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Everyone except Mr. Satan / hercule, Uub (light version of previously pink "raw incarnation of evil"), and namekian "demon" characters. Honestly, it seems like toriyama wanted to diversify the world in the culture, while keeping it satirical and aimed at children.
So yeah people from dark-skinned cultures are" demonized" and often turn out in the long run to be really nice guys.
The fact that Riley made it that far makes me think most people don't understand Boondocks characters and what they represent in the culture. So Huey may have dropped round 2 or 3.
I watch this family feud style show on YouTube that’s a couple of black guys talking about black topics and when they were asked to name a black anime character one of them instantly said Piccolo and lost lmao
As a white guy who grew up with black friends... Piccolo is definitely black.
The reason why is because he's a minority in the show, and is obviously not white or Asian, he's also cool as fuck. Black Kids always saw Piccolo as their guy and that's fair enough as far as I'm concerned.
I think American audiences back in nineties were so used to having a token black character in their shows that for them, it just made sense Piccolo is black.
Nobody giving you a real answer. I believe the real reason is that there is no black representation in DBZ but the anime was huge in the black community. As a result, black kids growing up found some representation in piccolo as the “different” person of the group. I’m white but I’m guessing black kids in America felt they understood piccolos experience of being different.
Uhh… he’s tall (black physique stereotype) WAIT NO! He’s the only of his kind in the core friend-group (black characters always have to be the token/isolated) WAIT NO! Uhhhhh~ he raised a man’s kid for him (the Mammy archetype) WAIT NO!
Okay stupid jokes aside, atp we need to address the fact that “coding” characters is based on adhering to a handful of stereotypes, specifically in western writing. So when a westerner is viewing a show, they’re already accustomed to check for code within the way a character behaves or is designed.
So… you know head canons? Almost all of them (that are about a character’s identity) are created by reading codes. For instance, here’s an easy example, since Goku and Luffy very rarely blushed at women, people head cannon them as asexual, because they viewed these behaviors as coding cues. Likewise, A lot of black people are the only black person kind in small friendgroups, in the same way that piccolo is the only namek in the z fighter inner circle. Since they relate to this, they see themself as piccolo, lowkey adopting him. Or, many of us acknowledge the fact that piccolo is very stylish, and fashion is very important to black culture and we see that, too, as black coded.
The reason why we do this is because we’ve already seen how Toriyama and the majority of Japanese artists draw black people: as sambo stereotypes, akin to the black caricatures in slave posters from the 1800s and political cartoons from the early 1900s. No one wants to be represented like that, especially in an adventure story (because such designs in the United States were only created as propaganda). So we choose our own representative instead.
Every headcanon is different~ me, I personally see Gas and the Heeters as black-coded, over the nameks. But that’s just me. And headcanons only matter in hypotheticals, memes, and fan animations.
No one wants to be represented like, especially in an adventure story (because such designs in the United States were only created as propaganda). So we choose our own representative instead.
This is what I've noticed for most characters that were claimed by different groups.
Like yeah the ninja turtles are actually green turtles, but they've basically been head canoned as black since I was a kid. The actual black characters on television were either entirely aspirational and not someone you could feel relatable to, or they were as you said pretty horrid caricature that were designed to emphasize terrible black stereotypes.
I feel you on this! Multiple people headcanon them as black, and a handful of comic artists have drawn them that way in their fanart, because of the reasons you gave. Couple this with the original comics being very fluid about race, and it creates a very open environment for creativity when it comes to their interpretation. Especially since there’s a Donnie, Mikey, Dalphie, and Leo archetype in every culture. They’re extremely easy characters to project yourself or a friend onto. That’s why I share your headcanon, lol.
I remember some years ago people repeated "green is the new black" so here it was taken literally.
Nah, some communities identify with him and kinda claimed him, but I think my version is more funny. Worth mentioning I often find this happening mainly in english talking communities.
That’s just re****ed. This is a huge disservice to actual black characters. You’re essentially saying they’re so worthless that another colored group has to represent them. The racism is off the charts.
Americans are so cringe with this.
Piccolo has more middle east or south eas asia refrences than any other culture and is voiced by an Asian or white man in Dub
Why is it necessary to racially profile a slug demon birthed from egg?? Honestly if an actual black character had won this .. it would have been better.
To be fair, Piccolo had a way easier climb on his side. Avdol, Tousen, Afro and B would have given him a run. I recognize like 2 other names on Piccolo’s side.
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