There’s no denying the fact that anime has always had little to no diversity when it comes to their characters. Of course, the situation today is far better than what it used to be until a few years ago, where gay or black characters were almost always shown to be in their worst stereotypes possible – sexual harassers and thugs/villains/bad guys, respectively
With the passage of time, however, fans did get to see a little bit of diversity, and even though it’s really not enough in a sea of characters that have unanimously “white” or light skin colors, here’s looking at some of the very rare POC characters in anime that most people are unaware of.
10 Souma Schicksal (God Eater)
Introduced in God Eater Burst, Souma is shown to be an extremely experienced God Eater. Not only is he good at what he does, but he was also able to become a God Eater at the tender age of 18. It was partly because of such achievements of his that he developed quite a bit of an attitude.
He has a standoffish attitude, he dislikes talking to others and thinks he’s above the rules, due to which many people view him as an unpleasant person.
9 Syura (Akame Ga Kill)
Posed as an antagonist in the series, Syura is the leader of Wild Hunt and the son of Prime Minister Honest. He is an easily disliked character because of his extremely cruel nature – he harasses, tortures and kills his civilians for mere pleasure.
Much like Souma, he believes he’s above the law (and in a manner of speaking, he is) which gives him a bloated sense of entitlement. He gets angry easily and becomes violent in a manner of seconds.
8 Scar (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Interestingly, Scar has no official name in the anime series. He is only referred to as the “scarred man” or “Scar” for short. Scar is shown to be a vigilante who is on a mission to take revenge on State Alchemists for bringing about the near annihilation of his people.
Consumed by hatred, this man still has the capacity to sympathize with those who lost their loved ones because of the actions of the government. Towards the end of the series, Scar realizes that his actions were misplaced and goes on a journey to atone for his actions.
7 Agni (Black Butler)
Agni is shown to be an extremely humble, capable and determined butler to the Indian prince Soma Asman Kadar. Born as Arshad Satyendra Iyer, he was saved from being hanged for his crimes by Soma, in exchange for his undying loyalty.
Agni is one of the most well-liked characters from the Black Butler franchise, mostly because he doesn't have a single bad bone in his body. In fact, such was his goodness that he even made the (visibly) standoffish demon butler Sebastian, his friend.
6 Inukashi The Dogkeeper (No. 6)
It’s rare for anime to showcase a dark-skinned female character and not prop her up as a cutesy-clumsy doll or a sharp-tongued sexual object, but that is exactly what No. 6 managed to achieve.
Inukashi is a ragged young girl who lends dogs to poor people as a source of heat for cold nights. The girl lives independently and doesn’t trust humans as a whole, but takes an instant liking to Shion because of his innocent nature.
5 Dutch (Black Lagoon)
Dutch is shown to be an extremely smart man. As the person in charge of the Lagoon Trading Company, he chooses to stay away from the politics that happens behind closed doors in the Lagoon Company.
He is more of a hands-on person who believes in communicating and negotiating with the other side in order to get what he wants. Being an ex-U.S. Navy PT boat captain, he is shown to be extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat and is often portrayed as a friendly and calm person.
4 Kaolla Su (Lova Hina)
This foreign exchange student lives at the Hinata House, and she’s in grade eight like her friend Shinobu. She’s an ambitious young girl who wants to study hard and graduate quickly so that she can introduce various modern technologies in her home country in order to make it a developed nation.
She chose to keep her origins a private affair, and because of that, it was largely believed she was either from Australia or India. Later in the anime, the viewers were told that she was actually royalty. The little girl belonged to a tiny island in the Pacific, called the Kingdom of Molmol and she just happened to be its young princess as well.
3 Ikumi Mito (Food Wars)
Ikumi is presented as the primary rival of the protagonist (Soma) of the series Food Wars, until she was expectedly defeated by him in a food competition. With the passage of time, the two become friends and while she’s shown to be a strongly opinionated woman, she’s nothing but a softie on the inside.
Her nickname is Nikumi and she only allows her loved ones to address her by that name
2 Kaname Tosen (Bleach)
In the Bleach universe, Soul Reapers guard the gates of heaven (Soul Society), and these reapers are lead by 13 Captains.
The leader of Squad 9 is Kaname Tosen and despite being blind, he is one of the most feared Soul Reapers out there. His powers include having heightened senses, which means he can easily sense people (especially enemies) from a mile away, thus giving him a strategic advantage in important battles.
1 Nathan Seymour (Tiger & Bunny)
This very black (and very gay) character is the superhero called Fire Emblem. His superpower is pyrokinesis, and he is able to manipulate fire at will as well.
It is heartening to see a black gay character in anime shown not as a caricature of his kind, but an actual character with his own distinct quirks and personality traits. It is recommended to watch the dubbed version, as the subbed version might have certain questionable dialogues that may be considered offensive outside of Japan.