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kaolin029 · 18 days ago

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Soma's skin tone throughout Black Butler: A Bengali Perspective

First of all…

I’m totally open to critique! I’d love to chat about this. :]

I’m Bengali (Bangladeshi). I’m specifically Bengali-British, and I’m a similar age to Soma, so Soma represents me in multiple ways.

It’s obviously very important that we discuss Soma’s representation, as with any character or feature of a piece of media, but Soma is from Bengal, is Hindu, and is living in Victorian England. These people are not often represented in media—especially in Japanese anime—so we all know that it’s important to get Soma right. So, a discussion is due.

Please keep in mind that certain areas including Bengal have a very complicated history surrounding ethnicities, religions, and politics, involving genocides and mass rape that I honestly really would have liked to not think about. What I’m saying is that it’s really important to please know what you’re talking about.

Hex codes

First of all, it’s very obvious that the colour used to render Soma’s skin has a lighter value. You don’t have to show hex code values. I don’t think anyone saying that the value of Soma’s skin hasn’t increased has a valid argument. It is the reason for and the social context of the change in value that we should be discussing here, not the fact of the change itself.

Furthermore, you say that Soma’s undertone changes. This is true, but it has little to do with Soma’s skin becoming lighter or darker. Your argument is about the tone (or value), which is the lightness/darkness, of Soma’s skin changing. Undertones refer to hue, and subtle changes, such as those in skin, have little effect on the tone of skin.

Definitions

Secondly, I don’t think that’s what “white knighting” means. From my understanding, “white knighting” is when a person defends another person whose demographic they do not belong to, when doing so is unnecessary and/or unwanted. For example, a man speaking for a woman when the woman would prefer to speak for herself. I don’t think a person defending Square Enix for their choice of drawing Soma’s skin lighter counts as “white knighting.” It doesn’t count as “boot licking” in most cases, either. I think that’s a narrow-minded view that only minimises the perception and value of voices that belong to people who actually want to discuss these topics with you.

Thirdly, I’d like to know your definition of “whitewashing.” To me, to whitewash a person is to portray them as white, whether through their appearance or the portrayal of their culture, when doing so is inappropriate and erases their actual heritage. For example, if someone draws and writes a character who is and looks ethnically Chinese in a way that makes them look like they’re ethnically Polish—e.g. with a pinker skin tone; with different facial features; with a home life more similar to that of a Polish person than a Chinese person, etc. Additionally, if I, a Bangladeshi person, didn’t know what handesh is, my family would probably call me whitewashed, so that’s another definition I know of.

From my understanding, Soma’s skin being drawn lighter isn't whitewashing, because the producers/character designers aren’t trying to make him look more white and less Bengali. They’re Japanese, so if they were trying to make Soma look less Bengali, it would probably be because they want to make him look more Japanese. Therefore, I don’t think “whitewashing” is even the right word to use for your argument in the first place. A more accurate word would be “colourism,” but please correct me if I’m wrong. And even then, I don’t agree with you on colourism being the reason behind the change. Soma has always had a mid-tone skin colour, closer to that of his portrayal in the Public School Arc anime than of his portrayal in previous anime seasons.

Soma’s canon skin tone in the manga

In Yana Toboso’s illustrations—which are the most accurate depictions Soma we have—Soma has a more middling skin tone. See below:

1. Soma on the front cover of Volume 16.

2. Soma in a more recent illustration celebrating 100 manga Chapters. I've included Grell to represent an English woman's skin tone for reference. Please also consider aerial perspective, as Soma and Agni are further away from the point-of-view "camera" than Grell.

3. Soma on a GFantasy magazine cover. I’ve included Ciel, similarly for reference purposes.

Again, I’m Bengali. I consider this a good example of what ONE of the many skin tones our people have could look like.

Soma’s skin tone: early anime vs. recent adaptation

If we compare these to your own chosen images of Soma (and a couple of my own):

4, 5, 6. Screenshots of the scenes from which your three original images of Soma originate.

7, 8. Soma, next to Maurice and Edgar, and Soma and Cheslock. Cheslock's face is in shadow while Soma's faces the light of the fire.

Soma’s skin tone in the Public School Arc anime is very accurate to his canon skin tone. The anime is portraying its source material with accuracy, and thereby respecting the original artform and the artistic will of the author. This is something to celebrate.

If anything, Soma’s skin looks slightly darker in your chosen images of Public School Arc compared to Toboso’s illustrations above. Soma’s skin tone in the Public School Arc anime is also a good portrayal of one possible Bengali skin tone.

So, where is the disparity?

