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** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': Enrico Pucci looks black, but it's actually an important plot point that he's ''not''. His parents are both white as snow, as are his younger sister Perla and [[spoiler: twin brother Domenico/Weather Report]]. Given that he's of Italian descent, he may be Sicilian and his dark skin a product of recessive genes.

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** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': Enrico Pucci looks black, but it's actually an important plot point that he's ''not''. ''not'' (which could be debated due to the confusing depiction of the KKK). His parents are both white as snow, snow (although his father is dark in the anime), as are his younger sister Perla and [[spoiler: twin brother Domenico/Weather Report]]. Given that he's of Italian descent, he may be Sicilian and his dark skin a product of recessive genes.Sicilian.
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*''Manga/IgaNoKabamaru'': The titular character has dark skin, contrast to his manga counterpart that had paler skin. Not much is known about his past since he's an orphan.
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* ''Anime/TheSecretGarden'': The Martha and Dickon Sowerby were white in the original Creator/FrancesHodgsonBurnett novel but the anime gives them a heavy tan. However this is likely because their jobs involve them toiling in the sunlight - Camila, who is explicitly confirmed to be a [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} person of colour]] (and is much paler than them) is frequently treated badly and subject to racist abuse by the villagers, who claim she is a MagicalRomani that brings curses on to the village, while the Sowerbys aren't.

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* ''Anime/TheSecretGarden'': The Martha and Dickon Sowerby were white in the original Creator/FrancesHodgsonBurnett novel but the anime gives them a heavy tan. However this is likely because their jobs involve them toiling in the sunlight - Camila, who is explicitly confirmed to be a [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} person of colour]] (and is much paler than them) is frequently treated badly and subject to racist abuse by the villagers, who claim she is a MagicalRomani that brings curses on to the village, while the Sowerbys aren't.
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*''Anime/TheSecretGarden'': The Martha and Dickon Sowerby were white in the original Creator/FrancesHodgsonBurnett novel but the anime gives them a heavy tan. However this is likely because their jobs involve them toiling in the sunlight - Camila, who is explicitly confirmed to be a [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} person of colour]] (and is much paler than them) is frequently treated badly and subject to racist abuse by the villagers, who claim she is a MagicalRomani that brings curses on to the village, while the Sowerbys aren't.
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* Anime ([[RecursiveAdaptation and anime-based game]]) only Lucy Liberty of ''VideoGame/FZero [[AnimeOfTheGame Falcon Densetsu/GP Legend]]'' is this. She shares roughly the same skin color that Kate Alen has (who is black in the core games) in the series, but her hair color is a fairly pinkish shade of red.

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* ''Anime/FZeroGPLegend'': Anime ([[RecursiveAdaptation and anime-based game]]) only Lucy Liberty of ''VideoGame/FZero [[AnimeOfTheGame Falcon Densetsu/GP Legend]]'' is this. She shares roughly the same skin color that Kate Alen has (who is black in the core games) in the series, but her hair color is a fairly pinkish shade of red.
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** [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Meshy/Meshie/Miashe/Mia-Shay Kune/Kyuun]] Is yet another dark-skinned blond, but her facial features are pretty "black"-looking (very prominent lips for an anime character, for one). Her hair and complexion, along with the fact that her very white, hick-ish father is a minor character suggests she's supposed to be a mulatto, though we never see her mom.

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** [[SpellMyNameWithAnS [[InconsistentSpelling Meshy/Meshie/Miashe/Mia-Shay Kune/Kyuun]] Is yet another dark-skinned blond, but her facial features are pretty "black"-looking (very prominent lips for an anime character, for one). Her hair and complexion, along with the fact that her very white, hick-ish father is a minor character suggests she's supposed to be a mulatto, though we never see her mom.
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*''Anime/RyuTheCaveBoy'' is set in an unspecified area where everyone is dark-skinned. Dark skin is such a norm in the society that pale skin is seen as a curse and a bad omen, and baby Ryu is ordered to be killed because he was born with it.
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*''Anime/HelloSandybell'': [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alec_17.jpg Alec]]. His skin is a darker shade than the other characters, but we're never given any tells if he's from a different race. To be fair, his job does involve him working in the sun.

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* Johann Trinity in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. Further complicated by the fact he's brown with dark hair, his brother is white with blue hair, and his sister is white and freckly with [[EvilRedhead red hair]]. Probably explained by the fact that they're {{artificial human}}s.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', Titans' [[TheDragon second-in-command]] [[GeneralRipper Bask Om]] is a light tan that seems to get darker depending upon the lighting.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', [[TheBrute Rakan Dahkaran]] is darker skinned then the rest of the cast, and depending on the episode and the lighting ranges from tanned to almost black in skin colouration. When combined with his facial features he looks almost, but not quite Arabic.

