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Pet Sins September 2005 Issue: Dark-skinned characters of Anime and Manga

Dark-Skinned Manga Characters

Positive characters of African or Indian descent are extremely rare in Korean or Japanese comic books, compared to the plethora of white-skinned, blond-haired manga heroes. Non-villains of color do exist, however. This list started with members of the black4anime yahoogroup - Wildperfect, Wu, Nara, aand nubia_enigma - who compiled a list of East Asian comic book characters of color who are not villains. Other readers, including solitarybird, have since added to this list. Thanks to everyone for your contributions.

For more manga-turned-anime characters, visit our anime character lists in the side bar.

  1. Alexandrite [Alexandrite]
  2. Amaraka [Ura Katana no Kami no Ki (The Latter Sword God Chronicles)]
  3. Amuro Tooru [Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)]
  4. Antares [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  5. Arakune [Angel Sanctuary]
  6. Billie [Alice 19th]
  7. Caska [Berserk]
  8. Darui [Naruto]
  9. Don Kan'onji [Bleach]
  10. Fourth Raikage [Naruto]
  11. Francesca Mila Rose [Bleach]
  12. Gantenbainne Mosqueda [Bleach]
  13. Hari Adra [Black Jack]
  14. Hattori Heiji [Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)]
  15. Hodr [Broken Blade]
  16. Janice [Princess Prince]
  17. Jildora [Tales of a White Night (Byakuya Zaushi)]
  18. Kaname Tousen [Bleach]
  19. Kansuke Yamato [Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)]
  20. Karui [Naruto]
  21. Killer B [Naruto]
  22. Kurai [Angel Sanctuary]
  23. Larry Vincent [Gunsmith Cats]
  24. Lebris [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  25. Lex [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  26. Makoto Kyogoku [Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)]
  27. Narvi Stryze [Broken Blade]
  28. Nile Stryze [Broken Blade]
  29. Noise [Angel Sanctuary]
  30. Omoi [Naruto]
  31. Pirates [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  32. Representatives of the Republic of Monnabia [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  33. Roots [Black Jack]
  34. Rumba [Black Jack]
  35. Sammy and his sister [Black Jack]
  36. Shionel [Tales of a White Night (Byakuya Zaushi)]
  37. Spike Washington [Soul to Seoul]
  38. Taichi and his father [Black Jack]
  39. Taku [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  40. Tia Harribel [Bleach]
  41. Unnamed child assassin [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  42. Unnamed FBI agent [Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)]
  43. Unnamed rebel commander [Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface]
  44. Voice [Angel Sanctuary]
  45. Yammy Llargo [Bleach]
  46. Yoruichi Shihouin [Bleach]
  47. Zommari Rureaux [Bleach]

Disclaimer: Links to manga or anime product information are provided below solely for convenience. We make no warranties as to whether a particular character appears in a particular book or DVD.

© 2005-2023 Colorq World. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to link to this list, but please do NOT reproduce this list, whether in whole or in part, without permission.


Alexandrite
Character Name Alexandrite
Anime/Manga Title Alexandrite
Appearance see image
Ethnicity Jamaican
Background Alexandrite was a spin-off from another Minako Narita series called Cipher. The manga dates 1991-94, so Narita was ahead of the ethnic diversity game so to speak. Narita appears to be well-acquainted with R&B - her art book mentions people like Aswad, Shabba, Hi-five and the Fresh Prince.

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Amaraka
Character Name Amaraka
Anime/Manga Title Ura Katana no Kami no Ki (The Latter Sword God Chronicles)
Appearance brown skin, long straight black hair, brown eyes
Ethnicity Indian, raised in Japan
Background Amaraka is one of two main characters in Katana no Kami no Ki, one of the stories in the Ura Katana no Kami anthology. He originated from India but came to Japan as a child. Together with Tsukitoshi, the other main character. he was apprenticed to the master sword smith Kaneyori. Kaneyori considered Amaraka the better disciple, and passed the name of Kaneyori to the foreigner. Kaneyori the Second (i.e. Amaraka), created the magic sword that would pass into the hands of later men, forming the link between the stories in the Latter Sword God Chronicles. Tsukitoshi, who is Japanese, gets a little more page time than Amaraka, but while the Sword God Chronicles could still happen without Tsukitoshi, Amaraka is indispensable to the narrative. Amaraka being a dark-skinned protagonist, is an extremely rare character in the world of East Asian comic books. Katana no Kami no Ki is a hyperviolent Boys' Love series by Ogasawara Uki, published by Kousai Comics.

