The character's initial announcement was met with negative reactions from some fans who expressed that the new character's marketing as "The fourth Powerpuff Girl" was inaccurate and ignored the previously introduced character of
Bunny from the 1998 series, but when rumors began to spread that the character would be black, many fans began to express a more optimistic tone. The rumors began to emerge when it was announced that South African singer
Toya Delazy would be providing the voice for the character. Louise Mccreesh of
Digital Spy expressed that she believed that the character was a great step forward in terms of racial diversity. Gabriela Herstik of
HelloGiggles stated that she saw that most fans were both equally excited and nervous at the announcement of the character, she also wrote that she personally felt that the character was a good addition. Charles Pulliam-Moore of
io9 stated that the character is different from the other temporary additions to the Powerpuff trio such as Bunny and Bullet the Squirrel, all who existed to teach the original girls moral lessons before they left the group to pursue their own destinies. While Bliss does not appear to him in that way, he expressed that he felt that the story of
The Power of Four made him question whether the new reboot was a good idea in the first place. Moore stated that he felt that while he watched the movie that Bliss was meant to be a
person of color, he stated: In Moore's opinion, the creation of Bliss was a means for the creators of the show to wink at the non-white audience that has watched the show for years and express their recognition of them as watchers. Despite this, he felt that he was disappointed in the fact that the first non-white Powerpuff girl had been introduced as an emotionally unstable time-bomb who is not capable of putting her feelings together properly to act as a regular superhero like the others. He stated that the portrayal of black and Latina women as hot-headed is a stereotype he is all too used to seeing in media. He finished his article with; "In a lot of ways, Bliss feels like a collection of well-intentioned afterthoughts that would have worked better earlier on in the series." Danielle Ransom of
The Daily Dot stated that she originally experienced excitement at the introduction of a Powerpuff girl with remarkably darker skin than the others, but when she viewed the film, she thought that the creators should have taken time to make a character that was more than what she felt was a caricature of an angry black girl, something which she reported had nonplussed many other fans. Paula Poindexter, who teaches media representation of African Americans at the
University of Texas and saw it as a positive that there is a person of color in the series, expressed some concern about Bliss's characterization as an emotional teenager who cannot control herself to
The Daily Dot as well. Poindexter stated that everything positive about the character got turned into a negative in the film and said that the character is little more than a token. Ransom concluded that Bliss seemed more like an attempt by the creators to hop on the diversity trend as opposed to a part of the black empowerment movement. == References ==