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* Johann Trinity in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. Further complicated by the fact he's brown with dark hair, his brother is white with blue hair, and his sister is white and freckly with [[EvilRedhead red hair]]. Probably explained by the fact that they're {{artificial human}}s.
*
''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
**
In ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', Titans' [[TheDragon second-in-command]] [[GeneralRipper Bask Om]] is a light tan that seems to get darker depending upon the lighting.
* ** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', [[TheBrute Rakan Dahkaran]] is darker skinned then the rest of the cast, and depending on the episode and the lighting ranges from tanned to almost black in skin colouration. When combined with his facial features he looks almost, but not quite Arabic.Arabic.
** [[ColdSniper Johann Trinity]] in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. Further complicated by the fact he's brown with dark hair, his brother [[TheBully Michael]] is white with blue hair, and his sister [[CuteAndPsycho Nena]] is white and freckly with [[EvilRedhead red hair]]. Probably explained by the fact that they're {{artificial human}}s.
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** Yoruichi Shihōin (pictured above), and to a lesser extent her brother Yushiro, is a quintessential example, if the historical flame wars that came over what their ethnicity is are anything to go by.[[note]]As mentioned in the image caption, one of them was a large edit war in Website/{{Wikipedia}}.[[/note]] One of the anime outros implies that they're black and Yoruichi's ability to transform into a black cat raises an additional question. At least as can be surmised from their names, they are Japanese.

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** Yoruichi Shihōin (pictured above), (as seen on the main trope page), and to a lesser extent her brother Yushiro, is a quintessential example, if the historical flame wars that came over what their ethnicity is are anything to go by.[[note]]As mentioned in the image caption, one of them was a large edit war in Website/{{Wikipedia}}.[[/note]] One of the anime outros implies that they're black and Yoruichi's ability to transform into a black cat raises an additional question. At least as can be surmised from their names, they are Japanese.
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** There's also Robin, whose skin looks slightly darker than most of the other Straw Hats but looks slightly tanned at most. However, [[WordOfGod Oda stated in the SBS]] that if the Straw Hats lived in the real world, Robin would be from ''Russia''. As of the TimeSkip, there isn't any Ambiguously Brown anymore. Her tanned skin is ''gone''. It's also worth pointing out that this only applies to the anime, as her skin was light from the beginning in the manga.

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** There's also Robin, whose skin looks slightly darker than most of the other Straw Hats but looks slightly tanned at most. However, [[WordOfGod Oda stated in the SBS]] that if the Straw Hats lived in the real world, Robin would be from ''Russia''. As of the TimeSkip, there isn't any Ambiguously Brown anymore. Her tanned skin is ''gone''. It's also worth pointing out that this only applies to the anime, as her skin was light from the beginning in the manga.
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** There's also Robin, whose skin looks slightly darker than most of the other Straw Hats but looks slightly tanned at most. However, [[WordOfGod Oda stated in the SBS]] that if the Straw Hats lived in the real world, Robin would be from ''Russia''. As of the TimeSkip, there isn't any Ambiguously Brown anymore. Her tanned skin is ''gone''.

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** There's also Robin, whose skin looks slightly darker than most of the other Straw Hats but looks slightly tanned at most. However, [[WordOfGod Oda stated in the SBS]] that if the Straw Hats lived in the real world, Robin would be from ''Russia''. As of the TimeSkip, there isn't any Ambiguously Brown anymore. Her tanned skin is ''gone''. It's also worth pointing out that this only applies to the anime, as her skin was light from the beginning in the manga.
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** Ash always had a skin tone was always slightly darker than other characters, though he's undeniably Japanese. Starting in Hoenn he's just barely lighter than Brock and has stayed that way since.



** In ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'', Goh's skin color is a rather dark tan, but he has blue eyes. He shares his skin tone with the rest of his family, similar to Brock and his family. In the English dub, he is voiced by Zeno Robinson, who is Black. Averted in the original Japanese version, as both Goh and Brock/Takeshi were never intended to be anything but fully Japanese with dark skin.
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bntb is retooled to be about colorism in-universe per TRS





** Casca has medium brown skin, straight black hair, and a face type that's pretty unclear about her origins. For years fans have been arguing with each other over whether she's supposed to be black, Arab, East Indian, Southern European, mixed, or just about any other real-life brown race you can think of. ''Berserk'' does have races in the story who resemble black Africans and South Asians, but Casca looks ambiguous enough that she can't be indisputably categorized with either. It's entirely possible that Creator/KentaroMiura just wanted to give her a unique appearance without having a particular intention about her race, since he hasn't commented on the issue. Making matters even more muddled, the ''Golden Age'' film trilogy and ''Anime/Berserk2016'' depict Casca's skin as a [[ButNotTooBlack much lighter shade of tan]] than in the manga, while making her hair dark brown or reddish-brown instead of black.

