All his personal struggles, his character development and backstory are unrelated to being Japanese-American. His parents have a business in Japan and he’s probably bilingual but it is not the core of who he is.

Seiji is Japanese-American and it is irrelevant to his character arc or story. However, they come with another trope: the rigid, often east-Asian beauty standard of being deathly pale and having a double eyelid. Obviously there are also lots of media from actual Asian countries who do not fall into either category because the whole cast is Asian. Especially in YA and middle grade, these stories do wonders for the many actual children and teens who relate. There should also be books about the many children of immigrants who are eternally split between a hostile Western world and the roots they do not know. 2- A character dealing with the reality of having Asian heritage in a Western world poorly accommodated to them.Īnd I love those! We need the lovable secondary character for who the hero would sacrifice his everything! We need romanticised love interests! Because Asian characters are rarely the one worthy of the admiration and affection shown to this type of beloved side character. 1- The best friend or love interest with few flaws. In Western media, Asian representation is on the rise (finally) but it often falls into one of two categories. Pacat wanted a cool Japanese deuteragonist and then Johanna turned it into a cartoon.) (even if most of this was probably accidental. Seiji was intended as a homage to the sports manga genre that partly inspired Fence, and I personally love the way it was done.

This is an incoherent post about why I love Seiji as a rare variety of Asian representation. Day 30, I don't know what my favourite fence thing is but I might as well write about Seiji because I have thoughts.

Fence comic volume 4