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Phew, wasn’t sure I was going to get this up while it was still April.

I remember following Jem Yoshioka back when the book community of color was still active on twitter (maybe it still is – I’m not able to be around as much as before, so I’m not sure) and I’m so glad to see her work getting published. Folk Remedy is a fun, colorful story and an interesting example of one expression of nikkei creativity and creation.

For my fellow (is it more gender-inclusive to use a different word here?) nikkei readers, did anyone else think some of the dialogue and the ways some of the characters behave felt as if they were being presented/socialized as white? Or perhaps not necessarily white – I don’t have the experience of being mixed race, so I can’t say if they were being presented/socialized as mixed race (also, obviously not a monolithic experience) – but not Japanese in the way I’m accustomed to thinking of as Japanese. It reminds me a bit of what I saw another Asian person say online once about ATLA – the visual elements feel Asian, but the characters act white. (Of course, this all very much depends on how you define ‘Asian’, which is a worthwhile discussion, but not one for this post.) I’m still unpacking my thoughts, but I think my initial reaction has to do with how I see the white default becoming extremely pervasive in certain elements of certain nikkei communities, sometimes but not always correlated with how many generations those spaces are removed from Japan. I can only speak for myself, but I think it’s worth considering, because if we consider the broader cultural context (milieu?) as we move forward in times and places as nikkei, and who we want to be aligned with, or learn from, or work together with, we should probably take a hard look at trends like this and see if we’re equally – and equitably – implementing influences from Black, Indigenous, Latinx people, etc. (hint: 50% white people and 50% everybody else is not the answer).

To bring it to back to Folk Remedy, I’m not saying Yoshioka was wrong to depict her characters this way. For all I know, I could be wrong in my interpretation of how she intended these characters to come across. Rather, I just hope everyone in our communities is being thoughtful and intentional about not just their work but also the broader (and maybe sometimes harder-to-see) influences that may be underlying certain choices. Also, hey western publishing, don’t encourage the ripple effect of ‘Japanese’-work-by-nikkei-creators-but-only-if-understandable-to-white-readers.

I’m out of time for this post, but as a final note of clarification, I really did enjoy Folk Remedy and look forward to the sequel, it just brought up a lot of other wider thoughts about our communities and some trends I’ve observed – I know I’m not the only nikkei reader out here thinking about these things.

Title: Folk Remedy

Author: Jem Yoshioka

Genre: Fantasy

Book Type: Graphic Novel

Would read this author again: Yes