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Amuro Tooru
Character Name Amuro Tooru
Anime/Manga Title Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)
Appearance deeply tanned skin, with short straight platinum blond hair and blue eyes
Ethnicity Japanese
Background

Amuro is a mysterious man working as a waiter at Cafe Poirot, seeking to become Kogorou Mouri's apprentice. He introduces himself as a detective. He is fond of preparing food, even off the job.

He has a charming, gentlemanly personality. However, Tooru's secret identity is Bourbon of the Black Organization, the crime syndicate responsible for Edogawa Conan's current state. Despite this fact, he has saved Conan's life and treated his injuries. according to Date, Amuro Tooru was also the best man at the police academy.

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Antares
Character Name Antares
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance see image
Ethnicity Middle Eastern?
Background Antares is a very powerful Artificial Intelligence lifeform who wears a prosthetic body made in the image of a Middle Eastern woman. She is said to be the original Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell 1. Ghost in the Shell 2 has many (compared to most other manga) minor black and brown characters in a variety of social positions. Shirow Masamune has attempted to create an interconnected future world where people of any 'race' could be working at any sort of job anywhere in the world. Some black/brown characters have a role in driving the plot; others appear as background 'extras'.

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Arakune
Character Name Arakune
Anime/Manga Title Angel Sanctuary
Appearance reddish brown skin, slightly wavy yellow hair
Ethnicity demon
Background Angel Sanctuary (Tenshi Kinryoku) is a fantasy/romance manga by Kaori Yuki. It contains gender-crossing and slight BL and implied GL overtones. Arakune, with Kurai, is one of the few surviving members of the Gehanna royal family. He is actually her brother, but masquerades as her cousin. Arakune (Arachne) was born a man, but prefers to live as a woman. He sacrificed himself as the 999th 'bride' of Lucifer.

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Billie
Character Name Billie
Anime/Manga Title Alice 19th
Appearance see image
Ethnicity Black
Background Billie only appears for a couple of volumes of this series by Yu Watase, but he's not ugly and he is not a throwaway character. He's one of the good guys even though he doesn't get a lot of time. Watase seemed to be making the effort to include an international cast in her manga.

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Caska
Character Name Caska
Anime/Manga Title Berserk
Appearance Reddish brown skin, straight black hair
Ethnicity n/a (fantasy setting)
Background Berserker is Kentaro Miura's graphically violent tale set in a brutal world overrun with demons. Caska is a female commander of the Band of the Hawks. She is initially hostile to Guts, the hero (or rather, anti-hero) of the story. But the two become lovers later, when Caska realizes that Guts is better than she thought him to be at first. In Miura's sickeningly violent universe, Caska is raped by a demon while Guts is overpowered by monsters. Later, Caska gives birth to a demon child, whom Guts tries to kill, but another character reveals that the demon child is really Gut's offspring...

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Darui
Character Name Darui
Anime/Manga Title Naruto
Appearance dark brown skin, shaggy silver-blond hair, black eyes
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Darui is a highly skilled ninja from Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. This village seems to have a higher concentration of people of color compared to the otherwise lily white Naruto-verse.

Darui is a former student of the 3rd Raikage. He serves as a bodyguard to the 4th Raikage. Darui has a calm personality and eschews drama, but can explode into lightning speed in battle. He later becomes the 5th Raikage of Hidden Cloud Village. Darui on Naruto Wikia.

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Don Kan'onji
Character Name Don Kan'onji
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance tall, thin, tan skin, hair in thick braids
Ethnicity unknown
Background Don Kan'onji aka Misaomaru Kan'onji is a demon-fighting spirit medium who has his own TV show. A largely comic character, Don spouts a mixture of English and Japanese. Although Don's hollow-fighting attempts are often self-sabotaged and rendered ineffective by his obsession with putting on a dramatic act (he seems to act like he is in front of a camera all the time) Don actually has substantial spiritual powers. He organized a team of children with spirit powers to fight 'bad spirits'.

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Fourth Raikage
Character Name Fourth Raikage
Anime/Manga Title Naruto
Appearance dark brown skin, black eyes, hair styled as thick, silver-blond corn rows
Ethnicity n/a
Background

The 4th Raikage, (formerly known as A) is the leader of Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. This village seems to have a higher concentration of people of color compared to the otherwise lily white Naruto-verse. He is the adoptive older brother of Killer B, the village's jinchuriki.

A physically large and powerful man, the 4th Raikage values mental toughness and decisiveness in battle. Some leaders of other ninja villages considered him too brash and impulsive to be a village head. The 4th Raikage does not hesitate to sacrifice his own physical wellbeing or that of other individuals if he believes that losing a few lives can save even more lives. 4th Raikage on Naruto Wikia.

