Cannon Busters creator LaSean Thomas and Netflix, I thought of the scene in Moonlight where Mahershala Ali’s Juan tells young Chiron that there will always be Black people everywhere, and because of that, nothing is impossible or beyond him. Yasuke, which stars LaKeith Stanfield as the first Black samurai, feels like an embodiment of that statement — even in feudal Japan, there is a warrior who looks like Chiron. The series introduces audiences to an unapologetically Black protagonist whose history and personality hearkens to the expansive multiplicity of the Black experience as a whole. It’s just as significant that this story has manifested through anime. Japan’s animated exports are beloved by Black audiences, but only a precious few series and films that portray Black people or Black life have been able to avoid regressive characterizations. As a Black-led Japanese anime production focused on a multi-dimensional, drawn-from-history protagonist,