Forum - View topicThe white-haired bride/mother archetype
|
Goto page 1, 2 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
riprock
Posts: 30 |
|
|||
|
Konnichiwa!
I wonder if there is a Japanese folklore source for an archetype I've seen in several anime series. The archetype is a bit like Robert Graves' notion of a "White Goddess." It's a girl with white/silver hair who is extremely poised, dignified, feminine, and wise. The white hair may represent a bridal veil because the girl is usually presented as an ideal bride and potential mother. Clear Examples: Vanilla from Galaxy Angel; Rei from Evangelion; Tessa from Full Metal Panic. Arguably, the heroine of "Howl's Moving Castle" might be included. Are all of these drawing on a common folklore source? Arigato! |
||||
|
||||
Eruanna
 Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
|
|||
|
I dont think theres much connection between white hair and "mother figure". :/
White hair seems to be incredibly common in both male and female characters, and their personalities seem to be all over the board. Although I have never understood why so many characters sport "silver" hair. It looks great in animation I suppose, but it would look kinda.... wierd in real life. But then, anime characters tend to have green, blue, and purple hair as well. Hair colours dont appear to have any real signifigance, but then, I could be wrong. Maybe Im missing something. |
||||
|
||||
|
riprock
Posts: 30 |
|
|||
|
It's entirely possible that I'm imagining a pattern that the authors did not intend. For example, white might not represent purity to anime creators.
There are also a lot of fringe cases. Lafiel from Crest of the Stars is a fringe case. She's pretty, but she's not as poised, quiet, and feminine as the average white-haired princess. Ruri, from Martian Successor Nadeisco, is a much clearer example. She's feminine, poised, and generally quiet -- although, like all of the examples given, she's capable of great strength and resilience when the situation calls for it. |
||||
|
||||
Nom_Anor
 Posts: 246 |
|
|||
|
I believe it is called "ash-blonde" hair, but don't quote me on that.
I haven't seen it on motherly characters so much as on characters who are supposed to be exceptionally beautiful. |
||||
|
||||
|
riprock
Posts: 30 |
|
|||
Even characters like Rei and Vanilla are not so much motherly as excellent potential mothers. It's worth noting that there are also a bunch of girls with short grey-silver hair and red eyes -- e.g. the ones from Bottle Fairies and the one from Red Garden -- who are usually the exceptionally tough girls. |
||||
|
||||
|
Eruanna
Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
|
|||
Isnt it "Platinum blond"? Anyways, how do you explain the male characters with white/silver/light coloured hair by this way of thinking? Iv seen more male characters then female characters. |
||||
|
||||
|
riprock
Posts: 30 |
|
|||
I don't know if I can explain them, but I will note that white-haired guys are usually sinister bishounen bad guys. Sometimes white-haired bishounen are slightly effeminate; sometimes they are merely poised and quiet but masculine. (Consider Killua from Hunter X Hunter -- he's a quiet, sinister killer even though he's a good guy.) However, they really do seem to be bad guys for the most part. I can't think of many white-haired good guys, but I can think of a few white-haired bishounen bad guys: the Testarossa brother from Full Metal Panic - the Second Raid, the effeminate bad guy from Berserk ... and that's about it. .... D'oh! It just struck me that the red eyes can be explained by the fact that albinos actually have pink eyes. So possibly the whole white hair/red eye thing is just a stylization of albino coloring -- in which case it might go back to Elric of Melnibone (a Western swords-and-sorcery character). If anyone has any good examples of white-haired boy characters, please do post them. |
||||
|
||||
|
Eruanna
Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
|
|||
Tons. And most of them are not "bad guys". Ill go through my list of anime and find all the white haired characters. Little Girl from Angels Egg. Female. Small, fragile child. Probably a representation of innocence in this movie, but also sorrow. Perhapes innocence lost. Chii from Chobits. Female. Childlike. Innocent and naive. Ignorant, needs to be looked after. I would not count Lafiel from Crest of the Stars , as her hair is quite defonatly blue. Nevertheless, she's a take charge kind of girl, independant and self-made. Allen from D-Gray.Man. Male. The hero of the story. Childlike, but with some serious butt kicking abilities. Ouka from .hack//Legend of the Twilight. Female. she's a strong woman, alluring, and slightly dominating and masochistic at the same time. Very flirtatious. Balmung from .hack//Legend of the Twilight. Male. Heroic. The classic picture of a knight in shining armor. Hasao from .hack//Roots. Male. An anti-hero. Main character, good intentions, cares deeply about people. Has a darker side and a tendancy to go insane. Tsukasa from .hack//SIGN. Male/Female. Loner. Keeps to himself. Has a hard time relating to others. Socialy inept. Muraki from Descendants of Darkness. Male. Rather insane. Brilliant mind. Evil mad scientist at its best. Leif from Deltora Quest. Male. Heroic. Fights for justice. All that good stuff. Typical kid-hero. