YMS on Why Kimba The White Lion Is Offensive

/ ymshighlights
/ adumplaze
So, I already know what you're thinking. "Salamancer! Why are you releasing a Kimba highlight TWO YEARS after Adam's review came out?!"
So, I wasn't really the best at my job starting out. A lot of highlight material slipped through the cracks due to me not being thorough enough. You can see this with my Lion King Promo Cringe Ultimate Cut.
Well, I wanted to do this for Kimba as well. However, the sheer amount of footage from the Kimba streams was absolutely MASSIVE. Like, WAY too big to fit into one video. So I planned on segmenting them into things like "footage reactions" or "research" to maybe give something with a more palatable length.
The thing is, while I find this footage funny, I'm not comfortable putting it in compilations. The footage is a teensy bit dangerous in terms of monetization. Well, I'm not going to allow this footage to be buried just because I didn't express due diligence in my early career. Like the saying goes "Better late than never."
So here is a video that should've existed two years ago. What can I say but "Oops?"

[@YMSHighlights]

Got a strike on the channel for disputing a copyright claim on this bullshit. Sorry it took so long to come out.

[@Sugarman96]

Two years fighting the claim, big oof.

[@hobbythmiki]

can you do about blackjack japanese show work by tezuka too

[@SS-op9wt]

@@DonePlaying I think you're grabbing too much out of one exaggerated statement. Do you casually look at enough racist media to know which one is more racist than the other? Lol

[@dankogrgic8355]

Please don't use f word with the Lord's name

[@fn0rd99]

Gotta say, you get real props for intellectual honesty on this issue. That's not easy sometimes.

[@aidenkinerk3141]

6:56 I can't believe that Lion King's iconic scene of a Arab man throwing a grenade at Pumbaa was stolen from Kimba and its poor artists!

[@zevburrows1871]

That law professor’s book gets funnier and funnier. I hope she knows about Adam’s review.

[@crimsondynamo615]

She strikes me as someone who looks themselves up online a lot. Wouldn’t be surprised if she saw the the review and her having an ego saying she’s not wrong.

[@MrTroyman8]

Don’t we all.

[@MDT_2000]

I'm pretty sure she restricted who could reply to her tweets on Twitter at some point after Adam started talking about her TED Talk on stream. Presumably some of his fans were giving shit to her on twitter, so she probably knows about the existence of his review. I could be misremembering though and I don't use Twitter so I'm not 100% sure of how it works.

[@bensonk1939]

Would be funny to edit her wiki to mention her false claims on kimba

[@TheZigzagman]

Oh they harassed the shit out of her on Twitter. She automatically blocks anyone that mentions Kimba.

[@587DeathKing]

Adam doing this about Kimba is like when a dev does DLC that instead becomes a full sequel

[@pufflepoint]

Mario Galaxy 2

[@HGShurtugal]

I love how it starts off fine then pushes the racism to 11.

[@mr.shickadance4112]

@Spit Dragon Over 911

[@JediMasterBaiter]

@@mr.shickadance4112 Hmm, suspicious.

[@dnaidentheperson6497]

This doesn't even mention how one of the literal main themes of the show is pro-colonialism. It actively sees the erosion of culture in Africa as a good thing.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

I'm not sure your suppose to take the "Jungle Emperor" title literally. Japan embarked on a radical modernization campaign that saw it abandons its Chinese centric culture and westernized in a few short decades, but I'd hardly call that pro-colonial as Japan was not a colony. The movement was specifically called Datsu-A Ron, or "De-Asianization".

[@joaovitorcunha7029]

I remember some narrator line or something that goes like “they (africans) must forget about devils masks and voodoo drums”

[@luisf2793]

All of this is no surprise when you take into account that just 5 years before Kimba there was Imperial Japan. A nation under dictatorship that spread propaganda that Japan should conquer all of its neighbors and that all non Japanese people were lesser. For Christ sake they allied themselves with literal Nazis

[@Edax_Royeaux]

@@luisf2793 Uhh, the propaganda was about creating a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", an Asia for the Asians, free of Imperialist influences. Of course the propaganda was a total lie, but that was the propaganda.

[@luisf2793]

@@Edax_Royeaux that was the propaganda for Vietnam not Imperial Japan. At the very least Japan did discriminate against other Asian people if you look up what they did to Korea and China before and during WWII.

[@AMY1213141]

It’s really striking the way kimba portrays Africa vs the way tlk portrays it….kimba only shows native Africans and their culture in an almost unbelievably offensive way…while the lion king has Swahili names for most of its characters and the movie literally opens with an African language, sung by African people Edit: don’t even get me started on the lion king musical and how it emphasises on the celebration of African culture the movie touched on

[@trini_ben]

As an African myself, I couldn't agree more with this

[@abbyhill9331]

Lion King truly feels like a tribute and a love story to Africa. the cultural music, the stunning landscapes, the representation of different animals, the fact that African people had an enormous hand in making Lion King entirely. makes one want to learn more about the countless cultures and history that have existed for centuries.

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

⁠@@trini_benthats honestly really great to hear, one of the few if only Hollywood movies where people praise it embracing another culture and there’s not a comment talking about it being racist or orientalist, thats really great that it has that legacy. Whereas with a lot of kids films you grow up to find out the darker side of it or it actually being very wrong and offensive. Thing is other attempts that Hollywood have are either past offensive ones, or modern day well-intended but very misguided ones, like The Woman King, which was rlly kind of insulting to history and felt like an American appropriation rather than actually embracing/learning about another culture

[@trini_ben]

@@GuineaPigEveryday the race swapping that is happening in Disney too, well it is unfortunate to say least, hoping for better represention for more cultures!

[@ColeJJJTurner]

I love the triggered Kimba fans on the YMS video who falsely claimed Adum called Tezuka a racist without any proof when all he did was show objectively racist clips like this and said, "I'm not going to make assumptions or claims about the intentions here by everyone involved. All I'm saying is that this is what Tezuka wanted in his untouched original vision for the show. You can take this information however you want." I guess it's wrong now to state historic stuff? 💀

[@sampagano205]

Personally I'm just confused why anyone is surprised. He's the Walt Disney of Japan, you don't get to qualify for a title like "Walt Disney" without being at least very racist.

