Nanatsu no Taizai: An Example Of Whiteness in Medieval Fantasy Traveling Beyond The West

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A Netflix-licensed series, Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins) is a medieval fantasy anime that began airing back in 2014, with the second season to be released to western viewers sometime this year (any day now, Netflix). The show follows the adventures of Princess Elizabeth and Meliodas, captain of a legendary order of the Holy Knights known as "The Seven Deadly Sins", as they seek to find the missing Sins and more or less save the land from its corrupt military and some demons, more or less stemming from the gist of every Hero's Journey plot ever.

And it has to be the least Japanese anime I've seen in my life, in case you couldn't tell from that synopsis. Even King Arthur makes an appearance. Without a doubt, Nanatsu no Taizai is an example of just how embedded whiteness and western culture are into the medieval fantasy genre: a Japanese television program with a medieval fantasy setting has an all white main cast and a europe-like white kingdom.

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(Various expressions of Princess Elizabeth)
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(Possessed Melodias)
Just look at the two central characters, Meliodas and Elizabeth. In works like Tolkien’s Silmarillion, one of the founding pieces of the High-Fantasy genre, characters who are the closest to gods and purest overall are incredibly fair in complexion; fair, of course, meaning white. The most innocent character with the purest intentions in Nanatsu no Taizai is Elizabeth; she escapes the royal castle her family is imprisoned in and seeks out the Seven Deadly Sins to restore order to the realm. And in correlation with the usual tropes, she is incredibly pale, so much so that she even possesses white hair (she even has some fairy blood in her). Also bearing the traditional coloration of a fantasy hero, Melodias, the undefeated, overpowered captain of the Sins, has flowing golden hair and green eyes; in other words, unmistakably white, much like Elizabeth. And, while when possessed, he maintains his white skin; dark, black markings appear over his face and body: the dark versus light trope. And the very few characters featured who are potentially not white feature constantly closed eyes, an artistic style often used to distinguish a character as “undeniably” of Asian origins, once again a trait of mindsets of whiteness; those who are not white must so clearly be depicted as “other”.
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(Gowther parading around in Elizabeth's outfit)

I don’t think this is a wrong on the part of the creator, Nakaba Suzuki, though. Suzuki clearly makes some efforts to portray inclusivity and progression in his realm though, as shown by the incredibly effeminate character, Gowther. Proudly cross-dressing men aren’t exactly staples of Medieval Fantasy, after all. No, the real culprit at the end of the day is the genre itself. No matter what variations we see on the formula, we almost always end up with a white cast or lead, even outside of the West. And I think the fact we see this whiteness portrayed in fantasy beyond the West really proves that the whiteness is embedded in Medieval Fantasy itself, not even necessarily the authors or readers, at this point. Unless we make a conscious effort to educate about and recognize it, Medieval Fantasy will continue to be highly whitewashed no matter who writes it, be it a white woman or a Japanese man.


 -C.O.

Comments

  1. Andrew FutcherMarch 7, 2018 at 1:29 PM

    The world of Nanatsu no Taizai in both the manga and anime has found a way to make it so no characters that aren't white exist. Both those of the Goddess and Demon clans are white with exception of those one who is living armor or one blue giant, making it unlike Tolkien's whiteness where white is good and characters of color are bad. Though is creates the problem of a world where no characters of color exist as you said really replacing one big problem with another. Even if at points the writer is making minor steps in the right direction with Gowther ,they still relay on the idea of a white medieval like many writers that have come before them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 17, 2021 at 9:59 AM

    I think you forgot that the show is based in Britain during the middle ages, of course everyone is white, also Elizabeth doesn't have fairy blood, she apart of the goddess race.

    ReplyDelete

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