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Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro
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May 8, 2021 1:12 PM
#1
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Jul 2019
860
Ok, so we have a female MC who has dark skin, so the question, why???

No racial profiling intended.
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May 8, 2021 1:23 PM
#2
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Feb 2017
1
Well if you've read the manga you know the answer already.
May 8, 2021 1:49 PM
#3

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Jul 2015
11975
It has been already confirmed numerous times, that she has a tan.

May 8, 2021 2:00 PM
#4

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Jan 2021
1559
The obvious answer is that the author wanted her to be like that.
May 8, 2021 2:00 PM
#5
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Feb 2021
221
She’s just tanned, only an improvement 👍
May 8, 2021 2:38 PM
#6
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Oct 2020
80
She is tanned, she is a gyaru
May 8, 2021 5:22 PM
#7
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Oct 2020
387
Horn_dawg_2019 said:
Ok, so we have a female MC who has dark skin, so the question, why???

No racial profiling intended.


Honestly, it's just the artist choice. Canonically it's a tan, but we know that's a bit too dark to be a "tan" for realism sense but hey. I actually like the skintone in the Manga better realism wise. And this is coming from a black person so. But yeah, other more serious slice of life shows like Oregairu, Jaku-Chara, Horimiya don't have dark skinned (or tanned) characters because (realism) black and dark skinned people generally don't live in Japan (sorry about the 15 that do) Japan is 97% Japanese. Maybe the southerners are an exception but still...

Now personally I feel like the artist is doing this for diversity credits and I kinda don't like it tbh. Like in the US and west in general, media now has to represent EVERY and ANYBODY and it can come off as forced and obvious when productions make a diversity quota. Anime is becoming more mainstream and globalized but is still very much so "by Japanese for Japanese" and having that outsider looking in perspective is partially why I fell in love with the medium. An example being how shows can do well in the west but if they don't do well in Japan they often get cancelled or don't get continuations and this doesn't work both ways. Yes, I'm not Japanese so why should I care? Because it affects the medium in a significant way. This goes into people complaining about Japan's Immigration policies being "racist" when they really just don't want their culture diluted. Apparently France will have more middle eastern then actual (ethnically, racially and nationally) Frenchmen around 2050 and later. You can see the damage that can do to a culture and cultural identity.
Japan and France are different from the US because we are all foreigners (except the NA's but they became a hyper minority awhile ago now due to... well bad people) from the start. Japanese and French history goes back over 1000 years. But getting back to the point, i feel like this might be the start of the whole "diversification for diversifications sake" trend in Japan where that doesn't even reflect the reality of their society.
May 8, 2021 5:32 PM
#8
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Mar 2021
1
Why does it matter?
May 8, 2021 5:39 PM
#9
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Feb 2021
607
This entire post is a controversy that I don’t want happening again and she is canonically tanned and why does it matter?
May 8, 2021 8:25 PM
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Jun 2020
4
She has a tan she dosent have dark skin
May 8, 2021 8:38 PM
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Oct 2020
387
Hydraze0 said:
Cobalt-Blue said:

But yeah, other more serious slice of life shows like Oregairu, Jaku-Chara, Horimiya don't have dark skinned (or tanned) characters because (realism) black and dark skinned people generally don't live in Japan (sorry about the 15 that do) Japan is 97% Japanese. Maybe the southerners are an exception but still...


As an Asia born-and-raised Asian that frequently interacts with multiple ethnicity group and people from different nations, your interpretation is mostly correct.

Japanese animation rarely have darker skin (or tanned skin) Asian and Black people for different reasons.

Since Japanese animations are made by and made for the Japanese, it is important to create animation that is relatable to the locals to promote sales. Especially with slice of life anime that you listed, since one of the point in the genre is to remind audience of their past experience (e.g. high school life, youth).

For non-Japanese ethnicity:
If frequently adding multiple ethnicity, it is harder for the audience to relate and causes disassociation between the plot and the experience that audience acquired needed to relate to the anime.

Not everyone is privilege like me who have a family that is wealthy enough to allow me to enter an private international school with diverse ethnicity in the past and live abroad, and certainly most anime creators probably are not privileged to have the same treatment. Without such experience, both anime creators and Japanese audience wouldn't even expect to have characters with other ethnicity in the anime since they have no experience of interacting with them at all.

For darker skin or tanned skin characters:
Japanese animation likes to promote products outside of the animation itself, such as figures and body pillows. The Asian culture is obsessed with whitening due to being one of the major trademark of beauty, which is sculpted by thousand years of culture and history. Individuals with darker skin tone are not the majorities aesthetic preference due to cultural influences, and promoting an character with darker skin may hinders sales. That's why you rarely see any tanned or darker skin characters in anime.

