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Annie May's New Design & Reasons For Changing It (Patreon)

Published:
2023-05-10 20:58:44
Edited:
2023-05-10 21:06:03
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So you may be wondering why I've suddenly changed Annie's design...or maybe it's not that surprising at all...but I thought I would explain my decision for doing so.

When I first drew Annie, she was just a doodle in the background. As with all my characters back then, she was brightly drawn and her colour scheme was essentially random. But when a lot of people took a liking to her, I decided to bring her back, name her "Annie May" (anime) as a joke, and she developed into the character folks loved. 

However, and I can't believe it took me this long to see the problem, but having a character with yellow skin called Annie May might imply a racial connotation or insult that was absolutely not my intention. I have lots of weirdly skin toned characters, but Annie May's is / was a problem. While Annie herself is not Japanese (she is British, in terms of my "canon"), it was ill-conceived of me to call a yellow character after a Japanese type of media. After a discussion on Discord where some other people mentioned they had always suspected her design was potentially problematic, I decided to change it. 

I have never received complaints about her design (at least not directly), but even so, I think this change is for the best. No one is forcing me to do this, no one is cancelling me (unless I was cancelled long ago and didn't know about it?!), but I still feel bad about not noticing it earlier. If no one else will cancel me, I'll cancel myself >:(

I intend to keep her mannerisms and overall colour scheme the same (a lot of her clothes will be yellow / green / bright blue), so don't expect her to act any differently. And I might tweak her design slightly from these colours if something else works better. Hopefully, her new design will be as familiar as her old one in no time. Will I go back and change her appearances in old animations? That feels like I'm trying to cover it up, so I'll just leave those as they are. What's done is done.

Maybe I'm overreacting, perhaps it's not an issue, perhaps no one ever thought of Annie to be implying something else, but I would prefer to change her design and remove the potential for any offence whatsoever. 

In closing, if you've ever looked at Annie May and felt offended or concerned about her design, then I apologise for not being aware of it sooner. 

- Dim

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Comments

steakhousext

I thought it was simpsons or jaundice with how crayon yellow she was. At least we have people willing to let us know about our grave mistakes.

Anime Veiwer

Everyone hates change, myself included...BUT (and hot damn what a butt) as it is out of the original creator's wishes for positive change to their respective character then it's one I'm sure we'll all be able to move past with ease and comfort.

Mars Shadow

No, that was her most distinct trait! Along with her pink eyes and hair! And her star-shaped cheeks and pupils! And her superhuman abil- actually, you know what, I think I can live with that. She's plenty crazy, one less thing isn't gonna destroy her. I'm definitely gonna miss the yellow skin, though, I never had a problem with it. At least Luna is still corpse white.

DimPixelAnimations
>>108272193

It'll hopefully look more "normal" when she's appeared a few times in actual clothes and not totally nude XD But yeah, the skin was distinctive so I understand

DimPixelAnimations
>>108272330

Luna is more grey than white, you might be thinking of Rihanne. And yeah, it's a sudden change and I don't expect everyone to like it immediately if at all, but it's for the best IMO

Chris Wreker

Well speaking of those mannerisms, she does say certain words and puns that are reference to Anime or Japanese lingo like "Bossu" or "my bossu" for example. But all in all I never took offence to her character design before although I say that as a non-Japanese or non-Asian person here. I can see the correlation of how 🤔 👀 😳 as you say it is "problematic". Well if I am being honest though, her yellow skin was kind of distracting at times as she looked like having hepatitis or kidney failure.

A LoLo

I mean i like the new one too. Looks really good tbh imo

Richard Handy

I just assumed she was a spirit/ living cartoon or something bright colored to offset the more darker, reserved scheme of Janet.

Anonymous

Took so much time thinking what to say about you're apology Dim, how you changed Annie in a brighter color, hope my English is understandable to read, forgive me for my Français sir my wife and i are tryin' hard to do English sir. We're deeply forgiving you sir, my wife and i are very sorry you gone through stressful times every since you drawn Annie May, yellow skin doesn't offend me or my wife, we think Annie looks pretty in a way as a woman looks ladylike, sorry sir i know it hurts about yellow skinned fictional characters i heard, it's tough to keep animation or drawings strong by fans, not weaken yourself or anyone into stress or sorrow? My wife says so often: Annie May will always be remembered by fans who follow you sir. Good luck with her Dim. 👍

Himitsu

Being part of the asian community, being part Korean on my father's side. I was never offended by her design and you never made her into an offensive character. It's one thing for a skin tone to be a character trait, it's another when it's used to express hate or incite cruel and negative feelings. I get it though, it's a stupid world out there and we all just wanna keep out of the fire.

DimPixelAnimations
>>108287208

Oh yeah, I forget she does say bossu XD So yeah, those could also be construed as part of some kind of stereotype. So it's not intentional, but if someone collated all these points and said to me "this is offensive", it would be hard to refute that claim. And additionally, for everyone who liked that skin colour, there are others like yourself where it was distracting, so I think it's the right course of action to change it.

DimPixelAnimations
>>108314028

I might tweak it slightly depending on how she looks when she's wearing clothes again XD but for now, this is a good start

DimPixelAnimations
>>108270836

The Simpsons comparison is the funniest interpretation XD But yeah, even that comparison is another reason to change.

DimPixelAnimations
>>108318539

If you go back and look at the original Denial comics, everyone is a funny skin colour. It's just bad luck that Annie was yellow. She could have been green or blue haha

DimPixelAnimations
>>108368509

Your English is great, so please do not worry! I should note that I haven't caused myself much on this issue, because it only occurred to me recently that it *could* be a problem, and when I realised it could be a problem, I made changes to hopefully solve the potential problem. As far as I know, no one has ever brought it up to me before this week, so there is no stress or guilt being inflicted on myself by other people, either. And Annie May will still be her same self, just not with the old design. Thank you and your wife for your supportive comments!

DimPixelAnimations
>>108377340

Thanks, Himi. When it comes to animations like these, the last thing I want to do is leave any potentially harmful content in, whether it's intentional or not. For every person who finds no harm or malice in the design, another may take it personally, and that would horrify me. I want Annie May to be a source of comedy, but not in the form of a stereotype. Thankfully, most people have taken her design to simply be a brightly coloured character in among an array of similar colourful characters, but if there's even a slight chance of someone taking her design the wrong way, I would like to change it before I'm (rightfully) shamed into doing so. That could be overreaction on my part, but I like to act before I'm told to do so. As you said yourself, the world is painful and stupid enough, and I don't want to contribute to that pain if I can help it in any way.

Anonymous
>>108368509

Thanks sir, my wife and i won't worry if anything happens sir, 👍 you're welcome Dim! Hope to see more of Annie, she's my wife's favorite from the start you first drawn her, we don't mind her change, bright color suits Annie, Annie should be an evolution like Janet Peter-Smyth, honestly i have a tough time remembering if you did an evolution on Janet, although the way you redrawn her over and over, color by color 'till you see the difference of a parallel sir, even though you are talented person Dim.

Chris Wreker
>>108287208

Well you do what you gotta do of what you think its right. People would just think she was a weeaboo or Otaku. Nonetheless I think this is just a step in the right direction.

Chris Wreker
>>108318539

She also had those special characters type of eyes like "@_@" or something similar.