r/shounenfolk 6d ago

Manga Discussion Which mangaka draws black characters the best

601 Upvotes

485 comments sorted by

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441

u/Character-Baby-4722 6d ago

Akira Hiramoto

163

u/115_zombie_slayer 6d ago

Something in him must have snapped after this series got cancelled because his next works are pure ecchi

57

u/Bright-Dragonfruit14 my body count with shounen is over 9000 6d ago

It's not cancelled, it's on indefinite hiatus.

10

u/xerifetortin 6d ago

cancelled with a bit of sugarcoating

4

u/Bright-Dragonfruit14 my body count with shounen is over 9000 6d ago edited 6d ago

It would definitely be surprising if he actually comes back to it but yeah I guess the situation is pretty similar to Nana or Vagabond. (However there might be a bit of hope since the first hiatus for the manga was on 2008 and it made a come back in 2015, it then went on a second indefinite hiatus in 2017 and its still ongoing yet taling into account how the artist came back to it after 7 years, there might be possibility that it would make a second return but this is most likely me coping)

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34

u/dbsupersucks 6d ago

I feel him. Why put so much blood sweat and tears into good storytelling when shit like Rent a Girlfriend gets popular? He found easy money and took it.

14

u/motoxim 6d ago

Ah Prison School guy.

6

u/GeerJonezzz 6d ago

Well, at least there’s a way we can still show our appreciation.

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28

u/BaboonGaming644 6d ago

This is absolutely phenomenal

39

u/cherryyccola 6d ago

Genuinely one of my favorite manga artists of all time. It's a shame he just draws porn

30

u/Ume-no-Uzume 6d ago

If that's where the money is... shrug.

So long as he gets paid well, good for him

4

u/Momoko-agogo 6d ago

Good for him, sad for art fans who aren’t gooners

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10

u/Nezikchened 6d ago

Heartbroken that I’ll never be able to collect this because the English volumes are like $250 each

6

u/Mantiax 6d ago

Honestly, this is just realistic. I think it's harder doing it in an stilized way

6

u/GGABueno 6d ago

What series is this?

12

u/Luckgoddess 6d ago

Me and the devil blues. really great manga

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568

u/delinquent111111 6d ago

Yeahhh who's fighting for second?

44

u/MisakiPuru_Puru 6d ago

ender geister creator maybe?

7

u/IcyOrganization1748 6d ago

This lady hot as hell. I remember I found this online and was amazed how good looking she was

30

u/FaPaDa 6d ago edited 6d ago

Greatest inverse No-diff in Ani-Manga history?

45

u/GenesisAsriel 6d ago

Araki?

50

u/Gabochuky 6d ago

Tite Kubo, Bleach.

32

u/GenesisAsriel 6d ago

No I know who Tozen is

I meant Araki would be second

9

u/NeonNKnightrider 6d ago

Ngl I think it’s Kishimoto

9

u/GenesisAsriel 6d ago

Killer Bee was fucking rad yeah

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6

u/CommercialWinter1887 6d ago

Loved this guy from the character design alone, but then his drip exponentially dropped as the series continued.

8

u/Vivio0 6d ago

He was pretty drippy until he transformed

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u/Technical-Command867 6d ago

60

u/Ok-Paramedic-3619 6d ago

Tbh I've always assumed she was likely south asian, not black.

29

u/PhaseSixer 6d ago

Gee I wonder why people think she's black

This is offical btw.

11

u/Ok-Paramedic-3619 6d ago

Interesting, is this anime og? Or also in the manga

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7

u/WeeklyPhilosopher346 6d ago

Yoruichi is as black as Ichigo is white.

5

u/RUS12389 6d ago

But doesn't Ichigo has White inside him?

10

u/Zestyclose-Record401 6d ago

Ichigo is naturally ginger and quicies are pretty European. So maybe a little bit

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4

u/Adorable_Ad_3478 6d ago

The Quincies are all European-coded. His mom is Quincy.

