Recently, fan art of the popular ongoing series Dandadan caused significant controversy online.
A 16-year-old artist, known as Lynn, shared their art on X (formerly Twitter), depicting the series’ main characters, Ken Takakura and Momo Ayase, as Americans. Ken was reimagined as a young African American male, and Momo as a dark-skinned American girl.
The art quickly drew criticism, particularly from Japanese social media users, who accused the artist of “blackwashing” the characters. One widely shared response compared Lynn’s art to the original character designs, captioned with: “I’ll restore it (to its original state) for you.” This tweet amassed over 180k likes and 13 million views, reflecting the backlash.
Another Japanese user expressed frustration, saying, “I’m Japanese. Stop making Asian characters black. We’re not Disney characters.” This post gained even more attention, with 346k likes and 42 million views, emphasizing the scale of the negative response.
People hate whitewashing and harass artists for drawing black characters slightly lighter but blatantly blackwashing asian characters is okay? https://t.co/kG0o3LNvgQ
— Poazal🎭 (@yoshiisii) December 6, 2024
I really don't understand them… they are hypocrites. https://t.co/TskWnWdxZf pic.twitter.com/SSAcKkHckh
— Shōri-Pān (@Victori11106) December 6, 2024
They blackwash characters but send death threats to artists who make characters too light-skinned pic.twitter.com/yYM821l7iz
— Kangmin Lee | 이강민 (@kangminjlee) December 4, 2024
The criticism wasn’t limited to X. Posts also circulated on Japanese forums like Yaraon, where many users echoed similar sentiments about race-swapping characters being inappropriate. Common arguments included:
- “They always complain about whitewashing, but they have no problem with things like this.”
- “It’s just fan art, let them draw whatever they want.”
This debate wasn’t confined to Japan. International anime fans also weighed in, with some calling out perceived double standards. One user noted, “If someone drew a Black character with lighter skin, they’d be criticized immediately. So why is this okay?”
Following the backlash, Lynn privated their X account, likely in response to the overwhelming criticism.
Update Dec 8, 2024: 16-year-old artist has changed her account status from private to public.
For those unfamiliar, Dandadan is one of the most talked-about anime right now, streaming on Crunchyroll.
Dandadan is about Ken Takakura, a boy who doesn’t believe in ghosts, and Momo Ayase, a girl who doesn’t believe in aliens. They team up to prove each other wrong but end up discovering strange supernatural and alien encounters. Together, they face these bizarre events and grow closer while trying to survive the chaos.
Source: X