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Francesca Mila Rose
Character Name Francesca Mila Rose
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance dark brown skin, green eyes, long wavy dark brown hair
Ethnicity Arrancar
Background

Mila Rose is a member of a group of lost souls that serve as the antagonists in Bleach's Arrancar arc. She is one of the Fraccion (underlings) of elite Arrancar (Espada) Tia Harribel. Mila Rose admires Harribel deeply and is fiercely loyal to her, but is still prone to bickering and arguing with her sisters (fellow Fraccion Apacci and Sung-Sung), although she isn't as easily provoked, unless either one of them calls her a "female gorilla."

Before she became an Arrancar, she had a lion-like form. Now, her sword's name is Leona. She can combine powers with her sisters to summon up a chimera of their various animal natures called Ayon.

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Gantenbainne Mosqueda
Character Name Gantenbainne Mosqueda
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance Light brown skin, Orange afro, brown eye brows, black mouche
Ethnicity Arrancar
Background

Gantenbainne Mosqueda is Arrancar Number 107. Those Arrancar numbered greater than 100 formerly belonged to the elite called Espada, but have fallen from grace. Although the Arrancar are the adversaries to the main characters, Gantenbainne is not an evil character.

Unlike other weapons-wielding Arrancars, 107's main mode of combat is kickboxing. Chad, one of the main characters, fights him when Chad tries to infiltrate the Arrancars' stronghold.

At first, Mosqueda is reluctant to continue the fight with Chad, warning Chad that he may be killed if the fight continues. Mosqueda develops an empathy for his opponent,finally choosing to respect Chad's decision to stand his ground.

After being defeated by Chad, Gantenbainne desperately warns Chad to run away from the dangerous Espada Number 5 Nnoitora, one of his superiors.

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Hari Adra
Character Name Hari Adra
Anime/Manga Title Black Jack
Appearance Black skin and pale long swirling hair
Ethnicity Indian?
Background

Hari Adra, an idealistic healer who says he works by the grace of God, is the main antagonist in the "Save the Baby!" Chapter of Black Jack Volume 12. The character's appearance has some caricaturized aspects.

A powerful psychic, Hari Adra is capable of performing surgery without even making an incision. His long hair is always spiraling/flowing around him, perhaps as an indication of his supernatural abilities. Hari Adra takes offense at Black Jack when a pair of journalists tell Adra that Black Jack charges high fees and works for the sake of money.

Hoping write an article about the psychic healer facing off against the genius surgeon, the opportunistic journalists manipulate Hari Adra into confronting Black Jack.

Black Jack is operating on a pregnant woman when Hari interrupts him, disapproving of the fact that Black Jack intends to kill the fetus so that the mother may live. Hari claims that he can save both and prevents Black Jack from working by bending all his scalpels. However, the situation is not as morally clear-cut as Hari Adra had initially thought...

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Hattori Heiji
Character Name Hattori Heiji
Anime/Manga Title Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)
Appearance brown skin and straight black hair
Ethnicity Japanese
Background Hattori Heiji, a teenage detective, is the friendly rival of the main character Edogawa Conan. Equally matched in intelligence, Conan is known as the Detective of the East and hails from Tokyo, while Heiji is known as the Detective of the West and hails from Osaka. Heiji is one the few people who knows the main character's true identity is Kudou Shinichi, a teenage detective who was shrunk to child-size. He has a very close, almost brother-like bond with the main character.

Both Hattori's parents are relatively light-skinned; he claims to have inherited his dark skin is inherited from his grandfather, his bravery from his mother, and his intelligence and kendo skills from his father.

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Hodr
Character Name Hodr
Anime/Manga Title Broken Blade
Appearance brown skin, long straight black hair, green eyes, very tall
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Hodr is the 25-year-old king of the Kingdom of Krishna. He is kind, generous and laid back. Despite being uninterested in the kingship, he puts the wellbeing of his subjects first. Most of his subjects are pale-skinned, with a small minority of brown-skinned individuals, including Hodr's sister Lindy.

Hodr was a former military school classmate of the main character Rygart. When Rygart had to quit school because of his father's financial problems, Hodr, then the crown prince, offered monetary assistance. Rygart refused and left school. Their classmate Sigyn, who had secretly loved Rygart, later married Hodr, but the royal couple eventually divorced. Hodr on Break Blade Wiki.

