Colored hair in anime

[White hell]

Sorry, I didn't use the search function, so, I don't know if this topics been done before. but, why do anime characters have clored hair? is it a big thing or not.

[seba_boi]

I think the Japanese were highly influenced by the Western society, hence the blondes, Caucasian-looking characters (despite being Asians :rolleyes: )...

Off-topic-ish but I see A LOT of Asians with dyed/coloured hair now... Seems to be the "in" thing....

[White hell]

I think the Japanese were highly influenced by the Western society, hence the blondes, Caucasian-looking characters (despite being Asians :rolleyes: )...

Off-topic-ish but I see A LOT of Asians with dyed/coloured hair now... Seems to be the "in" thing....


Caucasin looking characters in anime!?, Elbaorate.

[seba_boi]

Caucasian, as in white people...

Take for example, Fushigi Yuugi... The show is set in China, yet ALL members of the Suzaku seven (and most of the Seryuu seven) don't even resemble anything Chinese--only their costumes... Anime had always been so ambiguous in terms of their character designs... I just take them for granted now....

[White hell]

Caucasian, as in white people...

Take for example, Fushigi Yuugi... The show is set in China, yet ALL members of the Suzaku seven (and most of the Seryuu seven) don't even resemble anything Chinese--only their costumes... Anime had always been so ambiguous in terms of their character designs... I just take them for granted now....


Look chinese? no anime characters look human.

EDIT: Last I checked green,blue,and pink hair aren't causian features.
My question was why do they have colored hair.

[Gibb]

I've seen this question asked before in various different ways, and the most commonly excepted answer is that Japanese people all have black hair. If you can imagine, that would get pretty boring after a while. So when they unleash their imagination into anime, the characters have wild hair colors that seem to give them more vitality and make them more exciting.

What I think is goofy is when brothers and sisters in anime have green, purple, blue, or yellow hair, and they're supposed to be family.

[Matsu'o Tsurayaba]

I remember this question,its one that was asked.But not so much anymore,normally there is Red,Blonde,Black and Brown hair.But sometimes people can be bored with this,so in anime there is other colors like green,blue,yellow,etc.Its the same thing with the hairstyles also.

[White hell]

I remember this question,its one that was asked.But not so much anymore,normally there is Red,Blonde,Black and Brown hair.But sometimes people can be bored with this,so in anime there is other colors like green,blue,yellow,etc.Its the same thing with the hairstyles also.

Hm, makes sense.

[dr ochanomizu]

I think the Japanese were highly influenced by the Western society, hence the blondes, Caucasian-looking characters (despite being Asians :rolleyes: )...

I think the easiest answer is to distinguish apart several charaters with similar facial features instantly and moreover, add to the abstract quality of the charcters. For example, red hair for tempramental quality or blue hair for coolness or spiky hair for rebellious quality etc.

I believe you are correct! Whiteman envy that's it, a funny sarcasm! There are some who buy into that argument, though that Japanese were influence by western culture and the hair color in anime of ANIME is one of them. It's "kinda" laughable. First of all anime charaters are all deformed and does not even look like real human beings. Super huge eyes, paper clip size noses, large heads. I don't know any caucasion look like that ^_^ . Furthermore, the hair styles go in cycles; it's now popular in Japan to have blond dyed hair. I believe when you have a population with similar dark hair, it's in the nature of rebellious youths to look different and distiguish themselves from the rest.

TS

[Spadesy]

^ Yeah, that sounds most reasonable.

Hair color and style can say something about their personality...if it's long and black and they have pale features, they're probably dark in mentality and expected to be intelligent. If it's a blonde chick with bright blue eyes, she's expected to be, maybe, ditzy.

As for character distinguishing...that's another good reason.

Even in the South Korean Tartan film Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, the main character has dyed green hair. Nobody ever comments about it in the movie, but it's a way to easily find him in a crowd of people.

[hiroaki]

http://taka.no32.tk/diary/images/20050509_0.jpg

These are different women whom Adachi Mitsuru drew. To prevent this, They have the color of various hairs.

[seba_boi]

Look chinese? no anime characters look human.

EDIT: Last I checked green,blue,and pink hair aren't causian features.
My question was why do they have colored hair.
Sorry, I segwayed out of the question there... Yes, you are right pink, blue, and green hair are not Caucaisan features, nor any human features... But I immediately thought of Blonde and red hair when you mentioned "coloured" hair...


