[ SECRET POST #3445 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3445 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 16 secrets from Secret Submission Post #492.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[grausam]

I know it's an unfortunate cliche to give dark-skinned characters white hair, especially in anime. it's kinda like always giving female Asian characters one colored hair streak.

but damn, I love white hair.

[ketita]

I don't think it's that so many characters look like this - it's not *that* common a coloring, I don't think. But certain color palettes get "typecast" in anime, you know? Like red hair = fiery, long dark blue/black hair = the beautiful one, often mature and collected. Brown is the "normal" one. Or you have the doomed white haired characters.
I wonder if this isn't a sort of subset of the white haired type. They tend to be wilder than the white-haired ones, I think, but also sort of morally ambiguous?
Obviously none of this is exact, but there are definite trends there.

[grausam]

well, it has its own tv tropes page: dark skinned blond (not that it is saying much)

It feels like it's becoming a short hand for "foreign exotic person", ambiguously Brown, but made more "palatable" through the light hair.

I mean, it becomes iffy when there are way more dark skinned blond characters in anime than dark skinned characters with dark hair, or even the usually crazy colorful hair.

[ketita]

Hm, that is a decent point. The thing is, I'm usually wary of applying US racial biases to Japan, because it's a whole different paradigm. The majority of dark-skinned characters in anime are meant to be Japanese - just like the majority of characters in anime in general.
Even that TV Tropes page mentions ganguro, which I think is a reasonable inspiration for this visual effect.
And let's be real, like OP pointed out, visually it's a very striking combination, because you get high contrast.

Overall, this type of character will usually show up in "non realistic" series, I think, and in those, often most characters will have hair in various shades of crazy. I think it's the same reason that many Asians IRL dye their hair, or get perms, or spiking - when everybody has straight black hair, you want to stand out.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not that iffy when you consider that there are a ton of subcultures in Japan with that exact coloring while the amount of black people is extremely low.