[@abrahamlupis9354]

​​@@sampagano205 at least Walt Disney made a better representation with Song of the South than his descendants Osamu Tezuka knew what he was doing and many should accept the content and not cancel or remove it like some sissy u.s. publishers are doing

[@user-rm1jp6hf5h]

At best you could make a Ralph Bakshi argument, where the stereotypical and bigoted depictions are satirical (which, here at least, they aren't). Maybe could even argue Tesuka was just reusing styles common for the time and drawing other races like that because it was common, but that also doesn't excuse it; it just suggests Tesuka was kind of ignorant to other cultures. And these are the *best case* scenario: he could've just been raised or held genuine beliefs that other cultures, specifically ones in Africa, must be like this. Like Idk.

[@rise-my-angel]

No matter how many times ive seen the review, or the editing highlights of Kimba, this stuff never ceased to shock me with how unapologetically racist this gets

[@Bourikii2992]

Have you not seen black tribals?

[@Jokoko2828]

Oh sweet summer child, there's much you have to learn about how hilariously xenophobic Japan is.

[@cal593]

Whenever I saw these kinds of depictions of black people in classic cartoons as a kid, I never realized they were supposed to be black people. I thought they were just supposed to be some kind of anthropomorphic animal or fantastical creature (kind of like Marvin the Martian). I think it was partially because I didn't know what racism was. I still forget these aren't some kind of animal.

[@Sinisterlizards]

@@Bourikii2992 I am studying to become a scholar of Sudanese and Ethiopian history and I could ask you the exact same thing based solely on your intimation here. The absolutely head-spinning complexity of traditional Oromo society (gadaa) would blow your mind. Age sets, fate lineages, tribal republicanism, religious dynamism, complexly cyclical notions of time and governance, and so on and so forth. Oba-Smidt’s 2015 “The Oral Chronicle of the Boorana” is a great example of all this. Don’t be so ignorant, man. You may have SEEN them, but it doesn’t seem like you cared to know them.

[@Bourikii2992]

@@Sinisterlizards Yes tribals have government. It's almost as if societies existed for 12,000 years and civilizations for 4,000 years. The native Americans were essentially stuck in the stone age before Europeans arrived in the americas. They still had government. Black tribes still exist basically in the same stone age state maybe early iron age style of life despite having contact with superior cultures and civilizations for thousands of years. Some of that due to modern peoples weird obsessive idea that we shouldn't advance people's lives because of preservation of woefully outdated culture.

[@DigitalIndra]

Lol what did people from Africa do to the Japanese to deserve this level of offensive caricature? Like damn, you'd think they farted on their dog or something.

[@foxygrin]

sorry this got a chuckle from me because I just imagined the whole population of Africa farting on a single dog. 1.3 billion people. 1 poor dog.

[@markcobuzzi826]

Or worse… farted in their general direction.

[@retsz]

Do they have any clue how unapologetically racist Japan can be? Their depictions of black people have been questionable at best, and outright offensive at worst. I've seen anime that might as well be a minstrel show with how they depict certain races.

[@aqua5758]

NOOOO JAPAN IS EPIC BIG CHUNGUS COUNTRY CANT DO WRONG

[@armiatwitchvod5496]

I adore Japanese culture and language, but it's very true that there are some incredibly racist elements in their society, even today.

[@drangc0bex119]

Agree but not the at best line. Like their are a lot of goated black anime chacters like Dutch, Canary , Yoruichi, Rung, Carole Stanley and Ogun from fire force. Like not everyone is mr. popo from DB

[@RanOutOfSpac]

I mean, Nagoryuki is cool as feck.

[@user-kk2dw1eh5q]

Japan is my favorite ethnostate

[@cal593]

Whenever I saw these kinds of depictions of black people in classic cartoons as a kid, I never realized they were supposed to be black people. I thought they were just supposed to be some kind of anthropomorphic animal or fantastical creature (kind of like Marvin the Martian). I think it was partially because I didn't know what racism was. I still forget these aren't some kind of animal.

[@cybercrasherstv]

That might've been their intention

[@HurricaneDDragon]

It’s very, um… interesting how they seem to have dubbed the racist African caricatures to sound like racist African AMERICAN caricatures.

[@Manticorn]

America is the only real country

[@henrynelson9301]

Big brain racism time

[@JediMasterBaiter]

"Here. Americanize dis shiyat!"

[@blakebrockhaus347]

Tbf, it was dubbed by Pat Robertsons CBN. So the ppl doing the dub were racist Americana

[@sogoma7797]

The Lion King didn't steal Kimba, but Celebrate Our Differences sure did

[@matthewcrome]

LMAO

[@testacals]

context ???

[@sogoma7797]

@testacals it's joke about the video "Celebrate our Differences" because there's black face in Kimba

[@DannyMGonz]

My comment is kinda late but recently I've been taking a history of manga class at my university and Tezuka was a whole section. His other works like Astro Boy and especially Ode to Kirihito were really good and I'd love to read his other works like Princess Knight and Black Jack. I knew Kimba before going into the class because I liked the anime. However, when it comes to the racism I'll say this based on lectures in class: Tezuka was born into a pretty rich family, he could read any manga he wanted and he was heavily inspired by Disney and American comics and cartoons. Tezuka considered animation his mistress and manga his wife as he always wanted to work on animation and he created his own studio. The Kimba anime in the states differs much from the manga as they didn't want blood, death, etc shown in the anime. That's why the one later movie caught me so off guard when I watched because the ending was so damn sad. Mentioned earlier, Tezuka was inspired by Disney and other American cartoons and he basically took what he saw there and applied it to his comics. He had a history of redrawing his characters and I have a feeling if he were alive today or lived longer than he did, he would've gone back to change it. After he died, a movement called "Stop Racism Against Blacks" in Japan started (really it was a family) that shed light on Sambo and went after Tezuka's work. It's kinda why when you get copies of Astro Boy manga you see a disclaimer similar to Looney Tunes cartoons saying "this wasn't ok then and it's not ok now, it wasn't Tezuka's intention on drawing this etc." As it was his Productions taking up on the disclaimers (could just be to save face but I digress) In all, Tezuka is still a huge factor and important player to the manga industry and mangaka were influenced by him. He was interesting to learn about and I think his story writing is great.

