Black Voice Actress Hayley Armstrong Discusses The Lack Of Black Girls In Anime

So I recently finished a relatively obscure anime called “Michiko to Hatchin” (Michiko and Hatchin) that takes place in a fictional South American country based on Brazil.

This series featured more visibly Black female characters than I’ve ever witnessed in an anime. 

(and I am a voice actor and anime fanatic. I’ve seen my fair share of work in the genre, so I know not to expect to see many dark skinned female characters, let alone dark skinned female characters who are explicitly Black.)

And when the female characters are Black in anime, this is about as dark as they’re allowed to get:

“Michiko to Hatchin” presented a world I never knew could exist in anime. 

Not only did it have a wealth of Black and Brown characters, there were Black Women with textured afro hair, their facial features and body types varied, they existed naturally in the setting and didn’t look like racist caricatures.

The lead character, Michiko Malandro, is a beautiful prison escapee who finds a friend and surrogate sidekick/daughter/little sister in Hana/Hatchin, the orphaned girl she picks up from an abusive household on her way to finding the man she loves, who so happens to be Hatchin’s biological father.

Michiko does not only clearly have Black in her, but is also based on the Black American singer, Aaliyah.

Michiko’s rival, and former friend-turned-policewoman on the hunt for her, Atsuko Jackson, is even clearer Black female representation in that her skin is dark, and her hair (while blonde) is in a blown out afro. 

Undeniable Black female representation in a Japanese anime series? With actual Black American inspiration and references??

I was stunned. I still am.

You can tell by watching this anime that there was love, study, respect, and genuine care placed into making the Black female characters look and feel authentic. They were allowed to be flawed, and… human. That show was my inspiration for this article.

Watching anime as a Black female fan can be difficult, because on the off chance that an anime does have Black female characters, you also have to hope that they’re not drawn or portrayed in racially/ethnically offensive and stereotypical ways.

Whether it’s that the characters are drawn with oversized balloon lips and literal black, not dark brown, but shadow black skin (a la Dragonball) or they’re only ever portrayed as threatening, unsavory, or killed off in the first episode, anime has a history of not depicting Black women positively. 

And before anyone thinks it, because I know it’s coming:

No, not everything is meant to feature everyone. I get it. Anime is a Japanese animation style. It only makes sense that most of the shows and characters would feature Japanese people/characters, settings, lore, and culture.

Here’s my issue with that as an excuse for there being so few Black and Black female characters in anime:

White characters are in anime constantly. All the time. And, yes, sometimes you get the “stereotypical” ignorant white american anime character, but even those characters tend to (at least) be drawn respectfully.

However, you also have anime like “Vinland Saga” that explores Viking culture, which, to my knowledge, has very little to do with Japan, but okay. 

You’ve got one of my personal favorite psychological mystery anime, “Monster” which I believe features fewer Japanese characters than white, and the main villain, Johan Liebert, and his twin sister are entirely German.

(to be fair, most of it takes place in Germany, but still… clearly anime doesn’t mind shifting geographical focus when the countries are mostly inhabited by white people)


”Attack On Titan” has several white and mixed-white characters (and one Black male, I’ll give it that, but only one Black character, compared to its many white) 

“Howl’s Moving Castle” is based on a novel by a British author and is loosely set in fictional “Ingary” which is inspired by Britain/France and the character Howl is stated to be from Wales.

And the biggest issue isn’t even the characters explicitly being white from specific countries. 

The way that anime characters are drawn, you could very well have characters who are Japanese, in name, but on screen or in manga are: fair skinned, and drawn with big, blue eyes and blonde hair which basically amounts to….

…a white person with a Japanese name. 

(Looking at you, Misa Amane from Death Note.) Tell me Death Note fans: if you had only seen a picture of Misa, would you know she was supposed to be Japanese?

….Probably not. And I think that’s intentional. That goes for her and many MANY other anime girl characters.

There are countless examples of whiteness existing in anime without question. And it exists more insidiously when you consider the whiteness that is allowed, but excused because the character presented has a Japanese name.

I don’t really like to speculate why Blackness in anime is treated like a chore or avoided altogether, because I can imagine why. 

I only bring up the examples of whiteness because people often meet Black fans’ frustration with the lack of Black characters with:

“well, anime is Japanese! Why would it have Black people?” 

……wouldn’t the same question apply to white people?

It doesn’t seem to.

Last time I checked, white people weren’t Japanese either. But their characters seem much more welcome in anime.


Anime is such a global phenomenon, and it deserves to be. It’s excellent. The work is so much deeper and more interesting than a lot of western animation. 

These days, Americans are trying desperately to copy it, but nothing really comes close to what’s being made in Japan, by Japanese artists. 

But I see glimpses of what can be, and how much a little bit more diversity could add to the beauty of the art they’re already making! 

I see Black female characters like Coffee from “Cowboy Bebop"

Canary from “Hunter x Hunter”

Rita from “Michiko and Hatchin” and it lights me up! 

It’s exciting to know that maybe there will be characters for Black Women to cosplay at anime conventions and not be yelled at for. (because hey, WE ONLY HAVE LIKE, FIVE EXPLICITLY BLACK CHOICES TO CHOOSE FROM, OKAY???)

And don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Black female cosplayers dressing up as any character they like. Do you. 

Two or three character choices is not enough. If the characters aren’t going to exist in abundance for you… play the characters that do exist.

You’re telling me Sailor Moon had room for two white blondes, but a single sailor scout of color would’ve scared the target audience away? Please.

You wanna be a sailor scout, you go right ahead!


As anime keeps exploding in popularity, I hope it doesn’t become yet another medium that Black girls watch, love, and then cross their fingers and hope that they can see themselves in organically, without having to mold and change themselves because the creators don’t think Black girls fit their aesthetic.

I hope to see more Black girl representation in anime.

I’ll even take Blasian, keep half the character Japanese, that’s more than cool, and would make sense.

Just don’t tell me that a genre that frequently features things like dragons, talking cats, demons, and combat mecha thinks that including Black girls is “going too far.”

-Black Voice Actress Hayley Armstrong