[ SECRET POST #2094 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2094 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #299.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - ships it ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

OP
You know, this was meant to be a secret about my mild paranoia that somebody would think I was messing with shit I didn't know anything about, but I think I'm going to come right out and say what I think about that, whether or not this risks starting a shitstorm: that's bollocks. Are you saying Mercedes isn't POC because she's drawn? Well at least she's a damn sight darker than every live-action Mercedes I've ever seen. Loran, the first non-white(/pale) protagonist in Gundam, isn't up to your standards of non-whiteness? Tell that to everybody who was thrilled to see him, to everyone who cosplays him. These are shows with a set range of possible facial features due to art style, which is totally legit - when you're watching a shoujo or a josei or a shounen show, you don't tend to see highly-detailed facial features - that's more the forte of seinen or gekiga art. Unless you want total gonk characters who stand out by miles, you're going to have fewer racially identifying features when the art is low in detail, which definitely doesn't mean the characters aren't POC. It's not that it can't happen - One Piece, for instance, has a variety of races amongst its cast members, and some have very distinctive features, but that's definitely a quirk of the art, which some people even thought seemed offensive when it was first licensed for Western distribution. I find it hard to believe that you seem to think I should only go for caracaturised characters, or characters from only one kind of show, or only characters from shows with really realistic art. That would be limiting and strange.

[(Anonymous)]

Catalán = northern Spain = European = white, for godsakes.

Maybe they didn't reply because they took one look at what you consider "POC" and decided you're kind of an idiot.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

As a POC myself, I find it kind of insulting that white people think that taking a standard white face with European features and darkening it = POC. That's what bothers me. POC are not just white people with dark skin! In fact, there are plenty of POC out there who can and are lighter than some white people. For example there are plenty of Middle Eastern and Indian (to name a few) people who are lighter-skinned than some Europeans from places like Greece or Italy. But guess what, that doesn't make then white! Because they still have their Indian/Middle-Eastern/Etc. features!
Simplifying the issue to point that light skin = white, and dark skin = POC is highly insulting and it erases light-skinned POC too.

But of course what do I know about these things? I'm just a simple colored girl! Clearly, you know better...

[(Anonymous)]

+1 so much to this comment

[(Anonymous)]

OP
Look I just grabbed the first three *characters drawn with brown tones* who sprang to mind, because that is what the blog I'm doing is about. None of them have actually been used on my blog yet. I think perhaps you (collective) would get what I'm doing and realise I'm not actually specacularly under-informed if I linked, but I would prefer not to do that. God knows I don't want to say "but my one black friend," or anything, but I did air this all out very carefully on the black interest otaku page where the idea first came up before I dared to post anything (and judging by a quick sweep of profile images, I was the only white one there). I'm not trying to patronise anybody and suggesting that I am is kind of nuts. Maybe even racist, let's face it. It. Is. Just. A page which lists people who aren't drawn as totally pale, with the intention of helping out anybody who MIGHT want to cosplay somebody with a skin tone close to their own. I understand that not everybody DOES, which is fine, and also the entire reason I wrote a disclaimer for the blog, which is where I mentioned that I was white in order to get any possible issues out of the way.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, POC is not a term which is in common (or any) parlance in my own country; I was trying to get it right, frankly. There's an issue that since we're talking about anime, I can't say 'non-white' or 'non-caucasian,' as a lot of pale characters are still supposed to be Japanese. I would have thought POC - people of colour - would indicate characters with a tad more melanin. I guess maybe there are better terms I could have used? Maybe? But I seriously thought POC was the best PC catch-all around. :/ It's possible I've got that wrong and I apologise if in doing that I've trodden on any toes. But aside from that I don't think I'm patronising anybody, and the purpose of my blog is to aid POC cosplayers, not to tag fictional characters, plenty of whom are from fictional races, as having any specific ethnicity at all.

[(Anonymous)]

And again, drawn with a darker skin tone does not make a character not white (or Japanese).

What's patronizing is that you seem to think people who aren't white are so helpless that they would need your white ass to help them find characters to cosplay. Newsflash: they're perfectly capable of doing so on their own. And that's likely what that cosplay group thought, because who the fuck are you to tell non-white people who they should want to cosplay?

[(Anonymous)]

Calm the fuck down. Its a fucking tumblr that people have the option to look at. OP isn't forcing this shit down their throats.

[(Anonymous)]

OP
How many times to I have to state that PEOPLE WERE ASKING ABOUT IT and I HAPPENED TO BE THERE. And also that THERE IS A BIG DISCLAIMER SAYING OF COURSE PEOPLE SHOULD COSPLAY WHO THEY WANT.

Fun times, I don't feel I've ever taken a lot of stick for my race before today. I would NEVER speak to anybody the way you are. How dare you insinuate that I'm the racist one?

[(Anonymous)]

I just grabbed the first three *characters drawn with brown tones*

...This might be why people don't like your POC blog.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not trying to patronise anybody and suggesting that I am is kind of nuts. Maybe even racist, let's face it.