[@23Lgirl]

Japan is 98% Japanese and of the 2% is 1,5 from other Asian countries.

[@666FallenShadow]

@@23Lgirl so?

[@theSuper1Player]

Then CBN saw this show and said, “Hell yeah.”

[@matthewcrome]

Tracks. Considering Pat "the gays are gonna die out cause they can't reproduce" Robertson heralded it.

[@Jennifer_Rook_Deputy]

White, master race, racist and also vegetarian... Hmmm... This reminds me to a certain failed Austrian painter...

[@2devious724]

It shows how many people didn't look at the manga too because the blackface characters show up in the very first chapter. That or Kimba fans knew this and just decided not to show or tell Lion King fans about it.

[@judeconnor-macintyre9874]

I truly believe Kimba has no fans. Everyone just wants to sound smart or knowledgeable about this topic for some reason.

[@MatthewC33199]

Kimba is like 1930s American cartoons level racist. I remember having a middle school substitute music teacher (our regular music teacher was on maternity leave, so we got him for a long time) who loved old cartoons and would play them all day. I remember lots of “Mammy” jokes and the Betty Boop episode with Louis Armstrong. Japan is still partially stuck in that mindset. (Not saying American is much better, but for some reason people think Japanese people can’t be racist.)

[@AnimeNeverEnds]

the excuses stem from the fact that since japan is a secluded and homogenized island nation, it therefore means that they just “don’t know what they’re doing” because they’ve never had that “exposure” to people with different skin which makes no sense because, speaking as an asian, with or without white influence colorism is a VERY prevalent problem throughout a lot of asian cultures. people will always comment on your complexion if you’re darker than paper

[@MatthewC33199]

@@AnimeNeverEnds Not to mention that racism is prevalent basically everywhere (unless all of the people there are the exact same race, but even then they’ll find equally trivial differences to discriminate against people for), so it would be odd if any one country WASN’T racist at some point or another. “Fake woke” people think racism was invented by white people or something when really it’s existed for all of human history.

[@micahcook2408]

Anti-blackness/darker skinned is honestly a world phenomenon

[@Edax_Royeaux]

Watch Attack on Titan and tell me Japan doesn't know how to portray pseudo-Europeans in a Medieval like society.

[@mr.shickadance4112]

There's this really childish mindset that only white people can be racist. People seem so surprised about racism from other races for some reason.

[@MegaGameXtreme]

Friendly reminder that Japan has an iconic character in their culture called "Sambo" and it's literally a racist depiction of a black child from a book written in like the 30s. I'm serious, look it up.

[@charmygreen665]

Im familiar with sambo as a character, but i had no idea he was an iconic character in japan. Jesus lol

[@MegaGameXtreme]

@@charmygreen665 The Sanrio company l, who is well known for mascots like hello kitty, made a design inspired by Sambo and let's just say they got a looooot of backlash for it.

[@bobjones2959]

I was not prepared for what I found when I looked it up lmao

[@henrynelson9301]

Yeah it’s called Little Black Sambo, and one of the executions in the first Danganronpa game is a direct(ish?) reference to it. Not only is it weird to reference a story where all the results on Google images are racist, but it’s probably one of the strangest executions in the series, especially without the context.

[@daseal1479]

We had Bosko, the first Looney Tune, but he was charming, and the creators realized even then how bad the design could look for them, and would usually call him simply an "ink kid", which still fit their idea at the time, then he was phased out slowly by the introduction of newer characters, leading to the cast we have today. Bottom line, America seems to handle their old cartoons and racist depictions more humbly, understanding it was a product of the time, and that it's obviously not okay to ever let it happen again.

[@HippopotamusLovecraft]

Asian people even outside Japan are notoriously racist too (especially towards african people) . I am from a south asian country and people here are depressingly racist towards our own people. I know that America and Europe are sufficiently racist but I still feel like black people and other POCs are far more accepted in some part of the society than they are here. In pop culture here light skinned people are extremely fetishized and dark skinned people are butts of jokes. It really baffles me so much because almost all countries here have a shared history of European colonialism that was based on racist ideologies, but we are just continuing the same legacy. It is funny that Adam pointed out this in his analysis of the Kimba conspiracy because people really do tend have reductive views of western and eastern cultures. I wish more people talked about this complicated topic.

[@MrSpoodersaurus]

Just like China censoring Black People from there posters. Or redubbing films removing any mention of a character being gay. Ect…

[@milkmatcha3698]

i feel you, i live in a southeast asian country and people still have this stigma about black people (and general dark-skinned people) due to the beauty standard of "lighter skin = pretty, dark skin = ugly/dirty" from colonizers way back when. most SEA people see issues of racism as only an american thing for some reason??? purely because they're infamously vocal about it on social media. racism has been so normalized here they see it as normal and the marginalized individuals shouldn't be talked about, its just screwed up.

[@grouchotrout444]

How can a race be racist towards itself? The Asian stigma against darker skin has nothing to do with Western colonialism, it's classicism. In ye olden days, having darker skin meant you were low/working class because you'd be tanned from working outdoors, whereas the rich folk were lounging indoors all day doing nothing. It's like the inverse of the West where a tan means you can afford to vacation at the beach and is therefore considered attractive, where pale skin means you're a cubicle slave or basement dwelling incel gamer. Asian people can totally be, and are, racist though.

[@mr.shickadance4112]

I wouldn't say that European colonialism was based on racism. They used racism to justify driving out or enslaving the natives, but they really wanted resources and land. If collaborating with the natives got them land and resources more easily than they would do that in some cases.

[@nickrustyson8124]

Hell a big part of the LA Riots was the Tension between Asian and Black Communities

[@SavoxYt]

4:01 Are we sure that's not just a giant, bipedal beaver?

[@LeortisBooks]

Japan has a long history of racism and xenophobia that’s still prevalent today. Most Americans don’t want to acknowledge that about their culture because we’ve become so obsessed with Japanese media.