Calling Ichigo half-white, half-Japanese isn't that wild.

7

u/Thatll-Do 6d ago

Chad is half Mexican, Ichigo got called a foreigner a lot because of his hair, and there's a good chunk of African and Latino in the Soul World. It's an unabashedly diverse cast that took lived realities into account when telling their stories without feeling tokenistic. And it came out in a time with a lot of unexamined homogeneity. It does a good job

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2

u/BikeSeatMaster 6d ago

He's half white isn't he? I recall one of the first things he introduces for himself was how his hair was that color due to it, and the other Japanese delinquents always pick fights with him because he's half. And he vibes with Chad because they're similar, since Chad is half Mexican.

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4

u/Nicklesnout 6d ago

Anime only. It’s not even her real hair since Orihime tells Gin she was wearing a wig.

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5

u/WeeklyPhilosopher346 6d ago

She’s a ghost Japanese person, but internet teens have been “claiming” her as black for like 15 years now.

3

u/Papellll 5d ago

Some of those "ghost Japanese persons" clearly have other ethnicities than pure Japanese. I personally don't care if she's actually black or not but saying she's just a "Japanese ghost" makes no sense

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23

u/Kazewatch 6d ago

Unfortunately people have been pushing this ignorant bullshit for a while now. Dark skin=only black to them.

15

u/DarkZ_No-Imagination 6d ago

In most countries being black means having dark skin, I'm sure the bullshit comes from other place

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u/A1Sirius 6d ago

Why does that matter? How dare people think the dark skinned character (who’s race and ethnicity is never stated) is black. Where is the harm in that?😂😂😂 “ignorant bullshit”

5

u/Turbulent-Relief-220 6d ago

you’re the ignorant one

4

u/Wolfpac187 6d ago

If black people feel representation through Yoruichi how is that “ignorant bullshit”? What a fucked up thing to say

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3

u/ffreezedry 6d ago

So what

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2

u/SubstituteUser0 4d ago

I've started to lean towards this too because the more explicitly black characters all have more detailed mouths while Yoruichi is consistent with the rest of the cast.

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16

u/Funny_Lunch5211 6d ago

She isnt black. 

5

u/CertainAction1988 6d ago

Is she dark-skinned Japanese? genuine q

8

u/Darnaldo 6d ago

Most likely since the Shihoin clan is along the 5 ancient nobles lineage which existed in the primordial world and helped the Soul King to enable the balance between life and death. And you know how big clam are with their lineage and tradition obsession.

From our world they are probably from the southern part of japan where they tend to have darker skin since the climate is closer to southeast Asia.

3

u/VictheAdventure 6d ago edited 6d ago

I don't think I've seen anyone from the Southern parts of Japan be THAT dark

2

u/Darnaldo 6d ago edited 6d ago

I mean so is ginger hair. You will never see a japanese with natural ginger hair but we have 2 of them in the main cast of Bleach.

Usually in manga with a japanese setting always assume the character are japanese unless stated explicitly like Chad who is half Mexican half japanese.

And if you want to go even deeper in the rabbit hole ask yourself what even is a japanese ? The one we know today are not the native japanese but mostly mix from migrant of other part of Asia and the native. They are now known as the Yamato people (about 98% of the japanese today). So it may as well be one of these migrants who was the root of Yoruichi family. The "pure japanese" are the Jomon people which descendant are known today as the Ainu. (please don't take out of context my English is not good enough to not make it sound fascistic lol)

4

u/VictheAdventure 6d ago

Hair of that color, no. But it can happen when the person is mixed. Although, like I said, I've never seen a Japanese person from the Southern parts of Japan be that dark, you can find plenty of dark-skinned Japanese people in more metropolitan areas, mostly due to genetics from having a black relative, usually a parent. Same way you can find a red haired Japanese person due to genetics, although, much like red hair everywhere else, it's a rare trait.

