Black Culture in Japan, and 17 Iconic Black Anime Characters

One thing I love about anime conventions is the way they enabled me to meet J-List fans every year to chat and catch up with them. Once a girl approached me at Otakon to talk about her future plans to study in Japan, and we became email friends. She was black and asked me to recommend a black anime character that she might cosplay. Which got me thinking about this interesting topic!

Great news! J-List is having a $40-off-$200-or-more holiday coupon you can use for all in-stock items shipping from Japan! (Except calendars and Lucky Boxes.) This means you can make a big order of ecchi products for men, manga and doujinshi, JAV DVDs and Blu-rays, or hentai products and save big. Start browsing here!

Black Culture in Japan

First I’d like to explain a bit about how black culture filters into Japan as a person who lives here. In the same way that most people reading this were all drawn to the fresh and new “exotic” culture that anime presented us with, many Japanese are fascinated with black culture — specifically Amerian black music, movie and fashions that they see frequently. Sometimes Japanese imitate the physical appearance of black people in ways that might not always be viewed as appropriate in all countries, such as the Bubblegum Brothers back in the 80s, though no harm is intended by this.

Naturally, the various forms of black-influenced music have made a mark in Japan, and I’ve been to hip-hop clubs in Tokyo and even semi-rural Gunma that were really rocking. J-List’s doujinshi and game manager is a former hip-hop artist, and every once in a while we’d get an order from a customer who knew his music from his rapping days. What a cool world we live in!

Is There a Connection Between GALs and Black Culture?

Not directly. The social phenomenon of gyaru culture came as an off-shoot from the legendary career of singer Amuro Namie, who exploded onto the JPOP scene in the early 90s and inspired a generation of girls called アムラー Amullers, who tried to copy her style in every detail. I have fond memories of the summer of 1995, when pretty much every girl in Tokyo was doing へそ出し heso-dashi, exposing her belly button in a sexy way, just like Amuro did. The fashion trend took on a life of its own, becoming known as kogyaru (“child-gal”), which eventually got shortened to “GAL” (gyaru) today.

Though it might be an urban legend, Amuro Namie is widely believed to be a quarter black, and part of her attraction is her mysterious coloring.

The Japanese Sometimes Struggle to Understand Black Culture

Naturally, black culture is distant from Japan, both culturally as well as geographically, and mistakes are bound to be made. In Japan, there’s a tradition of Japanese-bilingual foreigners becoming minor media stars on television, and one of the most famous was Anton Wicky. He’s an emigrée from Sri Lanka who’ i’s famous for passing the entrance exam to Tokyo University…but not the easy version they make for foreigners, but the super-hard test that native Japanese have to take. I’ve met “Wicky-san” (as everyone calls him) and he told me that basically, 100% of Japanese ask him where in Africa Sri Lanka is located.

The takeaway is that the farther away a country is from you culturally or geographically, the harder it is to make out the finer details, and the easier it is to make errors. This is similar to the way people in California might have more affinity for the different kinds of cuisine found across Asia, but if you’re in Minnesota, everything might get reduced to whatever’s available at Panda Express. It’s shikata ga nai that the farther a culture is from another group, the hazier things might become.

Are All Dark-Skinned Anime Characters Black?

I asked J-List’s fans to share their favorite black anime characters and got a lot of good feedback. But while there are many dark-skinned anime characters who have great character designs, a lot of these darker characters don’t count as black anime characters for various reasons. Some examples:

There’s a tradition of describing dark-skinned anime characters as being from “a south-seas island” which is usually a generic fictional place somewhere to the south of Japan. So Choi from Tamako Market or Umiko from New Game (who is specifically from Okinawa) are not considered here.
If the characters are an interdimensional alien-like Dark Washu from Tenchi, or a dark elf like Yaoi Ro Dushi from Gate, or a literal Goddess like Urd from Ah! My Goddess, they’re not on this list of black anime characters.
If their character design is so stylized that there’s no reason to think the characters are intended to have a link to Africa, like Villetta Nu from Code Geass, I might leave them off the list.

Here’s an intersting graphic demonstrating how dark-skinned anime characters are perceived differently between Japan and the U.S. What do you think of this comparison?

The 15 Most Iconic Black Anime Characters

Muhammad Avdol

One of the cooler characters from Stardust crusaders.

Ymir and Onyankopon

Attack on Titan is an incredible anime, and sports two black anime characters, Ymir and Onynkopon.

D’Arc Hoshino

An adorable maid who has a secret for you. I did not expect to be writing about D’Arc in back-to-back blog posts today!

Takenori Akagi

Since anime is a stylized world where things like purple hair and isekai worlds are possible, Japanese people born in Japan with Japanese names and identities, yet who are 197 cm / 6’4″ tall black basketball players, are also possible. It’s cool because this character exists in real life, in the form of Rui Hachimura, a Japan-born half-Beninese player who is kicking butt in the NBA and bringing a lot of attention to the sport by Japanese fans.

Umibozu

Another example of a stylized character who appears black despite having a Japanese name, Umibozu (aka Ijuin Hayato) is a mercenary famous for shooting bazookas at his enemies. Although he’s big and scary, he’s naturally as harmless as a kitten.

Miyuki Ayukawa

From Basquash!, an anime created by Macross-creator Shoji Kawamori.

Iris

Another adorable black characters fans love!

Carole Stanley

When I watched Carole & Tuesday, I was floored by the incredible beauty of the world the anime presented and felt I could only compare it to the works of Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe. Naturally, the anime was created by him.

Jet Black

Speaking of Cowboy Bebop, another popular black anime character is bounty hunter Jet Black.

Claudia Lasalle

The first black anime character fans of my generation encountered was Claudia from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, aka Robotech. She was a super tragic character because we had to watch her deal with the death of her lover Roy Fokker, which was nothing we’d ever seen in animation up to this point.

Nadia

Before he made Evangelion, Hideki Anno created Nadia, a fun anime with great sci-fi themes and shout-outs to other anime series.

Atsuko Jackson and Michiko Malandro

If anyone knows Quentin Tarantino, can you make sure he’s seen Michiko and Hatchin? Thanks!

Anthy Himemiya

One of the first black anime characters that most fans will have encountered, Anthy is always at the side of Utena, and made a lot of girls question their sexuality.

Afro Samurai

No surprise who would be the final entry on this list. The best thing about Afro Samurai is that it’s based on a true story. In 1579 a slave named Yasuke was brought to Japan with some Italian Jesuit missionaries, where he caught the eye of Nobunaga Oda, the first of Japan’s “unifiers” and a man known for his fascination with rare things from foreign lands. The man was taken Nobunaga’s service and given samurai swords. When Nobunaga was attacked by a disloyal underling, Yasuke fought to defend his lord, and after his death went to defend Nobunaga’s son.

Thanks for reading this post on the top black anime characters. Did we miss your favorite character? Post them below, or tell us on Twitter!

Let’s Chat

You made it to the end of this post! Thank you! As a token of our appreciation, enjoy an extra 5% off your next order when you use the code BLOG at checkout. Also, don’t forget to follow J-List on all our platforms!