@Jag85: that could apply to many ethnic groups, not only to sub-saharan African people.

At some point it feels more like an ideologically motivated focus, rather than an effort to be fair and inclusive.

Having said so, I don't disagree with the inclusion of yasuke as I just find the character interesting.

@Jag85: I don't know if it matters where the japanese language comment come from. They are comments, not a poll.

Besides, we already know that several popular Japanese anime and games feature non ethnically japanese samurais, so we can tell at least a large group of people are not bothered by it .

For me it's a total non issue.

Unless the character start adding dialogue about the patriarchy or try to analyze the world in terms of contemporary American race relationships, I am totally ok with this.

I also would like to see the reactions peasants have to yasuke. I have walked small Chinese and Japanese towns in the middle of nowhere and as non asian person, I attracted A LOT of attention.

@luxuryheart: every group has its own art production.

I mean much more specifically for American mass media acting roles. Black actors have had roles roughly in line with their percentage of the population for some time, and my understanding is that now it's actually higher than that proportion.

In terms of proportion of the American population, That is much higher than Hispanics, native Americans, south Asians and east Asians (discounting international productions). Those groups are generally underrepresented.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_African_Americans_in_media

I found this Wikipedia page that mentions a report from 2018. My perception is that currently the percentage should be higher.

"""

This under-representation has reversed, however, according to a 2018 report from the Department of Social Sciences at UCLA, which states that, despite making up less than 13 percent of the US population, "Blacks were over-represented among actors in broadcast scripted shows in 2015-16, claiming 17 percent of the roles."[3]

"""

@Planeforger: I think you completely misunderstand it.

The argument for yasuke inclusion is based on historical accuracy.

The argument against it, is based on asian representation. And I think there is an argument for asian male representation in western Media, but the argument is much more valid when samurai were represented as white such as in nioh.

@Planeforger: there is a balance between gameplay and realism.

If you it's too realistic it's not fun, if it's too unrealistic it breaks immersion.

All I am saying is that if you have to exclude someone from those 3 archetypes it should be the female one.

The black samurai is realistic and very historically interesting, the japanese males represents 99.9999% of the fighters in Japan at the time.

The Japanese woman is nor historical nor representive and the female Asians are 10 times more common than male Asians on western Media.

@luxuryheart: my perception is that, at least for American films, black representation is really really good. Specially if you compare it to native American, latin, east asian or south asian representation.

What I mean is, black people in USA represent around 12 to 15% of the population, but the percentage of famous actors in films is much bigger than that.

I think that's specially the case for actors that do advertisment.

The female character is less realistic than the black dude.

It should have been a black dude and japanese dude as main characters.

Female fighters were extremely rare in Japan history. Mostly taking arms as a last resource to defend their homes.

Even female samurais (women within that social class) were simply housewives.

@uninspiredcup: well if it's political and trying to push an agenda it will be ruined. Otherwise, it can actually be interesting.

After all, a guy from Africa, having dealt with slavery, travelling with Portuguese clergy through south and southeast Asia, and arriving to Japan to serve the original unifier of Japan after the Sengoku period seems really interesting.

I am normally on the side of the anti woke, but this is interesting and historically appropriate. Even if he wasn't formally a samurai, he did perform the same role.

I think the idea of having the perspective of black outsider taking a look at medieval japan, if they do it in a nuanced and realistic manner, will be great.

I just hope it doesn't have blockbuster movie style writing.

@sargentd: They are discussing the new assassin's Creed main character, which is based on an African servant that was given to Japan's unifier oda nobunaga by Portuguese Jesuits.

The guy was renamed yasuke by nobunaga and became his retainer. He is said to have been a great fighter and an exceptionally strong person. Apparently, nobunaga really liked him and he fought several battles for him.

I think there is a controversy here, because some people think featuring a black man as a main character in a game about ancient Japan is a political statement.

Usually I am closer to the camp that doesn't like wokism affecting story telling and I am very firmly on the camp of hating wokism distorting history.

But yasuke was a real historical figure who was a samurai in everything but name, and I also think his story as one of the first black people to set feet in Japan is really interesting and his inclusion is not necessarily political.