#dark skin edit

[marcydepressednegra]

Comic

[blackeditsgalore]

Dark-skinned Rouge the Bat wallpapers! Give credit when using, I forgot to add a signature lol

[cuteblkgrl]

♡Moon stick!♡

[clownishstim]

callie sprite edits. free to use with credit

[denkigami]

more swap au Scott Pilgrim edits but takes off version, I loved doing Ramona and Roxie's futuristic designs

[getvalentined]

Here's the new icon for the Vincent Valentine Defense League! Again, original on bottom for comparison. This one has a lot more editing than the header with regard to lighting and color balance, but actually about the same amount of work on details like his hair and eyes.

I like this shot because it really shows off the heterochromia, but icons display so small it needed a lot of work to be clear at-scale. I think it turned out pretty well!

This one reminded me why I used to really enjoy doing photo retouching for work. Sigh.

[mofflani]

🍉💖 my side of a sims trade with @fl0ptrait >v<

her name is cherie and she streams for a living!! cannot wait to see she and her girlfriend together :D

[rowanberrypop]

goemon skin tone edits ive done <3

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Biblically accurate/color corrected Rangi (left) vs OG/official art Rangi (right)

Aka I give her the bronze eyes back, and I (unfortunately) suck the melanin out of her. u_u It's not my fault, that's how she's described in the books (even tho I do like the darker skin)! It's so weird they swapped the eye and skin colors on which was lighter/darker.

Yet they kinda got Hei-Ran right with her color palette (brown/bronze eyes and porcelain skin too), but then you put her next to Rangi and the contrast is just insane like???? Did they forget that they were suppose to be so similar to look like twins? TT0TT

[marcydepressednegra]

[blackeditsgalore]

Dark skin Shadow the Hedgehog edits! With backgrounds this time

[cuteblkgrl]

My Sweet Piano from Onegai My Melody ♡

[clownishstim]

splatoon shopkeeper sprite edits. free to use with credit

[ohshinytrinketsmine]

"If you can satisfy me, you can pick any car you want.But there is a price to pay."

Pit Babe the Series, Ep 1

[wistfulwatcher]

Leopard Skin | 1.05 Still Life with Cat and Canary

[so-bitya]

Whitewashing in Anime - Soma ft. Usopp

Avoiding "Brown"

Here is an image of Soma comparing his skin tone from the first season of Black Butler and the current season airing now. As you can see, Soma's skin is noticeably lighter than it was in the past. I considered the lighting and took shade from his hand that looks relatively mid tone. However, that's not really a fair excuse if the anime continues to lighten Soma's face this way.

I also compared his skintone from the Book of Circus season which is relatively more recent, and chose images where he's clearly in good lighting. Soma is still noticeably lighter this time around.

Whitewashing is an incredibly common phenomenon that been happening a lot lately in anime, especially with reboots. A great example I can think of off the top of my head is One Piece where they lightened nearly everyone's skin color in the anime, despite some of the cast being characters of color?

(^^^this character is canonly black according to Oda, the mangaka.)

"Oh but Oda gives Usopp pale skin in all his color illustrations"

One, he should know better. Two, if Oda said Usopp would be African in real life, and chose a brown, Jamaican-american actor to play him, then yes, they have been ridiculously disrespectful in how they've been portraying the character's racial features so far.

In that sense, it's actually relief that anime studios in the past weren't afraid of giving their characters darker skin unlike mangakas who were terrified of even the lighest shade of brown.

For instance, I am happy that A-1 studios made Soma, Agni, and Mina, who are all the same race, slightly differ in skin tone. Mina's skin is cooler toned compared to Soma and Agni's warmer hues.

HOWEVER, and other fans pointed this out, Soma and Agni's skin leaned so far from being golden brown to straight yellow in many scenes, that they were walking around like they have jaundice which is so... Of course A-1 studios found some way to mess it up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Another thing, do you guys honestly think being accurate to Yana's art style is always the best thing to do in adaptions? Angela Blanc, the secret villain in the anime original first season, pretends to be an abused maid and gets whipped in her very first scene. And according to Yana's concept sketches, she was originally brown. I'm actually glad the anime whitewashed her in that instance.

I'd like to point out, Sebastian's skin tone has also changed in the new season, and he's noticeably tanner than his previous anime appearances and yana's illustrations. So why is this okay for the anime to make creative changes for sebastian's skin tone, but have to stay accurate for Soma? (whose dark skin been established in anime viewers' eyes for decades now).

To be fair, I did a comparison of the anime grayscaled and Soma in the manga during the Weston arc. I checked the values and while I will say that his skin is relatively in the same as the manga, only few degrees lighter, whitewashing isn't only about skintone.

Colourism in Features

We could argue whether its just different anime styles or the way Yana draws noses, but its not a great look for Soma's nose to be made noticeably sharper compared to his flatter/rounder nose in the manga/earlier seasons of the anime.

Talking about the Mandela effect and cognitive dissonance as well... there's also something about how manga readers seen Soma with brown skin and pure black hair years in the manga, only for the anime to lighten those features.

It doesn't help that Soma canonly has purple hair and yellow eyes (if anything, I do appreciate the more natural tones they gave Soma this season. No more highly saturated purple hair and yellow eyes!)

Yes, Kuroshitsuji is a fantasy story, and YES artists of color like to play with fantasy features with characters, me included! But my point is that black/brown representation in media is so little already, especially when character artists are also averse to drawing any defining racial features.

Yana has designed brown-skinned characters in the anime with straight white hair and light-colored eyes about three times now (ie. Agni, Angela, and Hannah). The only Indians with dark skin and hair are a bunch of homeless thugs that Soma and Agni stop from mugging Ciel, proving they're "one of the good ones", and Mina whose treatment in the manga/anime is abysmal.

Discussing Racism in Fandom

Alright, so over the past few days, I've seen some fans disappointed with Soma's skin tone change and I hope my post illustrates why they would be. But I've also seen some angry and frustrated reactions to those fans! And I want to ask, why?

Why is fans bringing up racism in anime considered "discourse" but reacting harshly towards those fans is not?

Why would fans expressing disappointment about whitewashing gets you more angry than the whitewashing itself?

Why is being disappointed that an anime lightened a character's skin tone, a character who both anime-only watchers and manga readers alike saw as dark-skinned, "stupid" to you?

How come the fandom gets a good laugh out of the usage of "fag" potentially canceling the anime, but talking about race is a "risk" to getting a new season?

And if you disagree with my points and believe the anime is only being accurate to Yana's work, why not just say "Soma's skintone is more accurate to Yana's color illustrations, but I understand the disappointment and shock," without being condescending towards us for being concerned in the first place?

I'd be pretty happy if the anime was just using intense lighting and that Soma is darker than he appears (in fact, if that happens I'll reblog the good news to this post!) Because this post isn't "discourse" to me, I'm discussing race regarding one of my favorite characters in the fandom. Discussions like these don't ruin the fandom, but actually help it become a more welcoming place for fans of color.

Whitewashing in Anime - Agni ft. Cithis