[@Trynt33]

And they're in turn obsessed with the U.S. making for an echo chamber. I think the U.S. would rather just like any other culture but their own at this point

[@nickrustyson8124]

@@Trynt33 Not really it's a person to person thing, I personally like American (/Canadian it's basically the same thing when you get to the little details) more than any other cultures

[@23Lgirl]

@@Trynt33 Japan is more obsessed with French and Hollywood is dying in Japan.

[@Problematist]

Black black black black

[@theotherjared9824]

Osamu Tezuka had likely never seen a non-japanese person in his life, let alone someone with remotely dark skin. For all he knew, that was what African tribal people actually looked like. It's part of a bigger issue of Japan as a whole refusing to interact with the outside world and only knowing about foreign people and concepts through media and hearsay, a mentality that somewhat persists to this day.

[@xblade149]

Not only that Japan was also getting information from American media as well. Including a lot of cartoons from the 1920s and 30s that had a lot of racist depiction. Tezuka stated Disney was his inspiration.

[@cassandra.wladyslava]

He did have interactions with non-Japanese people outside of Japan, though. A prime example is his meeting Walt Disney in New York. It is possible he got his idea of how to draw black people from American cartoons. He did say his art was influenced by Disney.

[@moistcr1tikalsfifthtesticl952]

@June explaination =/= excuse, they're not saying the racism here is ok

[@dracocrusher]

I would not be surprised if old menstrual shows and older racist depictions were literally THE thing they based black people on. Because even if you know what real black people look like, if you don't know that stuff's offensive then it's like... "I guess this is how you just draw a black guy, right?" I'm sure people at NBC or whatever tried to tell them this in some way, but I could very easily see this turning into something like Tezuka thinking "Well it's a show about Africa, so I don't know why they don't want to see black people, but we've GOT to include them, right?! Because I have so many 'fun' ideas to work with here!" Or maybe he was just malicious about this. I dunno, but it seems plausible enough that this is coming more from an ignorant attempt to be authentic than anything else.

[@xblade149]

@June bruh chill, Jesus. We are not defending tezuka ding dong.

[@builttoscalevideos]

The fact there isn’t a “Kimba the White Lion being racist and unhinged for 10 minutes” meme compilation is wild. Guess that means I gotta watch the 50+ hours of Kimba now lol.

[@TessuDraws]

People like to forget/ignore how incredibly racist and xenophobic Japan can be. Manga and anime have harmful racist stereotypes even to this day (tho obviously not as bad as it used to be). It really is horrid how you don't even have to go that far back to see this stuff (tho that's true for American and European media, too) The manga was actually released in Finland not many years back but it did come with a disclaimer like "it's a product of its time, we do not agree with this". I completely understand why Americans wouldn't want to publish it, tho, even with such a disclaimer.

[@abrahamlupis9354]

they're not harmful, they're funny Now I understand why the japanese media now rarely uses black characters and many aren't but they have inusual brown tans from being dark elves, artificial humans, guinea pigs, from going to the beach with white lines, being homosexual, etc.

[@Billiamwoods]

​@@abrahamlupis9354What the hell are you on

[@petergriffinatethegenevaco8777]

​@@abrahamlupis9354dawg you lost the plot halfway through your nonsensical rambling

[@Lily10138]

Tezuka is my favorite mangaka but he really leans into stereotypes and black face too much. Even in later years when he could have changed his artstyle he didn't. It's really sad to see him continue to have used it because his stories are interesting and he's inspired so many other mangakas.

[@Manticorn]

What makes it just a bit more sad to me is that he had progressive ideas about gender and women for the time. He had a lot of respect for women and especially mothers.

[@Bourikii2992]

@@rasengdori13 We get literal garbage now lmao. Manga stopped being good 30 years ago

[@Bourikii2992]

@@rasengdori13 "Oi boy the 100th anime about a loser who gets transported to another world and gets a harem this day"

[@Trynt33]

@@dihyaneverforget5163 He's not even rated, who has heard of him over here beyond the idiotic Kimba crowd?

[@Zeno2806]

I'm sure he wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that some millenial zoomers on the internet are bothered by something so innocuous and irrelevant

[@nikmarshall2989]

This is a decent point, and your long form video on whether TLK constitutes as a rip off is very informative and hilarious but to be fair, Disney was also churning out racist imagery and characterizations in their films through the 50’s. Maybe not quite to such an extreme degree as some of these, but Peter Pan for an example certainly has significant racist aspects to the film, and that came out around the same time as this. Like, it’s not really at all a hot take to say, cartoons from 65+ years ago were often extremely racist.

[@jessicapinkman-xm2eg]

literally everyone was like that back then quit acting like only disney was guilty of this

[@jskywalker58]

you know i still have yet to hear one Indian person say they found the portrayal of Indians in peter pan "offensive"

[@nikmarshall2989]

@@jskywalker58 I mean, I doubt a ton on people have that on their mind these days. Have you asked a ton of First Nations people about their opinions on the portrayal? I feel like it’s obviously problematic, like pretty vanilla for the time, but by modern standards it has a lot of problems, I mean it kind of trivializes the actual history of the various native people in North America and makes them kind of unflattering and inaccurate cartoons juxtaposed with fantasy pirates and mermaids. Again, this feels like the absolute coldest take.

[@Kawaiikitten39]

As a black person, all I can say is, Oh Japan

[@therobotchickenMLP]

And then the Christian Broadcasting Network picked it up in the 80s. Kinda suspicious.

[@abrahamlupis9354]

for the values

[@allegedlyfalse6779]

Pretty sure anyone saying Lion King "ripped off" Kimba doesn't know anything about Kimba apart from its name, and maybe some select screenshots that people use to compare the two properties.

[@TheBroz]

@@tijanamilenkovic9442You should stop copying that shit everywhere. No one gives a shit and you’re wasting your time.

