some white guy on YouTube said he doesn’t like Jo’s and Raissa’s character designs, so as a Filipino, I’m gonna say why their designs are actually great:
IT’S BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE FILIPINOS!
Raissa has that chinita/mestiza look, while Jo is more native-looking. This alone hints a lot at their different socioeconomic backgrounds, showing the studio’s deep understanding of Filipino society.
First, a brief history: The Philippines was colonized by Spain for 333 years, and in that time, some racial hierarchy took place. The Spanish colonial government considered pure native Filipinos as the lowest class citizens, while visiting Chinese merchants or those with Chinese blood were a little higher, then at the very top were the Spaniards or those with Spanish blood. Because of this, the more well-off people tend to be Chinese-looking (chinita) or Spanish-looking (mestiza). Not to say that there aren’t any native-looking (morena) people who are well-off, but the majority do tend to be the other two. Like, the richest people in this country even have a Chinese surname (the Sy siblings). Besides, because of the preference for white skin in this country, a rich person who is born morena may still choose to find ways to lighten their skin, so yeah...
Raissa, with her narrower/almond-shaped eyes and fairer skin, instantly registers to me as a chinita/mestiza. That, plus her lanky figure and long, straight “bagsak” hair immediately reminded me of two classmates who both belong to the upper-middle class society—coincidence or not, these two classmates also wear glasses.
And seeing that Raissa’s family has the capacity to send her abroad for college, the idea that she’s quite well-off checks out. One of her parents/relatives may very well also be an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), who earns a lot more than the average worker in the Philippines.
Now, on to Jo. Although I said before that native-looking people tend to be not as well-off, I’m not saying people with brown skin are automatically Poor. And Jo is definitely not Poor, seeing as how she can also afford to go to a private school:
(My mom’s a public school teacher here in the Philippines, and I’ve never seen such fancy chairs at the schools she’s taught in.)
But compared to Raissa, Jo is still of a slightly lower socioeconomic background.
Jo is in the driver’s seat of this jeepney, a Filipino mode of public transport. We can assume her family owns the jeepney. And I’ve never met anyone who got rich through jeepney driving. Jeepney drivers tend to earn just enough for their families.
This scene also shows Jo working at a fastfood restaurant, so yeah, her family is definitely not as well-off as Raissa’s.
But beyond these points about their socioeconomic backgrounds, their character designs are also instantly recognizable to every Filipino. Like, in my case, I recognized Raissa as one of those nerdy rich kids. People on Twitter are hailing Jo as the first animated representation of a “tomboy,” which, in Filipino queer terminology, refers to a butch/masc lesbian.
so yeah, Filipinos are loving the characters. If you’re a non-Filipino who don’t like how the characters look, then maybe you have to reflect on that...