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Janice
Character Name Janice
Anime/Manga Title Princess Prince
Appearance dark skin, long wavy hair
Ethnicity n/a (fantasy setting)
Background In Tomoko Taniguchi's comic book, Janice is a dark beauty who is treated pretty badly in the kingdom for being dark-skinned. She goes to bathe in a 'magic' lake hoping her skin color will change. Prince Matthew sees her and falls madly in love with her. Janice eventually has to leave, putting their romance on hold.

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Jildora
Character Name Jildora
Anime/Manga Title Tales of a White Night (Byakuya Zaushi)
Appearance dark skin and long, wavy golden hair that ends in ringlets
Ethnicity Remulan
Background Jildora "Jil" Remulus is a survivor of the Remulans (a race of dark-skinned people with golden hair). Her people were wiped out when they were betrayed by one of their own during a war. She was very close to her brother Shionel "Shion" Remulus before he died. The only thing Jildora knows about the traitor, from her brother, was that he was a pure white Azrael, an angel of death. Later, she is rescued while wandering in the city by the young bishop Raul and his bodyguard Chris. She is given sanctuary, despite the people of Tiberia having a great loathing for the dark-skinned Remulans. Without knowing that Raul, an albino, was actually the traitor from Remulus, Jildora begins to fall in love with him. After the truth is revealed, Jildora is forced to take a good look at her feelings and figure out whether her love for Raul is stronger than her desire for revenge, if that was what she was after to begin with, while learning his reasons for betraying his people.

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Kaname Tousen
Character Name Kaname Tousen
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance dark skin, dark hair worn in various styles at different times - short or in long braids
Ethnicity African
Background Kaname Tousen is an ambivalent character. The former captain of Squad 9 of Soul Society, he joined the treacherous Aizen's conspiracy against Soul Society and became a commander of the Arrancar army. A gentle soul who originally became a Soul Reaper to honor the memory of a friend who was killed in a domestic violence incident, Tousen professed to seek the path of least bloodshed. Despite his aversion to violence, the blind Tousen became a great swordsman and a being of immense spiritual power.

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Kansuke Yamato
Character Name Kansuke Yamato
Anime/Manga Title Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)
Appearance tan skin and short straight black hair, scar over eye
Ethnicity Japanese
Background

Yamato Kansuke is a police officer. Initially, Haibara Ai thinks he is a threat because of his frightening appearance and strange way of speaking (he keeps making references to "half-kills" and "slaughters"), but it turns out that Yamato uses old-fashioned Nagano dialect-specific phrases. He is actually talking about rice cakes! Botamochi, because if the botamochi (halfkill) was pounded too much (slaughtered), it'd be regular mochi. ^^;

Kansuke is rather hot-tempered and very competitive, but also very loyal. He tried to go into a burning building to rescue his rival Koumei. Read more about him on Detective Conan World.

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Karui
Character Name Karui
Anime/Manga Title Naruto
Appearance reddish brown skin, straight, long spiky red hair, yellow eyes
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Karui is a highly skilled ninja from Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. This village seems to have a higher concentration of people of color compared to the otherwise lily white Naruto-verse.

Argumentative and impulsive, she serves as a foil to her over-analytical teammate Omoi on Team Samui, with whom she quarrels constantly. Like Omoi, she is a former student of Killer B, the village's jinchuriki. Karui later moves to Hidden Leaf Village after marrying Choji of Hidden Leaf Village. Karui on Naruto Wikia.

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Killer B
Character Name Killer B
Anime/Manga Title Naruto
Appearance reddish brown skin, silver-blond hair styled as thick corn rows, wears tinted googles
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Killer B, (formerly known simply as B during his childhood) is the jinchuriki of Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. This village seems to have a higher concentration of people of color compared to the otherwise lily white Naruto-verse. Killer B is obsessed with rap and would give freestyle performances when facing opponents. B's over-protective older brother, the 4th Raikage, has banned Killer B from leaving the village, stifling his dreams of traveling to other lands to perform as a rapper.

Despite his playful personality, Killer B has trained hard during his childhood to become an extremely skilled shinobi. He is perhaps the most powerful jinchuriki, having been described by the Akatsuki as the perfect jinchuriki. Unlike previous jinchuriki, Killer B has a friendly relationship with the tailed beast that he hosts. The 8-tailed beast Gyuki frequently nags Killer B about being more serious and responsible. Killer B on Naruto Wikia.

