Endorph posted:

Nakoruru in Samurai Shodown was probably the most prominent ainu anime/game character before this. They're also a pretty big plotpoint in Shaman King. Also Aramaki (the old guy with the dr. wily hair) in ghost in the shell is of Ainu descent.

The main difference is that the 'official' population of Ainu in modern Japan is only 25,000, as opposed to the 3-5 million native americans have in the US. There's probably more, but a lot of modern Ainu have basically lost track of their cultural history, so there's no real way to make an official count. Unlike America, where full-blooded native americans are treated as outsiders, a lot of Ainu have basically been assimilated into Japanese culture. You can even see this in art itself: the word 'Kamui' is derived from Ainu religion, but there's plenty of anime that just toss that out there as a cool sounding word, like Kill la Kill.