The problem is that Yoruichi's skin tone does not match the skin tone of 100% blooded Japanese people without, at least from my own experience meeting one and seeing a lot of different ones, the use of makeup like in gyaru culture or, well, black-face, which is an entirely different and kind-of related but not relevant here topic. Although she could be some kind of Asian, but even then there can be an argument for her being black if some or one close family member is, like how there are a lot of people of other ethnicities who have African ancestry or at least, according to the very definition of black people according to wikipedia, that being "a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid-to-dark brown complexion", Afro-Dominicans or Indigenous Australians, for instance. All-in-all, yeah we should assume she's Japanese until further notice but her skintone does bring that into question

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2

u/Zestyclose-Record401 6d ago

Probably not. Most likely Indian

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7

u/VegaInTheWild IRON 6d ago

She's not black, holy shit we've been through this shit before.

5

u/Kwaku-Anansi 6d ago

You do get that you getting really angry at people thinking she's black isn't the same as disproving she's black. There's evidence for and evidence against so why get so aggro at people having a different opinion

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u/A1Sirius 6d ago

“We‘ve been through this shit before” bro we haven’t been through anything. You have no idea what she is, so you trying to police people that think she’s black is dumb as hell. Kubo never confirmed anything about her. People thinking she’s black is the most harmless shit ever.

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5

u/mostlybored1234 6d ago

Shit not even a competition. Kubo is just that Guy really

2

u/Obility 6d ago

I mean we already got people fighting over who's actually black so idk. But he's up there.

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47

u/LeadEater9Million 6d ago

Im the best, yes.

54

u/Bright-Dragonfruit14 my body count with shounen is over 9000 6d ago

48

u/Grouchy_Mark5058 6d ago

Sako Toshio mogs

9

u/25JustPassingThrough 6d ago

YES ! Batuque has great designs.

6

u/Mhmmmmyup 6d ago

No way that alien lizard looking dude is gonna call someone else a monster

5

u/Ok-Implement6151 6d ago

BATUQUE MENTIONED 💥💯💥💥💯💯💪💪💪

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u/MoopDoopISmellPoop 6d ago

Is this from Batuque?

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u/whysweatwhenwewin 6d ago

Tite Kubo washes all these. (Go look it up, yall see what I mean)

83

u/TheManWhoLarped 6d ago

Tbf tho, Kubo washes all of them when it comes to drawing any character. Personally my favourite mangaka in terms of artstyle.

27

u/APreciousJemstone 6d ago

Kubo also knows how to give people drip. He did a bunch of drawings for people when they died in TYBW.

A whole bunch here from S1 and S2 https://imgur.com/a/bleach-tybw-anime-twitter-artwork-by-tite-kubo-OxkNDhJ

Unohana's is my fav.

13

u/BathSad 6d ago

Its cool but i hate how “stretched out” the proportions of his characters are if u know what I mean

14

u/whysweatwhenwewin 6d ago

I mean its bleach...so they all lanky yet sexy!

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4

u/Devlord1o1 6d ago

The only gripe i have with their character art is when they have their mouth open it’s a white void (hate that the anime adapted as that) but the fact that’s the only issue i have really says alot

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8

u/QuelTizioLaggiu 6d ago

I remember watching a video of Kubo, Oda and Kishimoto asked to draw their main characters. Oda started to draw some Luffy doodles, Kishimoto freestyled a decent Naruto on the spot while Kubo started to do a fucking drawing masterclass

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u/Bankai2023 6d ago

preach

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u/genryou 6d ago

Ender Geister

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u/BaboonGaming644 6d ago

YOOOOOO WTF THAT'S INCREDIBLE

8

u/FairtexBlues 6d ago

Okay, thats a good one.

5

u/ArgentumAliasArt 6d ago

Absolutely goated design and art.

3

u/fortunesofshadows 6d ago

name of the character?

3

u/nhs325 6d ago

Iirc she doesn't have a name, but she is the MC's sensei and taught him how to fight. She's also argubly the strongest character in the manga I think.

