chewpacabras:

I think they’re full of shit and are perpetrating the same gross “you’re not ethnic enough” mentality that has haunted my childhood. I don’t like this implication that a character needs to look like a stereotypical caricature to properly represent their ethnicity since 1. each ethnicity/race has their own phenotypical variations, East Asians included, and 2. it erases possibility of them being mixed race (who are especially underrepresented).

Like, I’d completely get behind the outrage if Hiro was changed to Caucasian (name change included) entirely to better appeal to a “white” audience, but there’s no evidence of that happening, and considering that Big Hero 6 is set in a cultural blend of Tokyo and San Francisco (an city with a significant Asian American population), I wouldn’t put it past them if they made Hiro racially mixed. I’ve met a few biracial Asian Americans in the past, some even in my family, and Hiro looks pretty similar to them.

Besides, if Hiro had “squinty” eyes, there would be outrage over that, y’know? There’s too much policing over how characters of colors should look and behave and that frustrates me, being of woman of color (mulata Latina) and an animator myself. :<