Anuj

**Anuj** is a supporting character in the Disney+ original series *American Born Chinese* portrayed by Mahi Alam.

## Background

### Personality

Anuj is a soft-spoken, yet laid back person. He was initially angry at Jin for allowing the soccer team to put him down, but he was able to forgive him once he saw that he earned some humility since Wei-Chen's arrival. He is shown to be well informed about pop culture and is able to cleverly apply it to Jin's situation. He displays bouts of confidence such as pursuing Suzy Nakamura and is open-minded enough to accept Jin's explanation of the supernatural events occurring, even being slightly enthusiastic about it.

### Physical appearance

Anuj sports black hair, a lean physique and is brown skinned.

### Abilities

Being part of the Cosplay Club, Anuj is shown to be well adapt at creating costumes and is also handy with makeup, which is able to competently apply to himself.

## History

### Season 1

In What Guy Are You, while out shopping with his mom Christine Wang, Jin Wang reveals to her that over the summer he and Anuj had a falling out, and are no longer friends. The next day at school. Jin spots Anuj on his way inside the school building. However, when he tries to approach him, Anuj ignores him. Later, Jin attempts to sit with Anuj and it is revealed that Jin allowed the other soccer players during the summer to make fun of him due to him dressing up as a character from *Naruto* during one of their games. Anuj subsequently reveals that Jin's accident has become a meme, associated with the Freddy Wong character (portrayed by Jamie Yao) from *Beyond Repair*.

In A Monkey on a Quest, Anuj and Jin make amends after Anuj who comforts him over the things that have happened to him recently.

In Rockstar Status, Jin heads to school to meet with Anuj and perform his first task which is to wear something stupid. Anuj gives him Pikachu pajamas and he heads off to the next task.

In Hot Stuff, as Jin is dropped off at the bowling alley, he is greeted by all his friends, including Anuj and Suzy Nakamura, the latter of whom claims to be keeping Travis in line should he say something offensive. Later, when the party winds down and Jin's guests begin to leave, Anuj announces that he and Suzy are "together", though the latter denies it.

In Beyond Repair, while waiting outside the principal's office, Anuj sends Jin a video of his pratfall on TV along with the *Beyond Repair* interview.

In The Fourth Scroll, Jin has a dream that he is on *Beyond Repair* talking to Freddy Wong, but is interrupted by the appearances of Christine, Simon Wang, Anuj, and Guanyin. Once Jin wakes up, he goes to school and eventually meets with Anuj and convinces him that he needs his help. Later, Jin and Anuj return to the apartment where they find Wei-Chen, in his real monkey appearance, and tell him that they need to stop Niu Mowang. When Wei-Chen becomes descriptive about what has happened, Anuj realizes that Mowang's plan sounds similar to the manga that he reads, pointing out that Wukong's story has been adapted numerous times. They begin to search through their manga and come to the conclusion that Mowang will draw energy from the Earth. That night, Anuj hijacks his own cosplay club to have him and Jin perform a sketch about Guanyin and Mowang. Eventually as Wei-Chen and Mowang have an aerial battle, Jin and Anuj flee. Once the Bull Demon is defeated and Sun Wukong shows up to take him back to Heaven for punishment, after Jin gets dropped off at home by Anuj, while congragulating his friend on being the fourth scroll and stopping the end of the world as they know it.

## Trivia

* Anuj is not based on any character from the original graphic novel and was most likely created to have a more down-to-earth friend for Jin to talk to.
* In the second episode of the series, A Monkey on a Quest, Anuj references Grogu from *The Mandalorian*, referring to him by his nickname "Baby Yoda", and Vin Diesel's song "Feel Like I Do", which was widely seen as a very unusual track.
	+ Anuj also mentions the artwork of *Swamp Thing* by praising Mike Perkins, but criticizing the previous artist for making Swamp Thing "look like The Grinch with a bad combover."
		- While not said outright, he was most likely referring to Kelley Jones.

## Appearances:6/8

* What Guy Are You
* A Monkey on a Quest
* Rockstar Status
* Hot Stuff
* Beyond Repair
* The Fourth Scroll