Manga & Anime Hair Color Meaning Explained
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Brown hair, in particular, tend to be the most widely used color for ordinary Japanese characters, including the main characters, because a black-haired female can indicate other qualities.
Meaning, in most cases, the color of an anime character's hair does not reflect some natural hair color or a racial stereotype – instead, it is supposed to be a hint towards their personality and their role in the plot.
“To determine what will work, you need to know if have a warm, cool, or neutral skin tone and one easy way to find out is to look at your veins,” she advises. If your veins are purple or blue, you're cool; if they're greenish, you're warm; if you're seeing both, you're most likely a neutral tone.
Black hair may be another default hair colour especially in anime, but it carries deeper meaning. Characters with black hair often have had a dark past. These characters are intelligent, powerful and refined.
Red hairRed hair is the rarest natural hair color. Experts estimate that somewhere between 1-2% of the world's population has red hair. Red hair is more common in Scotland than anywhere else in the world, where 13% of the population are redheads. Red hair is known for the variance of its many shades.
Just a decade ago, no one would ever have believed they would see this. The natural hair color for Japanese people is generally black, of course. Long, black hair was a sign of beauty for women in the Heian period (794-1192), when Japan developed its own cultural preferences.
Black. While black looks good on most people, jet black can very easily go wrong on pale skin. Olive-toned skin, on the other hand, can pull off this color with ease. All eye colors complement the black hair and olive skin combination.
Go for intense dark colors like dark brown and jet black. This will really make your brown eyes pop. If you want to try vibrant colors then go for pastel shades in blue, red, pink, purple, and green. Colors with red, burgundy, and maroon hints can really bring out your brown eyes.
In natural light, check the appearance of your veins beneath your skin. If your veins appear blue or purple, you have a cool skin tone. If your veins look green or a greenish blue, you have a warm skin tone. If you can't tell whether or not your veins are green or blue, you probably have a neutral skin tone.
Red hair is associated with a temper or an outgoing personality. That core idea exported into anime. Red heads are full of raw energy and often associated with fire. Red heads are resilient; they seek to survive at all costs.
It is more common in Anime, but it can happen in any style. It might be just how the art style is, or the character might literally be lacking a nose. This noselessness is a favorite target of a Stylistic Self-Parody.
According to Merrick, the color pink is associated with a long list of traits: "gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, caring, sweetness, compassion, tenderness, nurturance, and deference." "When it comes to our auras this color is very strategic. It's all about romance, nostalgia, and love," she explains.
The staple color of any stock character or “normal” person, brown is also a common color for the main protagonist. When characters have darker or lighter brown hair, they often absorb the traits of yellow or black. This color can be deceiving, as a character with this hair color may be far from normal.
Full of hubris or out of touch with other characters, their goals may revolve around prestige and the acquiring of material possessions. Protagonists with purple hair must face the challenge of balancing the red and blue oni within themselves.
Black is a neutral color that is associated with positive personal traits. These characters tend to be deep thinkers that can see the “big picture”, and seldom need advice.
As far as girls go, most black-haired anime girls are shy and asocial, although this isn’t really a rule. There are those that are outgoing, but this group is usually accompanied by some sort of danger, be it something more benign (like a mischievous character) or truly dangerous (like sociopathic tendencies). The rule is – if you see a black-haired girl smiling wickedly, run… run as fast as you can. Boys, on the other hand, aren’t that sociable and most black-haired anime boys are very clever and cunning. They are most often dangerous in some way, although they do not have to be bad necessarily; still, a lot of antagonists in anime series have black hair. A lot of anti-heroes in anime also have black hair. Anyhow, black-haired characters should necessarily be avoided, but one should definitely be careful around them.
The closest color to black, in meaning, is dark blue.
If we had to, on the other hand, we would say that brown-haired anime characters are generally approachable, comfortable, charming, consistent, sincere and enduring. These are all relatively normal traits and they are something which you would expect from a normal human being or a protagonist of a certain show.
On a general level, blue-haired characters are usually special in one way or the other and in fantastical settings, they usually have some special abilities. Their personalities range from cute to calculated, but they are rarely on the team of evil in the world of anime.
Brown (茶色 chairo) Taichi Yagami from Digimon is a great example of the protagonist-type of character usually associated with brown hair. Brown is a color that has become more popular in Japan in recent years, as many Japanese people dye their hair brown.
There, male characters have red hair more often than female characters. Why? Well, due to the symbolism of the color red, it is easier to attribute these traits to male characters, who are usually more straightforward than female characters. Female characters tend to be more withdrawn , which is why this color is more common with male characters.
Now, what symbolizes something usual and natural in the real world is not necessarily the same in the world of anime and manga. Although black color can, really, signify a traditional or marginal character, it could also be a sign that you are dealing with someone far more serious and dangerous than you thought.