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** Casca has medium brown medium-brown skin, straight black hair, and a face type that's pretty unclear about her origins. For years fans have been arguing with each other over whether she's supposed to be black, Arab, East Indian, Southern European, mixed, or just about any other real-life brown race you can think of. ''Berserk'' does have races in the story who resemble black Africans and South Asians, but Casca looks ambiguous enough that she can't be indisputably categorized with either. It's entirely possible that Creator/KentaroMiura just wanted to give her a unique appearance without having a particular intention about her race, since he hasn't commented on the issue. Making matters even more muddled, the ''Golden Age'' film trilogy and ''Anime/Berserk2016'' depict Casca's skin as a [[ButNotTooBlack much lighter shade of tan]] tan than in the manga, while making her hair dark brown or reddish-brown instead of black.






* Almost all the characters in ''Anime/HareGuu'' have dark skin. In fact lighter skin characters are a little rare in the series. {{Justified|Trope}} as it takes in a jungle, likely somewhere in south Asia. Oddly enough [[spoiler:Weda came from "the city"]], where Hareacute goes later and more or less everybody is white-ish. She still has the exact same appearance of the other inhabitants of the jungle. So... [[spoiler:that was some lucky choice for a place to be banished.]]

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* Almost all the characters in ''Anime/HareGuu'' have dark skin. In fact lighter skin characters are a little rare in the series. {{Justified|Trope}} as it takes in a jungle, likely somewhere in south South Asia. Oddly enough [[spoiler:Weda came from "the city"]], where Hareacute goes later and more or less everybody is white-ish. She still has the exact same appearance of the other inhabitants of the jungle. So... [[spoiler:that was some lucky choice for a place to be banished.]]






** Giha's [[UnfitForGreatness Village Chief]] (and also Kamina, [[ButNotTooWhite to a lesser degree]]) may also qualify as this, seeing as how he presumably grew up underground without sunlight, yet is suspiciously more tan-complected than the rest of the villagers.

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** Giha's [[UnfitForGreatness Village Chief]] (and also Kamina, [[ButNotTooWhite to a lesser degree]]) degree) may also qualify as this, seeing as how he presumably grew up underground without sunlight, yet is suspiciously more tan-complected tan-complexioned than the rest of the villagers.



** The Moonrace is considerably whiter (a few Asians, too), but EvilChancellor Agrippa looks like he's supposed to be ButNotTooBlack. Justified for the Earth-based characters in that they're a result of millennia's worth of multiracial intermingling [[spoiler:following the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse.]]

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** The Moonrace is considerably whiter (a few Asians, too), but EvilChancellor Agrippa looks like he's supposed to be ButNotTooBlack.Black. Justified for the Earth-based characters in that they're a result of millennia's worth of multiracial intermingling [[spoiler:following the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse.]]
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* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is set in Japan and individual ethnicities are mostly[[note]]The main exception is Yasutora "Chad" Sado, who is explicitly part-Mexican.[[/note]] not discussed in the story. The following characters stand out as being of ambiguous heritage:

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* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is set in Japan and individual ethnicities are mostly[[note]]The mostly not discussed in the story.[[note]]The main exception is Yasutora "Chad" Sado, who is explicitly part-Mexican.[[/note]] not discussed in the story. The following characters stand out as being of ambiguous heritage:



* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': In a variation, minor character Veronica Lin, an American, is depicted with black hair and distinctly almond-shaped eyes rather than brown skin, suggesting she might be Chinese-American--or at least that the English translator is interpreting her as such: her surname could also be transliterated as the English "Lynn".

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* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': In a variation, minor character Veronica Lin, an American, is depicted with black hair and distinctly almond-shaped eyes rather than brown skin, suggesting she might be Chinese-American--or at least that the English translator is interpreting her as such: her surname could also be transliterated as the English "Lynn". (Most actual brown-skinned characters in the manga ''do'' have defined ethnicities and are not examples.)
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* Tom Tanaka from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' not only has noticeably darker skin than most characters but also has [[ImprobableHairstyle dreadlocks]], and this combined with his first name raise the possibility that he has some non-Japanese ancestry. That, or he's just really tanned and has odd style habits.

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* Tom Tanaka from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' not only has noticeably darker skin than most characters but also has [[ImprobableHairstyle dreadlocks]], and this combined with his first name raise the possibility that he has some non-Japanese ancestry. That, or he's just really tanned and has odd style habits.



* [[http://oreimo.wikia.com/wiki/Ria_Hagry Ria Hagry]] in ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' has noticeably darker skin than most of the Japanese cast and is referred to only as "American", leaving her exact ethnicity uncertain.

