idk, I'd have to go back to the books, which I haven't read since I was a kid, so only have vague memories. Judging by what I know of other famous works of fantasy and sci fi from the last century, there might be very good reasons to downplay racial characteristics.
Remember that stuff that was seen as acceptable decades ago is seen as sickenly racist today. The
Buck Rogers franchise is proof of that. The original setting of Buck Rogers has been completely retconned out, and for good reasons, it was about chinese (refered to as both "Mongols" and "Han" as well) taking over the world and destroying all the great cities, and forcing good honest Americans to live in the wilderness. So it was effectively a sci fi version of the Yellow Peril paranoia that was common a century ago, with the idea of the Horde of Others coming to destroy everything that makes civilization good.
With CS Lewis, the Narnia series is very racist, with Europeans being the good guys, and Middle Eastern types being the bad guys. It was mentioned in an article, that of the Arabic-influenced race they're literally all slobbering evil, except for one girl, but she renounces her homeland and professes a love of the European-based Narnia culture. So Arabs are only good when they reject their own race and heritage, otherwise their evils literally leaks out of every pore in their skin.
And Charlie and the Chocolate Factory originally didn't have Oompa Loompas, it had
funny little african slave laborers. The book literally states that they're pygmies that Wonka rounded up on a trip to Africa and that he pays them in Cacao beans rather than money. This was later revised in reprints, but only
after the first movie came out. The producers of the movie had rewritten the most offensive stuff, and Roald Dahl then faced strong criticism as the original racism began to get public attention. Dahl later stated he had no idea it would be perceived as racist when he wrote it, which shows how much things have changed.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3066089 times)