So, About Waifu Diversity...

[princessdrma]

UPDATE!: I managed to get in touch with SPS and they acknowledged my concern. They even said that representation matters and agree that it's important to see all forms of feminine beauty. So hopefully, we'll see things change in the future! :) I appreciate everyone's comments and I'm glad it left some impact whether good or bad. There seemed to be some heat concerning my comment on Tessa so let me clarify reasons for saying what I said.

Let me give some fun facts: marginalized groups and people who are "other"-ed in general are often compared to animals as a form of dehumanization. Thus, people use the messed up logic that can come with those views as excuses to treat others badly (and it doesn't stop at race, it's done to women, religious groups, the LGTBQ+ community, people with any kind of disability, the list goes on). Second fact: you ever wonder why black people, especially black women, are so sensitive about having our hair touched? Besides the obvious facts of personal space and not wanting the style messed up, it's degrading. It feels like we're being pet like dogs (at least for my family, friends, myself, and others I've talked to). And I know there's Quill as a cat girl, but her uncensored end scene clarifies that she's a human role-playing as a cat once you see her "tail". While Tessa's scene reveals that her tail is attached, as in, it's a continuation of her spine. She's not a human role-playing, she's a bona-fide dog in the form of a human. What I was saying was that it was a little insensitive and pretty sloppy for the creators to not consider things like this when they decided to give the dog character brown skin, especially when some of her concept art shows that there were some non-brown design options. Sure, the intention may not have been to have her be black per sae; it just isn't a good look when there aren't a lot of characters of color and none who are definitively black.

I'm sure there are people who'll say that this is "no big deal", I'm "making something out of nothing", and to "just get over it". This might be futile but I ask you to research the psychological damage gas lighting and microaggressions can do to people. I may sound silly to ask something like that from an internet forum but I know that behind the screen names, there's a human being using that keyboard and I'm just asking for a little humanity. Even if you choose not to, then at least remember that a human made this post and she might have had experiences that you haven't had and/or never will. It's not imaginary just because you don't see it that way and experience affects how people think and interpret things. Please be kind to others and yourself. Take care and keep on loving your waifus! Lots of love. :) <3

[maromilove]

Happy to here you got in touch with them! I too am a black female and would love to see more waifus in game that are actually black and not just ambiguously diverse. Hit the nail on the head with your explanation here as well.

[PurpleKingCrazy]

Even when talking about Tessa she's actually pure garbage character compared to the rest of them. Never liked Tessa from the beginning and almost quit because of it. Even though there should be more diversifying representation of certain encounters of characters.

Lotus and Caitlin are a great start to this trend though. I say I don't want any of this bias to go to waste when there's like a white-skinned character here or there. But that jus represents the color of their soul and not the color of the skin of the character. (And NO Nova doesn't have black skin no matter how much people say anything about Nova)

[quothz]

You're totally right, both about the lack of diversity and about Tessa's skin color. The latter never occurred to me until the "black waifus" thread where some argued she was black, and I'm sure the devs didn't give it a second thought either. Now that it's out there, though, I agree it's in poor taste.

I think it may be that Sad Panda avoids a lot of minorities because their characters are mostly ribald parodies and stereotypes, and there aren't a lot of racial minority stereotypes that are appropriate - especially for developers of other races. Likewise, parodying successful minorities can come across pretty badly (it can certainly be done, but it's a minefield). It may be that their best bet would be to bring in diverse guest pornographers to design girls from time to time.

[Kitiana Foxtail]

Wanted to say more but I feel it would be wasted. So I will just say this.

I love Tessa. She is one of top 5 favorite characters. I love her design, her voice actor and her lines. I love everything about her. I think she is one of the best.

[Neuralei]

Tessa is certainly not a favorite of mine, but given that she is apparently intended to literally be a super happy-go-lucky anthropomorphized dog, I've decided to simply accept her (non-physical) character design and that other people may appreciate it more than me.

On the physical side, I think that Tessa's skin color is notable largely because there aren't enough actual human people with darker skin tones. I am a white male person, and I am not unconsciously identifying with Tessa because she doesn't look anything like me at all, and there is a wide variety of characters with lighter skin tones. But, it completely makes sense that if she is the (possibly only) character that looks most like you, you couldn't help but do so. It takes effort to empathize with others who have very different lived experiences, but it is so necessary and worthwhile!

100% agree more black human female characters; thank you again for posting!!

[star.ranger4]

Tessa isn't a favorite of myself as well, but that has nothing to do with her skin tone... to me its the average brown of your average mixed breed dog.

What I don't like about her is the way her dialog really amps up the Cannine part of her design and I'm not a big dog person, especially the more hyperactive (ahem) Attention hounds.