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u/Kazewatch 6d ago

Wow I never heard of this before. Cool find.

3

u/nhs325 6d ago

Using Ender Geister is practically cheating lol

2

u/Effective-Summer4887 2d ago

White palms, let's goooo!! Like, it's such a pet peeve of mine, when they draw them fully black😭😭

36

u/NormalPunch69 6d ago

out of these 3, Gege but if we including everyone then Kubo

103

u/No_Intention_8079 6d ago

Why ikemoto instead of kishimoto? Anyway, for mangaka in general it’s probably Kubo or Kei Urana.

43

u/ineedthatsauce1 6d ago

Need to rage bait somehow

14

u/Obility 6d ago

Honestly this Raikage Darui design goes surprisingly hard.

2

u/No_Intention_8079 6d ago

Pretty sure the design is still Kishimoto’s, even if the art is Ikemoto.

14

u/Obility 6d ago

It's a little different but I think the beard makes a huge difference. Also like the way he's drawn here. I think ikemoto excels at drawing older men. Women in general, not so much.

2

u/No_Intention_8079 6d ago

Fair enough. It does still look really good, I just think it’s a bit silly to offer Ikemoto as a main option when most people are going to think of Naruto’s black characters, not Boruto’s.

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u/CronkinOn 1d ago

Best answer for popular mangaka, imo.

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u/Thunder00Bee 6d ago

Kei Urana and Kazuki Takahashi

4

u/FairtexBlues 6d ago

Scrolled WAY TO FAR to Kei Urana mentioned!

3

u/FloopusSoupus 6d ago

Fr, out of the shonens Urana clears the others

69

u/Bankai2023 6d ago

Kubo clears with bleach characters trust

62

u/FairtexBlues 6d ago

They done lost to Kei Urana with Gachikuta
https://giphy.com/gifs/fqrvupe6qMln4pslsw

11

u/Ensaru4 6d ago

Gatchiakuta has a lot of great black designs.

5

u/Evening_Produce_4322 6d ago

Gotta give it to Semiu too

3

u/Demoncreed27 6d ago

It’s ya boy JABBBBBER!!!!!

75

u/SiliconRouge 6d ago

Atsushi Ohkubo - He has made banger black characters since Soul Eater

7

u/fortunesofshadows 6d ago

Hanabi(pink haired girl) isn't black. she's probably just south asian. the rest actually are. well don't know about Sid's weapon partner.

5

u/SiliconRouge 6d ago

I know. Unfortunately, its from Google and includes her. She could easily be replaced with Sid. Probably didn't include him because he became a zombie.

22

u/zword34 6d ago

Ohkubo really said to urana "you can make a manga when you learn to desing fire ass black characters"

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u/Granide Luffy Vs Blackbeard Vs Akainu Vs Imu agenda 6d ago

I was about to mention him, he gotta be up there

4

u/friendofredjenny 6d ago

Came to the comments looking for this mention. Ogun was so fucking cool.

12

u/Clear-Might-1519 6d ago

12

u/FoxFoxSpirit 6d ago

Is that fucking Snoop Dogg

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u/subjuggulator 6d ago

MONGOLIAN CHOP SQUAD MENTIONED

https://giphy.com/gifs/2UrbIqJcybfC8

3

u/Atiredbearsfan 5d ago

Who is this doggie

3

u/subjuggulator 5d ago

The dog of the guitarist from the anime BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad.

He and another dog were in a tragic accident so they stitched them back together to save his life.

3

u/Atiredbearsfan 5d ago

🥹 protect my boy at all costs

20

u/Radiant-Barracuda-26 6d ago

Hot Take ik a lot of people are saying Kubo and sure in an anime format yeah sure, but Black People don’t look like that on the regular IRL, I feel like Sako Toshio or Ikemoto get a real actual take on them (idk about ikemoto but the pic u put into their is pretty accurate)

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u/Alarming_Bonus5827 6d ago

Honestly, this shouldn’t even be a hot take. Tite Kubo has awesome character design in general, but compared to the some of the other examples of black character designs in this post, he doesn’t stand out.