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* [[http://oreimo.wikia.com/wiki/Ria_Hagry Ria Hagry]] in ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' ''Literature/{{Oreimo}}'' has noticeably darker skin than most of the Japanese cast and is referred to only as "American", leaving her exact ethnicity uncertain.
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AmbiguouslyBrown in AnimeAndManga.
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* ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'': In a variation, minor character Veronica Lin, an American, is depicted with black hair and distinctly almond-shaped eyes rather than brown skin, suggesting she might be Chinese-American--or at least that the English translator is interpreting her as such: her surname could also be transliterated as the English "Lynn".
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* In ''Manga/AliceInBorderland'', several characters such as Takeru Danma/Boshiya, Aguni Morizono, Ginji Kyuma and Hikari Kuina look like people from Caribbean islands or southern parts of Africa rather than a Japanese-Japanese person.
* In the original Japanese version of ''Anime/BakuganBattleBrawlers'', the character Julie Hayward is Australian with implications that she's Aboriginal. The [[DubNameChange dub changes her name]] to Julie Makimoto, implying Japanese descent while removing the specific notion that she's from Australia.
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Casca has medium brown skin, straight black hair, and a face type that's pretty unclear about her origins. For years fans have been arguing with each other over whether she's supposed to be black, Arab, East Indian, Southern European, mixed, or just about any other real-life brown race you can think of. ''Berserk'' does have races in the story who resemble black Africans and South Asians, but Casca looks ambiguous enough that she can't be indisputably categorized with either. It's entirely possible that Creator/KentaroMiura just wanted to give her a unique appearance without having a particular intention about her race, since he hasn't commented on the issue. Making matters even more muddled, the ''Golden Age'' film trilogy and ''Anime/Berserk2016'' depict Casca's skin as a [[ButNotTooBlack much lighter shade of tan]] than in the manga, while making her hair dark brown or reddish-brown instead of black.
** Pippin is ambiguously brown skinned like Casca but unlike her, Pippin has prominent lips suggesting he is of a different ethnicity and none of the adaptations change his skin tone. Corkus has notable darker skin in the 97 anime, but like Casca is whitened up in the movies.
* Edrear from ''Manga/{{Bizenghast}}'' is depicted as having notably darker skin than his siblings in the manga, but it's not stated what their heritage is. They're all give the same light skintone in official art.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is set in Japan and individual ethnicities are mostly[[note]]The main exception is Yasutora "Chad" Sado, who is explicitly part-Mexican.[[/note]] not discussed in the story. The following characters stand out as being of ambiguous heritage:
** Yoruichi Shihōin (pictured above), and to a lesser extent her brother Yushiro, is a quintessential example, if the historical flame wars that came over what their ethnicity is are anything to go by.[[note]]As mentioned in the image caption, one of them was a large edit war in Website/{{Wikipedia}}.[[/note]] One of the anime outros implies that they're black and Yoruichi's ability to transform into a black cat raises an additional question. At least as can be surmised from their names, they are Japanese.
** In the anime, Mila-Rose is made very dark-skinned, as is her superior, Tier Harribel. In the manga, Mila-Rose is paler and Tier Harribel seems to be a [[GyaruGirl ganguro]]. Of course, given that arrancars are humanoid amalgamations of souls, it may be debatable if they even technically ''have'' a race.
** Jackie Tristan is dark-skinned with an OddNameOut in a series filled with Japanese characters. Ethnicity isn't very important for most characters in the story, so hers is never discussed.
* Marie Itami from ''Anime/BNABrandNewAnimal'' has darker skin than most of the other characters and dreadlock-esque hair, but a Japanese surname.
* Kojiro Hyuga/Mark Lenders from ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa''. Spanish fans use to joke saying that Lenders was the first/only Japanese [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} Gypsy]].
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
** [[TheBaroness Villetta Nu]] is from the Britannian Empire, but since it geographically covers not only the USA but all of Central and South America as well, it could account for the wide variety of skin tones among its members.
** [[BitCharacter Dorothea Ernst]], the [[FourIsDeath Knight of Four]], is slightly darker than Villetta and has green eyes. [[spoiler:She is also [[MauveShirt killed off by Suzaku]] [[WeHardlyKnewYe after only a few meer seconds of screen time]].]]
** Dalque in ''[[Manga/CodeGeassNightmareOfNunnally Nightmare of Nunnally]]'' is from one of the numbered areas, but it's never revealed which one.
* In ''Anime/DeathParade'', Castra has dark brown skin and Ginti is noticeably darker than the rest of the cast as well. Neither are human like the others (they deal with the afterlife) and so like them they don't seem to have a particular race.
* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' has Kabru, Kiki and Kaka. All the people in Kabru's village had the same dark skintone, but we're never actually told where the village was. The series hasn't revealed anything about Kiki and Kaka's past before they were adopted.
* ''Anime/DeltoraQuest'':
** Jasmine is described in the having sunbrown skin in the books and the anime surprisingly matches it (especially [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUhnyGfd5WzrpFq4p91wbwt8XLicyBUOsehgA7CT_IKM454XWZlA compared]] to the other characters). The exact reason why Jasmine's skin is like this is debatable, most likely is because she has lived outdoors for most of life or possibly she inherited her pigment from her father as well as her [[AdaptationDyeJob green]] hair which was not in the books.
** Doom the RebelLeader is described as tan skinned in the books and he's even darker in the anime, easily more brown than every other character. Doom also has green hair [[StrongFamilyResemblance like]] Jasmine [[spoiler: two of the three obvious visual clues that Doom and Jasmine are actually related]].
* Tom Tanaka from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' not only has noticeably darker skin than most characters but also has [[ImprobableHairstyle dreadlocks]], and this combined with his first name raise the possibility that he has some non-Japanese ancestry. That, or he's just really tanned and has odd style habits.
* In ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', we have Matthieu, Hilda and Gidget. Their skin colors are actually slightly different shades.
** ''Anime/EurekaSevenAO'' gives us Elena Peoples. AllThereInTheManual says she's from America [[spoiler: but there are hints that this isn't the case]].
* Anime ([[RecursiveAdaptation and anime-based game]]) only Lucy Liberty of ''VideoGame/FZero [[AnimeOfTheGame Falcon Densetsu/GP Legend]]'' is this. She shares roughly the same skin color that Kate Alen has (who is black in the core games) in the series, but her hair color is a fairly pinkish shade of red.
* Raoh and Kaioh in the Toei adaptations of ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' become this, in a case of AdaptationDyeJob gone [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]] (in the original manga and all non-Toei adaptations, both of them are white with silver hair).
* Rose and most people in her town are this way in the ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'' anime. In the [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga]] and ''Brotherhood'', the town is a mountain town full of light-skinned people; however, [[RaceLift in the 2003 anime]], it's a desert town. They're darker than most other characters, but this is never commented upon by anyone. The [[spoiler:skirmish involving them]] is comparable to the [[spoiler:Ishvalan Massacre]]. In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'', Rose's counterpart Noah is Roma, as are [[spoiler:Lust and Scar's counterparts]]. It's implied that the people of Rose's town are related to or possibly descended from Ishvalans.