Secondly, tanned skin is very 2000s that integrated into the 'Gyaru' trend. And these gyaru are often associate with being 'popular' and tendency of bullying. There are some anime focuses on that, such as:

My First Girl Friend is a Gal:


The Disastrous Life of Saiki K:


The bullies from Durarara:


These tanned girls are either main characters of anime that focuses on the theme of "You've wronged them, they are nicer people than you expect" or straight up just make them villain.

Cobalt-Blue said:

Now personally I feel like the artist is doing this for diversity credits and I kinda don't like it tbh.


I totally agree with you when artist does that. I rather them not adding other ethnicity or nationalities if they have never interacted with them, because sometimes just pisses me off since I'm Chinese. The characteristics of every Chinese characters in anime is ONLY about them knowing Kung Fu and other times with Black people ONLY portray them as rappers, which is really forced and makes the characters really shallow.

However, the artist (also draws hentai) draws a lot of fetish art and knows that there is a market for tanned girls (you can find this category in JAV being quite popular) like Nagatoro but absent in the anime industry. So he just took the opportunity and capitalizes it, and it worked.

Nagatoro's design is literally an erotic stereotype that every teenage boy in Japan fantasize about, the tanned girl from the swimming club.

Other stereotype are something like the freaky quiet library girl (e.g. Mysterious Girlfriend X), tutor/teacher that comes to your house everyday (e.g. Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher!?, Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai's Kurisu), Gyaru, the school nurse (or just nurse; e.g., (again) Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher!?), your sister (We already know there are like hundreds of anime about that), and more I can't think of right now. But you get my point.


Glad to see we're on the same page about this. Thanks for the extra evidence supporting our stance on it.
May 8, 2021 8:48 PM

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Dec 2019
119
Why does it matter. I’m so confused why people question that she’s tan lol. Who tf cares
May 8, 2021 9:54 PM
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Oct 2020
8
idk man maybe bcus she's black??? wtf do u mean bro
May 9, 2021 1:26 AM

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Sep 2020
5131
The author has confirmed that Her mother is from Planet Mars may be that's the reason why her skin is black !!! Idk anything more than that
May 9, 2021 6:15 AM

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Jul 2017
335
She has a tan, not really a hard concept to grasp. Don't know where the "she's black" meme is coming from (twitter I suspect) but it's pretty retarded and if you're trying to make such a non issue into some big racial thing like the OP is then you're equally as retarded.
May 9, 2021 6:47 AM

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Apr 2020
1686
The fact people come up with nonsense like "it's done for diversity credits" is why we can infer what you really mean is "everything should be white". Hiding under the false pretext you hold this opinion out of caring about artistic """""integrity""""" .... OMEGALUL

She's Japanese and just tanned, yet there are people so racist they are still going to complain about it forcing diversity. Shit is sad.

I mean what do you even mean? Every single JP artist that doesn't want to conform to toxic beauty standards is just virtue signalling? Imagine actually being this much of a weeb holy shit.
May 9, 2021 6:50 AM
♡( •ॢ◡-ॢ)✧˖° ♡

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Dec 2014
20396
Why don't you also ask why other anime girls have white skin OP?



(っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥
May 9, 2021 9:34 AM
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Dec 2020
502
Ok but does it matter why she has tan skin? No. Her skin tone is the least important thing of the manga/anime and it shouldn’t be a topic of discussion in general lmao.
May 9, 2021 4:49 PM
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Jan 2021
216
Rinrinka said:
Why don't you also ask why other anime girls have white skin OP?

This. I don't understand why people cares about skin color.
May 10, 2021 8:40 AM

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Sep 2009
1403
I think this thread should be locked and deleted. For god sake. there are dozen upon dozens of characters that are tanned. Alot of them are tanned for sports reason (like Nagatoro) or many are tanned because of them being Gyaru.

I mean did we do this when Uraka from Bokutachi was revealed? What about Ranko from my Gal GirlFriend? Umiko from New Game? No they are only using the race card because of the misconceived notion of this being an anime about bully and the color of her skin is the reason why. If you read the manga you would know that this becomes one of the sweetest relationship in manga.