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy. Male. Defonatly evil. Likes to kill people. Blame insanity. Tatsuya from Gilgamesh. Male. Has issues about his familey. Confused about what the right thing to do it, but tries very hard to protect those he cares about. In love with his sister. Integra from Hellsing. Female. The ultimate picture of a strong female character. The leader of a vampire hunting organization. James Bonds M has nothing on her. I wouldnt count Sophie from Howls Moving Castle, since her hair wasnt naturally that silver colour. But she's a strong female with a kind outlook. Thor from Jyu Oh Sei. Male. Determined, strong, and clever. The heroic figure of the story. Sinbad from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. Male. Rather smug, cocky, and with an infuriating attitude. But cares about people and is ultimately a great guy. Ageha from Legend of Basara. Male. Ageha is the typical "mysterious" character. he's a good guy, but sometimes his loyalties are questionable. Comes from a tortured past. Zieg from Legend of Duo. Male. The "woe is me Im a powerfull vampire but Im good." character. The hero who thinks he's on the right side but might not be. Soubi from Loveless. Male. Typical gay pretty boy. Masochistic and submissive by nature. Excellent spell user. Suigintou from Rozen Maiden. Female. The evil one. Obessive and sadistic. Likes to torment people. Loves "Father" though. Ryuuki from Saiunkoku Monogatari. Male. Pretty boy emporer. Powefull, but kind and gental. Knows how to kick some butt when he needs to. He is sometimes laughably childish, but can be serious. Deeply cares about those around him. Seiran from Saiunkoku Monogatari. Male. The Emporers brother. Heroic, and strong. Protects those he cares about with his life. Abel from Trinity Blood. Male. Another "good vampire". Can wig out and kill alot of people, but is generally kind and caring. And sometimes even ridiculesly childish. Tsunami from Twilight of the Dark Master. Male. Guardian of mankind against the evil monsters that plauge us. Cold, distant, cunning, and tragic. Sacrificing everything to save the world. How noble. Meier from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Male. Bloody evil vampire. Kills people without a thought. Evidently can fall in love though, and has a soft spot for pretty damsels. Larva from Vampire Princess Miyu. Male. Servant. Submissive, serves Miyu. Very strong and powerfull. Evidently not as powerfull as Miyu though. Thats all I can think of at the moment. I hope this wont be seen as pointless listing. I did try and give a discription, albiet brife, of each mentioned characters personality. My purpose here isnt to list but to demonstrate the very wide varity in characters who have white/silver hair. |
||||
|
||||
LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
|
|||
No one has mentioned Sesshomaru-sama from Inu Yasha. Very pretty, very demonic and in general wants to kill people especially his baby bro, Inu Yasha, and Naraku and Kohaku. I think that silver hair doesn't really mean anything, it's just used by the character designer as another hair color so people know who the character its. |
||||
|
||||
|
Eruanna
Posts: 451 Location: Canada |
|
|||
Oh! I forgot about him. Probably because Iv seen so little of Inuyasha. But for that matter, Inuyasha himself counts too, now dosnt he? He is a typical sullen anti-hero. Unlike his brother, Sesshomaru, who is a typical evil dude. And yes, I agree. I think Silver hair is used because its different from other hair colours, so its easily recognizable. Good character desings have to catch your attention and stick easily in your mind. It also looks cool. So they use it lots for lots of different types of characters. |
||||
|
||||
|
Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
|
|||
|
I would tend to agree that silver hair is more for striking appearance rather than representing a character type. Silver-haired young characters range from romantic leads to primary villains to antiheroes and even sometimes comic supporting characters, so I don't really see a pattern personality-wise.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
|
|||
|
A lot of times if I'm following a manga I'm surprised when their hair appears white in the anime. Ryuhei Sasagawa (the boxer) in Hitman Reborn, for example, is a rowdy high-schooler. I figured he'd have blonde hair, but it's inexplicably white instead.
|
||||
|
||||
GoodLuckSaturday
 Posts: 567 Location: Indiana |
|
|||
The only difference is that Sesshomaru does possess a kind of vested interest to protect Rin, which does help to support this theory, even though I also agree that there's no real connection between hair color and parental capabilities. I present Dr. Clive from Haré+Guu as clear proof of that. |
||||
|
||||
|
riprock
Posts: 30 |
|
|||
You've convinced me of the diversity! Hmm. The white/silver hair thing seems to be pretty broad. As said above, it can be hard to make distinctions between silver-haired and blue-haired. There are some very aggressive, extroverted characters with white/silver hair. (Integra Hellsing is big on tradition, but she's even more assertive than Lafiel.) There's even a minority with dark skin and silver hair, like the tough girl from Red Garden. The majority seem to be "pale folks who avoid the light" -- whether because they're ninja, vampires, or other light-avoiding folks. It makes sense for the character design to emphasize a pallid complexion by making the hair pale as well. I think the Asian conception of traditional female beauty includes paler-than-average skin, which might be why girls like Ruri are represented as alabaster-pale. (It definitely explains why so many real-life Asian women insist on opening umbrellas before walking across a sunlit street.) If there is an intentional use of white hair color for bride/mother type girls, it might be an extension of their skin pallor. Possibly the colorist has already gone to the trouble of finding a nice pale skin tone and decides to match it with a pale hair color. Shrug. 
|
||||
|
||||
DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
|
|||
|
I think the best "explaintion" of sliver-haired anime character I've ever heard was a guy who joking told me it was the result of anime studios ordering a surplus of sliver paint and pencils during the mecha boom of the 70s, and needing to find something to do with it.
In all honestly, I think sliver hair is simply a gimmick to make a character more noticeable/memorable. I mean, I can't name any background folk or 1-episode cameo characters that have sliver hair. it only turns up on people who're going to be around for awhile. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group