* A few characters in ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'' are Ambiguously White. Kuu and Hikari are [[PhenotypeStereotype blue-eyed blondes]] in a cast predominantly made up of dark-eyed brunettes. However, their names are still Japanese and nothing is noted in-series about their designs. The characters all name themselves, which explains their names, and they all have LaserGuidedAmnesia about their pasts. It's implied that the characters live in purgatory, which makes everything more ambiguous. Kuramori and Hyouko have dark hair and blue eyes as well, which might imply the characters are just {{Mukokuseki}} or might imply otherwise.
* Almost all the characters in ''Anime/HareGuu'' have dark skin. In fact lighter skin characters are a little rare in the series. {{Justified|Trope}} as it takes in a jungle, likely somewhere in south Asia. Oddly enough [[spoiler:Weda came from "the city"]], where Hareacute goes later and more or less everybody is white-ish. She still has the exact same appearance of the other inhabitants of the jungle. So... [[spoiler:that was some lucky choice for a place to be banished.]]
* Psy from ''Manga/{{Heroman}}'' seems to fit the BlackAndNerdy trope, has puffy hair, and lives in America but it's hard to tell. He might be Mexican, mixed, or African-American.
* Kenta Nakamura from ''Manga/InitialD'' is fairly dark-skinned in the manga, anime, and video games. Nobody finds anything unusual about this, and his ethnicity isn't addressed even once. It's later revealed during ''Fourth Stage'' that [[SubvertedTrope he just likes to tan his skin regularly]].
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'': The Pillar Men are apparently Mesoamerican in origin, though their race appears to predate history and has traveled all over the globe during their quest for the Red Stone.
** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': Enrico Pucci looks black, but it's actually an important plot point that he's ''not''. His parents are both white as snow, as are his younger sister Perla and [[spoiler: twin brother Domenico/Weather Report]]. Given that he's of Italian descent, he may be Sicilian and his dark skin a product of recessive genes.
* ''Anime/KillLaKill'' gives us [[CombatSadomasochist Ira Gamagori]] and [[MisanthropeSupreme Rei Hououmaru]]. The former is a dark-skinned blond who was confirmed by WordOfGod to be Half-American as his father was an American soldier. For the latter, the OVA reveals that Rei originated from [[spoiler: an African country that was torn apart by war]].
* Aomine Daiki of ''Manga/KurokosBasketball''. He's dark enough it can't just be [[HandWave explained away]] with him exercising outside a lot. Especially when he combines it with blue hair. Momoi even calls him a ganguro once.
* In ''Manga/LaughingUnderTheClouds'', the Iga ninja have inexplicably darker skin that everyone else, even though it's set during the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration.
* Kaolla Su from ''Manga/LoveHina''. Her origins aren't revealed until towards the final chapters ([[spoiler:she's from a fictional country on the International Date Line]]), but her appearance was actually relevant to a subplot involving Keitaro assuming she was from India (which she denied).
* Goemon Ishikawa and Inspector Zenigata of ''Franchise/LupinIII'' went back and forth on this one in the early years.
** [[Characters/LupinIII Goemon]] was portrayed with tan skin early on for the original manga series and the pilot, had pale skin for the first TV series, and then went tan again for the first ''Lupin'' movie, ''Anime/TheMysteryOfMamo'', which was based on the original manga art. The second TV series returned to the pale tone, and he has kept it ever since. The argument would be because Goemon's nationality (Japanese) is the only one known of the gang and so it makes him stand out more ethnically. ''Except''...
** [[Characters/LupinIII Zenigata]] is also Japanese and was pale for the pilot, but got noticeably tan in the first TV series, the opposite of Goemon. He also has a slightly ruddy complexion in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', but since then, has also evened out to paler tones.
* Endemic in ''Anime/MichikoAndHatchin'', which is to be expected, considering the series takes place in a fictional version of South America. Atsuko Jackson is explicitly half-black and half-Japanese but we never know for sure what Michiko's racial makeup is. Both women appear to be Afro-Latina (for those to whom this isn't immediately obvious, there is an episode in which Michiko wears her hair natural), Michiko being more likely to be considered "Zambo"—as opposed to Atsuko's "Jambo"—and the racial demographics of the show are surprisingly accurately represented. Characters in the series tend to have a mish-mash of Portuguese (sometimes Spanish) and Japanese names, which is most likely a nod to the fact that Brazil has the largest Japanese population in the world barring Japan.