Beside this is anime. Who care what color the character skin is. All that matter is the story is good and that their character is likable (or hated if they are villains) no matter what skin color it is.
May 10, 2021 9:19 AM
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May 2020
66
She doesn’t have to be black to be brown. There are plenty of darker skinned Asian girls. I know it’s crazy but there are non porcelain colored Asian girls who get tans. She could easily be darker than the western expectation of an asian girl and have a tan as well. Why is this even a discussion. She doesn’t need to be mixed to be Japanese and darker.
May 10, 2021 10:03 AM

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Mar 2013
593
Because she is tanned. There are no discussions or opinions to be had about it. She is just tanned.
May 10, 2021 6:35 PM
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Oct 2020
262
I don't usually comment on a post but I don't think it really matter cause I don't think it affect the show's quality but to answer your question, she is tanned
May 10, 2021 6:43 PM

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Aug 2020
1138
she looks beautiful like this.
a wise user of MAL said:
Just to clarify, adaptations should absolutely stand on their own
May 10, 2021 7:34 PM

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Jun 2019
521
So Twitter users are here now.
May 10, 2021 11:38 PM
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Feb 2021
130
The correct answer is.. doesn't matter she hella cute
I'm a monogatari enthusiast to the core...and i like some wholesome stuff too
May 11, 2021 12:16 AM
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Jan 2017
365
Well. She has tanlines. There you go, answeared that question. Now go get some fresh air
May 11, 2021 12:20 AM

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Oct 2020
890
Nagatoro has the cutest tanlines that I've ever seen





May 11, 2021 7:25 AM
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May 2019
107
I would love to see her tan lines.......all of them.
May 15, 2021 12:38 AM

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May 2009
9107
Are MAL users getting stupid? She's tanned.
May 15, 2021 12:42 AM
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Jul 2020
594
Because the author wanted diversity.
Something like how amber is from invincible
May 15, 2021 8:15 AM
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May 2020
45
Your thoughts as to why this topic even exists? ಠ_ಠ
mf sth is wrong with you if you're gonna get offended with this..

No offense though :)
May 15, 2021 8:22 AM

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Sep 2018
10823
I attribute it to Nagatoro tanning from being in swimming club.
May 15, 2021 11:09 AM
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Jul 2018
564304
I honestly don't really mind what you want to discuss but at the very least could we not address the Japanese as 'Jap'

I know you probably meant no harm but its a term used to belittle the country and the people as a whole and could be considered a racial slur.
If you think I'm a snowflake then so be it, just educate yourself.

https://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/is-the-word-Jap-derogatory
May 15, 2021 11:23 AM
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May 2020
48
She wanted to tan so she did?
May 15, 2021 11:36 AM

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Nov 2014
719
I think the last episode pretty much leaves no place for question here anymore, lets see if that makes some people just calm down about the matter.
May 15, 2021 11:43 AM

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Apr 2020
687
I'm pretty sure you need more than just a tan to be considered gyaru...That said, she just has a tan.
May 15, 2021 11:51 AM

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May 2016
117
Jesus christ this forum is getting more stupid by the day. How many times have people said she's tan and shown fucking pictures, good lord. She's not mixed race etc etc
DarudiusMay 15, 2021 11:56 AM
May 15, 2021 3:49 PM

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Dec 2018
1166
Has no one mentioned that the OP said "half AFRO" instead of African lolllllllll.

"Half asian and half afro or Indian.

Lol.

On topic though I just assumed she was tanned, like a Gyaru. In reality your average japanese person has a darker complexion than your average caucasion person anyway though so, it seems fitting regardless.
Lolicons are scum.
BABYMETAL is more metal than Metallica.
Naruto is objectively the best anime ever.
HxH 99' is decent. HxH 11' is bad.
May 15, 2021 5:46 PM

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Nov 2012
4706
You can see her damn tan lines.
Why the hell is it always about race and implied racism with you lot?
私のホバークラフトはウナギでいっぱいです。
May 15, 2021 7:05 PM

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Aug 2016
3741
definitly tanned. but okinawan´s literally look like really tanned east asians, or at least the ones I met.
:v
May 15, 2021 9:42 PM

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Dec 2015
314
Why does it matter?
May 16, 2021 12:41 AM

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Feb 2010
56
...americentrism is a disease that need to be eradicated with molten steel.
May 16, 2021 1:41 AM

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Feb 2014
3777
bastek66 said:
Are MAL users getting stupid? She's tanned.

Seems like MAL has dropped to room temperature IQ during the past couple of years.
May 17, 2021 9:44 AM

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Aug 2009
20034
MAL should have IQ tests juat before an account is completed.
May 17, 2021 9:53 AM

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Jan 2016
410
Who cares???????
May 17, 2021 9:53 AM

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Jan 2016
410
Who cares???????
May 18, 2021 4:01 AM
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Jan 2017
365
Are we still wondering? You got your answearin the newest episode. Even though I feel you already knew and just wanted some clout
Jul 14, 2021 8:32 AM
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Jul 2021
3
I think she is Hafū, which is a term for mixed people of Japanese race, just like her brother and sister. 🤷🏾‍♀️
Jul 14, 2021 8:34 AM
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Jul 2021
3
bastek66 said:
Are MAL users getting stupid? She's tanned.
See her skin on her belly aint even that light to not be a mixed race- There is still signs of melanin in it. Please don't get pressed over others thoughts. Its not that big...
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