
You forgot to photoshop the father out of the picture.
And the list goes on and on for such comments. Recently, @soulkinglives also shared the similar edit for the dad as well. It is needless to say that quoted tweets about this picture won’t be good. Judging from the Tweet, the artist plans to release redrawn Your Forger as well.
The anime series is produced by the collaboration of CloverWorks and Wit Studio, who will produce the episodes separately. Spy x Family is listed with 25 episodes. The first 13 episodes will be released this season, while the remaining 12 episodes will be released in Fall 2022.
Viz media describe the Spy x Family series as follows:
Spy x Family is a story about a spy who has a mission that requires a certain requirement and that is to have a family as a disguise. His hired family seems to be normal; however, he didn’t realize that both his daughter and fake wife are hiding a secret. His wife being a mind reader and his daughter as an assassin will make the story feel intense and at the same time, comedic. Even though the anime was not released yet, it will be more fun if you could explore this story with the digital and physical copy of the manga.
Source: Twitter
I mean the look sick, pretty cool but unnecessary
All art is unnecessary. They just wanted to draw a character differently and was slammed with racism.
Correction the moron “fixing” anime was justifiably shitposted. Only brainlets take that as serious “racism”.
How does one say one is racist, without actually saying one is racist?
Thanks for the example, Jimmy. Now go back to 8chan where you belong.
How is leaving a comment like “You forgot to photoshop the father out of the picture.” to a black artist not motivated by racism?
Exactly
They’re not wrong though. I’ve seen a lot of cases of characters being whitewashed by artists and the movie industry and in those instances, those guys get canceled a lot. If this is apparently okay to do, it’s just hypocrisy.
nobody been canceled so stfu.
Really? Nobody has been canceled? Clearly you’ve never seen the amount of innocent artists that barely even lightened the shade of a Genshin character’s skin tone and got slammed and bullied nearly out of existence. Shut your mouth, you blind, hypocritical brat.
They still have their jobs, not cancelled
There’s distint difference. Historically almost every good or impressive achivement by black people has been white washed or erased. Our work and contributions as a race has been claimed by others or hidden. It has taken years to reclaim them or shine light on these things.
They don’t want to see black or colored folks in a certain light so they make them white or lighten their skin. It’s not the changing itself that makes the difference. Its the history and principal. That is why certain things are that are racism or colorism do not work in reverse. They are not done with the same spirit or history. Due to historical (or even present) connotations certain things are unacceptable, whitewashing is one of those things.
It’s not hypocrosy the situations are different. I’ll give an example. Let’s say striking someone is wrong. Are you going to say someone hitting in self defense is the same as someone doing it to rob a person? How about someone sparing? The same thing is done, at the end of the day someone was struck. But can you say these situations the same? You are thinking about this far too simply.
I would argue it’s done in the exact same spirit just the rolls are reversed. Instead of trying to erase black achievements they are trying to erase an Asian person’s achievements. I don’t really care so long a the original still remains and credit is properly given. In fact Asians share in historically in being marginalized and achievement taken away.
I never seen a black artist cover or erase Asian art with skin color historically and they are usually good at giving credit with their what ifs. Also this seems to be more racially motivated knee jerk reactions to someone fan art based on how people commented ie..in… missing dad jokes etc.
I agree that the situations are different.
However there is a problem with the current cancel culture where certain situations immediately draw a knee-jerk reaction.
There have already been various examples of artists being canceled just because they drew dark skinned characters in different lighting that made their skin seem a bit lighter.
That isn’t helping, instead their toxicity paint the movement for equality in a negative light.
True equality can only be reached when each situation is considered case by case, but I guess we still have far ways to go.
That’s not even a real comparison. This is an independent artist just posting something to his Twitter. He’s not about to produce an entire anime.
Bro???
he didn’t realize that both his daughter and fake wife are hiding a secret. His wife being a mind reader and his daughter as an assassin
?
How would he realize that?
he’s pointing out that the description is swapped..
the wife should be the assassin and the daughter is the mind reader..
Most of the comments are just racist.
Yeah, it’s pretty disgusting.
Some of them were kinda funny tho😂
The drawings are pretty good just like the original, it’s just there’s a lot of change. I agree at this 😉😊😁😁. Also some of the word(s) are wrong.
very disrespectful to the origin
I’d disagree, there’s no trying to replace any of the original content, just seeing from the artists point of view if the characters were of a different race… This is the same energy we get for cosplaying our favorite characters and people coming back with “That character isn’t black!”, Which is disrespectful to our respect of the character, but want to ignore when (and just as example) white people do it l, and that’s just because the skin tone matches… Most anime are based in and around Japanese culture but no one takes into account that japanese aren’t born with naturally different color hair or eyes either
its good to do your own style make them black, white, Asian, or whatever you want its just a show but the people watching the show are the problems.
People do gender bender on a lot of characters all the time. Animes usually don’t portray black characters, so I see nothing wrong with the artist wanting to add a racebender version. Y’all just racist
not gonna lie, black Loid Forger would look cool but suspicious by default in the current setting of European political conflict.
By taking into account his mission of infiltrating the high society of that time, he would be part of an even more extreme minority.
