Hello, I'm doing a project for my Manga class at my university (Yes, we have a course on that. Yes, you should be jealous). My topic is the issue of race representation and how it shows up in manga. Clearly the typical character appears to be white but what I need help with is finding depictions of African/Black characters in manga. Does anyone know a series that has such characters or remember a specific image somewhere that might depict a stereotype (of any race)? I would really appreciate any help I could get on this, thank you!

Really? And here I thought typical manga characters were Japanese. Or at least Asian. By white, do you mean light skinned? Because I can think of a few examples of white people (or at least white Americans) being stereotyped in manga. Does that count at all?

As for African/Black characters, I might be able to think of a few later. I just wanted to get some clarification first.

The only series I can think of off the top of my head with an African lead is Knights. But I'm not sure how much help it will be.

I think they mean that the typical main character is japanese but they do look white. I had a friend ask me why manga characters usually appear to look caucasian and I didn't know how to answer her lol

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Dude, Mr. Popo's not black. He's a fucking genie

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

This might interest you. Anime characters most of the time (99%) are not white. White portrayal comes from big noses. Enjoy the vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKTvFhRbBt8

Voyeurs, Inc. for a black stereotype

see also:
One Outs - Westerners
Hikaru no Go - Korean
Shamo - Korean

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?category=African+A merican

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Avatar by tassyn.livejournal.com

Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

Eyeshield 21-->freakishly athletic black football player, and americans in general stereotyped, a lot...

Air Gear-->white pig and black pig....

Well they might be meant to be Japanese but you probably wouldn't know that if you didn't know manga was from Japan...my project is exploring the issue of how race is represented and perceived. The average American consumer perceives the typical character to appear Caucasian because of how they are depicted. But yes, white people being stereotyped would count

Thanks to everyone else so far~

Last edited by girl4anime at 7:46 pm, Nov 7 2011

Try Gravitation, an American (caucasian, male btw.) talent agent is introduced at some point and is amazingly trigger happy and basically a Cowboy caraciture (this may be an intentional exaggeration, though).

Hetalia--characters are meant to be stereotypes!

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Simply another normal human being...

That's quite interesting! I've never met someone before who made that assumption, so I had no clue it was really so prevalent. I guess it depends on what you're reading? Usually if a manga starts with someone saying something like, "Hi, my name is Motosuwa Hideki, and I live in Tokyo!" you sort of assume they're Japanese. But if the manga is less specific or more fantasy based, I suppose that sort of mistake would be easier? Or maybe you mean assumptions based solely on appearance, in which case that video posted above was really quite enlightening for me :]

Anyway, I can't really think of any very good examples of strong stereotyping, let alone racism in manga, aside from what's already been recommended. The only ones that come to mind are examples of what TVTropes call Phenotype Sterotypes, or sterotypes based on genetic appearance, and there's a much better list actually on the website than I could list here. It's not much, but I hope it helps somehow!

Also, if it's no trouble, may I ask what sort of books/articles you use in your class? It seems you cover some very interesting topics that I wouldn't mind reading up on!

There is a black boxer early in Hajime no Ippo.
Here is one of the chapters with him.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hajime_no_ippo/v04/c028/3. html

If I remember correctly, there was an African American character in this manga called Haito Diamond (It's a yaoi)
And then there's Shampoo and Mousse from Ranma 1/2
Does Chad from Bleach count? He's of Mexican descent, so he's darker than the others
In the anime, G-Gundam the Gundam representing Mexico was called Tequila Gundam and was wearing a sombrero , actually G-Gundam is a whole lot of steoreotyping people/countries...
You can read this
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/04/the_10_most_ridiculous_g undams.php