Wot.

[(Anonymous)]

considering the op this european Spaniards are poc, i don't think she'd understand or recognize that

[(Anonymous)]

OP
Tell me a better term meaning "not caucasian, nor belonging to any pale race, including Japanese characters who are drawn with a pretty pale pallate." The blog is for real people who are POC, and the characters are not really discussed in racial terms. It is a blog for brown or brownish people who are looking for brown or brownish people to cosplay, which is something which I had happened to see people looking for. I am just a giant otaku who thought it might be fun to post about some little-known non-white (or fair-skinned Japanese) characters in order to meet a perceived need. For what it's worth, on the actual blog, I haven't run into any trouble at all. It may be that I'm describing it poorly, though it may be that people are making huge assumptions about me and really thinking the worst.

[(Anonymous)]

You don't need to use another term, so much as learn that "POC" does not mean "white person with a tan." And based on how stupidly defensive you're being, I won't hold my breath that you'll figure it out.

[(Anonymous)]

I partially agree, but I think it may be worth looking at how much or little intra-racial facial diversity there is in a series before protesting its lack of inter-racial facial diversity. There are many anime/manga creators who are good at giving characters varied appearances, but others... there's a reason why 'anime' and artistic 'same face syndrome' are stereotypically considered linked.

[(Anonymous)]

OP
Yeah, don't worry. I've almost solely used shows I've seen every episode of, actually. Eureka Seven (left) and Turn A Gundam (right) both have the anime convention of Old People Faces, where often as a character increases in age, so does the level of detail used in drawing their face, but most of the cast are young, so a lack of detail certainly doesn't mean that everybody's meant to be the same race or something. I would still say that contextually Hilda's meant to have African ancestry somewhere along the line. Interestingly, from memory, I think Linck, who's about five, has a character design with slightly more racially identifying features. I don't really know what that's about, except that the way he's drawn is super-adorable so he's no gonk.

[(Anonymous)]

But not all "Europeans" have the same features either. Also isn't classifying people by their features kind of racist in itself?

[(Anonymous)]

Of course not! There are German features, Irish features, Russian features and so. Most white people know this, and thus when the illustrate and or describe other white people they can say "oh, he looks German" or draw a character that looks Irish by using on just light-skin, but actual Irish facial features.

POC would like the same treatment for us. All Asians don't look like. Neither do all blacks. Dark skin isn't necessarily a trait of PoC (just like fair skin isn't always a trait of Europeans), we have unique and distinct features depending on our ethnic background and it'd be nice for that to be represented.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

But it's not a standard white face, it's a standard anime face. Many anime do not bother to change basic features no matter what race they're trying to portray. In some, the only way you can tell between Japanese and American characters is their name and their hair color, and even then it's a toss up. Just look at Code Geass (and the surrounding wank). It's a limitation of the artstyle.

(Some artstyles. There are anime that manage to do it very well)

[othellia]

This. All right here.

If I had a dime for how many people I've ever heard say "all anime faces just look white"...

[(Anonymous)]

How are those "standard white faces with European features"? They're standard animated faces, which don't usually tend to have any sort of racial identifiers at all.

That argument only works if you're discussing realistically-styled art, which most anime and cartoons are not.

dda

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're completely missing the point, which has nothing to do with the ethnic origins of the characters in question and everything to do with compiling a database of characters for people with non-white skintones to cosplay if they want to portray a character that has a skintone similar to theirs. (Which, for the record, is a question that DOES get asked frequently in cosplay forums.)

[avatarmn]

It's a cartoon, though. The features are kind of general, NOT European-featured. Hasn't this argument been done enough, re: people arguing whether anime makes Japanese people appear white? It's kind of YOUR problem if you see these simple drawn features and think they default to looking European.

[(Anonymous)]

Uhh, anon of South Asia origin really wants to know what special POC features guarantee a South Asian/Middle-Eastern person as "POC" etc?

And FYI - all those people in the OP look perfectly non-white to me. POC doesn't mean just African descent, fyi. (And Gankutsuoh is supposed to be a IN SPACE! re-imagining of Monte Christo. I don't think she's not white because she's catalan, not agreeing with OP there, but because she's been clearly been race-bended. IDK how a person with that brown a skin, can be called "obviously white". The Count is a blue-skinned space alien in this, ffs)

[(Anonymous)]

Japanese people are racist because they make Japanese characters' facial features "un-Asian"!!!

Piss off.

[(Anonymous)]

I think a lot of what you say in your comment is great, but it does highlight a problem with the term 'POC'. As a person of Middle Eastern descent, I personally feel completely uncomfortable with claiming the label of POC. Do I experience racism as a result of what I look like and where my parents come from? Pretty much every day. But I just feel wildly uncomfortable with calling myself a POC, because honestly, my skin isn't darker than that of some Europeans. Which does mean that, compared to a lot of people, I still have it easy.