Discussion Let's talk about Black Representation in Visual Novels : How we can improve...

Let's talk about Black Representation in Visual Novel. How we can improve their portrayal in this specific genre of games/media, and make them more visible and ubiquitous in VNs.

Now a disclaimer : I am well aware there is now a quite a few but rising number of VNs with Black protagonists or main leads, but almost all of them are not catered to a Black male's power fantasy/romcom tropes...( like how most Isekai anime are catered to a Japanese male's power fantasies the most)

Therefore, I'd like to see more VNs played from the perspective of a young Black male college student ( 19-23 years old) with diverse romanceable heroines ( Like some titles can have 1 Black heroine, 1 White heroine and 1 Asian heroine, or some other titles can have 2 Black heroines and 2 White heroines, or some titles can have 1 White princess heroine, 1 Dark Elf heroine, 1 White commoner heroine and 1 Succubus-turned-good heroine all depending if the genre is Modern Day SOL, School Life or Isekai Fantasy).

Of course, having diverse romanceable heroines is good and all, but all will be for naught if the character designs and art is not good enough to rival even Low-Priced or Mid-Priced-level Japanese VNs, so I hope only the best Western Anime artists would get hired for the job of making art and characters for a Visual Novel featuring a Black Protagonist.

Heck, if I'm a rich millionaire I'd even like to fund a project such as this myself hiring all the best staff for the game but I'm not rich so that would just be a pipe dream for me....

Therefore, what do you guys think? Can there be more efforts done to increase Black representation in Video Games? I'm not expecting the Japanese to do that so I'm pinning my hopes more on Western people and rich African-Americans with the money to make it happen.

For Rich Black people reading this, please fund this project but remember to hire only the best Anime Artists for the job no matter where their nationality is from as we need one with Super-Cute Moe designs rivalling the likes of "Grisaia" or some modern-day offerings like "Walkure Romanze", "Tsubaki Iro" and "Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou".

For the Black Protagonist's character designs, he can look like Kilik Rung or a more cuter/handsome version of him, but Onyankopon's design is also good as he looks much more dashing and elegant compared to the Teen-looking Kilik Rung ( Male characters can be drawn a little bit realistic while females can be drawn cuter and it fits the Anime Style well as can be seen in some Anime like Bleach; besides some artists can choose the option of not showing the face during H-scenes to help the player self-insert better as the protagonist, so you only show his face and expressions in normal scenes....)

So, let's discuss how we can best tackle this issue comprehensively.....

Also, the Black Protagonist's settings doesn't have to be African-American all the time per se... He can be a British or Frenchman, or he can be a transfer student from any African country if the creator knows the culture well enough to make such a setting, or he can just be from a fictional race/ethnic group in a Fantasy World that happens to look like Black people.

 

First make or at least have idea for good game~ if you make game with intention representative or diversity as main idea it mean suck game~ do you know why VN popular? Because storyline, yes artwork help but if your story suck then don't put so much hope on it unless you making hentai VN eroge~

If you really want delve into VN then yeah try create story first~ no need to try force imitate anime~ there plenty style on western comic and imo it's good enuf for VN art~ do you know Summertime Saga? It's popular porn VN using western style art~ Love n Sex Second Base is another porn VN using western style art it even have black character as romance target~
As for normal VN ... this cat not really interested~

 

White foreigners are practically non-existent in Japan as well but they definitely have many more appearances in visual novels compared to black people. Thus the lack of black people in VNs is unconsciously prejudiced and does not fall down to just "which ethnicities are most common within the Japanese population", and although it can be considered "unrealistic" for there to be more black representation in VNs especially from Japan, hopefully there's more in the future especially considering globilization!

Further adding onto the point about racism and colorism, having more diverse skin tones and hair types is definitely required from both Western and Japanese developers especially nowadays, because everyone is more aware of past colonial history. The Japanese population, along with the south, and southeast Asian population (The biggest demographic for VN characters AND the biggest audience to which the VNs are catered to) definitely do not all have pin straight hair, pale skin, tale nose bridges etc.

If you look out on the streets, most are pretty tan and have olive skin tones (yellow-green undertones), and many have naturally thick, coarse hair which is wavy or has loose curls. Although there is not a lot of representation for them, I think a lot of people who grew up in South or Southeast Asia know that there are many indigenous Asian groups that share superficial common physical characteristics with black people and pacific islanders :3

Anyways back to the main point, I think that there could be a lot more done to increase black representation besides what the OG poster already mentioned. I think the most important thing to do as consumers is that we should be supporting people who already do this and establish an interconnected community. Do you already know at least one VN which does this already and do you support it? Are you a part of black communities like idk, BlerdCon that have those same interests? I think that's an important step to help to create a stable demand, because it would be pretty sad to demand VNs with black representation without already reading the rare few gems that are available already.

But yeah honestly, I wish there were more VNs overall targeted towards POC, regardless of how "niche" it could be. It would be amazing for VNs to explore that "exclusive" aspect of POC and their struggles. Technically, it can even be done with fantasy races that coincidentally suffer the same predicament as black people (for example, Drows in BG3?).

However, if you really just want to see physical black representation in VNs ("...that happens to look like Black people.") then firstly, I think it would be an amazing investment to be able to customize the appearance of the MC. I don't know why it's not very popular to add into a VN, because although it would require more coding and art to be drawn, it's a better investment long-term as it benefits every customer (regardless of ethnicity and even gender). But I completely agree with just removing the physical features of the MC because it creates better immersion (unless the MCs racial and gender identity is actually important to the plot). For example, in an otome game called Obey Me! (mobile game) the protagonist is never seen, and in official promotions they appear as a purple ram.

 

is anyone else getting deja vu here because i swear someone posted a thread with a similar title and similar content sometime in the past couple years?
IIRC the mods had to step in because the OP kept doubling down on basically demanding stuff and picking arguments with NUFfers.

update edit: so i was remembering sorta right. there was a troll back in late 2020 who kept making posts demanding black content and picking arguments, got banned, returned two months later with an alt account, did it all again and then got banned again.

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on OP's topic....

well, you cant really expect it from Japan. Westeller pointed out the general reasons why.
Western made VNs do exist but it's only a nascent baby industry still so is likely to focus on stuff that can draw in existing VN enjoyers to try and build the foundation.
likely the only thing that *MIGHT* increase rep is if black VN enjoyers went and tried to make their own (hobbyist style). even then, if they're doing it solely focused on representation it might fall flat on it's face because it'll end up catering to a very very small segment of the VN populace.