[@matthewlasalvia7026]

Fun Fact: Tezuka had received letters from various U.S. civil rights groups in the 1960s asking him to present his black characters more realistically. This was followed up in 1965 when he met with reportedly all white NBC executives who attempted to persuade him to do the same. He eventually referenced and satirized the meeting with the execs in his 1974 manga “Paper Fortress.” According to some reports, he eventually but reluctantly caved in to their demands, however a Tokyo-based African American scholar and author named Dr. John G. Russell claims that Tezuka continued to draw black characters in a offensive and stereotypical manner until his death in 1989. What makes this all the more ironic and even disheartening is that before this, he visited UCLA to give a lecture and was chastised by female students who insisted that the heroine in his upcoming film adaptation of “Phoenix 2772” represented oppressed women everywhere. That meeting changed his view on women and from that moment on he would draw his female characters with more sensitivity and care. Guess those letters from those U.S. civil rights groups didn’t have quite the same emotional impact for him.

[@joeiorio9654]

My dad overhead Adum when I watched this video and he said “I hate how he uses the word racist. He doesn’t know what racism is.” Pretty sure blackface is the definition of racism, DAD

[@brian78721]

I would love the idea of yms to show the blackface scenes in the review while its dubbed by pharrelle williams saying "black black black black black"

[@unumatochild]

Why anyone is surprised, I have no idea. Listen, I love Japan and Japanese history - look at my icon - but Japan was a member of the Axis forces and was deeply, incredibly Imperialist and racist. There is much about Japanese culture that I enjoy and value, but erasing these things erases the complexity of Japanese history and diminishes the weight of global history we all share.

[@ajzeg01]

The Kimba review was 2 years ago already?

[@Majjoo06]

It should be a well known fact that Japan has very racist past and still is racist and xenophobic in some ways. One only needs to take a look at the few portrayals of black people in anime to notice how often they're terrible. Something that always bugged me about anime is how often Japanese people have European features even when the anime takes place in japan, but that's another tangent for another day. Either way people who put Japanese media on a pedestal irk me a lot.

[@hawoaliahmed6996]

japanese draw japanese people mostly you know when you see a foreigner in any anime

[@BilalKhan-tn2wq]

Yeah I agree, just look at Sailor Moon.

[@Trecherousbeast]

I don't think the Japanese are literally going our of their way to be racist when it comes to characters that have blackface features. I really feel like they just don't know any better. What characters are you saying have European features? When Japanese people are quizzed on a character-s ethnicity, most times they clearly identify them as Japanese. Seeing anime characters as white is a purely American thing.

[@Edax_Royeaux]

@@Trecherousbeast For one, you'll have a hard time picking out the European amongst the Neon Genesis Evangelion cast if you have no prior reference.

[@justcallmekai1554]

​@@Trecherousbeast Nah at a certain point its not just ignorance especially it the past 20 years. Maybe in the 60s but long after that? No sorry. This is more of a branch of colorism. Its already bad when an Asian person is a bit tanned or brown. What would a colorist Japanese person would think of a black person (who are also still brown or darker)? Japan isn't in a box. This isn't to say that Tezuka is some KKK dude (he isnt) but the effect is still the same. I'm sure he could have drawn a good depiction of a black person knowing how talented he was.

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

This reminds me of the Tintin comic called _"Tintin in the Congo"_ where the protagonist goes to Africa with characters that consisted with racial caricatures, especially with the African tribes. (Let's not forget that time Tintin literally killed the rhino with a dynamite in the same comic)

[@EveTheBoneQueen]

This fucking Tintin comic has remained burned into my psyche since I read it, purely for the racism. Even as a kid, seeing those caricatures weirded me out something fierce

[@nico.f.]

Hergé's attitude towards the non-white characters in his early books was, by his own admission, born out of a paternalistic colonial mindset. Less "filthy heathen savages!" and more "those poor savages!". Since The Blue Lotus he began caring to portray other ethnicities with greater nuance, though often imperfectly. Perhaps Tezuka was the same in this regard?

[@megaman9393]

@@nico.f. Tezuka definitely wasn’t like that, while he was bad with stereotypes, he had been a victim of racism himself, and understood how bad it was. While the visuals look bad, it’s much more because of his influence from Disney, based on their depictions. Once he found out, he just didn’t really change it because he was already set in his style. If you look at other works of his, you can see he saw them as equals. He just heavily drew on stereotypes, unfortunately.

[@-Zakhiel-]

So, am I the only one who laughs when I read Tintin in the Congo because of how awful it is?

[@EveTheBoneQueen]

@@-Zakhiel- It would probably be funny to skim through lol. That's the one book I remember the least from, so its probably not the best Tintin book anyway

[@RhymeswithSpecialNeeds]

5:29 lol they didn’t even try to give them an appropriate accent. Why would tribal people sound like they’re from urban America?!?!

[@somethingwithultra7231]

I mean I won't lie, as much as I love manga, when I hear about some of the most ballsy but immensely fucked up shit some famous older mangaka did it's insane. An example of this being Go Nagia, whom inspired many things with Mazinger Z and Devilman. Whom when forced to rush Devilman to completion, got so mad that he uhhh... Kind of imagined a far more brutal death for the childhood friend character that would've undoubtedly ruined his career IF it had gone through.

[@sirlenemodesto2665]

Wait more brutal than the decapitation thing after seeing her little brother die? What was she also raped by the mov?

[@PaintSplashProductions]

It’s getting better but there’s still controversies here and there, e.g. Sister Krone from A Promised Neverland

[@somethingwithultra7231]

@@galanga21890 Well simply but cruelly said, she was going to be raped to death instead of just decapitated.

[@Semilion]

@@galanga21890 Yeah, would love a source, I've come up with nothing after searching for it. Is this actually real or just an unfounded rumour?

[@thomasgiles2876]

A lot of people in the comments here thinking Japan has never committed genocide on a large scale. Guess what, the same wealthy stake holders in 1940s Japan propaganda were wealthy stake holders in the 1960s TV.

[@liltiger3]

There’s a lot of beef between pretty much all the East Asian countries, but there are very good reasons why Japan is universally hated the most by everyone.

[@PointsofData]

Where tf is Japan's history of genocide talked about in this Kimba comment section?

[@thomasgiles2876]

@@PointsofData The Other Jared: Oh poor Japan man never saw non Japan man, not his fault of fervent racism.

[@dagwood6703]

In Osamu Tezuka’s IMDb page trivia section, it says that the reason he drew those caricatures was because he was only continuing the style he saw in many American comics and films.