I’m guessing some groups of people have gotten tired of seeing artists and activists hijack popular shows with the purpose of inserting their ideology and making a political/ racism statement. People just want to enjoy their show without someone saying “this lacks diversity, the main character would work better if he were *insert race, let me help you with that”.
But in the end tweeter has been a dumpster fire for years, with cancel culture and controversial liberal agenda running wild everywhere, the best approach would be to just appreciate the possibility the artwork offers at face value and then let it die on it’s own
1) Black people exist in Europe
2) Even with black people “standing out” this is a fictional anime that includes a woman that can read minds and a small child that’s an assassin, are you really gonna say that characters being black (which people actually are in real life) is a step too far and makes everything unrealistic?
3) The artist making these characters Black is not about making a statement. It’s about creativity and giving the Black community something we never get which is seeing explicitly Black anime characters and seeing them done well, without any racist stereotypes attached to them. Everyone else gets to see themselves all over the anime universe in a variety of characters but the few times they do Black people they’re often stereotypical and their characters archetype racially driven. The artists work is about creativity and giving black nerds some joy.
The woman is an assassin and the child was a mind reader, that’s the truth..
AGREE HALF OF THE COMMENTS ARE JUST RACIST
I think this is really beautifully portrayed and the commenters were being incredibly rude and racist .
People make stories for nothing at all
Just bums sitting behind a screen typing nonsense. I wish someone would actually come to my face to say these things, they would get drop kicked and and punched in the throat before both of us could take a breath.
How to say you’re racist without saying you’re racist
spy x fatherless household lol
yeah but his trans race images are totally nonsense and uncalled for.
He should be proud their beautiful dark skin color, not BLACKED other races.
It’s about wanting to be represented. Black people are not represented well in most anime they are portrayed OR they are not portrayed at all. If people want to see themselves represented in TV shows and anime bc they aren’t represented or represented poorly then it’s none of your business as they’re NOT CHANGING SOURCE MATERIAL. They are just making fan art. Please just stop talking.
“I can’t make my own original black characters so I’m gonna steal someone else’s character designs.”
God your comment is so embarrassing to read please just never speak again thanks. You just have absolutely no idea what you’re even talking about just seriously. Stop talking.
Good, blackwashing needs to eradicated everywhere. You do not get to change something you did not create. Destroy him as he deserves.
It’s not blackwashing or whatever it’s just showing Representation in a different way. You must be one of those type of anime fans that’s like oh that character isn’t black so why are you cosplaying that character she isn’t or he isn’t really black. This is the one thing I hate about the anime Community. But in case you haven’t realize the characters that white people cosplay are also not white they’re more then likely Asian. Gatekeeping is so played!! Stop policing people.
👏👏👏
Those comments are so racist. If you don’t know someone else’s STYLE/VERSION of drawing then don’t comment. His drawings are so awesome. It would be really cool if Loid was black skinned.
“In drawing, one must look for or suspect that there is more than is casually seen” – george bridgman
Americans dont seem to understand that anime is japanese. Japanese people could care less about drawing different races since japan is mostly japanese people. I kind of find it cringy to be honest. Im mexican. Does not mean ima draw mexican Naruto.
You could if you want to. Nobody is stopping you. And it’s all about representation, since Black people aren’t represented or represented poorly when it comes to most TV shows and anime. It’s not changing the source material, it’s just fan art. Mexican people also aren’t usually portrayed well in anime and most TV shows. And Mexican Naruto sounds cool tbh.
Ngl, I think it looks great and if an Anime inspires someone to work with it, change it and make it their own, I’m all here for it!
No one is taking away the actual anime from anyone. This is as much fan-art as any other art. Plus, putting yourself or your own character you can identify with into a setting of an anime you like is practically what every child with a little bit of healthy fantasy does. There is no reason to bash this. If someone doesn’t like it, they should simply ignore the art around it. But by bashing it, it’ll gain publicity and thus be known to more people who appreciate it.
However, Racism is always the wrong way. Let your fellow humans be creative! This is how the Anime you love came into existence, this is how spin-offs happen, this is how anything entertaining you all will ever be created: Through creativity!
Changing the race of a character is not one of the factors to rate creativity. I’m African, and I see it as nonsense.
I hate it when they change the race of characters. They can just make their own animation instead.
Those negative comments will be your ticket for a manga/comic studio solid comish. Dont mind then theyvare just jealous you can draw greatly.
Lets do it the otherway around? What if its a black character then they redraw it to white . . . Could you say that thats not white washing??
Lol this anime is based on Japanese manga drawn by Japanese artist. They have nothing to do with “black people were wahsed out for centuries” or whatever, yet some idiots are so pissed off that they’re not black.
If you want a manga/anime with black protagonists, create them yourself instead of stealing and coloring other creations.
Love the art AND the art style. The hair especially was drawn amazingly. Keep up the good work!
for all the idiots who keeps complaining about the anime Spy X Family.
Doooooon’t Waaaaaaatch iiiiiiit.
you are watching it for free.
it’s not like you bought that anime.
BTW that drawing is LIT. version of Anya & Forger.