Popular Twitch streamer Sydeon shared her cosplay of Hinatsuru from the hit anime Kimetsu no Yaiba yesterday. While most fans were happy to see another brilliant cosplay from the creator, some people made racist remarks about the color of Sydeon’s skin being different from that of the fictional character.
Sydeon released a tweet later that day exposing a few of these racist comments, along with her thoughts on the matter:
“I have feared cosplaying anime characters forever bc I didn’t wanna deal w this. This shit is RAMPANT in the community and it’s lame asf,” Sydeon said. “My fave is when ppl say ‘you’re not white enough’ WHEN THE CHARACTERS ARE LITERALLY ASIAN just say you hate dark skin ppl and catch this block.”
The OTV content creator also said she wasn’t tweeting about the racist tweets to elicit “pity” from fans, but she said that she wanted to call out the behavior so cosplaying could become more inclusive.
The replies to Sydeon’s Tweets about the situation are filled with support for the 24-year-old streamer and her cosplay. Some commenters also explained how widespread the issue is. DisguisedToast, her fellow OTV member, shared his thoughts as well.
“It’s a special kind of patheticness to try and hide their racism behind the veil of protecting fictional anime character’s from being cosplayed by people of all races, as if the character’s entire identity is based around the color of their skin,” DisguisedToast said.
Sydeon has been cosplaying as some of her favorite characters from gaming and anime for over two years now, so there’s very little chance these remarks will stop her from amazing her fans with fantastic cosplays.
