Dear Anime Creators,
Thank you for Afro Samurai. Though it sits next to Devil May Cry and Death Note on the banned list in China, many Japanese and other pan-asian viewers and readers are getting a chance to view a mostly positive image of black folks in the anime culture. That is important, because there are not a whole lot of positive images or images at all of African/black based characters in the medium. In truth, most of the characters who do exist are made up to look decidedly less black. I give you exhibit 1:
That is Basquash’s Miyuki Ayukawa. I’m going to forgive the naming conventions from here on out, because any culture is going to incorporate themselves largely into the stereotyping of another group. So for that there is some forgiveness, but lets be real. The Japanese culture has been borrowing from the African American culture long before Robotech got off the ground. Yet I can literally name the one significant black character in the series. Claudia Grant (pictured below).
This isn’t to say there are not other characters of color in anime. It just so happens that the color is peach. I believe this lends itself to the, shall we say, habit of adopting caucasians into the culture far more readily than those of African descent.
When I first got married the big issue was that I was a black guy marrying an Asian woman. Many in her family, including her father, had serious beef with that. On the other hand all the other siblings and the majority of the cousins were dating or already married to caucasians and that wasn’t a problem. I don’t directly blame anime for this but it is reflective of a culture that has no real understanding or desire to incorporate brown in any realistic way.
We change things in the modern world through mass media and through what we expose our children to. Anime is still obscenely popular in that part of the world and shows like Pokemon and Yo Kai Watch represent missed opportunities to prepare the children for a world that actually has brown people in it. Still, shows like Afro Samurai are a start and I am thankful for that.