I'm Not a Villainess!! Just Because I Can Control Darkness, Doesn't Mean I'm a Villain

[DerpyDragon]

if her appearance were to be changed by the blessing, I think a change in eye color would have been more suitable, like golden eyes maybe? nice and fantasy-like while having a connection to the light element, and not being dumb and sending such a negative message like "it's all better since she isn't black anymore! being black is bad and you can solve it by not being black!" and making all of her struggles up to that point almost totally irrelevant.

 

[billydju]

@DerpyDragon actually it much more make sense if she become white. No one fear her anymore now because of the skin tone. The only dark feature she has now her dark hair.

I still prefer her cute choco skin thou 😭

 

[PortalSage]

I have to agree with billydju here, the fact that she was blessed and born with an uncommon appearance and suddenly turned white due to the light blessing makes sense. Choco is better though so I'm glad the manga will continue to have dark skin tone for the mc.


FYI, just because the mc turned white doesn't make anything racist because it has literally nothing to do with racism. Obviously, someone blessed with a dark king's power and noticeable traits of it can be scary given the background of the previous holder.

 

[DerpyDragon]

*shrug* I was just thinking aloud (lol) a bit about

Spoiler

how it could change without totally erasing a major part of her story and keeping a look that the readers like with only a minor tweak that would still have impact, really stand out from her appearance before and also look pretty.

I'm in favor of keeping her skin color, but if there's no change at all when they redo it then it's just as bad as not republishing at all since as people point out, it makes no sense storywise. They didn't bother to change anything else except one line. They literally just reskinned the chapter.

If people are going to treat her differently, make it obvious why by either A) changing her appearance in a different way so the stupid people still literally see her differently or B) have her parents refer to the big event that just happened so it doesn't feel like something is missing in the conversation, like *why* they're even bothering now.

 

[DerpyDragon]

though I will admit

Spoiler

that the end of the chapter there storywise has a big impact with her facing the results of losing a part of herself that caused others to treat her unfairly, and how messed up her situation is with being erased.

 

[ParkJimin-shi]

I’m fine wether her skin is black or white but I think black hair and white skin will the suit the storyline better cuz it also shown like that on the cover and the change is more obvious like that since it’s a black and white manga....(or we can go with white hair and black skin it gonna look so cool! But this wouldn’t go well the the cover)

 

[Rizkid1412]

429 comment in 12 hours with another 123 for its re skinned chapter is amazing.

Can't we all agree this is just controversy from Twitter people who got provoked without knowing any context like usual?

 

[Sotto_Voce]

Now she just looks like every other mc...great

 

[Aether]

On the one hand, I do prefer the darker skinned look.

On the other hand, sad to hear they caved to a bunch of people trying to make it about something it was never about (not to mention how the moral of the story is to *not* judge someone by appearance).

 

[leelee78982]

@PortalSage, @Rizkid1412, and @Aether. I also am glad her skin color is back to being dark!
However, I do agree with the arguments that the skin color change was borderline racist. Hear me out...
I acknowledge it does make sense in the world the author created that the skin color would change. The author does an awesome job of using that world to represent racist themes in many cultures we see in real life. The author then subverts those racist themes by making a dark protagonist who is actually a good person within that world. This choice is the whole selling point of the manga; the color of one's skin does not dictate one's character/worth. The fact that the light queen gave the m.c. powers was enough to show the m.c. was blessed, since those powers were specific to the light queen. There was no need to change the skin color. Unfortunately, when the author chose to have the character change skin color, they reinforced everything the manga started out challenging.
I completely get the author's intentions, but by altering the skin color, they undermined their whole purpose. Good intentions; bad results.

 

[K00K13]

Wow I knew that the colorism in Asian countries was bad but to this point? Yeah they changed it back but who sat there and thought "yeah let's take our dark-skinned character and lighten the heck out of her skin". I'm glad that fans stood up against this. This is great progress in the battle against colorism.

To the people saying it isn't an "eastern problem". Colorism definitely is and you can see it in how darker skinned Asians are treated and how beauty standards continuously push for lighter skin in those countries.

For people who don't know what colorism is; it's basically prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. So like racism except among the same "race".

 

[Krezen_Ralfador]

This is why folks, all mangakas tend to stay away from using dark-skinned tone in ther mangas. Any slight misfortune or change with a dark-skinned tone character and people will immediately connect it with racism. A fictional world where fictional racists against the dark-skinned appear and people will immediately connect it to the real world racism. What's next? You'll make out the author to be racist again just because an elf in the fictional world hated the humans? What a joke.

What's worse i've seen people immediately called this trash and rated 1 just because of the change. Did you guys really forgot what's the story trying to say? "Don't judge things just by appearance", and you guys immediately screeched racism. Bravo

 

[jamu]

omg the raws are free (so check them out to give the OG some traffic!) and I read chapter 13. If you want to know what happens

Spoiler

LEVI CONFESSES! AND SHE CONFESSES BACK AT THE END!!!

 

[jamu]

Also relating to the colorism in chapter 12: I'm very happy they returned her skintone. I was truly taken aback when her skin turned white and suddenly... everything was fine? That's gross as hell. As a Southeast Asian myself I know just how awful colorism is in Asian culture, so I'm happy the fans pressured the publisher to make her brown again.

 

[kimagure]

@Krezen_Ralfador I wouldn't call a change in skin tone to be racist, but it's somewhat problematic and it weakens the message of the story. The whole point is that she's not a bad person despite having black skin and black hair. Having her suddenly turn white weakens the story's ability to make that point (though there is some thematic resonance in the fact that other people suddenly find her more acceptable and treat her better since she's white).

And why do I say it's somewhat problematic? Because intended or not, it conveys the unfortunate message that turning White is a reward that she earns after her kindness and efforts are recognized. The better solution may have been to have her get white hair.

 

[Nishii]

I am glad her skin became back to normal that sudden change skin color made me really uncomfortable. Was thinking of dropping it.

 

[BlackLeopard]

i don't think making her white would afect the storyline, more soo, it would increse the effect from getting the light spirit, and a arc for identity, then in the end of the arc she and the spirit king just wish to get it back to normal or something to make like she accepting herself and the people too, btw it could also make her family join in the acceptence train, or something, over all if it's just a error from the publisher and it's like that in the LN fine but if not, i don't know why bother change back after publishing without at least a filler to make things back. just waste of potential material for a mini arc.

 

[Potaito]

I remember reading the novel and then dropping it once I read that the reason people treated her better is cuz her skin colour returned to """"normal""" so I'm glad of this change in the manga.

 

[Krezen_Ralfador]

@kimagure Turning white is not a reward, the people around her sees it as a reward. The story already openly says that whatever appearance you have, if you are kind and good, then you are kind and good, no more no less. I don't fucking care if you are black, white, purple or fucking rainbow-skinned. The story is mainly about discrimination against people who are "different". If you still think that the message is about turning white is a reward, that's your bias working assuming that the author/artist thinks white is a reward, making it problematic (or racist if you're an SJW).

Also, in your case it's still a mild dissastification, and that's okay if we dissagree. What i loathe the most is people calling this trash, threaten to drop, actually dropping it, even go as far as cancelling it just because of this one chapter. It's like they don't even care that the past 11 chapters exist. Thank god we are actually a pirate fan base so the author couldn't hear us.

 

[virtoo]

stop 👏 whitewashing 👏 our 👏 goddess 👏