[@asinnerontheright]

Still racist though.

[@Hothouseflowersss]

I mean it’s sorta more than just the art style,the themes and stories in the episodes r pretty racist

[@KALAIII1]

@@TheDinoKitteh peanuts strips

[@chillinsquirtle]

@@TheDinoKitteh pretty sure you can find looney tunes and disney characters doing black face, so that's what he was inspired by

[@PaintSplashProductions]

Oof

[@DigitalIndra]

Lol what did people from Africa do to the Japanese to deserve this level of offensive caricature? Like damn, you'd think they farted on their dog or something.

[@tylerhackner9731]

Yikes 😬

[@Eidlones]

Maybe I'm stupid, but isn't this not really blackface? Since that's people putting on makeup to "look" black, while these are just racist caricature?

[@gunnarswenson4505]

It’s a blackface style caricature

[@theoddbox]

To be fair Disney did blackface stuff too but this is another level, this is even worse than the censored 11

[@BigSisterNeko]

Some wild shit. I’ve never been on Kimba’s side but yeah… folks who don’t know shit like this was super common back in the “good ole days” 😒

[@gianni206]

“Kimba is the most racist thing I’ve ever seen!” *Enters Birth Of A Nation*

[@Boredman567]

A lot of these blackface cartoons depicting Africans are really shockingly racist. The manga illustrations look just like a couple of Mickey Mouse cartoons/comics from the 30s and 40s. The titles were "Mickey's Man Friday" and "Mickey Mouse and the Boy Thursday". They're straight up depicted like animals, with light-colored muzzles and dark button noses. The Kimba manga was made in the 50s, so it's even more recent than those Mickey cartoons.

[@PeninsulaPaintings]

But yeah, let's shit on Lion King for having character actors that aren't all black; voice animal characters set in Africa. Except for the Hyenas, how dare they get ethnic actors to play two of those! CLEARLY, Lion King is worse lol (sarcasm, obviously).

[@bkebradley]

Technically this would be an example of golliwogs, not blackface

[@EnigmaHood]

The 97 Kimba movie is also problematic, namely with the last scene where Leo, provokes the man to kill him, then in his dying breath tells the man to eat his flesh and clothe himself in his fur. I really hated the message in that scene because it implies to children that animals give consent to being killed for human benefit, and they absolutely do not. Human exploitation of animals to benefit humans is in many ways, a necessary evil, but it's evil nonetheless, and it shouldn't be construed that animals are in any way willing participants in our exploitation of them. Even more problematic, is that a lion is advancing this message, an animal that we have absolutely no justification in ever killing and is an endangered species. But Leo's self-sacrifice to benefit a human, is characterized as noble, wise, and brave. Even worse, they characterize it as "a sacrifice to saving the land", when in actuality, the sacrifice was to save a human. It turns out, environmentalism was never the theme of Kimba media, it was conservationism. Conservationism is different from environmentalism in that, the preservation and protection of nature and the environment, is motivated by human need and benefit, rather than a genuine concern for the environment and nature as a goal on to itself.

[@Nightstalker314]

Despite being so "woke" they seem to be asleep when watching whatever they defend.

[@mrblobby7864]

I'm so confused as to why they still give them exaggerated minstrel style accents even though the dub was done in the 80s. If they had to keep the blackface couldn't they at least do what Dragon Ball did where even though the black characters still look like racist characatures, they have normal sounding voices? It would still be racist but less so than what they went for.

[@YMSHighlights]

Because the Christian Broadcasting Company was founded by Pat "What is mac and cheese, is that a black thing" Robertson.

[@MJ-mp1fx]

To be fair, it wouldn't be a huge stretch to assume Disney was the corporate, racist bad guy. Though it's good to know Kimba itself became a despicable property.

[@5cream5]

the kimba knight to nazifur pipeline

[@felixmcinally8037]

Big ups for the "not subtitling this racist shit" xddd

[@BlastedRodent]

Kimba the white supremacist lion

[@btbwilkinson]

"I hope that I can be like my ancestors as well as look like them."

[@X_Blake]

Well that's what we get for not doing our research. I'm glad Adum made that video.

[@miryklebartley-pv6sb]

Kimba is so Racist 😭

[@abrahamlupis9354]

no, the society now is intolerant

[@vincent207]

That’s the 60s for you. Racial depictions put out back then were wild.

[@theminecraft2516]

America wasn’t this racist in the 60’s, this is 40’s or 30’s level bad

[@NewSonyWonderHappyMadisonFan]

Nah this was bad even for the time.

[@edwes66]

I think the show is barely portraying reality as it is, yes it is Racist because is telling how cruel the world is, the show doesnt embrace racism like making all the characters only white in existence. If you watch every osamu tezuka's work you must need to understand the context of his artistic expression that he place the real world narrative problems then place how its solved and make it a happy ending how the real world issues can be fought against. Yet people would call the show racist by simply portraying black characters being punished by whites without understanding the context and meaning of whats being expressed. Why in the media its always have to be taken too seriously? Is something i wouldn't never understand

[@Yor_gamma_ix_bae]

People just wanna scream about how bad america is . Hahaha america isn’t that special! We all bad! We also did eugenics in Brazil.

[@tmzissupergay]

I like how Deep South America took a look at this and said: Nah this is too racist. It’s 1965. Time to move past this

[@umjammerlammy9993]

It’s very akin to 1920s Bostonians telling HP Lovecraft he was extremely racist

[@dylanmcartoonell1536]

“You have no right to call him names just because he was white!”

[@Boomrainbownuke9608]

if only unsee buttons actually worked

[@sori_osori_]

It always baffles me to see such racist potrayal like this. Like there's always simple solution. Just draw them as same as how you draw japanese character(It not like manga drawing of japaneses character is what japaness people are like). But they somehow go out of their way, draw differently to portray it in a most racist way possible

[@Vulgarth1]

I have to admit, the idea of an old fashioned African tribal figure not actually having a bone piercing and just wearing a Groucho Marx-esque plastic fake is fucking hilarious.

[@mememcqueen5052]

He almost goes to heaven, but then he goes to Black Hell 😂😂😂😂😂

[@ricktaylortheferret2428]

The Kimba from the sequel series belongs in every Hell imaginable.

