When the promo of My Dress Up Darling episode 10 showed that the series protagonist, Marin Kitagawa will be getting a tan for a new cosplay, it was certain that we will be seeing an outrage from the online community, and that is what happened after the episode 10 got released.
After the episode release, Marin was accused of Blackface as the episode made it clear that she did not tan, but used full body makeup as her skin tone returns to normal after taking a bath. Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by performers of non-African descent to portray a caricature of a black person. Blackface is considered a form of racism. According to CNN, “nearly 200 years since white performers first started painting their faces black to mock enslaved Africans in minstrel shows across the United States. It was racist and offensive then, and it’s still racist and offensive today.”
A Twitter user @fabrickind went viral on social media after criticizing Marin Kitagawa (My Dress-up Darling). She specifically criticized the scene where Marin uses special full body makeup to darken her skin tone for a cosplay. She wrote on Twitter: “As much as I like My Dress-Up Darling, this… This not ok. I know it’s very common to change skin tone in the Japanese cosplay scene, but that doesn’t make it okay to do it, especially since colorism is a big problem and people with dark skin can’t just take it off”
The Tweet went viral in the anime community, but received such a negative response from anime fans, that the original poster of the Tweet @fabrickind had to shut down her Twitter account. However, some Twitter users posted a screenshot of the her Tweet for commenting purpose. Here are some of the comments from Twitter:
Are we going to talk about the low key blackface, they did on My Dress-Up Darling or not?
@exzraxplorer
I was caught off guard hearing about blackface in the anime “My Dress-up Darling”. It opened my eyes. The thing is, it’s not obvious at first, so a lot of people, myself included, missed it. I am not able to say whether or not it is racist, what do others think?
@rinreadsmanga
CloverWorks studio produced the anime adaptation which started airing on January 8 on Crunchyroll. The series is directed by Keisuke Shinohara, and it will only have 12 episodes. Crunchyroll describes the series as follows:
Wakana Gojo is a high school boy who wants to become a kashirashi–a master craftsman who makes traditional Japanese Hina dolls. Though he’s gung-ho about the craft, he knows nothing about the latest trends, and has a hard time fitting in with his class. The popular kids–especially one girl, Marin Kitagawa–seem like they live in a completely different world. That all changes one day, when she shares an unexpected secret with him, and their completely different worlds collide
Source: Twitter
