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  • ️Wed Mar 05 2025

FiveTokenBand / Western Animation

Five-Token Bands in Western Animation.

  • Anna's Tales, a cartoon about disabled girl named Anna who tells all sorts of fairy tales to her friends (who metaphorically reenact those stories in turn, along with Anna) whenever they visit her, features a quite "diverse" cast. According to the English dub, they should include Olga the East Asian American with a Russian-sounding name, Tod the white Brit, Anna, Theo and Agnes the white Americans, and Zach the black American.
  • Though not as pronounced as many other examples, the cast of Arthur count even if you ignore the fact that they aren't human. Francine is Jewish, The Brain is black, Muffy is the "rich kid", and they later introduced Carl, who's on the autism spectrum, as the disabled character.
  • The Backyardigans gives us (based on the voice actors—the characters themselves are animals) Austin (white male), Tasha (white female), Tyrone (black male), Uniqua (black female), and Pablo (Hispanic male). An unusual example, as Uniqua is the only one to appear in every single episode and Austin is absent from more episodes than anyone else. However, it's worth mentioning that the show was created by a black woman.
  • Barbie:
    • The main group includes Barbie (Swiss-French-American), Teresa (Latina), Nikki (black), Renée (Japanese-American), and Daisy (Greek-American).
    • Barbie and the Rockers: Out of This World features Diva (Scotch-Irish-American), Dee-Dee (black), and Dana (Korean-American).
    • The Barbie Diaries: Barbie (white), Tia (black) and Courtney (Japanese-American).
    • Barbie in a Mermaid Tale: Merliah (American), Hadley (Latina), Fallon (black), Xylie and Kayla (British). Minor characters in both movies include Ally Mahoney (Asian), the lipstick fish (Hungarian accent) and Syrenka (Polish). In the sequel we have Kylie (Australian) and the Ambassadors: Kattrin (Korean), Selena (Russian), Mirabella (Brazilian), and Renata (African).
    • Barbie In Rock N Royals: Courtney, Olivia (European), Erika, Rayna and Zia (American), Sloane (Scottish-American), Aubray (Irish), Genevieve (black British).
    • Barbie: Princess Charm School has Blair, Delancy, and Lorraine (European), Hadley (Latina), Isla (Japanese), Portia (Scottish), Josette (black) and Miranda (American).
    • Barbie: A Fairy Secret: Barbie, Raquelle (American), Carrie (brown but of Irish descent), Taylor (British), and Zane (Italian).
    • My Scene: Barbie, Kennedy (American), Nolee (Japanese-American), Nia (Mexican), Madison (black), Kenzie (Irish-American), Delancey and Chelsea (Irish-Danish-Italian-American).
  • Another token family is the Bennetts, aka the Bionic Six. The Black kid JD aka IQ doubles as The Smart Guy and the Asian kid Bunji is naturally code-named Karate-1.
  • The four main characters of the Bratz cartoons (and doll line). There's the white girl Cloe, the sassy black girl Sasha, the super smart Asian Jade, and vaguely Granola Girlish Iranian-Jewish (default)/Latina-Jewish (live-action movie) Yasmin. The fifth ethnicity is usually covered by whatever one-shot character is hanging out with them in that particular episode/movie.
  • The titular Bubble Guppies consists of Molly (Hispanic), Gil (white), Goby (black), Deema (blonde), Oona (Asian), and Nonny (redhead). Following the show's initial cancellation, Season 5 would eventually add a black girl named Zooli to the crew.
  • The eponymous Planeteers in Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Kwame (African; specifically, Nigerian), Wheeler (white American), Linka (Russian), Gi (Asian; specifically, Korean), and Ma-Ti (South American Indian).
  • The cast of Class of 3000. More specifically, we have a black boy (Lil D), a black girl (Tamika), fraternal Asian twins (Kim and Kam), a nerdy white redhead (Philly Phil), a white girl with Greek ancestry (Madison), a white boy (Eddie), and of course their black teacher (Sonny Bridges).