[Kitiana Foxtail]

Originally posted by princessdrma:

What I was saying was that it was a little insensitive and pretty sloppy for the creators to not consider things like this when they decided to give the dog character brown skin, especially when some of her concept art shows that there were some non-brown design options. Sure, the intention may not have been to have her be black per sae; it just isn't a good look when there aren't a lot of characters of color and none who are definitively black.

Ok, so honest question for you. What color should Tessa be?

[princessdrma]

Originally posted by Kitiana Foxtail:

Originally posted by princessdrma:

What I was saying was that it was a little insensitive and pretty sloppy for the creators to not consider things like this when they decided to give the dog character brown skin, especially when some of her concept art shows that there were some non-brown design options. Sure, the intention may not have been to have her be black per sae; it just isn't a good look when there aren't a lot of characters of color and none who are definitively black.

Ok, so honest question for you. What color should Tessa be?

In my opinion, if she was a human role-playing like Quill, then her brown skin would be fine. If she remains a dog in human form, then it would better if she wasn't brown-skinned. But to be honest, if there were any objectively black (as in no one could say "well maybe she's just tan or Hispanic or Indian," ect.) characters, I'd have absolutely no problem at all with her look. It's just since there are none besides Caitlin, who isn't officially in the game (and notice how she always ends up at the bottom of the poll when there's a vote), as I said, it's worthy of a "yikes" from me and, from what it seems, a few others. Also when I was browsing their site for contact info, they had a photo of the real life dog Tessa was based off of. She's actually white with brown and black spots.

I saw your previous comment and it's great that you love Tessa! I'm not taking that from you and it's great that people like her. In fact, I don't hate her at all! I love her personality, the fact that she's the only character with heterochromia, and her cute voice. Some of her lines made me laugh too and I appreciate her unique body type; having a small bust and wide hips. All shapes and sizes, boom baby! Plus her wedding dress is adorable! I actually want to make a dress like that IRL. My original thread (I saw your comment on it and thank you for it. Answering that question, I mean black. I know there are white Africans, especially in South Africa, but I mean brown-skin in all shades. Light, dark, and every shade in between.) also mentioned Bearverly and Brie. In fact, Brie's release was the reason I said something to begin with. I don't know why but people got really defensive about Tessa in particular; she must be popular with a lot of people and that's perfectly fine. It's possible to like something but feel that somethings can be better about it and this is one for me.

The thing is, black women are given a lot of hostility in geek culture and the anime community, as if people can't stand that we exist. That's how I've felt at least. And please, don't deny my feelings and experiences when you're not me and haven't seen/heard what I have. I'd really appreciate no gaslighting in this subject matter. And this is a big deal despite what people say; please look into what microaggressions are and what they can do to a person's psyche, physical, and mental health. Hopefully you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, "You can't cosplay as that character, you're black," is a common phrase we hear all the time. Also "you're not pretty because you're black," "You're awesome and I'd totally date you if you weren't black," aren't cool either. We've been compared to men and, like I said before, animals for quite a while and it's still going strong nowadays. It's not unreasonable to want to be represented as 100% human when there are plenty of humans in the game who are other races. I told SPS the following in the email I sent them, having black human waifus says "We see you and we love your beauty."

Sorry for such a long answer, lol. 😅 I truly hope you don't feel I'm antagonizing you or your tastes. And I really don't mean to start any issues. I feel SPS are talented artists and I love their work; I was giving constructive criticism. In fact, I never called them or anyone racist because I don't think they are. I feel that they didn't think things through so I'm pointing it out so that they will in the future. That and a little love to all types of women is all I want. I hope this answers your question and I hope you understand me and my feelings better. I hope you have a good day and keep sharing your anime love and I'll do the same. 😊❤

One last thing. I'm a doll collector and fans have given race requests and criticisms to the big doll companies, MGA and Mattel, and they listen 9 times out of 10 when the next series come out. My point is if toy companies can take diversity critiques on the nose and use them to improve their products, I know this talented indie studio can too.

[PurpleKingCrazy]

I had different reasons of disliking Tessa. Skin color is not one of them. Plain and Simple. But yet they assume its a non-sense aggression for some non-particular part and then go from there and making it off the deep end.

And yes that would be a big problem and I would have told SPS if it was the case. But as far as anime tropes go I think there is too big of a concern without reason that some of these people want to go their way and then get hateful on both sides. This in which I won't want to happen.

[Lupe]

Originally posted by PKCrazy1994:

I had different reasons of disliking Tessa. Skin color is not one of them. Plain and Simple. But yet they assume its a non-sense aggression for some non-particular part and then go from there and making it off the deep end.

And yes that would be a big problem and I would have told SPS if it was the case. But as far as anime tropes go I think there is too big of a concern without reason that some of these people want to go their way and then get hateful on both sides. This in which I won't want to happen.

Moral of the story : let the devs handle their game as they want, because no matter what they do someone is going to be disappointed and maybe hateful