An Overview of Black Women In Anime | Nerdy Magical Girl Podcast
An Overview of Black Women In Anime | Nerdy Magical Girl Podcast
#podcast #Magicalgirl
This was a fun episode to piece together! I want to reiterate what I did in the video that it is perfectly okay to have a different opinion than mine. What I want to do is celebrate Black Women in the space, that’s characters and voice actors! This is a celebratory experience but of course I have to throw some education in…
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Just FYI my moderators and I heavily monitor my comments. Racism and ignorance will not be tolerated. I do not go back and forth with people, you will simply be blocked. If you did not bother to listen to the disclaimers in the beginning of the video about canon AND NON-canon depictions of dark skinned characters, HEAR when I used the words Dark skinned vs. Black (FYI I'm a Black American and KNOW the difference between race and ethnicity do not try and lecture me on such things as I LIVE in my skin and experience daily), see in the nerdy notes when other ethnicities were brought up, OR check my sourced material in the description that is on you. Argue with the moon. 😊 This is a uplifting and fun space. It costs nothing to not be an asshole <3
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I’m making my black characters to be badass for my webcomic the arts of mars, be it a Cuban Karate guy with super sleep, a hot Bajiquan bouncer woman with unbreakable skin and an Egyptian dancer snake fist Assassin with venomous glads, cause I have to learn how to make more diverse characters without be too Stereotypical and it will be fun to draw unique hairstyles like fades, Afro and dread locks.
Do fantasy characters like dark elves count as dark skin/black characters? One of my fav examples being Pirotess from Record of Lodoss Wars.
To the person that mentioned the first lady Jun Hono….you a real one and I mean that!
Speaking of still in the mecha genre another that comes to mind for me is the recent Gundam series Witch From Mercury (Which is pretty much Revolutionary Girl Utena but with giant robots lol) with one of the supporting cast named Chauntury "ChuChu" Panlunch. I believe she is biracial but we never see her parents in the series. I've seen a few black characters in anime that hairstyle would be in an afro but this one was the first time I've seen her also at scenes where her and the cast would turn in for the night she would wear a bonnet on her head. It was just those small things that had me recognize her especially in a Gundam series. Which there is probably more. Just she is the most recent one for me coming to mind.
I needed to add a small P.S. on this because while I do love the character she also has the……explosive temperment. She is quick anger and she will lay hands on anyone who tries her friends. Though her quick to anger attitude comes from the political and economic hold the people of space have over the people of Earth like her and how she and the other Earth housed students are treated at this academy that the majority of their student body are from space.
You missed a few from the "girls with guns" genre. Rally Vincent of Gunsmith Cats (can't remember if she's African or Asian Indian on her mom's side, and I'm not sure Sonada's sure either), VERY American character.
Triela from "Gunslinger Girl" is originally from Tunesia (and probably was a mixed "street kid" prior to being cyborgized, given her long blond twintails). Little Henrietta (the cute little girl with the P-90 submachine gun) is the "face" of the franchise's girls. Triela is the "big sister" and the only one with a story arc.
The other classic one (and this is manga-only and kinda obscure) is Duenan Knute from Matsumune Shirow's (Ghost in the Shell) "Appleseed". She specifically spells out her ancestry in one story. While she looks like she just has a good tan, she is mixed-African (several ethnicities and nationalities) on her mother's side. Her dad, was an American Special Forces Operative, "shows how serious he was.." As she says.
When witch hat atelier gets its anime, you should take a look at that one. But you can also look at the manga now.
My favorite black female anime character is Claudia Grant from Robotech. She also has a sister in law who appears in Robotech The Shadow Chronicles. She's a medical doctor (Bowie Grant's mother) Bowie is Claudia Grant nephew. And her brother is a commander or captain.
5:15 Atlantis may have been a blatant disney ripoff of Nadia in the same way the Lion King ripped off Kimba the Whitelion, but their all banger animations overall still.
An underrated character from an even more underrated anime who would be great for this list is Fi Carmichael from the series Planetes.
April from Darker than Black is amazing. The 2nd season of the anime is waste tho, needs to be retconned immediately.
Carole Stanley is so sweet and Nessa is goated. Her episode of Pokemon twilight Wings is such beautifully animation.
Dorothy from Great Pretender is amazing and deserves more. Her spinoff ova Razbiuto was such fun.
Anairis Quinones and Kimberly Anne are 2 amazing voices who deserve way more roles in the future!
There’s Karako from Deadman Wonderland, she was so passionate and fun she became an insta fave the second she appeared in the anime. Sure, her motivations were kina limited (she wanted a man who didn't quite want her back), but she was fun, resourceful and badass.
Claudia was only in 5 episodes?! She has such a presence in the show it's honestly crazy to think about (though I watched SDF Macross and not Robotech so maybe it's a little different). It definitely speaks to how memorable the characters in this series are that they left such an impact.
Loved the video!
1 for the culture
1 for the algorithm
For future reference, the ñ is like a sort of nasal "ny*" sound, where the following vowel fill in the *. "You know, like, ña😸 (nya)" The nasalness of the ñ sound varies by country/region, etc. I really appreciate how you took the time to look up the pronounciation, there's still reporters out here pronouncing stuff like "de Jesús" or "Pérez" incorrectly 🫠
As a fellow New Jersey person, I was like "Why are you apologizing for how you say coffee — wait."
I always interpreted Nadia as Indian since shes a vegetarian and had that straight blue/purple hair that is similar to other Indian anime characters (idk why making their hair purple/blue is so common but shrug).
Edit: Ope Also Anthy I think is largely understood as South Asian, the bindi and purple curly-ish hair. But yeah, celebrate all dark skinned anime characters! Just hoping to have some distinct rep. Mostly cuz when I see any Latino character I’m ecstatic!
One person who's of interest that not mention here and is actually the first black female lead in anime history is jun hono, the female lead in Great Mazinger which at the time was the follow up to Mazinger Z, legit the anime that saved toei and kinda the industry from a first massive collaspe.
Jun Hono in the manga was white but when someone pointed out how her back story was like a GI Joe character and there never been a black lead female character in a anime before, Go Nagai changed her to a black women.
Now Jun overall fairs far better then someone like Sayaka and other female characters at the time. She's strong, shown to do a lot of very athletic things, still sort of a jobber and loses a majority of her fights mostly to set up Great Mazinger to win the day but that isn't to say she's ever a bad character. Tetsuya views her as a equal, her partner, the 2 even end up getting married at the end of the series.
There is one episode which talks about her race, its 1974 Japan so maybe by todays standards theres a couple of awkward things but if you keep in mind her perspective and the cultural mindset of Japan that "white clear skin is pretty" and seeing her go through that and really struggle before the show gives the message that it doesn't matter if she's black, Jun is Jun, I think for the time its pretty good overall.
If you wanna check out that Great Mazinger episode, its episode 19, Its pretty decent overall. 70's "slap in the face of someone who's going illogical" aside, tbf Tetsuya also gets a lot of those slaps too lol.
My mom LOVES canary she was her wallpaper and facebook profile picture for a while
Such a great video once again <33 !!
Yeah it's hard for me to get into anime because a lot of them all looked the same to me. I love Michiko but it's nice to learn more anime to add to my list to watch <3
Miyuki's design is cute…CUTE!!!
I LOVE Nessa💙 I always learn new things from your podcast! adding some of these animes to my list