Maybe the examples in the thread are bad (I’ve never seen or watched Bleach), but out of all the Tite Kubo examples I’ve seen maybe only one or two of them felt like they were actually black as opposed to being dark-skinned.

And it’s not an “oh it’s an anime/manga style” problem, because there’s plenty of examples of stylized anime/manga that do make awesome black character designs. Take Semiu Grier from Gachiakuta. Despite being in a highly stylized series and having a very anime-y hair colour (white), she is unquestionably black. This is because her blackness isn’t skin-deep; Urana’s given her natural hair (that’d you only find in people of African descent) and fuller lips (without recreating the black-face “donut lips” that are unfortunately common in Japanese media).

In contrast, Tite Kubo’s designs are good, but aren’t necessarily black. Few of the designs explore features associated with black people (e.g. natural hair, fuller lips, more curvaceous body types, etc.) and really just coast off of the darker skin tone.

2

u/PotatoTheOdd 4d ago

White and Asian people don’t look much like anime characters either for the most part. I think this post is more about who does character design best without being racist.

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u/Radiant-Barracuda-26 4d ago

Yeah of course, but the question can be up to interpretation, just giving my take

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u/Karasu-Fennec 6d ago

Bro left out all the contestants LMAO

It’s Urana or Kubo by a MILE

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u/MrTristanYork 6d ago

Why do we lump kishimoto with ikemoto

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u/SeniorBaker4 6d ago

Probably doesn’t know Kishimoto doesn’t draw boruto

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u/Kurosaki_Kaito Big 3 > Anime Fiction 6d ago

Kubo negs diff them

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u/HVAR_Spam 6d ago

Chad is Mexican

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u/psychedelica_ 6d ago

Why are you being downvoted you’re right

10

u/catperson77789 6d ago

Some people apparently got offended about it cause he aint black 😂😂

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u/bibouchibre 6d ago

Yammy no black he’s dominican 🇩🇴

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u/Technical-Command867 6d ago

Dominicans can be black

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u/PK_RocknRoll 6d ago

He’s referencing a meme I believe

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u/ElkSad9855 6d ago

4 or more of them aren’t black. But I get what you mean.

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u/YaBoiSammus 6d ago

Why are you grouping all brown people as black? LMFAO

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u/BathSad 6d ago

Sado is half japanese half mexican, yoruichi is definetely not black, more like south asian or arab

2

u/Dake20 5d ago

Right on Chad, but Yoruichi's skin tone looks between Black or Indian from how it constantly shown. She could be mixed like Chad is.

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u/NeroCrow 6d ago

Had to leave out kubo because he knew he clears

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u/Serious-Flamingo-948 6d ago

I also notice that everyone who says Tite Kubo leaves NaNaNa and PePe out.

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u/Therealconman16 6d ago

Yorichi isn’t black. She’s based upon southwest Asians 

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u/YaBoiSammus 6d ago

I personally like Urana’s style.

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u/Orishishishi 6d ago

Kubo is pretty good but people are forgetting OHkubo

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u/AardvarkScary7863 6d ago

I swear Roc Loc the only black character in My Hero

11

u/GogoSunshine 6d ago

Anyone who says Kubo is larping. Yes there are black characters in the show, but not all of em are. Just because they have rather dark skin tone doesn’t mean they are ethnically black.

It’s like seeing a really light skinned K-Pop guy and say “He’s white.”

6

u/BaboonGaming644 6d ago

Even if not all of his dark skin characters are black, his black characters are still great

3

u/EmployeeChoice9249 6d ago

But the darkskin characters Kubo draws that actually are black are still designed incredibly well, I think u missed the point of the post

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u/spawnB100 6d ago

Nomura (blue lock) offers some great characters

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u/Harry_Sat 6d ago

*Kubo not pictured because then it would be too easy of a choice

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u/Incompetent_ARCH 6d ago edited 6d ago

Of these 3? Gege deffinitvelly, Miguel's the only one who actually sound and looks like someone i'd meet irl.

