Recently, POC voice actress Anairis Quiñones was dropped from the role of Yoruichi Shihouin in the popular anime series Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. Controversy heated up, and a few Bleach fans started saying racist stuff, including Yoruichi’s OG English voice actress, Wendee Lee.
Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War acts as a sequel to the original Bleach anime. The main cast of characters is back and must solve new mysteries surrounding disappearing hollows. As we’ve explained before, this is the final arc of the manga. However, it was never adapted to TV, as the anime was canceled due to poor ratings. This arc first aired on October 11, 2022 in Japan, and received a subsequent English dub with new casting.
It is this casting that brought out the worst in anime fans. According to The Verge, Quiñones first announced on October 7th that she was picked for the role of Yoruichi. Quiñones is of Afro-Latina descent, which would mark the first time in Bleach history that Yoruichi, a character who is visually Black and perceived as Black by many Bleach fans, would be voiced by a Black person. Since the show’s original English run back in 2004, Wendee Lee, who is a white woman, had been the voice for Yoruichi.
A lot of racist anime fans immediately called this an “SJW diversity hire” and blamed the “wokescolds” for tainting their sacred TV show. Bleach fans were mad that Wendee Lee’s quote-unquote flawless performance was being taken away from them by a woman of color. It’s all the usual fascist, chud arguments. It wasn’t all racism, though, as a fair amount of anime fans were glad that Yoruichi would finally be voiced by a non-white person.
Or that would have been the case, anyway. Unfortunately, Quiñones was promptly dropped from the role on October 21. All of her recordings were subsequently replaced and erased, and Wendee Lee was brought back on board. Make no mistake, this was racism on behalf of Viz Media, plain and simple. They caved to the chuds and gave them what they wanted: an equally racist white woman.
After Quiñones’s announcement, scores of people gave their sympathies to her. Lee didn’t like this, apparently, and took up arms against Quiñones’ defenders. Lee went on to say that the role was hers, and that she was the real victim here, all in standard white Karen fashion.
Lee exposed herself as a despicable person who can’t even keep professionalism and courtesy towards her fellow voice actors. Lee should have never been the one to voice Yoruichi. That role was made for women of color, and it’s a shame it took so long for anyone to care.
Lee proceeded to say that it was purely a “scheduling error,” but we all really know what went down. I don’t buy it for a second, and neither should you. A woman of color was replaced out of corporate interests, and a white woman went ballistic because she wasn’t the center of attention for five seconds. We shouldn’t tolerate any of this behavior, ever.
(featured image: Viz Media)