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: While the worldwide KND is logically diverse, the main characters (all living in the same town) include a white Jewish-American, a white Australian, a Japanese-American girl, a black girl whose mother is French and a Brit with a Spanish surname. And a Scottish operative lives in the same town. While it requires a healthy suspension of disbelief to accept the Australian, Scottish, and English kids, the idea of the other three leads being friends and living in the same area isn't far-fetched in the slightest. Many areas, particularly cities, have very diverse populations.
  • Dexter's Laboratory features Dee Dee (white) and her posse, Mee Mee (black) and Lee Lee (Asian).
  • In Extreme Ghostbusters, there was a black guy, a Goth girl, a guy in a wheelchair, and a Latino slacker. Oh, and Egon, the white (and Ambiguously Jewish) nerd. But the Goth girl's (stereotypical) interest in the paranormal came in handy; the African-American was a rather uncool smart guy; the Latino, while a slacker, had a brother who was a cop; and the paraplegic was the team jock.
  • In the same vein as South Park, Family Guy has a surprisingly diverse core cast. The part where this trope truly comes into play, though, is with Peter Griffin and his regular drinking buddies: Peter is the white male leader as well as the "big guy". Cleveland is the token black character, Joe is the disabled one in a wheelchair. And then there's Quagmire, who, while not fitting into any of the categories described above, definitely has his own way of standing out. . .
  • The Safety Patrol on Fillmore!. The protagonist is a black guy partnered with a white girl, the forensics expert comes from a Japanese family, Da Chief is Mexican-American, the main Mauve Shirt is Italian-American, and the photographer is a loony white guy who does the comic relief, if "Cloud Cuckoolander" can be considered a token role. A similar effect was shown in "A Cold Day At X", with the team of villains featuring a girl in a wheelchair and a very well-spoken, extremely English black guy.
  • Futurama has a fantastic variation with the Planet Express crew. Fry, Leela, and Farnsworth are white Americans (with Leela also being a one-eyed mutant); Bender is a robot who was built in Mexico; Hermes is a black Jamaican; Amy is ethnically Chinese, but was born and raised on Mars; and Zoidberg is a member of an aquatic alien race with a quasi-Jewish culture.
  • Godzilla: The Series: Nick and Elsie are white, Mendel is Ambiguously Jewish, Randy is Afro-Latino, and Monique is a French woman of Vietnamese descent.
  • On Hero Elementary, show's main human characters are Lucita Sky (who's Latina), AJ Gadgets (who's black and autistic), Sarah Snap (Asian-American), Benny Bubbles (Caucasian), and their teacher Mr. Sparks (also Latino).
  • The Histeria! Kid Chorus consists of one brunette boy, three blonde boys (one short, one dumb, and one from California with a permanent sunburn), a blonde girl, an African-American girl, a teenaged red-haired girl, an Asian girl, a German boy without an accent, and a Native American girl. Oh, and an Asian boy and two more kids with tan skin, but they're only in crowd shots or songs.
  • The main group of Horseland gives us Sarah (blonde), Molly (African American), Alma (Hispanic), Bailey (brunette), Zoey (redhead), Chloe (Irish-American) and Will (also blonde). They are soon joined by Nani (Native American).
  • Infinity Train has the main protagonists in different seasons. Book 1 has Tulip (white), book 2 has Mirror Tulip (chromium) and Jesse (Native American), book 3 has Grace (black), and book 4 has Ryan and Min-Gi (East Asian).
  • "The J-Team" in Jackie Chan Adventures. The team includes Jackie and Jade (Chinese-American), Tohru (Japanese), El Toro Fuerte and Paco (Mexican), and Viper (Jewish, and implied to be Israeli). Notably, the only white character who's even affiliated with the team is Captain Black, who just serves as their Mission Control.
  • Jem:
    • Jem and the Holograms are made up of redhead keyboardist Kimber, her blonde biological sister Jem (Jerrica) as the singer, the Asian (implied to be half-white and half either Chinese or Japanese) guitarist Aja, the black drummer/guitarist Shana, and later, the Latina drummer Raya. Aside from the Sixth Ranger Raya, they were all raised together as Shana and Aja were the Benton's foster daughters.