I believe you are correct! Whiteman envy that's it, a funny sarcasm! There are some who buy into that argument, though that Japanese were influence by western culture and the hair color in anime of ANIME is one of them. It's "kinda" laughable. First of all anime charaters are all deformed and does not even look like real human beings. Super huge eyes, paper clip size noses, large heads. I don't know any caucasion look like that . Furthermore, the hair styles go in cycles; it's now popular in Japan to have blond dyed hair. I believe when you have a population with similar dark hair, it's in the nature of rebellious youths to look different and distiguish themselves from the rest.
No, again white people aren't superdeformed nor have huge protruding eyes, but early Western animation does... Popeye, Betty Boop, Little Lulu... They pretty much defined the norm for simplistic animation design... And yes after World War II, I believe that Japan was immensely influenced by Western culture through American soldiers... I've listened to commentaries by Stephen Prince on Akira Kurosawa, and how popular western influences like jazz, clubhouses, and a decade's worth of American animation previously prohibited before in wartime Japan were a big thing in Japan during its recovery years...

Again, I'm segwaying out of topic, I apologize... I'm just defending my opinion and what made me think so...

[Leader Desslock]

Here's what John had to say about hair color:

http://www.animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1209

[dr ochanomizu]

^^You are correct in stating that the West had influence on Japanese culture. If you go further back into Japanese history or for that matter any other country the influence of other culture is noticeable through out the world. Early Japanese history borrowed heavily from more advanced China and then during the Meiji Restoration came to realization after the Samurai era left them far behind Europe. In order to catch up, they borrowed heavily from the West.

At the same time, while Betty Boop, Steamboat Willy may convey simplistic artistry, they were in black and white medium. They did not have differentiated hair colors. (I think that’s what we are talking about here) I believe it’s rather presumptuous to think that anime derived its hair color form as you say from Caucasian cartoons. Anime is a stylized drawing, which evolved to the present form.

TS

[seba_boi]

Yes, yes... I know I've gone way off track the original question.... I already admitted it... I'm merely stating the facts that anime characters do not look Asians... Mainly IMO because of the definitive round eyes and the non-Asian type hair... (and yes, I'm still talking about the red-heads and blondes in this category)

And coloured cartoons sprang up as early as 1937 (Snow White And The Seven Dwarves)...

[sailornyanko]

First of all anime charaters are all deformed and does not even look like real human beings. Super huge eyes, paper clip size noses, large heads. I don't know any caucasion look like that ^_^ .

That's a bit of an overgeneralization isn't it? Most Miyazaki film characters look quite ordinary looking and quite realistic.
It's rare to even see Ghibli characters that don't have brown eyes.

--

Adding up, anime got into using unusual haircolors to distinguish characters. Remember that a lot of anime is based on a manga and since Japanese manga traditionally is black and white, authors create lighter haired characters to be recognizeable.

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

Just as sailornyanko and others have said. Given that the facial designs of characters [within a single series] rarely vary, the only way to tell the characters apart is by hair style and hair colour. So, manga artists, who work only in black and white, create lighter-haired characters so the readers can more easily tell the characters apart.

John made a good point in his article about hair colours: brightly- or unusually-coloured hair easily attracts the attention of viewers, especially young viewers. In the case of the latter, who are less likely to notice smaller details that distinguish characters, bright hair colours help them tell the characters apart.

Besides, there are some Japanese people who dye their hair outrageous colours, so seeing unusual hair colours among teenaged anime characters is not quite as unrealistic as some might think. :P (I have seen a Japanese man - a pop singer - with ice-blue hair.)

[Lemina]

Take for example, Fushigi Yuugi... The show is set in China, yet ALL members of the Suzaku seven (and most of the Seryuu seven) don't even resemble anything Chinese--only their costumes... Anime had always been so ambiguous in terms of their character designs... I just take them for granted now....

Fushigi Yuugi does not take place in China, but in an alternate world named the Universe of the Four Gods inside the book which has many cultural similarities to feudal China, but it isn't really China. This magical book which has many mysterious behind its existence, but could have possibly had this setting because it was envisioned and written by its book creator, Einosuke Okuda. That could explain its cultural similarities in clothing style, architecture, etc.

Anime characters in general could be meant resemble someone of Eastern oriental ethnicity since it was created by a Japanese artist, but a character could really be of any race from anywhere around the world depending on what the story is about. Art designs can vary from characters who will have Asian looking features to others who would look more like cartoons. To really answer this, you'd have look into the origin of anime itself as it was loosely based off old Walt Disney animation techniques with large-round eyes from the post World War era.