[@boxxidraws7690]

I agree that people don't know what they're talking about when they're trying to defend Kimba as a Lion King rip off. Especially under the premise that a poor japanese company being oppressed by a racist american company (in this case). I even concede that the depictions of africans in the manga are pretty distasteful as well. However having read the actual manga all the way thru, I can say if you can't get past the stereotypical drawings and recognize em as a product of it's time and see what the manga's about then you're missing out on a very poignant and heart breaking story. I can even argue that the africans are not even focused on throughout the entire thing, and they actually don't say anything that I'd consider to be offensive (not like the 66 anime). It's mainly an aesthetic issue as far as I could tell. It's too bad that there's not any adaptation of Jungle Emperor Leo that really explored the central themes of the manga in an effective way. I guess the 97 movie came close but the theme living in harmony with civilization and nature was explored very well in the manga, kind of in the same vain as Princess Mononoke despite the way those stories were told.

[@hobbythmiki]

best comment ever

[@Edax_Royeaux]

And I'm sure there's a very poignant story in Birth of a Nation (1915 ), but no one should really have to get past to stereotypical product-of-it's-time portrayals because that in itself is a deal-breaker.

[@humbug575]

like people have said before japan’s pr team is the best there ever was because that “quiet and soft” image they got is unshakable for a lot of people. gonna need those folks to look up what japan was doing in 1910 to 1945.

[@crazyjedi5994]

Been binging the Kimba highlights recently, so this was a nice surprise.

[@fangthedergon1863]

The f**k I grew up watching kimba we had VHS of it and I still remember the theme song but damn

[@Lastiri2004]

I dont know to called Kimba racist than a product of their time. Some comic artist were openly racist in the past (I think Tintin artist Herge), but Osamu Tezuka started Jungle Tantei in the 50s. He was influenced by cartoons and media with racist undertones who were really naturalized at that time. The black civil movement started in the 60s. Its difficult to talk about this subjects without the context. Tezuka gonna improve a lot and gonna do some work that talked openly against racism/bigrotry and the consecuence from that.

[@goingunder2548]

It sucks really, I guess you can still show a child the original manga and anime today and they would probably still really like it. But a responsibly parent would also use these poorly aged moments as learning opportunities, to show the child how black people used to be viewed as society and why it isn't seen in their other modern shows, books etc. About why these stereotypes developed and how they harmed black people a lot. It isn't even a concept that's all that confusing to even a smaller child, and it's important to tell them these things as soon as possible, because small children are sponges and will internalise and act out anything they watch or read. I don't think it's ever a good idea to censor older media because it's a slippery slope, but I don't think it's necessary unless the parent has these discussions and teaches the child that they can enjoy older media while also accepting that the discriminatory parts were a product of the time and to be open minded about it all. Unfortunately that's asking for too much for a lot of parents... to them the TV is just a babysitter.

[@jorami4838]

I don't support the "they were just mimicking American caricature!" Arguments. Japanese people know what black people look like. They're not that ignorant. They were being racist.

[@megaman9393]

@@jorami4838 You know nothing about Tezuka. Like the point of Adams Kimba video was, do your own research. Kimba was by far his worst in regards to black people, in all his later stuff he treated them as equals. The worst part was the way he drew them. Also, it was the 60’s, based on a book from the 50’s. Japanese people definitely did not have access to good depictions of black people at the time.

[@-Zakhiel-]

Calling Hergé a full on racist is a bit of stretch though.

[@s.g.7572]

@@-Zakhiel- It's not a stretch to call his early comics unambiguously racist, although there is a conversation to be had about how much of those were him and how much were his publishers. While he definitely got better as time went on, like in The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet, to my memory his only depiction of black people remains Tintin in the Congo. Which is pretty much as bad as it gets.

[@maledicenttails]

I love how you just could not be bothered putting up with Kimbas shit by refusing to subtitle the racist parts lmao

[@henryhammond7393]

Jeez, Kimba makes me realize I don’t give America nearly enough credit sometimes… holy shit… until the Pat Robertson network came along of course…

[@daliborjovanovic510]

Kimba, the White Lion's Burden

[@exeortegarubio]

In the Baki the Grappler manga, which is not short of controversies when depicting women (Keisuke Itagaki is also married and has a daughter, which adds more insult to injury), there is a minor character named Zulu who is a Brazilian descendant of slaves and Vale Tudo fighter, depicted as a mindless man, who never speaks and fights as if he was hunting. Apart from the implications that he's uncivilised for being black, there is a very disturbing recount of his background, which implies that slavery towards African peoples was good in the end as it toughened them up (something among those lines). I know Baki has had a resurgence due to the Netflix series (I advise to avoid it as if it were the plague), but the next adaptation of its third installment is enough to feel disgusted towards Itagaki.

[@abrahamlupis9354]

still doesn't make Baki less of a great concept and Beastars is awesome too, being political correct is BORING & POINTLESS!

[@MrSonicHedgehog]

When Toriyama is more sensitive than the ones who worked on Kimba you know you've failed

[@agooddaytorespawn57]

Adum should do a Kimba Crowd video where it showcases all the Racism. Or someone else should, either way

[@paperclip9558]

With wawawawawa music of course

[@cccreaturefeature]

Oh wow yikes! I was really interested in checking out Kimba based on a few people recommending it (mostly just the "I like talking animal movie" type folks), but knowing this I uh, think I'll pass...

[@Violaphobia]

There is a small point to make that “black face” is a specifically American invention and aesthetic, but the depictions are offensive regardless of the label 🤮

[@wisuslara1199]

I don’t think that’s fair, is not like América did not make racist cartoon depictions of Asian people. I think it goes full circle

[@loremipsum980]

From my extensive experiences of consuming both Western and Eastern media, as well as exposure to folks from both sides of the world, I can say that Asian media makes just as many stereotypical depictions of white/black people as American media does of Asian people. These depictions are honestly hella absurd. Like, they've got only some extremely limited and inaccurate notions of what the people from the other side are like, and just freaking roll with them. Most of the time, neither side is interested in presenting the other in a realistic way, so both sides are equally guilty of racism.

