(Source: rosesmusings)
(Source: holdthebridgeup)
I have a dream of my own!
![anime—confessions:
鋼の錬金術師 (Fullmetal Alchemist)
When I Started watching Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood, I was disappointed to see that Rose was white washed from how she was in the first anime series because not many anime characters are dark-skinned. -lolbluestuff
Oh for fuck’s sake, are we doing this again? Does it need to be said again? ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. ROSE NEVER HAD DARK SKIN TO BEGIN WITH. THE ORIGINAL WORK, THE MANGA BY HIROMU ARAKAWA, DEPICTED ROSE AS PALE-SKINNED, AS OPPOSED TO, YOU KNOW, THE MANY OTHER NON-WHITE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. The 2003 anime decided to make Rose dark-skinned for some reason* in the same way that they decided to change a shitload of things from the ORIGINAL work. The 2009 anime DID NOT WHITEWASHED ROSE, the 2009 is merely a more faithful adaptation (though not completely faithful) - they did not whitewashed Rose, they stuck to the ORIGINAL depiction of Rose as having pale skin. It was not whitewashing because the 2009 anime was not adapting the 2003 anime, it was adapting the original manga story, where Rose never had dark skin (by the way, I’m guessing there is a real narrative reason for this, since later in the story we will be introduced to dark-skinned characters and the discrimation and persecution they face will be part of the story, but that is not Rose’s narrative).
Seriously, every time I see someone complain Rose was whitewashed I WANT TO BREAK THINGS. And I’m guessing the problem is that people never bother checking out, you know, the ORIGINAL work (hint: the ORIGINAL work is not the 2003 anime, it’s the manga written by Hiromu Arakawa starting in 2001) and just assume things. Really, people, this is not a valid complain.
[As an aside: I’m always a bit wary of how us Western readers and audiences perceive race in manga/anime and talk about it. I think many of us need to remember that in manga and anime most of the characters are not white, since most of the characters are Japanese anyway (except for those stories set in the West or in fictional universes where characters seem to be more of a Western descent; Fullmetal Alchemist might belong to this last category, with Amestris representing an evidently European culture, if a mixed one, and then with many non-white characters from Ishval -a culture of Western Asian influence- and from Xing -representing Chinese culture). When reading manga and watching anime we tend to view the most common race represented, the Japanese, as the equivalent to “being white” (because gross as it is, we are culturally conditioned to think of white as the default), so we tend to overlook the fact that we are consuming art where most of the characters are, actually, non-white. Another issue would be the lack of diversity of manga and anime as a national market, in that yes it’s true, we see very few representations of non-Japanese characters in Japanese art and media. But that’s another conversation.]
Bottom line is: ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. Stop saying that. Take a minute to check how she is depicted in the ORIGINAL work. The original manga deals with discrmination and oppression against ethnic/religious minorities - but Rose is not part of that story. If you like the 2003 anime better than Hiromu Arakawa’s original story and the 2009 adaptation that’s fair and dandy and I’m sure you have your reasons (just as I have my reasons to dislike it) but saying it’s because of the whitewashing operates on a false premise. You can say you like Rose in the first anime better, or that you prefer the way the first anime handled representation of minorities (I would contest this point but you can prefer it) but no, sorry, sope, the second anime was not whitewashed. The second anime had non-white characters and adressed issues of race and discrimination extensively, just not through Rose and Lior, but through Ishval and Xing. Rose was always intended to belong to the predominant race of Amestris - the 2003 anime changed that, so you cannot say that the 2009 anime whitewashed because they were just following Rose’s original characterization in the manga. And obviously Hiromu Arakawa cannot whitewash her own manga, since it came before than the 2003 anime.
I know I have repeated myself a lot here, but it’s really bugs me.