    • The Misfits are also fairly diverse with the Hungarian Jewish-American Pizzazz (Phyllis Gabor), Italian-American Roxy (Roxanne Pellegrini), American Stormer (Mary Phillips) and British Jetta (Sheila Burns).
    • The Stingers also include Riot (Rory Llewelyn), who appears to be Welsh-American based on his last name, German Minx (Ingrid Kruger), and American Rapture (Phoebe Ashe).
  • Explicitly parodied with the Ultimen in Justice League Unlimited. The team contains Wind Dragon (Asian-American), Long Shadow (Native-American) and Juice (African-American), with Shifter and Downpour (Albino alien teenagers) rounding out the team. The Ultimen are explicitly formed as a marketable, publicity-friendly alternative to the Justice League. It makes sense that the team would need to be as diverse as possible in order to hit all the key demographics. Specifically, the Ultimen were close parallels to the characters created for Challenge of the Super Friends to add some ethnic diversity to the team.
  • On King Arthur & the Knights of Justice, two of the twelve heroes are black, one is Latino and one is Asian. Another one, while white like the rest, may be Italian.
  • The Magic School Bus:
    • The cast of the original cartoon is almost mathematically precise: Four boys, four girls. Four white students (one of whom is Jewish, one British with implied partial Mediterranean descent, one Quebecois, and one Italian), two black students (one of whom is Jamaican), one Asian (of Chinese extraction), and one Hispanic (of Venezuelan extraction). All of them have very different personalities, except for the one who doesn't have a personality at all.
    • The Magic School Bus Rides Again changes it up a bit as the white Phoebe has been been replaced. This means that the class consists of three white students, one latino student, two Asian students (Wanda and the new kid, East Indian Jyoti), and two black students.
  • The PBS show Maya & Miguel. The main characters are Hispanic, there's a black friend, the Afro-Dominican girl, the Asian girl and a disabled white guy. The fat, stupid, forgetful soccer coach is Polish.
  • Spoofed for all it's worth in Minoriteam, which is about team comprised entirely of Captain Ethnic minority superheroes. For reference, it's Dr. Wang (Chinese), Nonstop (Indian), Fasto (black), El Jefe (Mexican), and Jewcano (Jewish).
  • Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: In Lunella's volleyball team, Brooklyn is a Latina trans girl, Tai is a nonbinary Asian, Fawzia is a lesbian Muslim, while Geri is Black.
  • Molly of Denali gives us Molly (Gwich'in/Koyukon/Dena'ina Athabascan), Tooey (Yup'ik, Koyukon, and Japanese), Trini (African-American), Oscar (Alaska Native of an unknown tribe), Vera (Filipino-Athabascan), and Jake (Token White).
  • The Burners in Motorcity consist of Mike Chilton (mixed race), Dutch (black), Texas (Filipino) and Chuck and Julie (white, but Julie is also the only girl). You also have (at times) a robot and a man old enough to be their grandfather.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The protagonists are the fantasy equivalent of this, consisting of two members of each race — unicorn, pegasus and earth pony. (Until Twilight became an alicorn, that is.) They also provide a wide range of personality types — notably, three are gradually revealed to be in line with the stereotypes of their races (Applejack the country bumpkin farmer, Rarity the haughty artisan, Rainbow Dash the hotheaded jock) while the others are wildcards (Pinkie Pie the happy-go-lucky party planner, Twilight Sparkle the bookworm and Humble Hero, and Fluttershy the bashful animal lover). The beta protagonists (the Cutie Mark Crusaders) similarly have one of each. (Babs Seed, the fourth crusader, breaks the configuration somewhat, but is a minor recurring character and is trying to start her own team.)
    • In "School Daze", a band of six students at Twilight Sparkle's Friendship School, all different species, become fast friends. There's Sandbar (an earth pony), Ocellus (a changeling), Gallus (a griffon), Yona (a yak), Silverstream (a hippogriff), and Smolder (a dragon).
