I've seen the racial minority since volume 1 of the series, mostly with Gojyo.
A year or so before I read Saiyuki, I read an essay about "halfu" in Japan (half-white/half-Japanese). I think about that essay a lot when Gojyo's whole "child of taboo" thing comes up. In short: halfus are treated like shit.
I also find it interesting that what marks a "child of taboo" is stereotypical of white people (the minority in Japan): red hair.
So, yes, at the very least I see Gojyo as representing halfus in Japan. With Banri's speech in Reload volume 4, it only encourages the "metaphor for ethnic tensions" idea.
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I've seen the racial minority since volume 1 of the series, mostly with Gojyo.
A year or so before I read Saiyuki, I read an essay about "halfu" in Japan (half-white/half-Japanese). I think about that essay a lot when Gojyo's whole "child of taboo" thing comes up. In short: halfus are treated like shit.
I also find it interesting that what marks a "child of taboo" is stereotypical of white people (the minority in Japan): red hair.
So, yes, at the very least I see Gojyo as representing halfus in Japan. With Banri's speech in Reload volume 4, it only encourages the "metaphor for ethnic tensions" idea.