I'm not that surprised about the usage on black males, given that there is kind of a culture of Af-Am's adopting Japanese names (also, there are a LOT of anime fans in the NFL and NBA). If it is in fact inspired by the Japanese name and not some unheard of African name. I'm not really bothered about it either, it kind of works.
As for the name
Akari, I think it's cute, maybe a little too cute. I prefer
Akane.
~☆
August Song Recommendation☆~
Qing Feng
Wu, AURORA - "
Storm":
https://tinyurl.com/52v96vfe