* I have always found personally unsettling that the 2003 anime adaptation (I’m using adaptation very loosely here) changed Rose’s skin color and then took the character and systematically victimized, abused and robbed her of all agency, more than any other character in the show, but maybe that’s just me, I really don’t think the animation studio knew they were going to do that to Rose’s character when they changed the color of her skin at the beginning. I think they decided to make Rose dark-skinned because they changed the location of Lior to the desert (in the manga Lior is near the mountains, maybe, the geography of Amestris is not that clear) and they made the people of Lior a different ethnic group (I think it was said to be related to the Ishvalans but I don’t quite remember) from the rest of Amestris.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mb6qhvQiD51ro2v0fo1_500.jpg)
鋼の錬金術師 (Fullmetal Alchemist)When I Started watching Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood, I was disappointed to see that Rose was white washed from how she was in the first anime series because not many anime characters are dark-skinned. -lolbluestuff
Oh for fuck’s sake, are we doing this again? Does it need to be said again? ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. ROSE NEVER HAD DARK SKIN TO BEGIN WITH. THE ORIGINAL WORK, THE MANGA BY HIROMU ARAKAWA, DEPICTED ROSE AS PALE-SKINNED, AS OPPOSED TO, YOU KNOW, THE MANY OTHER NON-WHITE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. The 2003 anime decided to make Rose dark-skinned for some reason* in the same way that they decided to change a shitload of things from the ORIGINAL work. The 2009 anime DID NOT WHITEWASHED ROSE, the 2009 is merely a more faithful adaptation (though not completely faithful) - they did not whitewashed Rose, they stuck to the ORIGINAL depiction of Rose as having pale skin. It was not whitewashing because the 2009 anime was not adapting the 2003 anime, it was adapting the original manga story, where Rose never had dark skin (by the way, I’m guessing there is a real narrative reason for this, since later in the story we will be introduced to dark-skinned characters and the discrimation and persecution they face will be part of the story, but that is not Rose’s narrative).
Seriously, every time I see someone complain Rose was whitewashed I WANT TO BREAK THINGS. And I’m guessing the problem is that people never bother checking out, you know, the ORIGINAL work (hint: the ORIGINAL work is not the 2003 anime, it’s the manga written by Hiromu Arakawa starting in 2001) and just assume things. Really, people, this is not a valid complain.
[As an aside: I’m always a bit wary of how us Western readers and audiences perceive race in manga/anime and talk about it. I think many of us need to remember that in manga and anime most of the characters are not white, since most of the characters are Japanese anyway (except for those stories set in the West or in fictional universes where characters seem to be more of a Western descent; Fullmetal Alchemist might belong to this last category, with Amestris representing an evidently European culture, if a mixed one, and then with many non-white characters from Ishval -a culture of Western Asian influence- and from Xing -representing Chinese culture). When reading manga and watching anime we tend to view the most common race represented, the Japanese, as the equivalent to “being white” (because gross as it is, we are culturally conditioned to think of white as the default), so we tend to overlook the fact that we are consuming art where most of the characters are, actually, non-white. Another issue would be the lack of diversity of manga and anime as a national market, in that yes it’s true, we see very few representations of non-Japanese characters in Japanese art and media. But that’s another conversation.]
Bottom line is: ROSE WAS NOT WHITEWASHED. Stop saying that. Take a minute to check how she is depicted in the ORIGINAL work. The original manga deals with discrmination and oppression against ethnic/religious minorities - but Rose is not part of that story. If you like the 2003 anime better than Hiromu Arakawa’s original story and the 2009 adaptation that’s fair and dandy and I’m sure you have your reasons (just as I have my reasons to dislike it) but saying it’s because of the whitewashing operates on a false premise. You can say you like Rose in the first anime better, or that you prefer the way the first anime handled representation of minorities (I would contest this point but you can prefer it) but no, sorry, sope, the second anime was not whitewashed. The second anime had non-white characters and adressed issues of race and discrimination extensively, just not through Rose and Lior, but through Ishval and Xing. Rose was always intended to belong to the predominant race of Amestris - the 2003 anime changed that, so you cannot say that the 2009 anime whitewashed because they were just following Rose’s original characterization in the manga. And obviously Hiromu Arakawa cannot whitewash her own manga, since it came before than the 2003 anime.
I know I have repeated myself a lot here, but it’s really bugs me.
* I have always found personally unsettling that the 2003 anime adaptation (I’m using adaptation very loosely here) changed Rose’s skin color and then took the character and systematically victimized, abused and robbed her of all agency, more than any other character in the show, but maybe that’s just me, I really don’t think the animation studio knew they were going to do that to Rose’s character when they changed the color of her skin at the beginning. I think they decided to make Rose dark-skinned because they changed the location of Lior to the desert (in the manga Lior is near the mountains, maybe, the geography of Amestris is not that clear) and they made the people of Lior a different ethnic group (I think it was said to be related to the Ishvalans but I don’t quite remember) from the rest of Amestris.
この国にマンガ肉さがしに来たんだヨ—
I came to this country in search of cartoonish meat—
ええ—
Eeh—