* Johann Trinity in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. Further complicated by the fact he's brown with dark hair, his brother is white with blue hair, and his sister is white and freckly with [[EvilRedhead red hair]]. Probably explained by the fact that they're {{artificial human}}s.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', Titans' [[TheDragon second-in-command]] [[GeneralRipper Bask Om]] is a light tan that seems to get darker depending upon the lighting.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', [[TheBrute Rakan Dahkaran]] is darker skinned then the rest of the cast, and depending on the episode and the lighting ranges from tanned to almost black in skin colouration. When combined with his facial features he looks almost, but not quite Arabic.
* Mirko from ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' is native to Japan but has noticeably dark skin. Her attack names tend to involve GratuitousSpanish, implying she's at least partially of [[LatinoIsBrown Latin American descent]].
* Used deliberately in'' Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater'' to underscore Nadia's mysterious origins. Nadia's brown skin, straight hair, green eyes, and [[{{Mukokuseki}} "stateless" anime heroine looks]] all stand in marked contrast to the rest of the Nautilus' multinational crew, who all have recognizably European, African, Indian or Asian features. The fact that Nadia herself has no idea of her true heritage is a major plot point. ([[spoiler:She's actually Atlantean.]])
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': [[http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Kidomaru Kidomaru]]. On [[http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-comics-2007/634-1.jp the cover for Volume 24]], his skin is even darker than it is in the anime (despite it being almost completely white in the regular pages, but that's a frequent occurrence in manga). Later, several characters from the Cloud Village are shown to be ''unambiguously'' black.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has a few characters like this, though if you look at the original designs the "darkness" of some of the characters seem to come from the designers of the anime taking liberties.
** In the main cast, there's Usopp, who also has creamy brown skin, kinky black hair and drawn lips (which most characters lack), and Creator/EiichiroOda said that if the Straw Hats were from the real world he would be from Africa, so he is most likely intended to. The Spanish dub of ''One Piece'' had Usopp talking in a heavy Arabic accent, plus he was renamed as Usuf. However, Usopp's mother Banchina was very pale, and had an Italian name, whereas his father has similar features including drawn lips. Also, while he now has blond dreadlocks, he was shown when Shanks first recruited him to have curly black hair, so it's likely he dyed/bleached it. This might point to Usopp being biracial.
** There's also Robin, whose skin looks slightly darker than most of the other Straw Hats but looks slightly tanned at most. However, [[WordOfGod Oda stated in the SBS]] that if the Straw Hats lived in the real world, Robin would be from ''Russia''. As of the TimeSkip, there isn't any Ambiguously Brown anymore. Her tanned skin is ''gone''.
** Zoro has [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSD3qROJSkWek8Gi32EeOqB_izZJS8UcXh0tQ&usqp=CAU noticeable tanned skin]] in the anime and keeps this skin tone right up til the timeskip. Since Zoro's nationality would be Japanese in real life, it's likely just a heavy tan like Robin.
** Before his death, Brook fit this trope, and even as a skeleton he still has an awesome afro.
** Kuzan aka Aokiji is also distinctly brown and has pronounced lips like Usopp and in Funimation dub has a low voice like a Jazz singer. But since Kuzan is based off a famous Japanese actor, it's likely just an animator's decision.
* [[http://oreimo.wikia.com/wiki/Ria_Hagry Ria Hagry]] in ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' has noticeably darker skin than most of the Japanese cast and is referred to only as "American", leaving her exact ethnicity uncertain.
* ''Anime/PanzerWorldGalient'': Redd Winduu was brown-skinned, but it is hard to tell what his race is supposed to be.
* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
** In the [[Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries original anime series]] Brock varies in color from light brown to dark brown. There's been a gag a few times where he dances in a sombrero and maracas, but most fans consider him Asian.
** Ash always had a skin tone was always slightly darker than other characters, though he's undeniably Japanese. Starting in Hoenn he's just barely lighter than Brock and has stayed that way since.
** Skyla is given a darker skin tone in the anime, however it's ambiguous if it's a tan or not.
** As in the games, there is Iris. Fans usually consider her either black or Native American, but there isn't much to go on besides her being darker than Ash.
** In ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'', Goh's skin color is a rather dark tan, but he has blue eyes. He shares his skin tone with the rest of his family, similar to Brock and his family. In the English dub, he is voiced by Zeno Robinson, who is Black. Averted in the original Japanese version, as both Goh and Brock/Takeshi were never intended to be anything but fully Japanese with dark skin.
** WordOfGod is that Tracey was designed to replace the more Asian-looking Brock. Despite this, Tracey has a Japanese name in the Japanese version and nothing in-series suggests he's a different ethnicity from any other Kanto character (who are most likely all Japanese bar Lt. Surge).
* Fakir in ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' has tan skin and dark green (almost black!) hair, in a town that appears to be set in Germany. {{Fanon}} states he has some Middle-Eastern blood in him (because of his name and appearances), but the creator tends to dodge the subject when a question is asked about it.
