I was thinking about Mashima being racist and I'm really about to start some shit. Don't worry it gets WORSE than racism.
The first vilain we ever see is him. Bora who is not white. Sure he's not has brown has some of the other characters in the show but he is still not white. Now what do we know about him? Well for starters he's a horrible person, has no problem with violating people sexuality and emotionally. He runs a sex slave trade or is a part of one. Later on we discover that he was abusive with Juvia.
This is Bluenote. What do we know about him? He has shown no issue with violence and even seems to have a thing with power. Such has his original motivation: Mavis's grave.
These two: Shown to have horrible thought processes and often shown has incompetent. Now there has been the fair share of white passing vilains:
However the difference here is while yes, all of them ended up getting their asses kicked and destoryed. Tardaros is made of demons. Zeref is an immortal. Zero however is him:
Which by the why notice the major differences yet? Look again. Yes these are the same people. His name is Brain. This is the link to the Wikipedia fan page. According to this fan page Brain is a code name. But also according to the fan page:
" Brain has neat silver hair that reaches his shoulders, dark eyes and dark skin. He has unique markings on his face that take the shape of straight black lines, ones that begin to disappear when the members of the Oración Seis become incapacitated or killed. He is slightly taller and more muscular than most people.[1]
After Brain's alter-personality Zero is unleashed, his appearance changes slightly. His hair becomes wavier, his eyes have turned blood red, his skin becomes a much paler color, and his outfit becomes something reminiscent of a military officer's outfit.[2][3] "
You can't tell me any of this is okay. You cannot tell me altering someone's skin and turning them white and mentally ill is a good thing. You cannot tell me using toxic tropes and being outright racist is okay. You cannot tell me that they did this to " signify the difference ". You cannot tell me that his design needed to be changed in this way. You cannot tell me that Mashima has not fucked up.
You cannot LOOK at this and tell me he didn't know what he was doing. You cannot tell me he didn't create this character, all of them, and know what he was doing. Because yeah it's totally somehow okay for your very white passing protag to beat the shit out of a mentally ill man who you whitewashed so fucking hard he's not even black anymore.
