Africa is not your average setting for an anime. The continent is very easily overlooked in this kind of entertainment medium but this doesn’t mean that such anime don’t exist.
In this article, we are going to list what we think are the best anime set in Africa. We are going to include series that even have individual episodes in the continent, as we don’t feel it’s correct to exclude them.
The ranking of the anime is based on our opinions and personal taste.
Table of Contents
10. Goddamn
This is a car racing anime, based on the manga by Kaoru Shintani and consists of just two episodes of 32 minutes each.
Gen Todoroki is a young, talented rally car driver but he’s also unlucky because every race ends in a car crash for him. Despite this Seiou Corporation wants to sign him to be on their rally team.
The rally is going to be a days-long endurance course set across the African wilderness but Gen is too broke to refuse and he ends up traveling to the continent.
This plot has many quirks and also suffers from the fact that is composed of just two episodes. If you can get past its retro look and animations you will enjoy very fun races scenes and the fascinating African setting.
9. Shounen Kenya
Shounen Kenya is a movie from 1984 revolving around 11-year-old Murakami Wataru, a boy who comes from a family of Japanese textile traders operating in British Kenya in 1941.
Problems start to emerge when World War II breaks out and Japan finds itself at war against the Allies, so against Britain as well.
He eventually gets separated from his dad so Murakami has to survive and travel through Kenya all by himself.
The story is pretty simple but the animation and the soundtrack make this show unique and definitely worth your time, with an unique take on anime set in the 1940s.
8. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
This is the direct sequel to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, and adopts an upbeat tone compared to its more dramatic predecessor. The Neo-Zeon have plans to conquer both Earth and the space colonies.
The main character is Judau Ashta, a junk vendor living in an AEUG colony.
The 14-year-old boy struggles to make enough money but his life will change when he manages to steal a mobile suit in the hopes of selling it for a fortune.
He will obviously not succeed and he’ll be dragged into a conflict that will bring him across space.
Africa is the base for The Blue Team, a group of elite pilots who fight to keep the continent free from influence by every faction. Although they are using old models they are still a force to be reckoned with.
This is not a recommended view if you are not a big fan of Gundam because the plot isn’t that interesting in the first half. We have included it in this listicle since it’s one of the few anime that features Africa.
7. Kimba the White Lion
Kimba the White Lion is an anime from 1965 inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s manga Jungle Taitei.
The plot is set in the African jungle and revolves around Kimba, a lion cub who’s forced to become the King of the Jungle following his father’s death by the hand of a hunter.
He will be helped by a supporting cast consisting of a baboon, a parrot, and an antelope. Kimba wants to fulfill his father’s dream: to have a jungle where everybody lives in harmony without needing to eat each other to survive.
If this plot sounds familiar to you is because it is. The existence of this show prior to the release of Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ sparked many controversies in 1994.
6. Ronin Warriors Legend of Kikoutei
This is a 4-episode-anime released in 1989. It is set in the summer of 1990 when mirages start appearing in Shinjuku, an area of Tokyo.
A silent black-skinned warrior starts attacking troopers in the street and when he calls forth his armor everybody realizes that it is a black copy of the Kikoutei, the legendary Emperour’s armor.
5. Magical Fairy Persia
Magical Fairy Persia is a lovely vintage anime with 48 episodes released in 1984. It’s an underrated majokko anime that we highly recommend if you’re a fan of the genre.
The show follows the story of Persha, a lively 11-year-old girl with beautiful blue hair who spent her childhood in Africa with an ethologist named Gouken, away from her parents.
Finally, Persha returns to Japan to reunite with her parents, but her excitement is short-lived when she gets transported to the magical kingdom of Lovely Dream during her flight, with the mission of saving it from ruin.
Magical Fairy Persia is an excellent majokko anime, with gorgeous character design and animations typical of the 1980s that will surely make you nostalgic.
Although the plot is kinda classic in the genre, the beautiful settings that vary from Africa, Japan, and the fantasy world of Lovely Dream are unique and suggestive.
4. Jungle no Ouja Tar-chan
Jungle no Ouja Tar-chan is an anime that premiered in the fall of 1993 and went on for 50 episodes.
It stemmed from the manga written and illustrated by Masaya Tokuhiro and at some point, its name changed in New Jungle King Tar-chan.
The plot is pretty simple and revolves around the titular Tar-chan, a boy who’s been abandoned by his parents in the African savannah and has been raised by chimpanzees.
Tar-chan gets to have a wife called Jane, who used to be a model in New York.
Tar-chan’s goal is to protect its people with the help of secondary characters like his disciple Pedro and a master of Chinese martial arts called Ryo.
The anime is set entirely set in the African jungle and is also inspired by Tarzan of the Apes, a novel from 1912 that invented the archetype of the human living in the jungle and brought up by monkeys.
It’s thanks to that novel that we have this anime and the movie Tarzan by Disney.
3. Bush Baby, Little Angel of the Great Plains
Bush Baby, Little Angel of the Great Plains is an anime from the early ’90s based on the novel The Bushbabies by Canadian author William Stevenson.
It’s the story of Jackie Rhodes, a British girl living in Kenya with her family.
One day she finds a wounded animal called a Bushbaby so she decides to adopt him and call him Murphy.
Jackie and Murphy will enjoy many adventures together but one day Jackie’s father is recalled to England so she must leave her life in Africa behind.
They will go on a last adventure together where Jackie teaches the now domesticated Murphy to survive in the wild, so that she can release him into his natural habitat.
A light watch with a heartbreaking finale that you should watch if you enjoy the view of African plains and habitat present during the whole run of the show.
2. Doraemon the Movie: Nobita in the New Haunts of Evil-Peko and the Five Explorers
This movie came out in 2014 but is the remake of the 1982 film, Doraemon: Nobita’s Great Demon.
The plot starts with Gian, Nobita and Suneo discussing where to go for their summer vacation and the burden falls on Nobita. With the help of Doraemon, they launch a rocket on their roof to take photos of each part of the world.
Meanwhile, Nobita’s mom asks him to pick up some groceries and on his way to the store he meets a dog all by itself.
Feeling sorry for it Nobita will buy and give it some sausages. The dog ends up following Nobita home and he’s allowed to keep him giving him the name of Peko.
Peko finds a photo of a mysterious statue covered in fog somewhere in Africa and the group of friend will decide to go there and solve its mystery.
This sets off the events for a goofy adventure where Nobita and his friends, including Peeko, will find themselves in the African savannah. They will try solving the mystery of the statue portrayed in that picture.
1. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is an anime from 1985 set in Universal Century 0087.
The One Year War between the Earth Federation and Principality of Zeon is over. The Titans, an elite task force created by the Earth Federation, have been ruling over the blue planet with their violent manners.
The Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) doesn’t accept how the Earth Federation evolved and is ready to fight them.
The main character is 17-year-old Kamille Bidan who ends up stealing a Titan’s prototype Gundam and finds himself in the middle of a conflict much bigger than him.
A base of the Titans is located on Mount Kilimanjaro, as you will see during Episode 35.
Kamille accidentally ends up there and helps in the offensive against the Titans.
The federal capital of Dakar is shown when the Earth’s resistance called Karaba takes control of the Senate and condemns Titan’s actions.
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