If it’s for a paper, it may be worth checking out Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Kimba the White Lion’
While likely not the first, it does have some …poor taste depictions of African people, however, that was simply how they were seen back then in manga—not as people or a culture, but caricatures to play around with.
Tezuka-san himself has been known as ‘the godfather of manga’ and was a highly influential figure in Japanese comics and even to an extent overseas, with things like “Astro Boy” and “Phoenix”. So I believe his depictions would be a good starting point for research
Thanks, I’ll definitely check it out!
Does anyone know who the very first black character was in a manga? Like THE VERY FIRST. Not most notable or main character or anything like that. Just the appearance of the first black character or another race other than Japanese?
For context I’m writing a paper for school about race and anime/manga and I’m not having much luck finding a timeline of different race characters being introduced into Japanese media over the years, so if anyone has any knowledge feel free to let me know it all. (●'◡'●)