When she walks, she's like a samba
that swings so cool and sways so gently
that when she passes
each one she passes
goes "Ahhh!"
for our 200+ follower songboard event!
🇧🇷 anon requested: Can I request a songboard for Angie Yonaga (from Danganronpa V3) with the song “The Girl from Ipanema” by Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim?
feel free to use with credit! like or reblog if you save
I had an epic hyperfixation moment last night thinking about Angie Yonaga from DanganronpaV3. For context this is from my perspective as a Pasifika person.
Post will continue under the cut!
When the cast was first announced and I found out there was a Pasifika character I lost my mind - it’s so rare for there to be Pasifika representation and ??? in my favourite series??? hell yeah! But then her name was released. Then I actually saw her character design. Then the game came out. And it was then that I felt true despair. I’m just being dramatic but y’know.
Just straight off the bat, in what world is Angie Yonaga a Pasifika name? The name Angie comes from Europe and Yonaga is a Japanese surname. Maybe if she’d had a Pasifika first name or a Pasifika surname, it’d make sense and she would just be a character who’s mixed race; but she doesn’t.
And then her character design is pretty (I’m always fond of bright yellow jackets) but...it’s so removed from anything Pasifika except I guess she has a seashell necklace and has brown skin? But otherwise she literally just looks like any other character; pale and slightly wavy hair? lightly coloured eyes? It’s just so disappointing. She’s pretty but she could literally just be anyone.
You know what would have been cool for the Ultimate Artist? You know what art form was invented by Pasifika people? Tattooing. How COOL would it have been for her character to be covered in traditional tattoos, carrying around a moli, and using her own body as the Ultimate Canvas. I know that tattoos are a bad thing in Japan but there has literally been a Motorcycle Gang Leader and Mafia character so I feel like that’s not a very good excuse.
Don’t even get me started on her character either. I can’t even describe how painful it is that she’s a religious fanatic that is into kinky cult group smashing. I will say, Pasifika people do have high rates of religiousness but there’s a reason for that. Religion was used as a tool of colonization, our own religions and beliefs demeaned as horrifying cults, and we were forced to take on ‘civilized’ religions like Christianity. Not to mention the fact that Pasifika women have been demonized as these savage horny creatures for most of history??
Having a character who’s biggest character trait is her cult-y religious beliefs is fine but making her also the only Pasifika character in the entire franchise? That’s a yikes from me, dawg.
I’ve read theories about Angie lying about being Pasifika, using the mysticism as a way to take control in her cult and as much as I think that could be true and as much as that would make all of these issues I have with her go away - I kind of don’t want it to be true. If that’s true, then there never was a Pasifika character. The hope that I’d had in the beginning was for naught.
In the end, I just feel disappointed when I think about Angie. I think she had a lot of missed potential because her culture was ignored. With just a few tweaks she could be a genuinely awesome and culturally sensitive character.
In fact, writing out this post too has helped me realize how much I want to have a redesign of her; so...look out for that in the future ;3c
