The Aesthetic of Black Anime Characters: A Visual

More than often female characters are described physically by their hair and the exaggeration of their body in most mediums that you look too. However, this isn’t necessarily the case with young Canary of the Japanese anime ‘Hunter x Hunter.’ Canary first showed in the anime in episode 33 of the 1999 version have being a medium height girl with red afro-textured hair and teal coloured eyes. She sports a tux and a small staff that’s rounded at one end and pointed at the other. When you first meet Canary, she is a clam, well-kept, silent apprentice that guards a gate to a mansion that houses and esteemed house of assassins. Later in the 2011 version Canary gets recoloured with dark purple/black hair and grey coloured eyes. Like most characters of colour her hair is one of those traits that are instantly recognizable and immediately different from everyone else. The underlying recognition that characters of colour will always be the characters that are different in any setting because of their attributes is part of the Black experience as a person of colour in a space dominated by culture and societal standards that state Blackness in a unique fashion. Very much in the same way, Killer Bee from the anime Naruto Shippuden often stands out, not because he’s a Jinchūriki because he a rapping ninja with Black skin. The shinobi upon introductions, speaks in a stylized manner, looks bruiting, confrontational and full of himself. He stands average height with white dreadlocks and tattoos. Besides looking like a formidable opposite, his look is somewhat typical as to what we usually see a Black male as. Black males are often linked to violence in the way that they look dating back to the way Black men were view in slavery. The brute usually being a large muscular man, pint full of aggression, anger and hatred towards their oppressors often takes visual in the way that these characters are displayed. Besides the fact that he resembles the brute character, equating his identity on a rhyme scheme that is clearly influenced by Rap and Hip-Hop is another one of his traits. Killer Bee’s big character trait is that he uses that Enka Rap, speaking in nothing but that stylized form of Rap subconsciously validating his Blackness through the unwavering obsession of Black/Hip-Hop culture that Japanese society has. Often time Black characters are derived out of this narrative as a justification as to why they are a Black character and logic behind some of their actions, however Killer Bee, has always wanted to be a rapper. But does that change the narrative? Honestly, it still purpurates the thought that the only success that a Black male can achieve is the success that comes from being a rapper, which creates and interesting dialogue between the position that Killer Bee holds as not only a shinobi but also a Jinchūriki. The Jinchūriki being an equation of that part of the Black narrative where you struggle, overcome then triumph; and with Killer Bee being the only ninja to connect with the Jinchūriki but also the only one to merge and befriend the beast. Besides the fact that Killer Bee is a Jinchūriki, he’s also an amazing fighter as he’s in charge of protecting his village, his fighting style is one to notice as its different from most ninjas. One of his fighting styles resembles movements that look like Hip-Hop dances. As another congruency to Black/Hip-Hop culture and the part that dance plays in the Black image. Dance often being used as a form of entertainment slaves often danced for their master’s enjoyment. As that made its way into animation the dancing negro became a default for Black bodies in animation as they were often depicted as laughable, overtly happy, dancing and singing negroes who worked happily for master. In the opposite, Piccolo of the anime series, Dragon Ball Z in not a Black character but a green alien called a Namekian, he also doesn’t resemble any traits or physical features that would be associated with Black identifying characters but the experiences that Piccolo has often relates him, by viewers, to be a Black character. Piccolo unlike the other main characters in the show is taller, green and often wear a mug and folded arms. Piccolo is of a different race and has too often work harder to compete and keep up with Goku, the main protagonist of the show. Piccolo, is the only one of the Z-fighters that’s different, very much the token. The connection between the Black experience of being a token is what made Piccolo such a favourite and labeled Black character. In contrast to tokenization, the main protagonist to the American styled anime The Boondocks, they focus on the usual stereotypes, tokenization and Black experience as the characters of this show are all Black. The characterization in the anime takes hold of all the troupes you can think of, the woke boy/girl, the thug, the uncle tom, the rapper, the coon, the pimp, drug dealer, the “you’re not white, you’re black” white friend, power hungry white man and etc., This show is a complete and total critique on the characterization of the identities of Black people ranging from communities, media depictions, activist, and politics. Taking a look at Riley, Huey and Robert Freeman, the three main characters, they are the physical embodiment of the thuggish young black boy, the woke young black boy and the freedom fighter/civil rights survivor grandfather as they explore everyday life in an upper classed suburbia. Classism, racism, sexism, are just a few things they talk about along with handling the relationships between Blacks and the police, the fetishization of the successful Rap career, the immediate criminalization of young alethic and artistic Black boys, the social disconnect between generations of Black Americans who fought for Civil Rights and the youth of America at that time (2005-2014.) The subconscious analysis of this in the Boondock challenges the normal display of these types of characters in anime as such because those characters aren’t just their troupes and stereotypes, they’re characters that learn, develop, coupe and wrestle with those ideals with triumphs, victories and sometimes even failures.