Mr. Popo

Mr. Popo was initially envisioned by series creator Akira Toriyama as a reptilian humanoid with a chicken-like beak that had several variant designs, including one sketch with curly hair, though all of which were ultimately discarded.[1] Later concept art by Toriyama depict him as a slender man dressed in a manner reminiscent of Namu, an Indian yogi-inspired character who fights series protagonist Goku in a martial arts tournament early in the series.[1] Toriyama ultimately settled on the current design, a portly humanoid with bright facial expressions whose clothing resembles stereotypical depictions of Jinns, supernatural beings from Arabian mythology and Islamic theology.[1] The early concept art sketches of Mr. Popo are included in the 30th Anniversary Dragon Ball Super History Book published in 2016.[2]

According to Toriyama, Mr. Popo has served as an assistant to successive generations of gods who preside over Earth in the Dragon Ball universe, suggesting that he existed long before the "Nameless Namekian" arrived on Earth and subsequently serve as the world's guardian deity.[3] Besides being a skilled practitioner of martial arts, Toriyama noted that Mr. Popo is also responsible for crafting the physical appearance of the wish-granting dragon Shenron, originally created by the Namekian Kami" and summoned from Earth's seven Dragon Balls, as it is derived from a figurine modeled by Mr. Popo.[3]

The North American English releases of the manga series by Viz Media, which saw its first publication in March 2003, reduced the size of Mr. Popo's lips by shading them in completely.[4][5] In 2009, the CW4Kids airing of Dragon Ball Z Kai recoloured Mr. Popo's black skin to be blue and his lips orange-yellow in hue.[6][7]

A supporting character who has few overall appearances within the series, Mr. Popo's duties consist of looking after Kami, tending to his residence, and reconstructing Shenron if the dragon's physical form is destroyed. He also tends to an ancient butterfly garden that he cultivated thousands of years prior to the events of the series. In Dragon Ball, Popo is far stronger than Son Goku when he first arrives at Kami’s Palace. He trains Goku for three years until the boy learns everything he knows. Some of the techniques Goku developed under the tutelage of Mr. Popo include the Chou Kamehameha, a more lethal version of his signature attack. In Dragon Ball Z, he helps Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan by divulging the location of Kami's old starship to facilitate their journey to Planet Namek. He then serves Dende as his attendant upon the latter's ascension as Earth's new guardian deity later in the narrative.

Mr. Popo has demonstrated the ability to magically create objects from seemingly out of thin air, for example a flying carpet which he uses as transportation in the anime story arc Garlic Junior Saga, though the character is also depicted as capable of flight or levitation using ki. Unlike series protagonist Goku, Mr. Popo can teleport instantly to a desired location without requiring the use of an energy signature to home in on. In the Dragon Ball Z anime, Mr. Popo has a brief match with Son Goten and Trunks who have transformed into Super Saiyan form where he holds his own, blocking or dodging several hits and even appearing unfazed after being struck by a kick.

The Dragon Ball media franchise, particularly the anime adaptation of Dragon Ball Z, has long been popular with black communities around the world, as well as hip hop culture and art movement.[9][10][11] For many African Americans who grew up watching Dragon Ball anime, Mr. Popo is regarded as the only notable example of black representation in the series.[7][12] Nevertheless, by the early 2000's Mr. Popo was described by some commentators to be a derogatory stereotype in the style of blackface, a controversial form of makeup historically associated with stage and film caricatures of African Americans, or a representation of the antiquated racial term sambo.[4] In her article written for The Christian Science Monitor in May 2000, Weatherford emphasized that Mr. Popo represent a depiction of individuals with African heritage from a white supremacist perspective, and that characters like him are known to a far-reaching audience of children through cartoons and product tie-ins. She suggested that these stereotypical characters could adversely affect the malleable self-image of black children, and noted to her bemusement that "racist stereotypes that would shock Americans don't raise an eyebrow in much of Asia".[13] In 2001, The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University declared that Mr. Popo is an example of a racist caricature in modern fiction.[14] The Jim Crow Museum later published on their official website a letter written in response to their article from a reader who disagreed with their assertion that characters like Mr. Popo are deliberately anti-black in design.[15]

In a retrospective discussion about the character, Ramsey Isler from IGN suggested that it is easy to label Mr. Popo as a racist caricature if the character is described simply as "the black-skinned, red-lipped, turban-wearing servant of Kami". On one hand, he questioned the likelihood of whether Toriyama intentionally made a racist joke through Mr. Popo, acknowledging an argument from some quarters that Mr. Popo's appearance may have been "a little artistic license for an imaginary character", on the basis that "Japanese animation has a history of exaggerating non-Japanese characters because the Japanese population is not very diverse" and that Japanese society "does not have the kinds of racial sensitivities that the Western world has".[4] On the other hand, he also raised questions as to whether a controversial topic which is not intended to be offensive make it any less so, as well as whether explanations like "it's only a joke" or "they don't know any better" absolve wrongful conduct.[4] Jack Gardner from Screen Rant assessed Mr. Popo as a relic of blackface portrayal which persisted in the manga and animation industries of Japan and the wider Asian world, long after it became a taboo subject in North America following the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. While Gardner acknowledged the subsequent and substantial changes to the highly divisive character, he found it shocking that Mr. Popo would even appear unaltered in an internationally popular syndicated television show in the 1990's. On April 14, 2020, a Black Lives Matter activist declared on his Twitter account that Mr. Popo is the most racist caricature in the anime genre. His "tweet" received more then 2,000 likes, and generated further discussion about other anime characters which may be considered offensive by the African American community.[16] Mr. Popo is one of the fictional people of color discussed in an October 2020 video uploaded by British publication The Guardian on their official YouTube channel, entitled "Anime gets blackness wrong, this is how fans are fixing it."[11]

Regarding the alteration of Mr. Popo's skin colour in some media depictions, Jemima Sebastian from IGN noted that the change was made for reasons that could never be fully explained, but that many fans would connect it to perceptions of racism.[6] Cecilia D'Anastasio from Kotaku observed that while there is awareness that the character was not intended to be African American, Mr. Popo's appearance still evokes the image of a "dark-skinned slave with puffy red lips" and the decision to recolour him for American television is indicative of his potentially offensive reception.[12] Edgar Olivares from Código Espagueti noted that the problematic aspect of Mr. Popo's facial features is contrasted by his candid sense of humor and benevolent nature, which Olivares considered to be the character's defining traits. While acknowledging the outrage over the character's physical appearance as a variant of darky iconography by "gringo" commentators who are overly concerned about standards of morality, Olivares observed that no one other than Toriyama himself would truly know why he designed Mr. Popo as such.[1]

• Jynx, a fictional Pokemon species also accused of being a racist caricature

• Comparison shots between Japanese and English versions of Mr. Popo's physical appearance in Dragon Ball manga