Is it true that anime was based off or inspired by early Disney cartoons?

[Silver7]

So even though some might complain about a lack of black characters, the intent wasn't to be racist against dark skin people. It's just that the early Disney human characters like Snow White were all light skinned characters so anime just followed along that trend?

[Lensing]

Anime was inspired by Disney.

Your race theory is really weird.

There were no black people in japan and even today the percentage of
black people is really low

[moontokkym]

Disney was also inspired by anime. The Lion King for example is yes, Hamlet, but also very obviously inspired by Kimba the White Lion. It's a neverending saga of people being inspired and inspiring others across generations and cultures.

All of this has nothing to do with your really weird race theory. Japan isn't a racist country because America is, Japan developped it's own racism all on it's own that persists in ways specific to Japan to this day.

You really need to de-center the US in your way of thinking, which is getting kind of hateful in itself as you seem to assume that everything has something to do with the US or your weird race conspiracies. Japan was racist before the USA existed, as were many if not all countries older than the US (spoiler: a lot of countries), and they all have their specific dynamics and main targets.

[NickRowler]

Osamu Tezuka who is know as the Father of Anime was inspired by Disney because that was just what animation was like back then.

This is a fanart he did of famous characters in cartoons at the time.

Tho the lack of black characters might be the same reason why there is a lack of Latino or South Asian characters... it's mostly that Anime stories tend to feature Japanese characters in a Japanese setting, so most of the characters tend to be Japanese.

[jwabeasley]

It's a matter of fact that Osamu Tezuka was inspired by Disney, and the development of anime and manga styles spun off from there, with everyone worldwide inspiring everyone else and the market showing audience preferences over time.

Like the others said, stop thinking about race all the time. It's just not wise to obsess about it.

Anime is mostly about Japanese characters and is produced to Japanese sensibilities. When characters in a manga or anime are supposed to be actually western, they find ways to let you know. In Japan, people tend to focus on the eyes for communication and avoid mouths. In the US, people tend to watch mouth movements and focus less on the eyes. There are historical and cultural reasons for this, but the result is that character designs in Japan tend to emphasize the eyes while western designs often emphasize the mouth movements and character gestures.

If non-Japanese people want to be represented in anime, they need to make their own cartoons, same as other media. Nobody besides can usually depict they way they want to be depicted, in general.

But seriously, stop worrying about races and just write what you want to write. We're all small time hobbyists, people understand if you don't get everything perfect or if your project has a limited scope. Just do your best without overthinking it.

And stop procrastinating on your novel! JUST WRITE IT!

[kyupol]

Don't worry about lack of black representation...

This is the birth rate in 2024 (I'm shocked my country is blue. Below replacement rate.)

[ButterflyEmpress]

It can still be upsetting whether or not that was the intent. It implies that light skinned people are the only one's worth having their stories told. Also black face was common in old cartoons which is one of the alleged reasons why black anime characters have been designed with said features.

I personally believe most Japanese creators/audience aren't interested in stories about black and brown people. There are TONS of Japanese media of white people despite them being a minority in Japan as well. Isekai, one of the biggest genres now, all take place in European inspired fantasy worlds.

I've given up on being represented in Japanese media, but it feels great when Japanese creators do make black characters who are actually people. It's such a breath of fresh air seeing shows like Gachiakuta or Keep Your Hands of Eizouken or the manga Hanbun Kyodai existing.

[Silver7]

I personally believe most Japanese creators/audience aren't interested in stories about black and brown people.

Well you have to remember that some Japanese creators did put awesome black characters in their anime, like Kishimoto the creator of Naruto Shippuden for example. Even the creator of Afro Samurai did make a black man his protagonist. Note that Afro Samurai was fairly successful in a nitch way.

[NickRowler]

Most manga creators who add black characters tend to be a fan of Western media.

Me and the Devil Blues is a good example of this

This is also the reason why a lot of black characters tend to look like celebrities and characters like Mr. T, Black Dynamite, and Michael Jackson.

[silverraven0]

Btw it has been found that the lion king in fact, did not get inspired by Kimba. Kimba story line is something else altogether and might has been inspired by an older comics about lions.

You might want to check YMS video on it since I don't remember exactly which one it is.

https://share.google/Pc1nhQehp5PQeKNR8

As for op, manga/anime are mainly created by Japanese about Japanese people for Japanese people, mostly, who's well, not dark skinned. So even though there's darker skinned people there, they're mostly the minority. It's not about racisms but theyre just not the target audience unless the setting were made in other countries outside Japan or in different timelines.