9. Soma from Black Butler Season 1

Compared to his skin tone in Toboso’s illustrations, Soma’s skin was rendered with a much different colour in the first few seasons of the Black Butler anime. His skin tone is noticeably darker than his canon skin tone, and has a slightly more yellow undertone. This is an inaccurate depiction of Soma. From my experiences, I predict it comes from bias surrounding Indian people’s skin tones only ever being very dark. But, as we know, Indian people, including Bengali people, have skin tones ranging from very light to very dark.

This all leads to questions of how much should stay the same from the anime/change to fit the manga. I think this is the real question. And I think a person could argue either way and their opinion would be valid. In my opinion, I hate how the producers of the Kuroshitsuji anime chose to deviate from the manga in the early seasons in terms of plot-important details. e.g. Grell saying that she can tell Sebastian who killed Ciel’s parents when she didn’t say this in the manga. I wish they had stuck more closely to the source material, because what we got simply doesn’t make sense in canon. I also know many people share this view. Contrastingly, some Kuroshitsuji fans would prefer if they had deviated from the manga and stuck to how the anime portrayed Sebastian’s eyes as red-brown, compared to Yana Toboso’s depiction/description of Sebastian with tea-brown eyes and the Public School Arc’s/Emerald Witch Arc’s depiction of him with more amber eyes. These opinions are all valid, and can be argued for. Personally, I’m of the opinion that the anime adaptation of someone’s art should be recreated faithfully. This shows respect for the artist and their art in its original form, and reduced the likelihood of incongruencies causing confusion for fans of the work.

Soma’s skin tone in the early anime adaptation is not a bad portrayal of Bengali people’s skin tones. I know people who have Soma’s darker anime-only skin tone. However, it is a shame that it was changed from its canon counterpart for no reason, or—as is more likely—for reasons of racist ignorance towards Indian skin colours. I can think of no valid reason to change Soma’s skin tone in an anime adaptation to be darker than canon. If there are any reasons at all, then they must be reasons of racist ignorance. I’m sure that you will agree that colourism is a horrible thing when it is directed either way.

Therefore, I believe support or preference of Soma’s non-canon, darker skin tone—intentionally or unintentionally, in good faith or in bad faith—is in support of possible racist stereotypes of Indian people that belonged to Soma’s first character designers for the anime. Thus, I think that supporting this non-canon skin tone of Soma’s is unethical, and the changing of Soma’s skin tone from canon in the first place is even more so.

Pinterest comments

Next, I want to briefly mention the comments on Pinterest that you responded to. I won’t support or refute them, because all of them argue their points poorly. I will say, though, that, yes, contrary to your statement (“yes the anime is brighter - that shouldnt change someones skin colour”), skin colour does change as much in real life people as Soma’s does in the Public School Arc anime. I have about the same skin colour as Soma and I, as well as others, can vouch that exposure to light can make a world of a difference in how your skin is perceived. This is because of sub-surface scattering. Sometimes, I look in my bedroom mirror, and I have dark skin. Then I take a 5-minute nap and look at myself in my bathroom mirror, and all of a sudden, I’m white-passing. In conclusion, yes. Skin tones can change that much depending on lighting, colour relativity, and many other factors. I can’t comment on how your skin behaves, as you’re Black-Irish and I can’t say for sure that your skin behaves in a way representative of how ours does, but this is reality for many Indian people’s skin. I hope you take this in good faith as an opportunity to educate yourself a bit.

Your citations

When you say, “crazy that i feel the need to cite why racism is bad…” you don’t need to, for the majority of people reading. Most people know why racism is bad. Please excuse my conjecture, but I think your argument should be why Soma’s skin tone change is/isn’t racist in the first place. The fact of racism being bad has nothing to do with your argument. If this was a light-hearted, meaningless joke, then I’m sorry for misunderstanding.

Additionally, “crazy that i feel the need to cite why racism is bad[…]” and the following, “[…]go read a book:” can come off as patronising. I politely ask and advise that you maintain civility and seriousness when talking about topics like colourism, so that people take your view seriously and so that you come off as in good faith. This subject is very important to me. Reading your original post, I feel offended that I am being dismissed as a “bootlicker” who doesn’t understand why racism is bad and doesn’t read (i.e. is wilfully uneducated).

Speaking of reading. May I ask what your cited sources have to do with our subject? Your sources:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419873229 This paper is about the silence of US economists surrounding systemic racism affecting Black people in the US, and widening the racial wealth gap in the US. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the topic of your discussion. The word “whitewashing” is used in this paper to describe the silence about racism against Black people, and its discreet favouring of white people, in US economics.

https://doi.org/10.11588/xarep.00000349 This article is about the diminishing of Bhutanese culture with the increasing prevalence of American media. The word “whitewashing” is used in this paper to describe the substitution of Bhutanese social behaviours and trends with non-Bhutanese culture. I don’t see what this has to do with anything we are discussing.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.692802 This paper is about the racism and privilege of Hungarian and Romanian people immigrating to the UK in recent years. I also don’t see how this is relevant at all.

