Ask John: Are There Anime Based on African Culture?

Question:
I am grown African American man who is big anime fan. My question is, is there any anime films based on African Culture? Maybe a movie with black characters, with [the same] animation skill that is put into other anime films. If there is, can [you] recommend any?

Answer:
I’m sorry to report that I’m not familiar with any anime titles that responsibly and faithfully attempt to illustrate African culture. I’m not able to say that such anime don’t exist. But if there are any anime that extensively deal with African culture, I’m just not familiar with them. I can only offer a few suggestions that merely acknowledge an African setting or influence.

In the 1984 magical girl anime Magical Fairy Pelsia, the titular 11 year old girl Hayami Pelsia grows up on the wild Serengeti Plains, a friend to all the animals. But the anime depicts Pelsia in Africa only briefly before transposing her to Tokyo. Likewise, the second episode of the 1971 magical girl television series Fushigi na Melmo depicts Melmo traveling to Africa to repatriate a zoo elephant to the wild, but the brief sequence is played for comedy more than cultural authenticity.

The 1989 Yoroiden Samurai Troopers: Kikoutei Densetsu OAV series pits the Samurai Warriors against a formidable African warrior, but the series employs its African character and setting more for the sake of injecting exotic variety into the anime than out of a desire to faithfully illustrate African culture.

In fact, the best (and, honestly, only) animation I can recommend for a respectful and significant exploration of African culture is not anime at all. French animator Michel Ocelot’s two films “Kirikou and the Sorceress” (1998) and “Kirikou and the Wild Beasts” (2005) are highly acclaimed, multiple award winning film adaptations of African folk tales. The first Kirikou film was even translated into Japanese by anime director Isao Takahata and became the first Western animated film distributed on Japanese DVD by Studio Ghibli. The original Kirikou film is available on commercial American DVD, but sadly the second film has not been officially released on American home video.

Although it’s not based on strict African culture, I think it may be helpful to draw attention to the 2006 anime television series Tokyo Tribe 2. This 13 episode adaptation of Santa Inoue’s manga is heavily influenced by American urban black gangster culture and stereotype. It’s a story about gang rivalry in Tokyo, but the gangs involved bear much closer resemblance to American street gangs than Japanese mafia groups. I’m not going to address the veracity or ethical responsibility of the content of the Tokyo Tribe 2 anime. I just think that mentioning it is relevant to this discussion of illustrations of black culture in Japanese animation.

Addendum added May 30, 2007
A reader pointed out that the 1992 television series Daisougen no Chiisana Tenshi Bush Baby, an adaptation of William Stevenson’s 1965 novel “The Bushbabies,” is set in Kenya.