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Did Onepunch-Man seriously just do Blackface!? (Spoilers)

Saucycarpdog

Saucycarpdog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,283
For those that don't know, there's a hero in Onepunch-Man named Superalloy Darkshine who is very clearly supposed to be black and is easily the most prominent black hero in the manga:

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Well, the most recent chapter of the manga just flat out revealed that, no, he is, in fact, not black. His backstory instead is that, because he exercised to such extremes, he somehow became bald and had a change in skin tone.

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Seriously WTF?? I actually like the other heroes in OPM way more than the main character himself and most of the S-class heroes are pretty entertaining but this is utter absurdity.
 

Deleted member 4346

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,976
It's like there's a missing piece in this issue. Why the fuck did he turn black when he got muscles?
 
Sign My Guestbook!

Sign My Guestbook!

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May 26, 2018
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Japan's cultural image of black people partially comes from old racist-as-fuck American entertainment. With not enough black people living in Japan to expose them to reality on a mass scale, it has never gone (completely) out of fashion. So you get minstrel-influenced shit like this design and Mr. Popo, among others. It really sucks.
 
Seesaw15

Seesaw15

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,809
User Banned (1 Month): Excusing Blackface
Its been known in the manga that Superalloy Darkshine is asian for a while.

Also, body builders just get weird fake dance to enhance muscles def.
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ash32121

ash32121

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,563
User Banned (1 Month): Excusing Blackface
It's supposed to be tan.

Like you know, bodybuilder.

Problem is his god damn lip.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,369
here
are we sure this is a tan and he didnt actually just turn black

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cuz that dont look like a tan
 
smurfx

smurfx

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,578
was his backstory in the original manga or is this a creation of the remake manga?
 
Nappuccino

Nappuccino

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
12,997
People thinking there's missing panels clearly are forgetting the origin story of OPM's main character.

This is pretty damn tone deaf though, as others have said.
 
Loudninja

Loudninja

Member
Oct 27, 2017
42,169
That isnt a damn tan he is straight up black the fact they added those lips as well they knew what they where doing.
 
808s & Villainy

808s & Villainy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
42,700
Roliq said:
I feel this one is fake, but if it's real then wtf?
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Have you guys not seen the tans bodybuilders have for competitions? I have a friend who's fairly pale normally that competed in one and she was fairly dark from her tan. It's bizarre

Saucycarpdog said:
His backstory instead is that, because he exercised to such extremes, he somehow became bald
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You say this like it's some strange concept. You do realize Saitama, the main character, didn't naturally turn bald, right?

I'm not sure if this is blackface or is suppose to be some extreme version of tanning/bronzing, but it's definitely straddling the line if not crossing it...
 
RecRoulette

RecRoulette

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,044
For some manga/anime being Black is a superpower so yeah this doesn't surprise me.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

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Oct 17, 2018
44,092
Sign My Guestbook! said:
Japan's cultural image of black people partially comes from old racist-as-fuck American entertainment. With not enough black people living in Japan to expose them to reality on a mass scale, it has never gone (completely) out of fashion. So you get minstrel-influenced shit like this design and Mr. Popo, among others. It really sucks.
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Feel like this explanation, if not completely, lets Japanese creators off the hook. Anybody alive in the industry today was not working when those minstrel shows were in vogue and the internet has globalized society on a massive scale. Japanese people consume tons of American media with black people. There is no excuse for not knowing this stuff in 2020. Mr. Popo was created over 30 years ago.
 
Palazzo

Palazzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,006
amoy said:
Not running defense for this, as it was sketch since the beginning when people were trying to translate it and "Darkie" was thrown around, but see Bolo Yeung for similar facial features.
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The "Darky" thing is separate from whether or not his character design is supposed to evoke blackface, since it wasn't in the original Japanese text at all (where he was just "Dark-chan"). That one's more on the fault of the (unofficial) webcomic translators being either particularly sheltered or brazen, not the actual creators like his design may be.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
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Oct 25, 2017
49,947
I swear I heard this a million years ago, during that brief period where I was interested in One Punch Man.

On that note, when everyone was telling me to watch the series, no one told me about Puri Puri Prisoner. But then again, I read the manga and maybe it didn't get that far.
 
L Thammy

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
49,947
Also, the line between tanning and blackface has been blurred in media for a while; there's no reason why they would be mutually exclusive.

Like, just off the top of my head, both Seinfeld and Friends had jokes where a character tans too long and it's somehow equated with blackface; Kramer pisses off his girlfriend's father who thinks he's trying to impress him via blackface, Ross receives snark about he can "sing a duet of Ebony and Ivory by yourself".
 
Midramble

Midramble

Force of Habit
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Oct 25, 2017
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San Francisco
Having read this webcomic/manga for quite a while, yes this gimic is that he worked out so hard that his skin tanned and tuned shiny and shown in the visual gag that it turned him black. Yeah its racist. One isn't the best when it comes to this because they hit standard Japanese comedy which is well known to be problematic.
 
Jonathan Lanza

Jonathan Lanza

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Feb 8, 2019
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People calling it a tan are being super disingenuous since nobody ever suspected so until his backstory was revealed in the webcomic.
Do you know why? Because he doesn't look tanned!
 
FF Seraphim

FF Seraphim

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,684
Tokyo
Midramble said:
Having read this webcomic/manga for quite a while, yes this gimic is that he worked out so hard that his skin tanned and tuned shiny and shown in the visual gag that it turned him black. Yeah its racist. One isn't the best when it comes to this because they hit standard Japanese comedy which is well known to be problematic.
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I do not even remember the webcomic giving him a background at all... I just thought he was a black guy with really big muscles...Hell, does OPM even have any black characters now?
 
HustleBun

HustleBun

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,075
Oh no.

My gf and I were noticing how awful Rocklock's dialogue is in My Hero Academia but this is on another level.

How can anyone excuse this?
 
Rackham

Rackham

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,529
I pointed this out a while ago and people were arguing that it was just a body builder tan then too.
 
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