I think that, next time, it may be useful to explain why each source is significant to your point. I would even recommend in-text citations.

Agni

I don’t see how it’s a problem that Agni and Soma have slightly different skin tones in the Public School Arc anime. In fact, it is a positive thing to see a variation of Indian skin tones through the depiction of Soma and Agni. I think that Agni, here, is also a good portrayal of one of the skin tones Indian people may have.

In fact, if we compare Soma and Agni's depictions throughout the series:

10. Soma on the cover of Volume 16 again, and Agni on the cover of Volume 26.

11. Soma and Agni in the 100 Chapter illustration again.

12. Soma and Agni side-by-side in manga Chapter 66.

13. Agni and Soma side-by-side in manga Chapter 85.

Agni consistently has darker skin than Soma in full colour illustrations and in monochrome manga panels. It appears that this detail was overlooked by production staff for the Season 1 Black Butler anime, but was added back in for the recent adaptation. Agni's skin colour in the Public School Arc anime is proportionally darker than Soma's as is portrayed in the source material. Again, this is something to celebrate. It seems that the new production staff paid attention to the character designs, including subtle variations in skin tones, of these characters, and made changes accordingly. This displays an appreciation of and care for the author's work, and shows that the skin tones of Bengali people can vary. Therefore, Agni being slightly darker than Soma is positive representation, not something to criticise.

Soma becoming “less visually Indian,” and orientalism

Soma’s ethnic features in the manga (facial feature shapes and sizes, skin tone, body type, etc.) stay very consistent beyond stylistic changes which apply equally to every character and are unrelated to ethnicity.

When you say, “less visually Indian,” you seem to specifically refer to his wearing traditional Indian clothes less frequently. Soma is Indian regardless of what clothes he wears. If Soma wears non-traditional clothes, he is still Indian. I wear non-traditional clothes on a daily basis. This does not make me less Indian. Clothes have nothing to do with a person appearing to be their ethnicity. This is a non-problem.

I don't even think that this comes under one of the "whitewashing" definitions that I myself gave above, because although Soma in Blue Cult Arc is wearing clothes from a non-Indian culture, this doesn't erase his heritage in any way.

I'm honestly struggling to understand what point you’re trying to make here, especially with your mentioning orientalism. Orientalism is almost entirely irrelevant to Soma wearing a pop star-inspired outfit. I would call it orientalism if Soma were portrayed as worshipping the Goddess Kali, reading the Qur’an during namaz, wearing a Fez, and having grown up speaking primarily Tamil.

The expectation that Indians always wear traditional clothing is racist. If this was your argument, then I ask you politely to please educate yourself.

"Underrepresented majority"

When you say, “I really dont think its right to toy about with a characters skin tone like this especially for such an (imo) underrepresented group considering how much of a global majority they are,” whether a group of people is a majority or minority has nothing to do with how deserving they are of good representation. Everyone deserves to be represented in media, someplace, somehow.

Furthermore, I think that wanting Soma and Agni’s skin colours to be changed to their non-canon counterparts simply for your own "nostalgic" feelings falls under “toying with characters’ skin tones.”

In your reblog, you also say that you feel it is important for people with dark skin tones to feel represented in the media they watch. I feel the same way, because that is simply indisputably moralistic, and possibly also because I am darker skinned. However, it is unacceptable to imply that we should provide representation to certain people by taking it away from other people. To darken Soma’s skin and to keep it darker than his canon skin tone is taking away representation for people with his canon skin tone, whose representation in media is undoubtedly equally important. Therefore, I think the best option in our case is to keep Soma’s and Agni’s skin tones in congruence with their canon skin tones, which will grant respect to the original work, and bring representation for people who identify with Soma and Agni. Although, it would have been even better if their skin tones were never changed from canon in the first place.

Your skin tone

14. A screenshot of your comment on your skin tone compared to Soma's in Public School Arc.

I hope that, after all of this, it has gotten through to you that I’m taking your argument seriously and in good faith. I respect you and your wish to improve the state of representation for Indian/Bengali people. It means a lot to me that you care about this, so I thank you.

However, I need you to understand the severity of what you have said in the above screenshot of your reblog, so please forgive me if I sound rude, but I am angry with you.

