The Boondocks

The Boondocks is a late night television series that aires on Cartoon Network's late night block known as Adult Swim. The show's creator, Aaron McGruder began the series as a comic strip for his college newspaper, The Diamondback. In the autumn of 2005 the show made its debut. Even before the television series was created, Aaron McGruder caught a lot of criticism for the content of his comic strip. The strip focuses on the lives of a black family that has moved to a white suburban neighborhood. Huey Freeman, the central character of both the strip and the series, his brother, Riley, and his grandfather, Robert tackle problems of contemporary America with a great deal of humor. The strip was eventually pulled from newspapers for its blatant anti Bush jokes and messages. McGruder's animation style is distinct as he blends the influence of anime into the cartoon.

McGruder's characters, Riley and Huey show the influence of anime on McGruder. The two have eyes that clearly come from the realm of Japanese anime. Their eyeballs and pupils are quite large and the pupil contains the small white circle, meant to represent the reflection of the light. The overall appearance of these characters is rather cute and adorable, which is part of the reason why they are able to get away with the antics they pull (for example, attempting to kidnap Oprah Winfrey). In general, McGruder's characters are quite iconic while is backgrounds are rather photorealistic. The realism of these backgrounds is most notable when the "camera" pans horizontally.