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*sigh*
Hi, y'all.
All you're gonna get today is a short list of the microaggressions I spotted in the anime Fire Force.
*sigh*
Here we go.
Break-Dancing: For some reason, the protagonist (Shinra) begins to break-dance in season 2, episode 12. Spectating characters break out into the familiar social commentary on it that I've seen across the anime world. One of them says: "It’s so ridiculous.” My question is: why is it "ridiculous" when he does break-dancing for fun/to express himself? It's not 'ridiculous' when he uses these (dare I say, grafted) moves to kick the villains' asses on everyone's behalf.
Charon: A) they make this character a loud, bumbling, out-of the loop kind of guy. Hello black buck stereotype. Then, they emasculate him by always having a slight, white-skinned girl beating him up because he’s so “annoying”. The irony is that the behavior that she calls 'annoying' is him looking out for her since he is her guardian. B) Shinra says a series of odd things that leave you wondering if they were rAcIaLlY mOtIvAtEd. In one scene during season 2, episode 4, he says to Charon: “I’m getting real tired of your hulking frame!” That wouldn't be so bad if he didn't follow it up with a: “I’m still getting started, you damn gorilla!” The protagonist carries on: "You’re second generation aren’t you?! I got confused at first by your muscle-headed appearance." *sigh* My question is: So what if he's strong? Lots of other people are strong too. Why is he the one who gets called a 'gorilla'? Is it his fault that you were confused about why you were getting your ass kicked???
Ogun Montgomery: Where do we even start? Should it be with the ghetto-ass, sacrilegious name? Or perhaps, how messed up his anatomy was (as best seen when he takes off his shirt in his fight scene in season 2)? Maybe, instead, we should talk about his alienating eye-color??? How about the nauseating insinuation of “cool points” that Shinra earned for having a Black friend? No. Let's start with the homogenization of Black identities through names and symbols. First, what was with the stupid-ass basketball references ("shooting hoops off the side") in season 2, episode 9 when Ogun was getting “fired up”??? And: 'Yoruba forge'? No, wait. It was: 'Yoruba spear' as he hovered around on a floating skateboard. LOL. I guess that was the best they could come up with since he was an African right? An African with a spear/lance as in a "spear-chucking African", right? Ok. How about the African conflation in the depiction of Ogun's power, 'Flamy ink'??? Those patterns mimicked the distinct decorative practices found in east (and some south) African tribes such as the Karo, Surma, Mursi, and Xhosa. Yet, this guy's got the name of a WEST-AFRICAN Yoruba god-king, and tools named after that west African tribe. The pattern of adornment mimicked in Flamy Ink is not worn by the WEST AFRICAN Yoruba tribe. A quick google search would have told them that. How painfully incongruent. My question is: Why don't they play with their own gods and cultures like that instead of playing with ours??? Other Japanese anime creators made sure not to mess up when they used Asian mythologies and religions (Japanese mythology, Shintoism, and Hinduism) in Naruto. Why couldn't Atsushi Okobo (the creator of Fire Force) and his team have worked a little harder??? Let's talk about the paper tiger they made Ogun into, shall we? Ogun displayed so much power, YET: he couldn't defeat the demon he fought. He was there, acting as a place-holder until Shinra came back. Shinra comes back and: BOOM--defeats the demon in one second. Pathetic. Other side-show Bobs get to defeat their adversaries with FAR LESS power--sometimes, with no power at all. Remember how Tamaki the bimbo exhibitionist defeated another pOwErFuL brown-skinned character with tits and ass alone??? LMAO. The brown-skinned characters are almost always depicted as dependent extras despite whatever power they have. Look at how they reduced Princess Hibana (a captain) to a groupie for Shinra's sake. Why tf was he able to beat a CAPTAIN when he had so little experience as a fighter???
*sigh*