ms animatd pod kyla

Keep working hard!

Prior to this, I hadn’t found any anime podcasts that I like, but this one delivers! Kyla and Imani know what’s up and are very entertaining. Loved all the discussions and banter between the two and can’t wait to hear the next episode. 🙌

Let me just start off by saying that the idea of highlighting and uplifting positive images of black characters is an idea I haven’t seen in a while, and it’s wholeheartedly appreciated. I have to cut my review as short as possible, so knowing that, here we go. The creators of this podcast/instagram page don’t seem to be, in my opinion, well equipped to be in charge of something so lighthearted/uplifting. Something that has been prominent in this podcast and also on their page is “all representation is good representation.” That’s not saying it is exactly, and honestly I do believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion (which I don’t think they believe this, but I’ll get into that a little later.) black people’s concern about things that may be trivial in a character should not be just watered down as to “complaints.” Basically, if we allow small insulting things to pass by because it’s “representation” and “we should be grateful because they didn’t have to,” then that essentially gives room for story writers and so forth to enforce negative stereotypes that can be perceived as damaging to our youth. Now this last bit is something that I had responded to a commenter on a post by these creators who had said essentially the same thing. Here’s where that lack of other people’s opinions come in to play, because not even a few minutes later I was blocked by these two. I’m disappointed, but not surprised.