is The Water Magician racist? (LN)
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(i wrote this tired, but would rather answers sooner rather than later)
i'm on ch7 of vol 3, but i'd rather know sooner rather than later if this story is as racist as it's come across so far, so i'm just gonna ask people who i assume already read everything available...
“They invite their neighbors to come at the dead of the night—let’s say two thirty in the morning— and they walk around as a group, holding torches and wearing white cloaks that cover them from head to toe... They can make the event even more atmospheric by wearing creepy white masks.”
the consistency of black being pointed out as the color of choice for 'bad people' along with the thief Bagana speaking a particularly harsh language are all very sus to me
then there's the above quote from Ryo--our protagonist
the guy who lacks common sense and is a savant of sorts... just like Forest Gump 😐
(there's a scene where Forest downplays them in a similar manner)context: the "neighbors" referred to sound alot like a well known
enabledgang in the USA with a long history of terroristic savagery (since the 1860's), especially against BIPOC'saddition: i recall finding a single mention of the racial bs during a search and it was (iirc) someone calling out the author having Leonore (a dark-skinned non-human quick to violence) use an archaic form of "desu" ("de gozaru" iirc) "just to be racist". i assume this is in the Japanese version, 'cause i failed to find either word in vol 1 ch13. 🤷🏿♂️
pretty sure i pasted the exact sentence into a file, so i can pull it up later.
bonus: Leonore's super strong and super fast :D hell, her entire race can take out a city solo :DDDoh yeah, and vol 1 ch1 had somethin' typical but hard to describe goin' on with Fake Michael, who's an angel-like person who looks European... 😑
reminder: Japan, Germany, and Italy started a gang during WWII 🤷🏿♀️A man’s figure started coalescing out of the all-white world. Once he fully materialized, Ryo saw that he looked to be in his late twenties. Possessed of a calm air, he could be described as a handsome European with his long golden hair.
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I think I read through volume 4 (?) and I personally never got that impression. At most, he hates the neighboring empire, but that it based solely on the name of their empire.
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@QuestioningEspecialy - I think you're grasping at straws. You can twist almost any text to find some indirect hint of something it's possible to construe as racism if you try hard enough. In water magician none of the characters or the author seems to care about race aside from monster races attempting to eradicate humanity.
If you want an actual example of racism, look at something like Smartphone author's treatment of totally-not-China. The series portrayed the entire culture as lying, cheating, stealing, backstabbimg, and selling awful food (a serious crime in any isekai).
Here? No.
oh yeah, and vol 1 ch1 had somethin' typical but hard to describe goin' on with Fake Michael, who's an angel-like person who looks European..
It's a pseudo-European world, and it's also what a typical Japanese person would expect a Christian-ish angel to look like. Not having the angel be a brown-skinned middle easterner is not racist, it's lack of knowledge.
someone calling out the author having Leonore (a dark-skinned non-human quick to violence) use an archaic form of "desu"
Orrrr, she used ancient speech because she is an ancient being who doesn't hang out with modern humans? "Someone calling out" something as racist doesn't make it so.
Of course you're free to disagree and decide the author is racist.
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@HarmlessDave said in is The Water Magician racist? (LN):
(...) If you want an actual example of racism, look at something like Smartphone author's treatment of totally-not-China. The series portrayed the entire culture as lying, cheating, stealing, backstabbimg, and selling awful food (a serious crime in any isekai).
Here? No.
oh yeah, and vol 1 ch1 had somethin' typical but hard to describe goin' on with Fake Michael, who's an angel-like person who looks European..
It's a pseudo-European world, and it's also what a typical Japanese person would expect a Christian-ish angel to look like. Not having the angel be a brown-skinned middle easterner is not racist, it's lack of knowledge. (...)
i say this to everyone else: i've had enough arguments and conversations with a certain type of people to recognize a certain type of plant hidden in the words.
i say this to 'HarmlessDave' (bruh): let's not continue talking to eachotherothers are free to add their thoughts and observations of course. it'll be convenient for anyone else wondering.
i forgot to grab the quote, btw. 😑 -
In a lot of culture the color black has negative connotations because of the association with night when humans are vulnerable because we don't see well in the dark while things that might prey on us do. Nothing to do with being against black people.
I'm failing to see how demons being a separated race with supernatural powers can be seen as racist.
The novel never gave me the impression of being filled with racism. I can't judge other people's sensitivity but I think we should try to put less effort into framing everything as offensive.