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Last week, a new anime series, Yasuke, premiered on Netflix. A great advancement for the Black anime community. Follow this thread to learn more about the series!
If you've seen it, what are your thoughts on it so far?
Last week, a new anime series, Yasuke, premiered on Netflix. A great advancement for the Black anime community. Follow this thread to learn more about the series!
If you've seen it, what are your thoughts on it so far?
Yasuke is an anime series based on the true story of the first Black samurai - an African immigrant, by the same name, who arrived in Japan as a servant of Italian Jesuit traders and eventually achieved the rank of samurai.
Created by LeSean Thomas and animated by Japanese animation studio MAPPA, the new anime series, released on Netflix on April 29th, 2021, stars LaKeith Stanfield as the voice of Yasuke.
Although not the first anime series with a Black protagonist, Yasuke offers a deeper insight into the struggles of Yasuke as a Black man in a foreign land - highlighting his uneasy adjustment to Japanese society.
As popularity of Japanese anime continues to grow, it is hoped that more Black creators in this space will follow the lead of Yasuke, portraying Black characters, not only as political heroes as is seen so often, but a different kind of hero to appeal to a whole new audience.
With more Black anime creators, it is also expected that the overall physical appearance of Black characters would be made more realistic as the creators of Yasuke strived to achieve.
