India in Anime - Indian Characters, Places, and References

This article is an overview of Indian references in various Japanese anime. It contains Indian characters or India as a country appearing in anime or manga. Feel free to leave a comment if you know of other ones and I will add them to the list!

Naruto

Naruto uses a lot of symbolism not only related to Japanese culture. It is quite inspired by Indian myths when describing the first descendants of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths. Their names are Indra and Asura. Both are the names of deities in Hinduism. Indra is a god of thunder and king of devas, while Asuras is a name of a certain type of demons. Also the monkey king Enma in Naruto is probably inspired by the Indian Hanuman and supposedly, the name Enma is derived from Indian god Yama. A lot of Indian spiritual practices appear in Naruto. The energy used to perform special techniques in Naruto is called a chakra. In Indian yoga, chakras are energetic centers in the body.

Fate Type-Moon series

A servant called Karna appears in Fate Apocrypha. He is based on the character from an ancient Indian story Mahabharata. He is a son of sun god and belongs to famous legendary beings in Indian culture. Other divine Indian servants also appear in the Fate universe. One of the most notable ones is Arjuna which is again based on a mythical main character from Mahabharata. Both Karna and Arjuna appear in the Fate/Grand Order - Memorial Movie.

Dragon Ball

King Yemma is a king of ogres in the anime and is based on a widespread Asian Buddhist deity called Yama. His role of judging dead beings is similar to his mythical counterpart from Buddhist Pali Canon.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

The main characters arrive to Kolkata and Varanasi in India which are real cities.

DanMachi/Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

Ganesha Familia seems to be of Indian origin and their name and family symbol are based on a popular Hindu god with elephant face called Ganesha.

Code Geass

Rakshata Chawla is an Indian scientist in this anime.

YuYu Hakusho

Great King Enma is again based on the King Yama from Hindu myths.

Kuroshitsuji

A whole arc of Black Buttler involves a Bengal prince Soma Asman Kadar and his buttler Agni.

Saint Oniisan

Saint Young Men is a manga and anime about Jesus and Buddha coming back to earth and living together like good friends. Many references are present about Buddha's former life on earth. He remembers some places in India where he lived and there are also side characters like his Indian students and Indian deities.

Nobunagun

An Indian character called Mahesh Mirza is in this manga.

Kubera

Manga Kubera seems to be inspired a lot by Indian religions. A lot of character names or places are taken from Buddhism and Hinduism, such as Yaksha clan (supernatural spirits in Indian mythology), gods as Vishnu or Shiva etc.

Shokugeki no Soma

Kozhi Varutha Curry is a famous Indian Tamil region food and appears in this anime.

MegaMan NT Warrior

A character calle Yahoot or Maha Jarama seems to be an Indian since his skin tone is a bit darker, he has the bindi red dot at his forehead, he is a yoga instructor, and famous curry chef. Hi also comes from a land of Namasty.

Gamers!

Bollywood movie 3 Idiots is mentioned in this anime.

Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna

Juna Ariyoshi, Arjuna, is based on Bhagavadgita and Mahabharata. Mythical Arjuna and his bow Gandiva appear in this anime and the character called Chris is based on the god Krishna.

Berserk

Kushan empire appears in Berserk and is based on a real historical empire which was partially located in modern India. Silat character is also based on Indian warriors and seems to use ancient Indian martial arts.

Black Lagoon

Janet Bhai is an Indian character.

Hetalia: The Beautiful World

A character representing India appears in this anime about world countries.

Arslan Senki

Characters of Gadevi and Rajendra come from the Kingdom of Shindhura which is located in the area of ancient India.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

One flag resembles the Indian flag in the box.

Fairy Tail

Éclair is not said to be Indian, but she wears traditional Indian clothes and might be intended to be portrayed as Indian by the creators.

Tezuka Osamu no Buddha

Well this is quite a straightforward one. The story of Buddha was drawn by the legendary Tezuka Osamu and was also released as anime.

Jungle Book Shounen Mowgli

The famous story based on Rudyard Kipling's book which is set to Indian jungle also got an anime version and no, I am not talking about the Disney movie!

Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama

This anime located at the area of real ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala with Ayodhya as their capital. The story is based on Ramayana, an important ancient Indian epic tale.

Little Princess Sarah

This anime is partially set in India under British rule.

D.Gray-man

Several Indian characters appear in this anime, such as Jeryy or Noah.

Darker than Black

Indian called Amitabh Kapoor appears in the anime.

Hayate The Combat Butle

Indian called Sharna Alamgir appears in the anime.

Dinosaur King

Indian princess Meena appears in episode 33 - Battle Royale!

Digimon

A character called Aishwarya Rai is based on the famous Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Attack on Titan

The plot of Shingeki no Kyojin is happening in a fictional universe but certain countries and places seem to be inspired by real ones. For example, there was a scene during the Rumbling in the final season where the titans marched near people who looked like Indians, probably at Varanasi.

Yashahime

Taj Mahal appears in this Inuyasha spin-off anime.

Saiyuki

India is mentioned several times in the story. For example Gyumaoh family Houtou Castle is supposed to be there.

Record of Ragnarok

The Hindu god Shiva appeared in this anime and his depiction raised a lot of controversy as it was viewed as improper by Indian religious authorities.

Saint Seiya

Virgo Shaka is a character of Indian origin.

Keywords: Hinduism, Asia, manga, animation, otaku
#animeindia #india #anime #hindu