Crunchyroll recently announced that a person of color, Kimberley Anne Campbell will be the English dubbing, voice actress for Nagatoro, and this has stirred a controversy on Twitter.
First of all, it should be clear that Nagatoro is not a person of color. As it has been pointed out in the manga and anime that she is just tanned due to her outdoor activities. After the announcement that a POC will be voicing Nagatoro, we saw some over reaction, both positively and negatively.
You might be wondering, how can someone over react to this? Well, the answer is simple “False representation”. After the announcement, many fans celebrated that finally a person of color will be voicing a character of color. Although, this mistake has been pointed out a number of times, but some people still ignore it, and believe that Nagatoro is a representation of colored people in anime.
Im so glad nagatoro is now canonically black! It’s really cool! She really is me irl
“Nagatoro isn’t black!” yeah, and all of them Shounen protags are Japanese, but you aren’t complaining about them getting dubbed by white ppl. Anyways CONGRATS KIMBERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both sides of this are so god damn cringe. It does nothing to the fact that we know for a fact Nagatoro is just tan. People acting like this blackwashing or people using it as “proof” that she’s black: Just know that both of you are the reason these discussions are so toxic
The negative criticism comes from the same kind of extreme people, who believe that this the black washing of the anime character. Here are some of the Tweets:
Oh no, Crunchyroll is promoting ‘Ni * ggatoro’…
Because I know they are going to ask about the voice actress. No, Nagatoro is not a person of color, she is simply tanned. Her tan lines are even shown in the first episode. But for those of you who need visual evidence, just watch the beach episode
So, there is no problem with a white person playing Senpai (a Japanese), but the subjects take up arms because Nagatoro is played by a black person. Racism is clear in the anime community
A group of anime fans think that Crucnhryoll is trying to bring more business to them by blackwashing Nagatoro. You may ask how this decision will bring business to Crucnhryoll? As we already know that Black Lives Matter is one of the biggest movements in the world right now, which has brought some core issues of minorities to the light. However, some businesses have tried taking advantage of this, So in this case Crunchyroll is saying that look we support minorities, and now you support our business.
Don’t toy with me miss Nagatoro is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nanashi, who has been publishing the manga since Nov 2017. The series tells the story of Nagatoro, who loves to tease her Senpai, along with her friends. Senpai is initially bothered by Nagatoro, but as the time passes, Senpai realizes that he does not dislike Nagatoro’s presence.
For more anime news and updates, please visit our main Anime Senpai page.
Source: Twitter
I mean, she’s Japanese, so she’s definitely a person of color. Whoops.