I love how Pokemon is becoming more diverse. At first, your only choice is to play a male character. But after Crystal, you can play as a female character ever since.
And there are lots and lots more darker skinned characters in Pokemon than ever before, especially starting with Unova. It's controversial which characters are "black" or not. I don't think it's important, what good is that more diversity and more darker skinned characters are present.
Iris is pretty much my favourite character from Pokemon and I'm happy that we not only have several girls and women as Pokemon Champions, but also brown skinned characters. Some people don't think she's black and some people think really strongly that she's black. I don't think that the Pokemon Company has ever canonically stated anyone's race. But she's definitely brown skinned.
I was so excited and happy when Iris was announced as the Champion of Unova.
There's a lot of other brown skinned or maybe "black" people from the Unova region, as well. And several more have shown up in Kalos. Game Freak has gotten a little bit of criticism because a lot of those brown or black characters have been seen as very stereotypical or problematic. But I think it's a step in the right direction.
For instance, Iris started off in the anime swinging from vines. Which brought to mind in people a lot of negative African stereotypes. But overall I think the character is great, she's the darkest skinned champion we've ever had. Having a brown skinned girl as the champion is great! I hope it's not the last time something like this happens.
I also don't think the animators of the Pokemon anime were aware of how Iris swinging from vines could be offensive when they did it. And it isn't in the games.
I'm a little disappointed by how it looks like they straightened her hair for the champion role in Pokemon Black and White 2. She normally looks like she has afro-textured hair. But when she's a champion it looks much straighter like she got her hair straightened.
There's also Aloe or Lenora who is also very dark skinned and has afro-textured hair. She was also seen as problematic because she was seen as wearing mammy stereotype clothing. But again I don't think that Game Freak knew what they were doing. Also, aside from that, she's definitely not a stereotypical character. She's the director of a museum.
There's also Marshal who is also stereotypically masculine. But I wouldn't say that either Iris or Lenora or Marshal are bad black or brown characters, and are definitely a step in the right direction. It's great having brown people as gym leaders, in the elite four, and as a Pokemon Champion.
And there's Olympia from Kalos who is brown skinned. She has straight hair and I'm not sure if she's supposed to be black, but she definitely brown skinned and that's great. And there's also Grant who is also brown skinned and has afro-textured hair.
He's definitely not a stereotype.
There's also Sana or Shauna. Who doesn't look intended to be black and is also very light skinned. But is definitely more dark skinned than most rivals.
There is also Phoebe who is also kind of dark skinned and she's in the elite four. She looks like she might inspired by Hawaiians for Filipinos or other groups.
So I think that Pokemon is getting much better at diversity and I'm really happy about that.
