Black characters are slowly but surely being represented more thoughtfully in the anime industry. This has not always been the case. It's not entirely surprising, of course, given that most anime characters rarely sport typically Japanese features in the first place. You may think the low visibility of POC in anime is solely a product of bigotry. But Julian Abagond (via The Atlantic) disputed that Japanese audiences view regular anime characters as Japanese by default, and that it's Americans who think of them as Caucasian. It's comparable to how the Western world sees Marge Simpson, with her blue Afro hairstyle and mustard yellow skin, as white or the "Default Human Being". Still, we're not gonna gloss over the fact that the majority of Asians revere light skin and this also plays a part in poor POC representation in anime. What's more, Japan's population is extremely homogeneous. In 2020, only a little over 2.2% of its residents consisted of foreigners. So you could infer that there are very few people of color working in the country's anime industry, and thus diversity does not come up as a top priority. Including people of different races can sometimes be tricky in a story. Improper or stereotypical portrayal of ethnically different people can put the creators of the show in a very sticky situation. Many titles fail to offer variety and have racially ambiguous characters. Yet, some shows tackle different personas so well, they manage to capture the hearts of the audiences and leave a permanent mark as memorable characters within the show. In this list, we revisit some of the most iconic black characters in anime.