The Newest Stars of Japanese Anime, Made in America

WHEN American anime fans caught up with the teenage martial arts series "Tenjho Tenge" on DVD last month, they saw an athletic black teenager break-dance across the titles. With every step, that figure kicked at a cultural barrier that is crumbling as the power of hip-hop converges with an equally powerful global force: Japanese animation.
Over the years, unflattering Japanese depictions of ethnic minorities, from African-Americans and Latinos to Koreans and Ainu, have been the subject of controversy. In 1986, Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone blamed blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans for a decline in "American intelligence levels." Almost two decades later, "Little Black Sambo" still sells well, and dismissive, if not downright ugly, images of dark-skinned people are still routinely found throughout the country's pop culture.

The popularity of hip-hop - a presence since break dancers started performing in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park in late 1983 - did little to change these cultural biases. Lately, though, the music has penetrated the world of anime. And it has been replacing those old stereotypes with a kind of hip ethnic imagery, both of blacks and Japanese wannabes, that seemed unthinkable only a few years ago. Among the newer anime series now reaching the United States, "Infinite Ryvius," a sci-fi adventure set in the 22nd century, features a hip-hop soundtrack. And in the high school sports story "Hoops," a Japanese rapper, Da Pump, performs the closing song in a live action/animation combination.

But the most vivid cultural cross-pollination occurs in "Samurai Champloo" from the director Shinichiro Watanabe ( "Cowboy Bebop") and in "Paranoia Agent," an unsettling contemporary fantasy by Satoshi Kon ("Millennium Actress"), both of which made their debuts on DVD in the United States late last year.

In "Samurai Champloo," Jin, a ronin (or masterless samurai); Mugen, an Okinawan low-life with Attitude; and Fuu, a ditsy waitress, wander through an anachronistic version of 19th-century Japan. Jin is cool to the point of iciness: in a fight, he's a deadly work of art in motion. In place of martial arts moves, Mugen uses break-dance spins and flips, and sports a mop of frizzy hair, earrings and tattooed bands. Replace his getta (platform sandals) with Air Jordans, and he could hang in 21st-century America.

"I've been interested in hip-hop since it first appeared: the fact that it was born not in the music industry but on the street, the idea of using a turntable as an instrument, singing vividly about reality instead of typical love songs, and its links to graffiti and dance," Mr. Watanabe said in an interview by e-mail message. "I believe samurai in the Edo period and modern hip-hop artists have something in common. Rappers open the way to their future with one microphone; samurai decided their fate with one sword."

Champloo, noted Ian Condry, assistant professor of Japanese cultural studies at M.I.T., "is an Okinawan word for a stew, something that mixes ingredients."

"The series also deals with ethnic and racial discrimination in Japan," he said. "In addition to Okinawans and the way they've been persecuted by mainland Japanese, there are episodes about the Ainu, a gay man from the Netherlands, and Christians, who were persecuted during the Tokugawa era."

Li'l Slugger, the focus of Mr. Kon's disquieting "Paranoia Agent," sports baggy cargo shorts, Afro hair style and a baseball cap. But no one knows if L'il Slugger is a real person, the projection of another character's childhood trauma or the product of media hysteria. His uncertain existence mirrors the manufactured fame of what Mr. Condry called, "a media culture that is sort of street culture, which is paradoxical: It's a street culture that can get on TV."

Although manga (Japanese graphic novels) and animation are usually quick to reflect pop culture trends, hip-hop didn't appear in manga until Santa Inoue's "Tokyo Tribes" in 1997 - 14 years after Japanese teenagers took up break dancing. Mr. Inoue's angry, innovative story about Tokyo homies battling over turf, honor and loyalty scored a big hit in the comics world and is being adapted as an animated feature.

"It's a gumbo," he said via e-mail. "My influences include Robert De Niro in 'Goodfellas,' Joe Pesci, Ken Takakura, Yusaku Matsuda in 'Black Rain,' Tupac in 'Juice' and Ice Cube in 'Boyz N the Hood.' There's a character in 'Tokyo Tribes' named Renkon Chief: I modeled him on Wu-Tang Clan's leader, Raekwon."

According to John Russell, a cultural anthropologist at Gifu University in central Japan, anime's fascination with hip-hop still hasn't erased the kind of negative imagery that was long ago banished from Western entertainment.

"Demeaning caricatures of blacks still invade television programs, commercials, manga and gift shops," Mr. Russell said. "For cosplay" - costume play - "participants, there are 'Rasta Man,' 'Soul Man' and 'Afro Man' blackface kits, and Tonga Bijin ('Tonga Beauty') masks, the last little more than a gorilla mask with golden hoop earrings. Only a few months ago, a TV commercial for facial wipes featured a group of Rastafarians and, inexplicably, a chimpanzee, lounging in a dimly lit room."

Currently doing research on images of African-Americans in Japanese popular culture, Mr. Russell also worries that hip-hop may help reinforce outdated imagery: "It certainly has made 'blackness' cool and stylish, but still objectifies and fetishes it, as does much of American hip-hop, readapting and updating century-old stereotypes of blacks for the digital age."

But Mr. Condry, who is writing a book about hip-hop culture in Japan, disagrees. "There are still plenty of insensitive, if not racist, representations of African-Americans, and there's still a lot of prejudice in Japanese society," he said. "But among hip-hop fans, there's a great respect for African-Americans and black culture. The hope is that hip-hop will become a gateway to greater racial understanding and sensitivity, but it will take many years before any of the hip-hop kids have control over the media and more mainstream Japanese attitudes."