The only character with any melanin seems to be Super Mario (get it? because he’s Italian? eh, probably not even from Southern Italy).
Having watched the recent Pokemon Presents, it seems that the next Smash Bros. game is just going to be white, white, and more white. But more than that, does Nintendo have any major BIPOC representation aside from Ganondorf? That chap seems to be the only Black and/or Arab guy around. And he’s the villain so that’s going to irk even more people.
Idk. Quite a pity that at best you’re getting Asian representation, not that that isn’t important or anything. Only the Pokemon games have any sort-of BIPOC representation.
Legend of Zelda has a bunch, obvious you mentioned Ganondorf but all the Gerudo have brown skin! They’re not all enemies or villains in Breath of the Wild, they’re just regular people.
There’s the guy that trains you in Punch Out (besides Mike Tyson lol).
I’m sure there’s some non Asian POC representation in street fighter or whatever, but I didn’t play a lot of fighters.
There definitely isn’t a lot though and even when you could customize your main character (like in Animal Crossing) they didn’t do the best in representation either until, like, this decade.
Idk enough of LoZ lore but I read somewhere that the Gerudo are a tribe of thieves? I’m playing TotK and there was a line about how the Gerudo are extra dedicated to redeem themselves for following Ganandorf in the past
Same vibes as Lord of the Rings easterlings being the ontologically brown and evil races
But beyond that, yeah they are just yet another people in Hyrule. I don’t get why they’re all women though
Im pretty sure “most” characters in anime are supposed to be Japanese unless we are talking about the trope of the blonde exchange student. Its just that western audiences see them as white. A ton of Anime play in Japan and ofc the characters depicted in those shows are supposed to be japanese. This is not to say Anime cant feature wh*te people there are more then enough shows that feature people of other nationalities just that the classic Anime playing at a japanese highschool is…yes meant to depict japanese highschoolers.
It really is just white and Japanese for almost every property. You can consider Splatoon an exception, but well, Splatoon’s aesthetic of awkwardly appropriated black culture doesn’t make that feel like a point in Ninty’s favor.
