Wow. Thank u.
I like this manga, it's well drawn and written. Cute and light hearted.
But your comment gave me a bit of an insight on what's made up and what's not in this manga. I wasn't really sure if the author was making things up or not.
So thanks!
Your comment was so interesting to read!! Also I will watch Rafiki so thanks for letting us know it's a real movie:))
thank you for writing this! fictive media is almost never perfect at representation, and i’m lucky to ha e found your comment
Thank you for not hating my comment. Last time I talked about African/ dark skin representation I got shot down by it being "just a manga". There's a manga that based characters off a marginalized group in Europe, used the g slur instead of romani, and said that their skin becoming fairer made them more attractive. I called it out but no one else had a problem with it. Same goes with talking about internalized misogyny & r*pe culture in the yaoi community, oh well.
thank you for sharing this knowledge to us!! I'm a writer and researching the culture and background of any characters that I want is really hard especially if I don't really have a single knowledge about them. Having this information will make me very sensitive on how i will create the identity of my Characters.
Thank you for the free education heheh
I wasn't sure if they were talking about rafiki until I saw my two favorite girls up on the screen!! I am super happy that the author put research into this work, but I do agree about the hair! I thought it was dreads and I was really happy about it because that hair style lacks in mangas. but then they showed his hair wet and being dried the way you would with a lighter type of hair. I was disappointed about it, but I'm still happy an author has been succesful on representing and welcoming cultures besides western. Hopefully they've explored more about assimilation and cultural stripping to address the tribal clothing somehow.
Locs would've been cute. If you see someone in Kenya with locs they're probably Maasai. I could tell by looking at the hair that they weren't that though because locs on afro hair are still coily while his hair strains are straight. Again not mad but kinda tired of seeing type 1 hair on everyone.
I totally agree! I once asked about a bxb with police/mafia theme and with no rape or abuse (between partners) and guess what, 2/3 had rape and dubious consent ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ
And once i wanted to read a romance story with one person being from diffrent country (mostly egypt cause i find the country interesting) and 2/2 girls had blue eyes, white skin, and yellow hair, i dropped both manga because it was too unnatural for me to see them stand out when everyone else had black hair and darker skin...(￣∇￣")
thank u sooo much for this, super interesting!!
I don't think people realize that whenever a seme or uke rapes someone it perpetuates the homophobic notion from the 1950s that someone can't be gay unless they are raped by a gay person. Instead of proper bi and pan rep it's straight men who happen to just like one dude. It also pushes power dynamic struggles where young boys (students) are groomed by older men (teachers). Or a victim gets with their rapist. People don't want to put the writers in check even though they are cisgender heterosexual women fetishizing the gay experience and pushing homophobic stereotypes. I think this is because most readers are cishet women themselves that fetishize the amab queer experience. This doesn't even go into the way they villainize trans woman in most stories.
Conclusion: make healthy couples or you have internalized homophobia
As for the "all non asians have blonde hair and blue eyes and they're better than us" yeah that ain't it chief. Half asians are so misrepresented in manga because mangaka (is that the word?) Refuse to acknowledge that blonde hair and blue eyes are recessive genes. And when depicting indigenous or even middle eastern people don't make them have eurocentric traits because "it looks better". There was a manga about an amazonian girl where she was the only one with fair white skin and had pink hair while her people looked like regular amazonians.
The love of blonde hair blue eyes is creepy in of itself. It started during ww2 and still exists which is a whole bag of worms involving their relationship with Germany (Not saying they are still colonizers that are pro nazi, I'm saying nazism great affected their culture in this way. Like how some white people may not support racism but subconsciously do racist things). Not all white people look like that, and just because they do doesn't mean they're inherently super attractive, smart, and wealthy.
Wow I keep writing essays upon essays, sorry
Thank you for this. I’m glad I got to learn about your culture...
I could be wrong but I think the only reason why he wore cultural attire for his first day of school was to introduce everyone to his culture. That's what I understood from what the teacher said anyways.
But yeah I agree with everything else. I don't know if maybe the author just doesn't know different hair textures because I thought it was odd that his seemingly straight hair was being dried like that with the hangers but dissapointing still anyways :/
Thank you for breaking your rule of not commenting. It is always interesting to learn something about another culture "firsthand".
Your comments o polygamy sum up well what polygame originally was all about, It is a difficult topic that is more complex than just good and bad. As a women, I cannot help but think about the abuse of women in Africa, when I hear the word "polygamy". But it is nice to be remembered of its positive meaning.
So thank you for comment!
Thank you for sharing, I learnt a lot in this thread
I'm going to break my rule of not commenting or reading comments because it can be pretty toxic. I'm from Kenya, from the luhya tribe, and moved to the United States as a kid so my mild criticisms are coming from a place of knowledge.
Is it so hard to draw non straight hair. Maasai people, and most people of Kenya, have 4c hair. I thought his hair was meant to be braided but no, it's just straight hair. In fact if you wanted to be as accurate as possible most Maasai people shave their heads because of the heat, that being said I completely understand why he didn't because he's from Nairobi, he is a city boy and they have more braided styles. Men of all backgrounds do not straighten their hair with relaxers/perms though so he's straight hair just reads as disingenuous.
Not to say it's impossible, Eastern Africa has a problem with self love. After the British colonization we force ourselves to assimilate to western ideals. We have skin bleaching treatments in the supermarkets, white people on all out posters, and ever doll is a white girl with blonde hair with a few with brunette hair.
I love that his cultural attire is correct. It makes me so happy that the author researched it. That being said he would never wear it in school in the city. Seeing how he's family is rich he 100% went to a boarding school (even if he wasn't most village kids still go to boarding schools if they have the fines). Boarding schools are notoriously anti tribal culture. You're not allowed to speak your tribal tongue and can only speak swahili and English/ maybe French (in his case most likely Japanese which is why he's so fluent) nor can you wear traditional clothes. If you did you'd be spanked or even beaten. The schools force kids to assimilate to the western world.
If you are mad that he's poly I see where you're coming from but stfu. Poly in of itself is not wrong, cheating is just when you break a relationships agreements. That being said Kenyan polygamy is rooted in misogyny and mostly develops into toxic family relationships. I have 2 grandmothers on my father's side and a total of 13 great grandmothers. My Pa used to talk about his fights and hatred of his half siblings because of him being born from the first wife. Women have no say in who/ if their husband's marry, so this type of poly is cheating, and so the wife's tend to hate each other and in turn the kids.
Imma take a quick side trip to talk about Kenyan misogyny. Up until recently (like a generation ago) it was expected for the husband to beat their wife that "misbehaved". If is no longer widely accepted but you can imagine how such events stain through generations.
Anyway, him being poly isn't wrong but culturally it's rooted in hating women so I don't like it because he might end up abusing people without knowing.
ALSO THE LESBIAN KENYAN MOVIE EXISTS. It's called "rafiki" which means friend. That being said it was banned in kenya so he didn't watch it there.
Weird side not again. When meeting people Kenyans firmly shake their hand with both hands and shake heavily. Hugging is weird to do with strangers, especially if he thought the uke was a girl.
Anyway I'm not mad at this, this was made by people who don't know anything about Kenya to enjoy a fantasy. It's like an Arabian getting made at Aladdin or Americans getting mad at Japan's tendency to make you all blonde and blue eyed. Though here I think it's better because it feels like the author tried (in everything except the hair) while Aladdins mistakes are because of unwillingness to learn about a cultural; and in manga it's because of a creepy fetishization of European features post world war 2. So hey, it could be worse.
And if you try to combat my claims using a documentary made by white people, don't. Message me and I'll show you proof of my identity :)