You think that Soma, as a Bengali person, should have darker skin than you, as a Black-Irish person. This comment of yours is the type of comment that the third Pinterest user in your original post was talking about.

Your response to them was: “This one is basically calling the old version of Soma racist? i can barely tell honestly.” You should be able to tell. This is important to our entire discussion. This is important to Indian people. If you don’t understand this much, then you should not be speaking for us.

The belief that Indians must be very dark-skinned is racist. And it is harmful to us. Indian people have a vast range of skin colours. You should know that, especially as an anthropology student, and someone trying to be an ally to us. There is no such thing as being “too light” or “too dark” as an Indian/Bengali person in this context. No Indian is “not dark enough compared to another race/ethnicity.” By saying this, you are invalidating people with Soma’s skin tone. You are invalidating people who “aren’t the right skin colour.” I have Soma’s skin colour. You are invalidating me. This take is honestly shameful and I hope that you don’t truly believe this. Please educate yourself and choose your language more carefully next time.

I can’t believe you said something as dismissive as, “I can barely tell, honestly” to something as real and abhorrent as colourism against Indians. How do you not know of this issue? How do you not understand this issue?

Going forward…

Please use your platform to uplift the voices of people of the minority Soma belongs to, instead of speaking for us. As you say, you’re not an expert on this.

There are many valid opinions on this topic belonging to Bengali people, and it’s important to empower them, otherwise it can come off as a person speaking over us instead of with us.

Thank you for reading to the end my long response. It had a lot of information but I hope it was useful.

If you have any questions, please DM me and I'll try my best to get back to you. It's a very busy time for me and, due to personal circumstances, I can't guarantee that I'll be able to respond. I hope you understand.

Have a nice day.

A (not so) breif rant on Prince Somas skin tone

Im tired of seeing people in the comments of pinterest white nighting square enix and boot licking because theyre just grateful we got more seasons

They have actively chosen to white wash the main character of colour in kuroshitsuji for literally no good reason

dont believe that hes actually been made lighter?

have some hex codes

old seasons:

new seasons:

(i took these from the cheek of the above image to avoid shading, i used the top ones which i thought were actually the most generous)

i feel like were all smart enough to agree that those are not the same colour, and that while your skin can get lighter and darker from sun exposure or lack there of(aka being in the uk for a few years) the undertone of your skin cannot change that drastically (see the blue value in the hex codes, naturally, i am assuming Soma isnt using self tanner because that is ridiculous)

dont believe me that people are saying this?

lemme respond to them

Excuse me what does VA have to do with the fact that he’s objectively paler? yes the anime is brighter - that shouldnt change someones skin colour

isnt your “prob” because youre not impacted by racism bro. were complaining about something important bootlicker. im sorry that your favourite anime can be impacted by racism, welcome to the world sweet summer child.

This one is basically calling the old version of Soma racist? i can barely tell honestly. but it raises an interesting point. Soma is of a higher caste -

Obviously, he is a prince. Im not about to whitesplain the victorian contemporary Indian caste system to you- if youre reading this you have access to the internet do your own research and listen to Indian voices. but the implication of him being made too dark originally is an interesting point. im not sure i agree but its atleast not completely senseless

either way no one should straight up change a characters skin tone like that for no narritive or good reason idc.

and too these two

i took the liberty of checking O!ciels skin tones using hex:

skin (especially paler skin) reflects light, which is why i look super pale outside when i wear black in the bright sun versus when im in the stark light of my all white bathroom and i genuinely look a different race -im not denying skin tone can be flexible (see grid 2 of the hex image, hes in quite dark lighting)

but just look at how consistent it is

im sure you could find screen grabs that make o!ciel look red/green/not consistently white but across seasons he is consistently a pale little victorian boy

i didnt cherry pick these images either, i stole them of pinterest (i am not taking credit but im not giving it either for anonymity sake)

its not just lighting, its not just a new animation style, and the funny thing about micro aggressions is that they dont change if we dont address them and say its wrong.

crazy that i feel the need to cite why racism is bad but fuck it here we are go read a book:

Whitewashing Capitalism: Mainstream Economics’ Resounding Silence on Race and Racism. http://doi.org/10.1177/0486613419873229

Media and Public Culture: Media Whitewashing https://doi.org/10.11588/xarep.00000349

The uses of racism: whitewashing new Europeans in the UK https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.692802

(and theyre all free access, no excuses for racists)

i promise you it is this deep, and yes i refuse to spell check

i had more i wanted to share cause im aware im not the first to discuss this, but tumblr has a ten image limit so alas i might have to make another post

#kuroshitsuji #soma asman kadar #yapping

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