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Kurai
Character Name Kurai
Anime/Manga Title Angel Sanctuary
Appearance reddish brown skin, straight white hair, violet/blue eyes
Ethnicity demon
Background Angel Sanctuary (Tenshi Kinryoku) is a fantasy/romance manga by Kaori Yuki. It contains gender-crossing, slight BL, and implied GL overtones. Kurai (Cry) is a demon princess of Gehanna. When angels attacked Gehanna, the Organic Angel Alexiel rebels against her comrades and saves Kurai from being murdered with the rest of her family. As a punishment for this treachery, Alexiel's spirit is sentenced to go through endless human incarnations while her original body is locked in Heaven. Out of gratitude, Kurai and her cousin Arakune steal Alexiel's body and try to find her human incarnation to revive her. Kurai looks like a boy and acts like one. The anime version appears to have a lighter skin tone than the manga version.

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Larry Vincent
Character Name Larry Vincent
Anime/Manga Title Gunsmith Cats
Appearance brown skin, blue eyes, slightly wavy black hair
Ethnicity English and Indian
Background

Larry Vincent is one of the 2 protagonists. Together with her partner May, she runs a gun repair shop and work as a bounty hunter on the side. Larry's real name is Irene, but she uses Larry to hide her gender - older translations used Rally, but the creator has since clarified that the proper translation is Larry.

Larry is an expert markswoman who claims to be 21 years of age, because that's the age she needs to be to work in her trade, but she's really about 18. Larry is essentially a good person, though she tends to provide her services only if she's paid, while May is more likely to do things for other people just because she feels sorry for them.

Gunsmith Cats is a manga and three-episode OVA anime that takes place in Chicago, Illinois. There are many black characters in minor roles, both good (there's a female news reporter in OVA 3) and bad (crooks in OVA 1 and 2).

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Lebris
Character Name Lebris
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance see image
Ethnicity West African?
Background Lebris is a young superintendent who works for a Meditech, a corporate clone organ farm in the Republic of East Monnabia (an imaginary Central West African country).. The heroine Motoko Aramaki desribes him as "extremely talented on matters other than safety and security." Lebris later has to suffer the indignity of having his e-brain hacked into by Motoko, something that happens to many other characters. Lebris does not get much page time, but he is key to the plot.

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Lex
Character Name Lex
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance dark brown skin, very short hair
Ethnicity n/a (remote control robot terminal)
Background Lex is one of the AI agents employed by hyper-advanced cyborg Motoko Aramaki. The body of the black man isn't really Lex. Lex is just a program which does most of its work in cyberspace. But on occasion, Lex and his counterpart Max don cyborg bodies to follow their mistress around in the physical world. Max operates a cyborg who has the appearance of a white man while Lex operates a cyborg who looks like a black man.

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Makoto Kyogoku
Character Name Makoto Kyogoku
Anime/Manga Title Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)
Appearance dark reddish-brown skin, with short straight black hair and black eyes
Ethnicity Japanese
Background

Makoto Kyogoku is the romantic interest of Suzuki Sonoko, a recurring character who is the best friend of Mouri Ran,one of the primary characters. Makoto and Suzuki have a long distance relationship.

Makoto is strong, cool and calm even in threatening situations. Read more about him on Detective Conan World.

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Narvi Stryze
Character Name Narvi Stryze
Anime/Manga Title Broken Blade
Appearance brown skin, straight black hair, black eyes
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Narvi is a mecha team commander from the Kingdom of Krishna. The people of Krishna are mostly pale-skinned, with a sprinkling of brown-skinned individuals. Their enemy kingdom of Athens seems to consist only only of pale-skinned people.

Narvi and her brother were raised in an orphanage financed by General True. She is very attached to General True and regards him as her father. Narvi is recognized by the military as an exceptionally capable mecha pilot. The Kingdom's only other mecha pilot with her level of talent and learning speed is the convicted criminal Girge. Narvi Stryze on Break Blade Wiki.

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Nile Stryze
Character Name Nile Stryze
Anime/Manga Title Broken Blade
Appearance brown skin, short spiky black hair, black eyes
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Nile is a mecha pilot from the Kingdom of Krishna. He and his sister, together with their king, are the only major dark-skinned characters in the manga.

Orphans who benefited from the charity of General True, Nile and his sister Narvi became elite mecha pilots fighting under his command. Narvi was later given command of Team Mileni, which includes Nile and 3 white boys. Nile willingly submits to his younger sister's authority.

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Noise
Character Name Noise
Anime/Manga Title Angel Sanctuary
Appearance tan skin, straight black hair
Ethnicity demon
Background Angel Sanctuary (Tenshi Kinryoku) is a fantasy/romance manga by Kaori Yuki in which angels and demons battle it out. Many of the demons are of androgynous appearance, such as Noise and her twin brother Voice.