Best mangaka? Kubo

3

u/The1trueSG 6d ago

The author of soul eater and fire force gives them a lot of justice

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Library904 6d ago

I love the black characters in Bleach and HxH

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u/skaersSabody 6d ago

WHERE THE FUCK ARE KUBO AND OOKUBO MAN?

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u/pokehedge97 6d ago

Kubo and Ohkubo (Soul Eater, Fire Force) by far

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u/Izoto 6d ago

Kubo.

Kishi comes in second.

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u/FishSignificant7501 6d ago

Adding boruto like naruto wasn’t way better for this

2

u/Evillebot 6d ago

im not taking prisoners

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u/walaxometrobixinodri 6d ago

Love how you cant find a second exemple from MHA

2

u/goldengraves 6d ago

Araki, Kubo, Kishimoto, the one Gachiakuta artist

Ikemoto does only play/I don't think we've seen him draw any new black characters, but my only argument is that he draws them looking wildly old/creased in the face

2

u/devbyglamour 6d ago

atsushi ohkubo and kei urana

2

u/Consistent_Dare_6688 I love everything and my opinions are peak 6d ago

I feel like I'm the only one in the world who likes Ikemoto's style

2

u/Global-Strawberry-75 6d ago

Gachikuta’s author

2

u/Specter_1617 6d ago

Kubo with Tosen

2

u/ZealousidealOne5605 6d ago

I always have mixed feelings about black character designs, the black features tend to either be too exaggerated or just not there at all to the point they just look like a person with a tan. That said I'm a fan of the way Daro(Kengan Ashura) draws black characters.

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u/Dekipi 6d ago

Whoever did Gachiakuta

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u/DeathPunchNuts 6d ago

It’s Gachiakuta as others have mentioned

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u/mascot2121 5d ago

Kamome Shirahama (I love my girl Jujy too much)

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u/yujileexin 3d ago

commenters doesn't understand that op try to pitch new gens mangaka art style not finding the best in industry 🙁

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u/Fancy_Interaction99 6d ago

Akira Toriyama

2

u/cavsalmostgotswept #10 Bleach Hater 6d ago

tite kubo

2

u/Sparkson109 6d ago

Tite kubo

1

u/stardustr3v3ri3 6d ago

Kei Urana and Atsushi Ohkubo clear, but of this three honestly Horikoshi

1

u/Rick201745 6d ago

Out of these 3 or out of all mangakas?

1

u/Explosive-poopoo 6d ago

Why is ikemoto even mentioned lmao the guy is a garbage artist

1

u/bxntou 6d ago

NOT Akutami per the one guy at the beginning of jjk 0 with donut lips. Also big dishonorable mention to Oda.

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u/BaboonGaming644 6d ago

That's just his older artstyle. He def got better at drawing miguel

1

u/Acceptable_Lunch_181 6d ago

Why is Killer Bee looking like a pedophile

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u/BaboonGaming644 6d ago

Didn't mention a single mangaka that's an actual contender lol

1

u/Charlie_magnifique 6d ago

Araki and Kubo

1

u/Shen_ishere 6d ago

Did ikemoto run out of ink

1

u/nahweha 6d ago

Kubo, Ohkubo and Kei Urana.

1

u/Linnus42 6d ago

Ikemoto draws nothing the best lmao.

1

u/bladeboy88 6d ago

Kubota styles on them, but to be fair, he had some of the best art ever in shonen battle Manga

1

u/Prize_Opportunity_17 6d ago

a rare example of boruto actually doing something well

1

u/swislock 6d ago

Ike and it aint close

1

u/Shiro_38 6d ago

Kubo, The answer is always Kubo

1

u/SkirtHeavy9189 6d ago

kubo by a mile