spinjitzuwu

causing problems makes you famous

so a lot of cultural appropriation is taking something important from a culture, disregarding its importance and its history as part of that culture, and using it for your own thing.

the entire concept of ninjago is “colorful ninjas who are basically superheroes protect ninjago,” based on the popular misconception of ninjas as Cool Fighters. this is in itself kind of racist! like, if you’re going to take a Japanese concept, and completely divorce it from its origins to repackage for a western audience… that’s cultural appropriation. they could have easily done a superhero show with the same concepts of elemental powers, and it would not have been racist from the start.

it’s also clearly written for a western audience, and not meant to be Japanese representation; out of the main group of ninja, only Kai and Nya have names that are arguably not english. Wu is called “sensei,” but “Wu” is not a Japanese name, it’s Chinese. the name “Garmadon” is also not japanese. Misako could be? however, Lloyd is given an english name. so it’s a western story for a western audience with an east asian facade.

ninjago mangles a LOT of other Japanese concepts (& also other east asian cultures, and other asian cultures based on the racist caricature that is nadakhan). the concept of yin-yang is thrown around several times esp. in the day of the departed with no indication that the writers did any research. dragons are based on their western counterparts as violent beasts. there’s a lot more!

basically, western creators make a western show that’s ‘themed’ asian for a western audience. they don’t ever try to make an effort to actually understand the cultures they are taking from

I myself, can’t really read chinese or japanese characters (which share roots so some characters are the same, if I’m correct), and my mom saw them and said she couldn’t understand the ones on the ninjas’ outfits. I don’t know if it applies for every outfit, but even just that instant shows that the creators really don’t care as much as they should?