Japanese fans vote in survey for their favorite anime characters who hail from the U.S.A., including sports stars, violent killers, and mecha pilots.

Happy birthday, U.S.A.! As the country celebrates, we’re sure many of its residents are enjoying barbecues, fireworks, and all the other things that make Independence Day one of the highlights of an American summer.

Here in Japan, of course, the Fourth of July isn’t a holiday. Nevertheless, website Anime! Anime! asked its readers to vote for their favorite American characters in Japanese anime, with any character born in the U.S., having American citizenship, or at least one American parent eligible.

The top picks were:
● 8th place (tie)
Revy/Rebecca Lee (Black Lagoon)
Chitoge Kirisaki (Nisekoi)

Though she primarily plies her trade in Southeast Asia, mercenary Revy is a native New Yorker.

Chitoge also has a connection to society’s seedy underbelly, as she’s the daughter of an American crime boss who’s also half-Japanese on her mother’s side (and also sports the blond hair and blue eyes often seen in half-Caucasian anime characters designed without much regard to how real-world genetics work).

https://twitter.com/mindydeschanel/status/1011262293114380288

● 3rd place (tie)
Brad Kidd (Yakitate Japan)
Chibode Crocket (Mobile Fighter G Gundam)
Jodie Starling (Detective Conan/Case Closed)
Joseph Joestar (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)
Alexandra Garcia (Kuroko’s Basketball)

Dashing detective Brad Kidd clearly gets his first name from his real-world model, actor Brad Pitt…

…while mecha jock Chibode Crocket gets his bizarre name (and hair color) simply by nature of being part of the most unabashedly weird branch of the Gundam franchise.

FBI agent Jodie’s cover is that she’s in Japan to teach English, which seems like a poor choice by the bureau considering her rather flimsy grasp on the language.

Main character of the second arc of the franchise, Joeseph Joestar is one of the few JoJo’s protagonists you could actually call “Jo”/”Joe,” and also has the highly developed fashion sense common to all the series’ stars.

https://twitter.com/asterzoid/status/1014276005995929601

As part of a series about basketball, it makes sense for Alexandra to be a former college and professional athlete, by way of UCLA and he WNBA. Her prodigious breasts and penchant for kissing people to say hello, though, are more about playing to long-standing anime gag tropes about Americans.

● 2nd place
Shuichi Akai (Detective Conan/Case Closed)

Like Jodie, Shuichi is also an FBI agent who often operates under an alias. But if you need further proof of his Americanness, please refer to this image of him firing a rifle while planting the tripod of the gun atop the hood of his Ford Mustang.

● 1st place
America (Hetalia: Axis Powers)

Well, if we’re talking about American anime characters, it really can’t get any more American than America, the anthropomorphized embodiment of the country itself. Bold, proactive, and often oblivious to how he’s perceived by others, America managed to be one of the series’ standout characters outside its titular trio of Italy, Japan, and Germany.

As for why the list ended up with so many ties, Anime! Anime!’s survey garnered a sparse 64 responses, scarcely more than the number of united states in America, and Hetalia’s America probably owes his win in no small part to 64 percent of the respondents being women, as Hetalia was a major hit with fujoshi. Still, these are America’s anime representatives in the eyes of the survey participants, at least until t’s time to go to the polls again next year.

Source: Anime! Anime! via Niconico News via Otakomu

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s kind of sad Terry Bogard isn’t on the list.