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Omoi
Character Name Omoi
Anime/Manga Title Naruto
Appearance dark brown skin, short spiky silver hair, black eyes
Ethnicity n/a
Background

Omoi is a highly skilled ninja from Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning. This village seems to have a higher concentration of people of color compared to the otherwise lily white Naruto-verse.

Omoi, true to his name, which is a pun on "think", tends to overthink trivial issues and gets obsessed with hypothetical scenarios. However, he can drop his usual calm and pensive demeanor when it comes to people that he cares deeply about. He loses his temper at Naruto when he perceives Naruto as obstructing the search fo Killer B, Omoi's teacher. Omoi later becomes a bodyguard of the 5th Raikage. Omoi on Naruto Wikia.

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Pirates
Character Name Pirates
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance see image
Ethnicity Unspecified. Malayo-Polynesian or African-descent?
Background These pirates, who operated in the area of the South China Sea and Australia, were suspected to have murdered Professor Rahampol, an associated of Motoko.

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Representatives of the Republic of Monnabia
Character Name Representatives of the Republic of Monnabia
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance Very dark skin, short black hair
Ethnicity Monnabian
Background

Monnabia is an imaginary country in Central West Africa. Two representatives from that country play a minor role in the story. One is a government official, and his companion is Mr Bunna, head of the military attache. The two attend a meeting with Poseidon Industrial. The heroine Motoko scans them and concludes that they are cyborgs with martial arts software installed, not an uncommon thing in their world. This in itself does not make the characters villainous or threatening (Motoko herself is a cyborg with martial arts software), but Motoko worries that an e-thug could hack the cyborgs' e-brains and force them to act as assassins.

When the Poseidon security chief Lee pulls Mr Bunna aside for a screening, Mr Bunna complains, "I know you mistrust my country's e-brains... but do you really think we would let in e-thugs that easily...?" Ironically, the next moment, Mr Bunna's brain is hacked and he loses control of his body.

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Roots
Character Name Roots
Anime/Manga Title Black Jack
Appearance young boy with dark skin and pale curly hair.
Ethnicity South African
Background

Roots is a primary character in the chapter "A Clock in the Dark" from Volume 15. He is drawn with somewhat caricaturized lips. This chapter opens with Black Jack performing an operation on Roots' mother in a rural South African village. To pay for his mother's operation, the little boy gives Black Jack a diamond that he found in an old, abandoned mine.

Black Jack tells the child that he would not have performed the operation if he hadn't seen the diamond first, but Roots says "If you were white, you'd just have snatched the stone and never come."

Black Jack and Roots are later intercepted by an unscrupulous man who shoots Roots and forces the two to take him to the mine where the diamond was found. When the three are trapped in the dark mine, the crook, assuming that his whiteness gives him authority, shouts orders at Roots, but Roots does not yield. Black Jack tells the criminal to leave the injured boy alone, and the white man insults him in turn. The surgeon then chastises the villain for speaking of color in this darkness...

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Rumba
Character Name Rumba
Anime/Manga Title Black Jack
Appearance dark skinned young woman with a large afro
Ethnicity Gabonese
Background

Rumba is the key character in the Black Jack chapter "Falling Object," which is set in Gabon.

Rumba's parents died on the operating table while Black Jack was trying to save them from a mysterious disease that has already killed more than a dozen of their fellow villagers.

Rumba bears no grudge against Black Jack, despite her parents' deaths, and offers to assist him during his next operation. Believing that a demon is causing the illness, Rumba insists that Black Jack use a blade imbued with the spirits of her ancestors to destroy the sickness demon. Black Jack tries to explain to her why her long dagger is not an appropriate operating tool, but when the strong-willed Rumba attempts to force the blade into the operating table patient, Black Jack slaps her to stop her from intervening with his work.

Rumba, offended and angry, refuses to cooperate when Black Jack later asks her to guide him to some distant yam fields. He drags her off by force to investigate what he considers to be the likely cause of the disease: radioactive contamination of the villagers' staple food.

At the contaminated site, they unexpectedly encounter a crew from a foreign country whose government had been responsible for the contamination. When the foreign operatives reveal their intention to kill both Rumba and Black Jack to cover up the contamination scandal, the quick-thinking and courageous Rumba runs her spirit blade through the operative pointing a gun at them. She is shot in the process.

Black Jack, taking the opening created by Rumba, turns the tables on their assailants. He tells her she did well and that she killed the demon. She asks him for her sword and dies holding it.

