I posted about this on my tumblr a while ago but not many people really replied so I'm trying again here. So I’m working on a song for the Homestuck Beforus fan album where I’m gonna be parodying a modern pop song for the characters of Rufioh and Damara, the latter of which (if you're unfamiliar with the Homestuck canon) has themeing based Japanese culture. I'll be changing the lyrics and giving it new instrumentation etc. One of the things I was doing to modify the soundscape to better suit Damara is to swap out some of the parts for like traditional Japanese instruments, seeing as that’s kinda her schtick, but I’m kinda worried that like I shouldn’t be doing that or something? Like somebody’s going to say that it’s cultural appropriation or stereotyping or something to the effect. Is it? I really am not good at judging these things, but something about it is telling me that I might get that sort of response. (Of course it doesn’t help that Damara is essentially a Japanese stereotype anyway so it’s kinda difficult to work around her but with relation to this specific song I wonder if this is a thing I shouldn’t be doing).
personally i would think "oh, traditional japanese instruments for Damara, that's the joke!" someone on tumblr might get offended anyway because tumblr, but an instrument is an instrument, and why would you need to be born and bred in japan to be allowed to make neat noises and pretty music with an instrument? japanese people don't understand people who do the whole "kimono=appropriation, if you're not japanese don't wear one!!!" thing because they think kimono are neat and it's flattering when other people enjoy them, why would music be different? on the other hand, would she work better with traditonal instruments, or with Jpop. hmmm.
I think the problem is that using traditional Japanese instruments to represent a Japanese character might be seen as... stereotyping "Japanese things"? But then again Damara herself is a Japanese stereotype. It's very hard to treat problematic characters in a manner that's not similarly problematic in transformative works, assuming you're staying true to those aspects of the character.
White af here but my two cents : acknowledging the character as she is and using those instruments to represent her accurately is not as far as I can see, racist. She's a bit character, as much potential as she does have, and doing something like this only fleshes her out. Maybe go the tack of researching and homaging Japanese power girl bands like FEMM (far east mention mannequins)? The kind of counter culture rebel stuff suits the character. Also see how contemporary Japanese pop uses traditional instruments just because they're part of the musical lexicon (kyary pamyu pamyu does a few great ones like ninja re bang bang.)
I'm getting around it by replacing the Japanese bits with some 8-bit-ish synths that I feel still sort of fit the whole "lost weeaboo" bit without bringing the Japanese stuff into it.
Guilty Gear did that thing though? Using Japanese Instruments for one of the Japanese characters. I don't believe Fuuga had it but I stopped playing after X2 because I saw it was becoming Waifu. BlazBlue, I listened to the soundtrack. So, this is Bushin which also has Japanese Instrument despite the fact that a lot of the cast is Japanese or vaguely Japanese. Although, I believe the man with the Susanoo theme is actually established to be white thus far and still has a Japanese theme. Oriental Flower has 'Chinese-themed' music at the beginning. So, I don't think it's racist because there's a precedent in Japanese games to have Japanese characters with traditional instruments being used.
