A tan is blackface apparently

I don’t watch the anime but am familiar with the controversy. I think that the first thing that is important to note that from what can be seen- a good deal of the supposed controversy as I’ve been able to see is not coming from POC but from “white” viewers offended on their behalf.
A second important note is that Japanese and many other East as well as South East Asian peoples can naturally achieve fairly dark skin tones. There tends to be a deal of misunderstanding or even “racism” or ignorance when it comes to the Japanese or many Asian groups. Japan historically has several distinct ethnic groups and migrations to and from other lands. Okinawa is a southern tropical portion of Japan primarily from Ryukyuan decent compared to the mainland and its strong Yamato decent. The Jomon peoples are the historical ancestors in Okinawa and were largely paler, but mixed with southern Chinese, Koreans, and other ethnicities. This provided genes that tended to darker tones- but even without…

.. sifting through history and genetics- one has simply to visit or Google search (or just use common sense) to realize that people living in a tropical area similar in many ways to Hawaii will tend to have darker skin at the least from sun exposure. So there are darker skinned Japanese people and darker skinned Asian in general who would generally be considered as “POC,” even if we ignore that many Asians and others consider Asians to be “POC” by default.
With that established we can see where often times there is a misconception on Skin tones and people assume that the Japanese or all Asian peoples are “pale” in tone. This also is in part to certain beauty standards which mirror those in the western world at various times where being pale was seen as beautiful- often because it meant one wasn’t out in the sun doing manual labor and had wealth and status to avoid the sun and thusly darker tanning.

Others have mentioned the “Gal” or “Garu” subculture in Japan- that’s its own complex topic but a super simplified version is that the “Garu” weaponizes femininity- or the “standards of beauty” and takes them to extremes. This often includes very thick and obvious artificial tanning or makeup meant to imitate an artificial tan. We have to understand a bit about Japanese culture and history to really get this and a lot like “Kawaii” or “cute” cuktire with the super cutsie styles and looks. At their core these things are or often started out as a form of female rebellion. Japan is still a very patriarchal society by many western standards and has some rigid and long standing gender ideas that still endure in various ways.pre recently this has changed quite a bit but there are still many who hold on to older established gender concepts.

Taking “acceptable” female expression to extremes such as with “Kawaii” culture was even in recent history one way for women to express themselves while staying somewhat within the bounds of social acceptance. There are countercultural and feminist ideals behind these things at large. As opposed to “Kawaii” culture which is countercultural while towing a line to socially acceptable- “Garu” is very counter cultural and can be thought of as akin to perhaps a “punk” movement in the way it satires culture. Taking elements of hypocrisy from what is said to be unacceptable but is embraced in private and taking them to extremes as a statement. One commonality between many of these style movements which is somewhat ironic since they often become
Fetishized is that many vegan in part as ways for women to own their sexuality and desexualize themselves by occupying a place that was outside the bounds of what is conventionally “attractive.”

So I don’t know enough about the character she was cosplaying to say much about the specific character- I believe the character being cosplayed in dress up darling was a made up character to avoid IP issues so likely doesn’t have a ton of backstory if any. We could possibly argue “black face” if the character was actually “black” and not simply tanned etc. but it is hard to say, and if the character was a dark skinned Asian person being imitated it doesn’t mean it isn’t “black face” by default- “black” doesn’t mean African or Afro-Caribbean decent- and the meaning of “black” actually varies around the world with various groups considering some groups “black” that in other places wouldn’t be called “black” in general. It’s more up to an individual or group to decide if they identify as “black” or some other identifier. If it is a southeast Asian being imitated for example- I don’t know that it is the place of those who aren’t southeast Asian or dark skinned Asian to decide if it is…

.. acceptable. “Black face” gets most of its taboo from the fact that primarily in America but in some other countries that participated in institutional racism against those of African or African-Caribbean decent, such methods were often used as part of mocking them or excluding them from the performing profession. Those groups have largely spoken up that they find the practice offensive and for the most part society has listened. It would in my view be for the population or individuals being depicted to define wether they find this offensive or consider it “black face” or not- but again, I don’t have enough information on the character she was trying to portray and what their ethnicity or background is to state wether emulating them was merely copying a tan or trying to emulate the identity of a genetically distinct group other than her own.

In the end the subject of “black face” and altering one’s appearance based off the genetic traits of other groups is a complex and sensitive topic. Being largely homogenous and having its own distinct history and culture we do have to exercise some degree of diplomacy and consideration when viewing Japanese culture or really any culture outside our own. At the end of the day we do live in a global community and products like many anime or films etc. are marketed to global audiences so there is not simply a “free pass” to say what is acceptable in one culture should just be ignored if it causes issues in another. The paradox of cultural deference- if your culture demands the birthday person pay for the meal and my culture demands that the birthday person have their meal paid for… each of us can ask the other to respect our culture but who needs to defer and why or how? Is there a compromise or other solution besides total disregard of one cuktire over the other?

There are many answers but as a global community that has to live and work and play together, or is important that we communicate to each other and establish boundaries and ways to deal with each other respectfully. When a Japanese creator comes from a place where the culture or values don’t give them the same perspective on issues like race or racial sensitivity we must take that to account, but we also have to test for empathy- if a white person went to their country and offended them and then said: “well, it isn’t my fault you have these silly tribal superstitions..” that would be VERY problematic no? Most people would agree that is not ok. So while a person from outside a culture might lack the ability to understand something important to another culture- if we are being honest- often things in other cultures or that offend people might even seem silly or nonsensical to us- but we have to at least respect and understand that there is a group of people who feel that way and have …

.. their own reasons and history behind why, and that to others what we get offended by or think is important may seem incomprehensible or silly to them. If we want others to respect us we should respect them. If we want others to understand how we feel we do have to speak up and tell them. So the issue of “black face” and issue like “cultural appropriation” are complex and different cultures view them differently or even have no concept of them at all- but they’re worth talking about and respecting.

In specific context to this “controversy,” I simply don’t have and haven’t found enough information to say this is worth looking at. We don’t actually know if this was supposed to be a tan or mimic a race/ethnicity let alone which.
Most evidence seems to suggest the instigating offended parties are primarily not POC to begin with either, which isn’t to say that you can’t tell if an Irish joke is offensive if you aren’t Irish- but it is to say that if 99% of Ireland or Boston etc. doesn’t find the joke offensive it’s maybe less an issue of racial offense and more an issue of personal offense.