* Since ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'' has quite the CastOfSnowflakes, the characters' skins can range from white to various shades of brown. While characters like Phil or Zack fall squarely into this trope, others like Sister Krone or Pepe are more unambiguously African black; the authors have admitted that it was intentional in the former's case, to make her look more distinct.
* Claire Forrest from ''Anime/RedGarden'' is definitely one. Her race is really unclear, mostly because both she and her brother have darker skin tones, while her father doesn't. Also, her brother incidentally has blonde cornrows. Most fans assume that she is potentially bi-racial, as she's had that color since she was a child. To add to the debate, in a later episode Claire seems to get noticeably more upset and hesitant when she sees a picture of [[spoiler:the white man they have to kill standing next to his black wife]] although the reason could have more to do with her parents' past relationship than their races.
* Akio and Anthy from ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''. Some believe that they're from India due to the forehead marking, though the fact that they may be [[spoiler:ancient gods or something very similar]] makes things moot.
* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'':
** Sailor Pluto has significantly darker skin than her comrades, (it's lightened somewhat in TheNineties [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]]). Though her ethnicity remains vague, Creator/NaokoTakeuchi quite obviously took inspiration for one of Pluto's artbook portraits from British-born Afro-Caribbean model Creator/NaomiCampbell [[http://shojopower.com/body-image-in-sailor-moon-skin-tone-edition/ modeling Chanel couture]].
** Kunzite in the original anime has darker skin than the other generals and noticably darker skin than his manga counterpart.
** Haruka's friend Elza Gray from the first anime. Her name would suggest her being of African American descent.
** Sailor Lead Crow is fairly dark and obviously darker than the other Animamates. However, she is an alien so she wouldn't have an Earth race any way.
** Sailor Juno and Sailor Vesta are both darker than Sailor Ceres and Sailor Pallas in both animes. The girls are at least implied to be from the Amazon so it's actually the very pale Ceres and Pallas that seem like an inversion.
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' has a cast of characters hail of very different countries and ethnicities. Good luck trying to ascertain the race of some of them, though. A good example is Chrysaor Krishna: he is from UsefulNotes/SriLanka, he is brown-skinned and white-haired.
* In ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo''- technically, everyone is Japanese except for those explicitly designated as foreigners, but as part of the hip-hop style, there's a lot of darker skinned characters (often mooks) who often look black or Hispanic. In contrast, higher class characters have paler skin. Mugen looks Ambiguously Brown compared to the other main characters, which might be TruthInTelevision, since he's from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyu_Islands the Ryuku Islands]], and it's traditional to draw Okinawans darker, and there has for decades been contention about whether they are to be recognized as a racial minority or not, and in the time the show is set, the king of Ryukyu was still paying tribute to the emperors of Japan and China as a subject state.
* Master samurai Kambei and Gorobei from ''Anime/SamuraiSeven''. WordOfGod says that Kambei was originally intended to be deliberately distinctly African-looking in appearance but ended up being Southeast/Southwest Asian/Latin American. His original design was then used for Gorobei.
* Maria from ''Manga/SayonaraZetsubouSensei''. She's an illegal immigrant, but her country of origin was never specified. It's possibly intentional, since the series has another character who's also a generic foreigner (of [[PhenotypeStereotype a different variety]]). Considering her brown skin color, Hispanicized real first name, illegal immigrant status, war-torn past, lack of formal education, and stereotypically genki personality, along with the fact that she's still supposed to be from "Asia", it is most likely that she is actually ''[[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipina]]'', which would make sense considering the historical relationship and geographical proximity between the Philippines and Japan.
* Kenji Harima from ''Manga/SchoolRumble'' has significantly darker skin than most of his classmates. Lara, from Class 2-D gets away with it due to being explicitly stated to be Mexican, though somehow she has a Russian accent in the English dub.
