I imagine you mean apart from manga?

Way, way before Harry Potter, there was Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea, which is just wonderful, a real classic, and is also about a poor boy whith untapped potential who gets invited to attend a wizarding school. (This isn't a pop at Harry Potter, which I like very much, but it just can't hold a candle to Earthsea.) The main character, and most of the people in the story, are described in such a way that they could only be Asian or, possibly, First Nation - although of course these descriptions don't make much geographical sense in a parallel universe!

(Just to depress us all, though, there was a Hollywood miniseries made of Earthsea a while back, which both LeGuin and longtime fans hated, because it made all the main characters white, except for a Black sidekick, and the main female character, who in the book was the only significant white character, they cast as mixed race! *headdesk* Plus they changed almost every significant plot and philosophical element in the book, so please don't dismiss the source works if you have happened upon this travesty of them.)

But of course you are right about the general field of non-manga fantasy. Things are changing, thank goodness, but it's very slow.

Lovely to see an Earthsea lover - I read the books when i was a youngster and immediately fell in love with Ged. I'm so pleased not to have seen an adaptation of it as my Ged would disappear...

Can't say that i can relate to anyone yet, but there's still time.

lol I think my answer is pretty obvious, but if I must.

Crowley from Good Omens. Love the character... and the car.

Well, there's Miss Finch. She got to run off and play with a bunch of sabretooth tigers (wearing sequins, at that). It's hard to say though, because it seems like MOST of Neil's characters seem to meet with some terrible misfortune at some point or another. I dunno, it'd be fun to be the busty babe in "Forbidden Brides". I like Thessaly-don't know why, she's kind of horrible (maybe that's why I like her).

I'd be Hob Gadling of course. I mean living with the sins of your past is pretty bad, but living forever at the same age can't be bad. I agree with Hob that dying is for saps. He has no real enemies. He doesn't live under a curse or anything. He has no real powers that obligate him to go out and be a super hero. I think he's the perfect choice.

I'd be Door... I identified with her a lot while reading Neverwhere.