"Falling Object" is one of the sealed chapters of the manga - chapters that were either too controversial or that Tezuka was simply dissatisfied with. (Speculation: "Falling Objects" might have dropped for the dated racial stereotypes?) As a sealed chapter, it not found in any collected tankoban or even the Vertical official English language release.

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Sammy and his sister
Character Name Sammy and his sister
Anime/Manga Title Black Jack
Appearance Both are dark-skinned. Sammy has very short, curly black hair and his sister has a big, round lighter-coloured afro
Ethnicity African American
Background

Sammy, a young poor American man, appears in Chapter 'Bad Stunt' from Volume 16. He lives in Beverly Hills with a sister who worries about his naive and trusting nature. Sammy's sister warns him against accepting a suspicious-sounding invitation to the filming lots. But the young man, hoping to become an actor, goes anyway.

The event turns out to be a cruel trick orchestrated by Ham Egg (a recurring minor villain) to lure Sammy onto a movie set. The set collapses on Sammy, all part of Ham Egg's plan to force Black Jack to operate on Sammy's injuries so that he could film Black Jack's operation.

Black Jack, the closest doctor at hand, is thus manipulated into operating on the badly injured Sammy. He claims that the young man is beyond help. But this lie is Black Jack's way of turning the tables on Ham Egg and Ham Egg's boss. After taking a large payment from them to buy his silence, Black Jack secretly visits Sammy's sister and gives her half the money ("get him the best room at the hospital!"), revealing that Sammy's injuries were much less serious than he previously claimed.

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Shionel
Character Name Shionel
Anime/Manga Title Tales of a White Night (Byakuya Zaushi)
Appearance dark skin and short straight golden hair
Ethnicity Remulan
Background Shion and his people, the Remulans, appear in "The East of the Sun, the West of the Moon", one of the stories in Byakuya Zaushi. They inhabit a secret town "East of the sun, West of the moon."

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Spike Washington
Character Name Spike Washington
Anime/Manga Title Soul to Seoul
Appearance
Ethnicity Black and Korean
Background

Spike is the only best friend of Kai Lee, the alienated Korean/white hero of the comic book series by Ji-Eun Kim. The two pretty boys hold their mixed Korean heritage in common. One day in the middle of black Harlem, the two friends encounter a Korean foreign student, Sunil, and both become interested in her. Spike asks Kai to hook them up, but Kai dates her instead. Kai apparently has a disloyal streak. Later, Kai makes out with another girl while he's supposed to be in a steady relationship with Sunil. English translation distributed by Tokyopop.

So far the artist has managed to avoid tokenism and stereotypes as far as black characters are concerned. Spike has his flaws but seems like a well-rounded character, in other words, as complicated as any normal human being. He actually comes off as a kinder, more honorable character than the self-destructive and disloyal Kai. The other black characters are also individualized, and don't appear as creepy cookie cutters.

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Taichi and his father
Character Name Taichi and his father
Anime/Manga Title Black Jack
Appearance Both are brown-skinned and straight-haired. Taichi's hair and eyes are dark with an odd green tinge. Taichi's father is a large, muscular man, with stubble, small eyes, and a small round nose. His hair is dark, shaved very short, and thin.
Ethnicity Japanese
Background

Taichi and his father work as traditional Japanese fishermen on Sankai Island. The father is planning on sending Taichi to the city to learn, because he thinks the teenager lacks experience. Taichi is cocky and arrogant and does not know "to fear the sea." After an incident where he nearly drowns because his leg gets caught in a giant clam, Black Jack cuts him loose. The boy's father later asks him if he now hates the sea because of it. Taichi says that he still loves the sea, even if he now fears it as well. The man tears up the high school application papers and decides not to send the boy to the city, because it's no longer necessary: in his father's eyes, Taichi has become a man.

The two seem to be the only humans who live on the island. Black Jack bought Sankai Island to keep it in its natural state.

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Taku
Character Name Taku
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance heavy brow ridge, long arms nearly reaching the ground, some features approaching caricaturization
Ethnicity Japanese/African American?
Background Taku is an auto mechanic and a friend of Chroma, the decoy robot used by the heroine Motoko. His name is Japanese, but in the English translation of the manga, he is made to 'sound black'. Two of his four lines are "Yo, Chroma-girl! Long time no see. Wassup...? .... Okay, but it'll cost ya..." We do not have the Japanese original for comparison. He is not the only non-Japanese-looking character with a Japanese name. Another minor character Yoshu (not shown here), is European-looking (big prominent nose, and pale hair).

