Black characters in non-North American cartoons

Of the top of my head (sort of, i keep thinking of more):

Bob, one of the main characters in Tenjou Tenge is black.

Hunter X Hunter has Abengane (the nen romover from Greed Island, aka, the only guy who survived Gensuru's countdown ability). One of the guys in Tetsugera's squad/group in Greed Island is also Black.

Dutch, the leader of Black Lagoon, in the Black Lagoon anime/manga, is also African American.

Tousen from Bleach

Panther from Eyeshield 21 is African American.

Mr.5 from One Piece
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This started out interesting, but now it's in danger of turning into a list thread. Maybe we should move away from listing various cartoons that happen to have black people in them, and get back to discussing the different ways they're portrayed
 
Reading this made me think of Don LaFontaine doing a voice over describing The Rock on an episode of Family Guy for some reason.

Never understood the whole "acting/talking White" comment made about Black characters not adhering to baffoonish, ignorant, stereotypical roles/positions. Also not fond of ignorant people talking about BET by interjecting items like "well, shouldn't there be a WET?" or something similarly disperaging. Not a fan of the channel myself, but I digress.

I don't have a problem with jinn characters like Mr. Popo or Jynx either because they're not supposed to represent Black characters. However, I do have a problem with those characters that have Black characters with stereotypical pickaninny/Sambo/Mammy/Golliwog facial features. A LOT of characters like Cyborg 008, Panther, and others had them in their original comic incarnations, and a lot of cartoons have them as well, especially the bulbous pink/peach-colored lips. Fortunately, the image is disappearing, though controversy recently reared its head with Mexican comics.

I would mention them, but Mexico is in North America. I know, it's shocking, isn't it?
 
I second that. 1, Japanese name in Japan means a Japanese character. He's not an Edou or Piita or Hari . 2. According to a fansite called Brock-O-Rama: "Before the half year when broadcasting began in America, they showed the Americans concerned and their families the image of "Pocket Monsters". The Americans said "Takeshi[Brock] is disagreeable" and "He always shuts his eyes. This face is not popular".Then they changed Takeshi for Kenji [Tracey] who has "bright, clear eyes". " That suggests an attempt for a more "Western looking" third wheel.

As for Jynx and Popo, they remind me of the Ming the Merciless tradition. Aside from being an alien, Ming was completely a 'Yellow Peril' character. Something doesn't have to be human to echo or wallow in stereotypes.
 
Most of the examples seem to be of Asian cartoons, i.e. anime (where from what the above implies, is still problematic re: stereotyped Black people, but less so now than in the past); how has European animation treated/depicted Black characters in comparison?

Re: North America: for the purpose of this thread, I'm defining it as the US and Canada (two countries with similar cultures/etc.), so not counting (where I normally would) Mexico...

Re: BET: Despite being African-American, not a big BET viewer either...

-B.
 
Or how about African animation? That'd be an interesting area to look at. To bad I've never watched any...

Well anyway, on recent European animation, the only hugely caricatured black character I can think of off the top of my head is the black pirate from the Asterix movies:

http://www.asterix-obelix.nl/images/albums/c-pirates.jpg

The character was introduced into the comics in the 60s, where this kind of thing wasn't too remarkable in Europe, but he was still being used in the movies as late as 1995, when I would have thought it would have fallen out of favour. I don't know if he was in the most recent movie, which came out a couple of years ago.

(interestingly, the Asterix pirates are actually parodies of the cast of another comic, and the black pirate's counterpart isn't caricatured at all)
 
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