[@JS-pf1cv]

African American depiction in manga has always had this issue. At least with artists who focus on exaggerated features and more cartoony nature. Mainly due to exaggeration of the lips. It’s not just Tezuka. (In his later works the blackface exaggerations are removed. And in one of his manga, Swallowing the Earth he does depict African Americans being unfairly oppressed. (It’s on page 260)(read the whole manga for the full context)(yes the African Americans are depicted racistly, but his core message is the opposite.) Most of his messages revolve about uniting the world, not dividing it. Seriously read Unico, Astroboy, or Triton. I don’t think Tezuka is a racist just misguided by his impressions of American cartoons of the 20’s and 30’s. This is sort of a trend with other mangaka too. Is Akira Toryiyama and Toei animation racist for how they depict Mr. Popo? Or some of the other black background characters in Dragonball? Is Ken Sugimori and the game freak development team racist for the original concept for Jynx? Is that black clown henchman from buggy’s pirate gang from One piece (he appears in like the 3rd of 5th episode, the character that 4Kids changed his skin to white for censorship reasons) Does that make Oda and Toei racists? Japan is not perfect. And the depictions are questionable and racistly depicted. But at the same time, should we just disregard the entire work, or acknowledge it as a product of it’s time but still able to enjoy it? I see many people here calling Tezuka a racist just on this basis without having read his other works for more context (The English dub of the show is mostly to blame).

[@Megrez-Alberich]

Adum doesn't know what he is talking about. He doesn't know what "blackface" is (white people wearing makeup in order to mock and dehumanize black people), he doesn't know that the Japanese don't live in a muti-ethnic country and most of them have never met someone from a different ethnicity in real life (even today, so imagine 60 years ago!), he doesn't know that the Japanese merely copied what they saw in the *Western* productions of that era (including Disney's cartoons) out of sheer ignorance, he doesn't know that some of the most embarrassing aspects of Kimba are exclusive to the American dub, he doesn't seem to realize that it's mostly the _white_ settlers who are depicted as the bad guys in Kimba (they are cruel, greedy, arrogant, dishonest, and yes, openly racist towards the natives), he doesn't know that Tezuka was a humanitarian who was a victim of racist abuse in his childhood and who later spent his whole life preaching about tolerance and respect among people, etc. Jungle Emperor is not a racist show/manga, far from it. It's just incredibly dated and didn't age very well...The only truly embarrassing thing is this video. So much ignorance, so much self-righteouness, and so much BS! Tsk tsk... Yes, _some_ of the natives in Kimba are represented with exaggerated features, while some are drawn more realistically (such as the hunter with the golden bow, for example). But that's also the case with the white and Asian and Arab characters in the show! Basically, Tezuka made caricatures of absolutely everybody, regardless of their ethnicity. He mocked behaviors, not skin colors. See, the difference is that here, in the West, we knew perfectly well what we were doing when we caricatured black people, and it was done out of malice. Whereas in Japan, they just saw old American cartoons from the 40s and 50s and thought "oh, so this is what black people look like? Well, ok!" (And just so we are perfectly clear, here: explaining ≠ condoning). Seriously, I know that Adum is Canadian, but he sounds as uneducated and as self-centered as your "typical" American guy who believes the rest of the world revolves around the US, its history, and its culture... Hey, Adum! Guess what? You don't need to bash and deliberately misrepresent Kimba in order to praise TLK, ya know? *edit BTW, Mister Popo is most likely based on the Hindu/Buddhist deity Mahākāla.

[@Megrez-Alberich]

@@tijanamilenkovic9442 Although controversial, pineapple & ham is a great pizza topping.🍍

[@Felandian]

As another commenter stated, Disney also made quite a bit of VERY racist content itself. I will never forgive the racism from Kimba. But I can't forget the patience and kindness I learned when I was a kid from Kimba. I don't like Tezuka, but I like Kimba for the kind character he is/was in the 1997+ versions of the series.

[@abrahamlupis9354]

racism on media is good if is done correctly

[@starrydreamer4697]

Please do reviews on Raggedy Ann and Andy a musical adventure it’s almost more insanely bizarre and f**ked up than kimba lmao and people compare it with Toy Story which it’s nothing like as Disney was also accused of with ripping off kimba

[@scatmanjohnfan22]

Raggedy ann and andy definitely isn't nearly as weird as kimba. Its just a surreal kids cartoon animated by one of the greatest animators. Also, no ones really accusing toy story of ripping it off.. because ive never heard of that. Ive been a fan of the film for a long time and heard no such thing

[@scatmanjohnfan22]

@@tijanamilenkovic9442 I'm not reading all that shit sorry.

[@HannahMartinez-z1f]

Perez Sarah Lee Karen Johnson Anna

[@brennenlee488]

This is why Legend of the Galactic Heroes is the GOAT If you know, you know

[@theturtwig50]

Osama Tezuka and some of the Japanese do not have the best views on Africans.

[@Angel-jc1op]

Bro it was made in the 60’s

[@murdockpt]

i like it. reminds me of all the tribes i forgot existed. non-racism just made me forget...

[@megaman9393]

Tezuka definitely wasn’t as racist as people say, but he was bad with stereotypes. He had been a victim of racism himself, and understood how bad it was. While the visuals look bad, it’s much more because of his influence from Disney, based on their depictions. Once he found out, he just didn’t really change it because he was already set in his style. If you look at other works of his, you can see he saw them as equals. He just heavily drew on stereotypes, unfortunately. It’s much more of an “ignorance instead of malice” thing, and I’m not saying it’s okay that he drew them like that, but he was definitely less racist than most Americans and Japanese at the time.

[@monopolizeme]

I didn't quite get what you meant when this started... seemed ok, stylistic choices were made.... but holy shiteness wtf 😂

[@VagabondRetro]

Yeah it was pushing it at first but debatable, then as soon as America left it went from questionable to Vaudeville.

[@uberfiend2544]

Always nice finding out the truth

[@JamesJimmyMcGill]

Those charicatures are really cute. Purely speaking on the art.

[@GrayD_Fox]

Did she just say “Mr boss man”

[@Underground408]

Simba would never

[@Problematist]

Least racist anime