  • The core group of teenagers in The Owl House is made up of Luz (Afro-Dominican), Amity (white), Willow (mixed race—Black and Korean), Gus (Black) and Hunter (white). Additionally, Luz and Amity are bisexual and lesbian respectively, and Willow is plus-sized.
  • On Phineas and Ferb, the main characters' Five-Man Band is rather diverse with British Ferb, Indian Baljeet and Mexican-Jewish Isabella (who is also the only permanent girl in the group) alongside the white American Phineas and Buford. Added to the extended cast are Stacy (Japanese), Coltrane (black), Doofenshmirtz and his Druelselsteinian relatives (including his white American ex-wife and his daughter) and Perry, who may or may not have been hatched in Australia. And don't forget resident smart kid Irving. The Fireside Girls are also racially diverse.
  • Polly Pocket: The main group is made of white (British-American) Polly Pocket, Shani Mayne/Smith (black), and Lila Draper (Scottish-American). Formerly there was Lea Torney (Irish-American), Ana Leeth (American), Crissy Maxwell (white American, then Latina, then Asian) and Kerstie Perx (American).
  • Parodied in the The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Mojo Jonesin'", where a diverse group of kids get Chemical X powers as part of Mojo Jojo's Batman Gambit. One of them is even in a wheelchair... and despite Chemical X allowing him to fly, he flies still holding on to the chair.note 
  • Ready Jet Go!: Jet is a human-like alien (so he isn't actually white), who appears male but is actually sexless. The other kids featured in the show are:
    • Sydney Skelley (African-American)
    • Sean Rafferty (implied to be Irish-American)
    • Mindy Melendez (Latina; her exact nationality is never stated on the show, but she is most likely Mexican-American as the show's official social media pages often use Mindy to promote Cinco de Mayo)
    • Mitchell Peterson (white; judging by his name, he's probably of English, Scottish, and/or Scandinavian descent)
    • Lillian (Chinese-American)
  • Recess:
    • The main cast. T.J. the chunky, smart-aleck white boy (who's implied to be Jewish), Gretchen the nerdy white girl with glasses, Spinelli the Italian tough girl, Vince the athletic black boy, Mikey the big-bodied, over-dramatic white boy, and Gus the nebbishy white boy with glasses. Actually lampshaded in a Christmas special episode in which the principal tries to put together a culturally diverse Christmas show while complaining about "political correctoids"
    • The Ashleys as well. Ashley A. is the stuck-up white leader, Ashley B. is the prissy, sarcastic second-in-command black girl, Ashley Q. is the tough, Jerkass white girl, and Ashley T. is the quiet Hispanic girl.
  • In The Replacements, Riley and Todd's circle of friends (and Shelton) includes the Japanese Tasumi, the African-American Abby, the Hispanic Jacobo and the Jewish Shelton.
  • A villainous example in the Samurai Jack episode "The Princess and the Bounty Hunters". A team of bounty hunters includes a white female leader, a Russian, a Southern American, an Aboriginal Australian and two asian-ish cat aliens.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has a diverse cast of heroes: Adora and Perfuma are white lesbians; Bow and Netossa are Black (the former Ambiguously Bi, the latter a lesbian); Glimmer, Frosta, and Sea Hawk are East-Asian (the former and latter being Ambiguously Bi); Mermista is South-Asian; Entrapta is autistic, bisexual, and Ambiguously Brown; and Swift Wind is a talking horse. This even carries over to the villains's side: Hordak is disabled and speaks with a British accent; Catra is a Hispanic lesbian; Scorpia is a white lesbian; Kyle is a white guy; Lonnie is a Black woman; Rogelio is a mute reptile man; and Double Trouble is a nonbinary shapeshifter.
  • The main kids in South Park, believe it or not. They include Kyle, who's Jewish, Cartman, who's obese, and Kenny, who's poor. Their extended circle of friends has a gay couple (Tweek and Craig), the only child of rich black parents (Tolkien), and disabled children with different conditions (Jimmy and Timmy). Despite poking fun at them mercilessly, the series has been praised by equal rights groups for treating them all as equals.