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Tia Harribel
Character Name Tia Harribel
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance brown skin, green eyes, straight blond hair
Ethnicity Arrancar
Background

Tia Harribel, aka Tier Harribel or Tier Halibel, has been at some point the third strongest of the villain Aizen's Espada, an elite group of lost souls that serve as the antagonists in Bleach's Arrancar arc. She appears darker-skinned in the manga than in the anime.

She is the Tercera Espada and her Fraccion (underlings) are Mila-Rose, Sung-Sung, and Apacci. Although Harribel is very stoic and serious, she cares deeply for her Fraccion and often treats them more like daughters.

Harribel's powers give her command over water. Her hollow-mask fragments resemble shark teeth and cover her mouth when her sword is not released. Her sword's name is Tibur?n, Imperial Shark Empress. The mark that indicates her rank appears on the side of her right breast. Her Hollow hole is invisible from the outside, because it's located in her uterus. The aspect of death she represents as an Espada is Sacrifice.

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Unnamed child assassin
Character Name Unnamed child assassin
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance see image
Ethnicity Indian/African?
Background This child was used to assassinate the president of Poseidon, a powerful multinational company, during a meeting between Poseidon executives and officials of the imaginary West Central African Republic of Monnabia .It is not known if she is an actual human brain-jacked by assassins, or a remote control robot terminal.

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Unnamed FBI agent
Character Name Unnamed FBI agent
Anime/Manga Title Detective Conan (aka Case Closed)
Appearance round, dark-skinned, with short hair
Ethnicity African American?
Background One of the good guys, this member of the FBI played a key role in limited appearances. Not a major character.

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Unnamed rebel commander
Character Name Unnamed rebel commander
Anime/Manga Title Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
Appearance see image
Ethnicity West Central African
Background This nameless commander is a minor but key character. She leads members of the Human Liberation Front, a rebel organization in West Central Africa, in a raid on Poseidon, the multinational company which the heroine Motoko works for. Motoko hacks into the commander's brain to trace the actual identity of her company's enemy. While in her brain, Motoko accesses her memory files - which shows her to be as 'normal' a person as could be. A girl who likes to go to the beach with her girlfriends, who is studious and diligent, whose mother and father stand proudly at her college graduation, who later served as a teacher, a soldier, and graduated from a school for military officers. It later appears that the commander is only a decoy controlled by a more sophisticated enemy.

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Voice
Character Name Voice
Anime/Manga Title Angel Sanctuary
Appearance tan skin, straight black hair
Ethnicity demon
Background Voice is a one-winged vampire demon in love with demon princess Kurai. His twin sister Noise has the other wing.

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Yammy Llargo
Character Name Yammy Llargo
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance tan skin, brown eyes, orange brows and sideburns, spiky black hair at the back of his head. Very large.
Ethnicity Arrancar
Background

Yammy Llargo, aka Yammy Riyalgo, is a member of a group of lost souls who serve as the antagonists in Bleach's Arrancar arc. One of the earliest elite Arrancar (Espada) to do battle with the protagonists, he comes across as brutish towards opponents and needlessly violent towards bystanders. Due to his poor impulse control, he is often reigned in by his cool, calculating and apparently higher-ranking colleague, the white-faced Ulquiorra.

Yammy seems a tad bit dim-witted but is extremely strong. His actions are often vicious and cruel. He kills a medic who healed his arm just to test his arm's strength. He does have one redeeming quality - he seems to care for this cute, loyal, little Hollow dog named Kukkap?ro, in his own rough sort of way.

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Yoruichi Shihouin
Character Name Yoruichi Shihouin
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance dark skin, dark straight hair
Ethnicity unknown
Background Yoruichi Shihouin is the former head of the covert ops brigade in the spirit realm. She was the head of the noble Shihouin family, and has been around for centuries. She appears in the human world in the form of a black cat. A very powerful being with many abilities, she is also known as the "Goddess of Flash" for her ability to move at great speed.

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Zommari Rureaux
Character Name Zommari Rureaux
Anime/Manga Title Bleach
Appearance dark brown skin, yellow eyes, no eyebrows, white spikes on top of his head. Vertical markings on forehead
Ethnicity Arrancar
Background

Zommari Rureaux, aka Zommari Leroux, is a member of a group of lost souls who serve as the antagonists in Bleach's Arrancar arc. He has triangular tattoos on his chin and wears a necklace made of animal teeth.

Ranked Number 7 among elite Arrancar (Espada), the tall man is quiet and spends much time in his meditation room. Due to Zonmari's assumption of his own superiority, he underestimated his opponent, the Soul Reaper Byakuya Kuchiki.

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