Viola Davis Invests In Anime Production

• Author: Gabriel Leão

• Editor: Lydia Rivers

In February 2024, Academy Award-winning actress and producer Viola Davis, along with husband and business partner Julius Tennon, announced that through their banner, JuVee Productions, they’re partnering up with N LITE, a Black and Japanese-led media company, to produce anime and animated films focusing on Black and Afro-Indigenous narratives. This announcement shows that new and mainstream players are entering the business, and the art of anime is bound to see more diversity in the production teams and on the screen.

Davis is a major player, and although anime is still considered to be a subculture, it has for long been part of the zeitgeist. It’s been nearly four decades since Akira was released in American theatres, and more than twenty years since Disney brought Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away to its silver screens. 

According to TV and film critic Richard Newby: “Anime is far more popular today, with theaters running special engagements of anime films and finales to long-running series. I think theaters clearly see that there’s a profit to be made from fan screenings and Studio Ghibli fests. But in terms of the entertainment industry as a whole, I think studios make note of anime’s popularity, but outside of Ghibli, it’s still seen as a niche marketplace.”

Still, some recent productions have added the appeal of A-lister involvement as witnessed in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s 2023 feature The Boy and The Heron, which signed talents such as Robert Pattinson (The Batman), Florence Pugh (Thunderbolts), Willem Dafoe (Nosferatu), and Christian Bale (American Psycho), and we just might see others joining this trend in the future.

“Viola Davis is a trailblazer and powerhouse in the entertainment industry,” says LaNeysha Campbell, a television and film critic. “She brings incredible talent and intentionality to every role and project she approaches. Still, Davis also possesses a deep commitment to telling stories that reflect the multifaceted experiences of Black people.” For Campbell, the EGOT winner’s move “signals her intent to expand these values into new creative spaces, further inspiring others, particularly Black fans, to see their stories reflected in diverse mediums like anime. For someone like her, who has been advocating for authentic representation in entertainment, to now lead afro-anime films is huge.”

Black anime fandom

History isn’t lacking for examples of groups who have felt misrepresented by anime, and the same can be said about Blacks who saw their physical features and behavior stereotyped based on early 20th-century Hollywood notions. 

This reality is being challenged. In 2023, N LITE, in cooperation with GKIDS and Genco, announced MFINDA, a narrative that takes place in a fictional Congo and is presented as “an original afrime [afro-anime] feature,” a sample of their artistic goals which has attached anime legends such as producer Masao Maruyama and director Gisaburō Sugii.

Campbell believes JuVee’s foray into anime and animation with N LITE aligns with the growing demand for more diversity and better mediatic representation. “We have seen other Black creators, voice actors, and Black-led studios like DART Shtajio stepping up to meet that demand,” she says. “JuVee stepping into the anime industry, which has traditionally lacked substantial Black and Afro-Indigenous representation, is another step toward breaking barriers and opening doors for more underrepresented voices to have a seat at the table.”

In America, anime is part of an entertainment industry in the post-#MeToo era, where workers and the public expect more gender and racial equality and opportunities. With that said, Davis will find it in a state that falls short of what has been hoped for by those who defend diversity.

Unfortunately, Newby sees a limited commitment to more diversity in Hollywood. “It feels less like lasting change and in the service of optics when you look at how many supposedly ‘canceled’ filmmakers and actors are back working in Hollywood, and how many series starring diverse casts have been canceled, and movies have shifted direction,” he says.

The critic also evaluates that although diversity has remained important to filmmakers in the indie scene, Hollywood has paid “mostly lip service while white-run studios will primarily seek to serve white audiences, particularly following the [Presidential] election.” 

Outside this sphere that is affected by the backstage dealings of the entertainment industry—all of its privileges, machismo, racism, and political shifts in American politics—lies the Black nerd fandom that engages in anime. 

Black audiences are drawn to anime and other animated works for many reasons, from creative and dynamic storytelling, to complex characters such as those seen in series like Afro Samurai, Carole & Tuesday, Castlevania: Nocturne, Cannon Busters, and Samurai Champloo, that “have introduced cultural elements that feel familiar and celebratory of Black culture and its influences,” says Campbell.

For Campbell, representations that consider Black culture, music, hairstyles, and physical features help to build a community of Black anime fans who feel welcomed in a creative, safe space, and comfortable talking about “our shared love of anime and nerd culture.” 

Not to forget that the connection between African-American, Japanese, and Asian cultures has a decades-long history, Newby says. “Blaxploitation films were hitting America at the same time Kung-Fu movies were. I think there’s a lot of intersection between Black and Japanese culture, at least on this side of the ocean.” 

Such interactions have been seen in Bruce Lee’s acceptance of students of all racial backgrounds and in his 1973 picture Enter the Dragon, where legendary Black martial artist Jim Kelly was featured as one of the heroes. Newby also gives examples of other mediatic products where this crossover takes place, such as Yasuke, and the 1999 independent film Ghost Dog, as well as modern-day action men Wesley Snipes (Blade) and Michael Jai White (Black Dynamite).

With Viola Davis emerging onto the scene, not only might diversity be in for a welcome change, but also narratives within an ever-expanding art form that has grown outside its native island as it is adopted by different societies, as has happened with other beloved cultural staples throughout history and the world.