Beasts and thinly veiled racism?

[PekingDuck13]

Mortal Kombat is an American game btw.

[Pirrip]

I don't think that this can necessarily be indicative of prejudice on Japan as a whole. There are dark skinned Japanese, I know, but it's not a large population, and they hail from one particular region.
I like dark skin, though, and I do wish they had more black characters.

P.S. Jax was not made by the Japanese... Mortal Kombat is an American invention. But I share the sentiment, still. Not enough black characters. On the other hand, doesn't Bleach have a black Soul Society captain or something like that? Wearing some sort of glasses or something?

Speaking of cosplay, the best Haseo(from .hack//G.U.) cosplay I've ever seen(and the character is pale skinned, if you don't know him) was black. He must've worked on his cosplay for a loooong time.

[unicorn]

The Japanese are incredibly xenophobic of even whites! We all know they dislike blacks!

Seen the new Pokemon episodes? Theres an apparently black female who swings on vines and keeps Pokemon in her hair.

But Japan is actually getting better, I never seen as many black characters in games/anime as I seen in the last couple years. Are they still stereotypical? Yes....but its a step in the right direction!

I personally think Sazh is an endearing character. =)

[desturel]

-Dee Jay, Super Street Fighter II

Eh, Street Fighter is almost all stereotypes. Singling out DeeJay is a bit unfair:

T. Hawk
El Fuerte
E.Honda
Dhalsim
DeeJay
Elana
Gen
Sakura
Dudley
Birdy
Rufus
Zangief
Vega (claw)

It's definitely not limited to black characters. Stereotypes like Balrog (Boxer) and Fei Long are based off of real people which is why I didn't list them. They certainly don't reach the levels of Cham Cham and TamTam from Samurai Shodown or Rasputin from World of Heroes.

PSU is ever more diverse. None of the races really get pigeon holed outside of casts in their actual in story portrayal. There are the racists humans like Howzer, but there are also the generous humans like Dr. Tomrain. There are dumb beasts like Do Vol, then there are intelligent ones like Laia and Tylor. There are neuman like Rutsu and Hiru Vol, then there are neuman like Karin and Maya.

I wouldn't say you could peg a stereotype on any non-cast race in this game. Liina, Tonnio, and Laia are hot heads, but so is Ethan. Do Vol is an idiot, but so is No Vol and Hiru Vol. Melton's a self important stuck up bitch (when you speak to her as Ethan in the story mode), but so is Rol (the little beast that you work for in Egg Thieves... although I guess she's more of a brat than a bitch in the story mode). Bunami is a ditz, but so is Gapard... well they are both beast ditzes, but you get my point.

[FOkyasuta]

If you ask me, beasts only look good with dark skin, i've seen a few light skinned ones but it just doesn't feel right.

Only 2 that i saw were looking good and these were females and small cute loli like beasts.

Well Mines Isnt And Shes White...

[Max B]

Wow just wow.

[Ce'Nedra]

I dont think beast should represent the african americans, more a animal-human breed.
Since most of the Animals don't have such a high IQ and most animals behave rude and do what the feel, i think that is what SEGA wanted to be for the beasts, its not for racism, its more a animal than a human in its behave.

If you wanna go back that far, i heard (dont know for sure) that newmans were humans mixed with cat dna or something in original PS games? Heard somethign vague like that. Either way newmans are supposed to have the highest IQ, yet their a "animal breed" too if you look at it that way. Not that i'd like to call nedra a "animal breed" ...

Edit: @HUcast Lv.100: Well like i said, i only saw 2 good looking ones in white, i don't say they all look bad, it just feels...not right to see a white skinned beast...though its lesser bad on female beasts.

[FOkyasuta]

Im Confused Now...

[BIG OLAF]

If you wanna go back that far, i heard (dont know for sure) that newmans were humans mixed with cat dna or something in original PS games? Heard somethign vague like that. Either way newmans are supposed to have the highest IQ, yet their a "animal breed" too if you look at it that way.

The Newmans in the original Phantasy Star games aren't the same as the ones in PSU. So, even if they did come from cat DNA in PS I-IV, that's a moot point here.

Not that i'd like to call nedra a "animal breed" ...

Whoever that is, I don't know. But he or she isn't an "animal breed". As for Beasts being "half animal", it's visually correct, but no one knows for certain exactly how Humans "made" the other three races.

[Khorian]

Wow, thread went faster than I had expected.

Many of you make very interesting and valid points, some of which I will attempt to address before I drag my wife into another S rank mission.

Moatoob is the planet closest to Gurhal's sun, which explains the Beast's dark complexion. That's also why it's so hot and barren on most of the planet's surface.

If I remember correctly, Beasts were made for the purpose of surviving Moatoob's harsh environment- In the mines. A race of enslaved people working in mines over a period of time spanning generations would ideally cause their skin to be more pale, right?

Yes, but remember who built and programmed Vivienne. The Illuminus: PSU's resident racists. That's how they taught her to think: that every race besides Humans were inferior.

Not sure if I need spoiler tags since the spoil's already there.. I could have sworn that GRM built Viv, and the only part that Illuminus played in her programming was making her record everything and pass it on to them. Her personality truly was her own, if I'm not mistaken.

Black people aren't a major race in japan. When making games, racial diversity isn't really considered. White people are the standard with black people scattered here and there to add some variety. That's what I've noticed over the years anyway.

See, I could accept that if there weren't varied, and/or accurate characterizations of Caucasians, Asians, and even Hispanics in most video games and anime today. It seems to either be overt or simply overlooked when portraying blacks in a stereotypical way. In a global society where information is free in most first world countries, game developers, I'd much rather they leave blacks out of their games entirely, or at least attempt to not make us all look like Mr. T with the IQ of Mike Tyson and the reputability of O.J. Simpson.
Why include people of color at all? Because they still apply to the Business Model. If you're going to market even a portion of your media to a minority audience, wouldn't some good, old fashioned market research do the trick?

I don't think that this can necessarily be indicative of prejudice on Japan as a whole. There are dark skinned Japanese, I know, but it's not a large population, and they hail from one particular region.
I like dark skin, though, and I do wish they had more black characters.

P.S. Jax was not made by the Japanese... Mortal Kombat is an American invention. But I share the sentiment, still. Not enough black characters. On the other hand, doesn't Bleach have a black Soul Society captain or something like that? Wearing some sort of glasses or something?

Again, I wouldn't say that the entirety of Japan is prejudice or racist based on their portrayal of blacks in media, however, I mentioned Ganguro and Token blacks in their media, and allow me to clarify my particular issue with these:

The majority of "normal" dark skinned characters tend to be "Ganguro." These are usually darker skinned native japanese and asians, who's distinguishing feature is pure white or blond hair. Tell me, how many Dark Skinned + Dark Haired characters do you find in japanese media? Not many, and of those, the VAST majority apply to the "Token" rule.

The "Token" rule should be self explanatory. A particular minority charachter acting nowhere outside the boundaries of stereotypes, having little or no consequence to the overall plot, and all the while being the ONLY MINORITY CHARACTER.

Also, I know Jax is made by the Chicago-based Midway, but his character is still flawed immensely, being a black person that knows how to hit stuff really hard with his huge rippling muscles and "quirky" urban one-liners.