  • When it came time to expand the Superfriends from the original Batman-Superman-Wonder Woman-Aquaman cadre to the 11-member Justice League (for Challenge of the Super Friends), they added a token black (Black Vulcan), a token native American (Apache Chief), and a token Asian (Samurai). The following season added a token Hispanic (El Dorado).
  • Sky Dancers. The original VHS opening also has suspiciously ethnic-sounding leit motifs.
  • Teen Titans:
    • The show gives us a more fantastic variation of this trope. The leader of the team, Robin, is a badass normal Caucasian (and Romani, if we're going by the comics and assume that he's Dick Grayson). Raven is part demon on her dad's side and part (presumably Caucasian) human on her mom's side. Cyborg is African-American and, well, a cyborg. Starfire is an orange-skinned space babe. Beast Boy's race/species however is ambiguous due in part to his green skin and hair, though his comic book origin has him as a white blond human who turned green.
    • The East Coast spin-off team features Bumblebee (black female), Speedy (apparently white, but part Navajo if we go by the comics), Mas and Menos (Hispanic male twins) and Aqualad (white Atlantean male). Justified in that with the exceptions of Mas and Menos, the Titans East was made up entirely of teen heroes who had met and teamed up with the original Titans in earlier seasons.
  • One more example of a fantasy token band; ThunderCats, but especially ThunderCats (2011). The members belong to clans based on real life cat species, though Panthro is the only one whom most obviously looks and sounds black.
    • This is expanded upon in the reboot, where it's made much clearer the divide between the various clans as well as the introduction of tailed Thunderians, who are considered lower class. Kit and Kat have tails, as did Panthro once, who is still obviously the black guy of the group. Then there's Tygra, whose race has it's own separate culture and society, and could be seen as being vaguely Asian. Cheetara's comparatively fair coloring would almost make her look Scandinavian, and Pumyra could count as Ambiguously Brown due to her unique appearance and brown hair.
    • Ironically, it's the bad guys who outdo the Thundercats by having Equal-Opportunity Evil and a Multinational Team. There is Slithe (Lizard), Grune (Cat), and later Kaynar (Dog/Jackal), and Addicus (Primate). Except for Slithe though, they're considered traitors and criminals to their own kind.
  • Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic: The Guardians are a racially diverse bunch. Tenko is Japanese, Bolt is white, Hawk is Native American and Steel is African-American. They are later joined by Ali who is white.
  • Totally Spies!: The show primarily revolves around a Token Trio consisting of Sam (Irish-American), Clover (Caucasian-American) and Alex (Latina/Asian-American according to Word of God). They are sometimes joined by Britney (Japanese-American).
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender has Asian (Japanese) Shiro, Half-Human Hybrid (with an ambiguous ethnicity) Keith, Latino (Cuban) Lance, biracial (Samoan/African American) Hunk, Caucasian (Italian) Pidge, and Ambiguously Brown Space Elf Human Alien Allura.
  • The Weekenders averts the racial variant as the main characters are three white children and a black boy. It becomes glaringly obvious in the holiday episode though that their backgrounds are very different. Italian-American Tino celebrates Winter Solstice, Lor celebrates Christmas, the African-American Carter celebrates Kwanzaa, and Tish who has Eastern-European parents celebrates Hannukah.
  • The five girls from Winx Club. The original team included Bloom (white), Stella (white Latina), Flora (brown Latina), Musa (East Asian), and Tecna (white, British is the 4kids dub). Later Aisha (black) became the Sixth Ranger and eventually The Lancer.
  • Young Justice:
    • The "Runaways" are reimagined, Younger and Hipper versions of the Captain Ethnic Super Friends: Virgil is black, Tye is Native American, Eduardo is Hispanic, and Asami is Asian. In their later appearance they add Arsenal, who is disabled and arguably their Token White (in the comics he identifies as Native American).
    • Averted with the actual titular team of superheroes. It's very diverse, but the characters themselves aren't tokens. Blue Beetle (Latino), Aqualad, (African-Atlantean), Robin/Nightwing (Romani), and Artemis (half-Vietnamese) have large roles in the plot, and that's not even counting Guardian, Bumblebee, or Rocket (all black).