* In ''Anime/SummerWars,'' Kazuma is quite dark-skinned compared to the rest of the cast, including his own pale-skinned parents. He's also something of a {{Hikikomori}}, so his skin likely isn't just tan, which adds to the confusion.
* The people that TalkingBird Dela works for in ''Anime/TamakoMarket''. They live on what looks like a tropical island and is a monarchy, but the food Choi prepares in episode nine looks suspiciously Vietnamese.
* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Lordgenome is noticeably more olive-toned than other human characters. His facial features and clothes suggest he's Middle Eastern, although this may just be the result of his NonstandardCharacterDesign, and when he was a child he looked ''[[StrongFamilyResemblance exactly]]'' like [[{{Moe}} his daughter Nia]]. There's also one recurring background member of Team Dai-Gurren (the wiki calls him "Old Coco") who is like this, although his skin tone is closer to a black person's than Lordgenome's is.
** Giha's [[UnfitForGreatness Village Chief]] (and also Kamina, [[ButNotTooWhite to a lesser degree]]) may also qualify as this, seeing as how he presumably grew up underground without sunlight, yet is suspiciously more tan-complected than the rest of the villagers.
* Tooru Mutsuki from ''Manga/TokyoGhoul :Re'' is brown-skinned, with a Japanese name and anime-typical features. An orphan, there is absolutely no information concerning his possible racial background leading to much theorizing.
* Pick a guy, any guy, from ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'' (except Keiichirou, any of the aliens, and [[spoiler:the Blue Knight/Deep Blue]]). They're all incredibly tanned. What's more, Ryou's mother was ''white''.
* A significant number of people in the ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' manga, which (brownness and its ambiguity) makes sense given the setting, though Nightow switches to greyscale skintones for dramatic effect so often it's hard to tell what's significant.
* ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' is chock full of characters like this:
** The lead Loran has dark skin and curious platinum hair that's sometimes drawn fairly straight, sometimes looking more like dreads. He doesn't really look like anything, but expect lots of jokes about "Black History Month" every February on /m/, anyway (it helps that he spends most of the first episode [[WholeCostumeReference dressed up as]] [[Film/DrivingMissDaisy Hoke]]).
** Guin Rhineford is fairly dark-skinned, too, but judging by his facial features and hair, he's probably just a white guy with a really deep tan.
** [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Meshy/Meshie/Miashe/Mia-Shay Kune/Kyuun]] Is yet another dark-skinned blond, but her facial features are pretty "black"-looking (very prominent lips for an anime character, for one). Her hair and complexion, along with the fact that her very white, hick-ish father is a minor character suggests she's supposed to be a mulatto, though we never see her mom.
** The Moonrace is considerably whiter (a few Asians, too), but EvilChancellor Agrippa looks like he's supposed to be ButNotTooBlack. Justified for the Earth-based characters in that they're a result of millennia's worth of multiracial intermingling [[spoiler:following the Moonlight Butterfly apocalypse.]]
* Grand Master of Witches, Credelle, Miletis, Barunn, Tohma, Grande, and Sigma in ''Anime/TweenyWitches'' have noticeably darker skin than most characters. This is never commented on or explained.
* ''Anime/VariableGeo'': It's never said whether Jun's complexion is her natural skin color, or a really deep tan. None of the others seem to find anything unusual about her appearance, even though she looks like a foreigner; including having green eyes.
* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' has Shakti Kareen. This particular ''Gundam'' actually features a good number of dark-skinned characters, but Shakti is a bit odd considering her mother is extremely white, living in a society (Zanscare) of predominantly white-skinned people. No explanation for this is ever given (her father is never shown).
* In ''Manga/VirginLove'', Daigo's mother is Japanese and his father is American. Though his father's ethnicity is never specified, both he and Daigo are ambiguously brown.
%%* Dilandau is this in the manga version of ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne''. [[spoiler: Dilandau is also a female who stays female in the manga. In the anime Dilandau is a female who was kidnapped and turned into a male, and in the OVA, Dilandau is male from the start.]] In the anime version and the OVA, Dilandau is an albino.
* ''Words Worth'': Rita is the only dark skinned character shown to be in the Light Tribe [[spoiler: besides her mother, Sabrina]], and doubles as a dark-skinned blond.
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
%%** Hiroto Honda/Tristan Taylor, Saruwatari/Kemo, and Ryota Kajiki/Mako Tsunami from [[Anime/YuGiOh the main series]].
** Yusei Fudo of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is noticeably darker-skinned than everyone else, but not by much.
* Moonbay from ''Anime/ZoidsChaoticCentury'' is the only primary character with a much darker skin tone than everyone else.

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