chapter 182
I'm going to begin with the good things that this chapter should have been because I waited a month.
smoller bard
the best character in this chapter
this is just adorable. makes me real happy.
and that's fine right! this would have been a perfectly fine cute chapter. until that last page.
this is the last page of the chapter which depicts natives in a very violent way, clearly being portrayed as the antagonists is the white Americans run in terror and houses burn around them. I'm showing the page for the people who have not read the chapter yet and wish to contextualize it themselves
the biggest issue isn't even so much the imagery but the "why". bard should know why, and if he doesn't well that's just depressing. yana could have still portrayed bard as devastated because his family is now dead and these things did happen in this time. but "why" just turns all of these white men into innocent victims, which they weren't. a little history lecture next chapter would be great thanks.
I don't know yana's actual political opinions, but i know that a possibility is that yana did research on these historical conflicts, and not doing research on the actual serious current issues that are going on right now. I'm not Japanese so I can't say how knowledgeable they are of American history or current events, but I don't expect it to be a lot(neither am I native American by the way! this is an outsiders perspective).
I doubt we will get any perspective from the natives. something that may help would be for Sebastian to remind bard that his "wheat farmer struggles" aren't that significant actually. but there's not a big chance of that happening either.
and here's the thing, I doubt that yana pays any attention to the western fandom(for good reasons actually pfft), so there's a good chance this particular problem could continue simply due to ignorance.(this doesn't mean angry letters or death threats, come on, I'm tired). but we as a fandom are be free to address these issues and understand them when necessary.
I was very interested in bards past and his family before, but i may end up removing that from my own canon if it doesn't get resolved, like with kuro's other such visual depictions. this is just another minority to add to her "things to improve" list. I do hope yana does wish to improve and become more aware.
also, am I over thinking this? i wanted to get some thoughts out on the matter but if this is too much or inappropriate I'll get rid of this. my optimistic hope is that kuro gets better in the future, or at the very least we are able to focus on the main plot while still holding yana tobos and these things accountable.
can't wait to get back to the plot world now.