[animeotaku99]

What I find most people think is that when they seen a charcter in an ANime that has white or pale skin they think she/he is Caucasian, I first heard this about all of the girls in Tenchi Muyo. But most Japanese peopel I know have white skin and they are ful blood Japanese. Well some Japnese have darker skin, it has something to do with other monogloid races coming to Japan a LONG time ago.
ON tOpic. I also believe the different hair color is too help differentiate between characters and now it is even part of their personality. I notice a lot of shy girls tend to have a light blue hair as do those that are good at swimming and Outgoing feisty girls haev red hair a lot and te "tradiational" straight laced Miko or class Prez tend to hacve black hair

[dr ochanomizu]

That's a bit of an overgeneralization isn't it? Most Miyazaki film characters look quite ordinary looking and quite realistic.
It's rare to even see Ghibli characters that don't have brown eyes.

Yes, sometimes it’s easier to make a point of an absurd argument with an absurd. I agree with you, Miyazaki film characters do have some semblance of reality. Oh… maybe like Yubaba in Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away). If she didn’t look so much like my mother, I would reject that notion. :P BTW, only anime character that reminds me of a white person is Robin Williams.

ROBIN WILLIAMS=GOKU of Dragon Ball(less hairy back!)
Probably because he played Popye.

The characters, I always thought looked alike were Sailor Venus and Sailor Moon. If it wasn’t for the hair broach (I made this word up. I don’t even know what you call those things) and the color of skirts, orange vs. blue, I’m hard press to tell them apart. Maybe it’s just me.

TS

[VidelCoolGirl]

It's sorta hard to find an anwser to a question like that. Why do cartoon characters have giant white eyes and small black pupils? Why only 4 fingers? It's just an anime thing. Although for more serious anime, they keep it as realistic as they can, but diffrent colored hair is to keep from eventually all anime characters from looking the same.

[Matsu'o Tsurayaba]

I once heard of a reason for why anime characters or comic characters had 4 fingers.I actually forgot it though.Like i said before,besides the different hair color with anime characters.

There is also the hairstyles,the spiky tall hair for the men[Goku,Naruto,etc],and the long,extravagant hair for the women[Sasami,Noa,etc].Its almost sad you cant have such hair styles in real life...

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

There is also the hairstyles,the spiky tall hair for the men[Goku,Naruto,etc],and the long,extravagant hair for the women[Sasami,Noa,etc].Its almost sad you cant have such hair styles in real life...You actually can - it just takes a lot of hair gel. :P But I have seen people with the same spiky hair one normally finds on anime characters. It's almost frightening, really, especially since, more often than not, these same people tend to look rather goth or punkish. -_-;

[ArcaJ]

I once heard of a reason for why anime characters or comic characters had 4 fingers.I actually forgot it though.Like i said before,besides the different hair color with anime characters.

There is also the hairstyles,the spiky tall hair for the men[Goku,Naruto,etc],and the long,extravagant hair for the women[Sasami,Noa,etc].Its almost sad you cant have such hair styles in real life...

Actually, a lot of anime and manga hairstyles are based on real life hairstyls that are popular in Japan. Akamatsu Ken (Love Hina) based Narusegawa Naru's hairstyl on a pop idol's.

Nina Wang from from Mai-Otome's hair is also based on a real style.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/2530/maiotomelq13bw2.jpg

And the lead singer from Every Little Thing from sometime in the 1990's
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3141/eltov1.jpg

I hope that helps.

::HUGS::

Arca Jeth

[Chef Wun]

The Laws Of Anime (http://www.abcb.com/laws/index.htm)

31.Law of Follicular Chroma Variability

Any colour in the visible spectrum is considered a natural hair colour. This colour can change without warning or explanation.

I also found This (http://fashion.3yen.com/2005-05-18/garnier-creates-the-gel-that-gives-you-a-manga-head/)

[Horizin]

cool i want a manga head

[Chef Wun]

Yeah but can you imagine how long you'd have to grow your hair first though.

[Hexon.Arq]

I once heard of a reason for why anime characters or comic characters had 4 fingers.I actually forgot it though.Like i said before,besides the different hair color with anime characters.

IIRC, it began when Walt Disney first concocted Mickey Mouse. His desire was to maintain the rounded, sparse look of the rest of the character's design in the hands, but five fingers simply gave it a crowded look, so he took one off; the four-fingered hand has been a staple of round, disney-esque cartoon characters ever since. (I haven't seen/noticed any manga characters with four fingers to a hand, though. Even Sonic and Mario have five.)

[Chef Wun]

I think its because 4 fingers is easier to draw than five, or someone was feeling a little different...or they were just innumerate :P