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INTEREST: Russian Anime Characters Show Off Their Silver Hair


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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4555
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 12:37 am Reply with quote
Ashen Phoenix wrote:
@Tenchi: That was a fascinating history lesson. I mean that sincerely. Thank you! I didn't know any of that!


Thanks.

Sakhalin's a mysterious place, a vast island just north of Hokkaido that's somehow an obscure corner of the world despite being Japan's closest neighbor (besides a few other, much smaller, Russian islands).

You can travel to Yuzho-Sakhalinisk by plane or boat without any more bureaucratic hurdles than any other Russian city, but tourists need special permission from the Russian government to visit the rest of the island outside of the city. It's an island whose economy revolves entirely around natural resources, mainly oil exploration, forestry, and mining.

One thing that's interesting about Sakhalin is that, even though it's so close to Japan, the largest ethnic minority is Koreans since all Japanese inhabitants were deported after World War II.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 12:42 am Reply with quote
Elena Arshevina from World Break is another instance of a silver-haired Russian...
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:00 am Reply with quote


I always wondered if Alexander Volg Zangief's red hair referred to something else, considering the series is set in 1990 to 1998, and Volg refers to the dissolution of the URSS. His signature move is White Fang and he's called the White Wolf, though.
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dark_bozu



Joined: 03 Sep 2012
Posts: 208
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 1:18 am Reply with quote
I think this is became a trope for "russian" in Japanese anime culture.
This is making them easy to be recognized - of course there're black, red haired people, but that way japanese won't differ a russian, frenchman or canadian (or average japanese guy/girl from anime).
Russia have to many nations, different type of people and it couldn't be portrayed accurately in anime, because it would confuse most of viewers.
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invalidname
Contributor



Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 2485
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 7:41 am Reply with quote
In the Muv-Luv universe, silver hair is associated with lab-grown psychics who were artificially created by "Alternative III", a Soviet effort to use psychics to communicate with the alien BETA. These characters include Kasumi from the visual novels Unlimited and Alternative:


And Cryska and Inia from the light novels and anime Total Eclipse:


The natural human Soviets we see in the franchise tend to be blond, such as Total Eclipse's Latrova and Sandek (although the latter is ethnically Polish, not Russian)


Last edited by invalidname on Sat Jan 07, 2017 7:42 am; edited 1 time in total
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11619
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 7:41 am Reply with quote
Mikasa_su_casa wrote:
What's the deal with Russians and coonskin caps?


Looks like a Cossack hat to me. Ushankas are those caps with the earflaps you normally have fastened over the top, like in Gorky Park.

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#861208



Joined: 07 Oct 2016
Posts: 423
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 9:26 am Reply with quote
Yuri Plisetsky is also blond. He and Eli are my favorites on this list and I love silver/white-haired characters, but they aren't.

There's also L-elf spoiler[(/Michael/Mikhail/Misha)] from Valvrave (his country is supposed to be a fusion of Germany and Russia, sort of). And there's also A-drei with white hair, from the same country. And Lieselotte with whitish-pinkish hair.

And for a German silver-haired character, Weismann from K (who looks a lot like Victor, actually. spoiler[And both of them left high places to be with their Japanese boyfriends...])
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midori kou



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 3:19 pm Reply with quote
Throwing in Sasha from Qwaser of Stigmata in the silver-hair Russian mix. Him and his borscht obsession. =P
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13626
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:50 am Reply with quote
Popular seiyuu Sumire Uesaka is a Russian culture fan. If I really knew Japanese and she was good in English, I would send her this link.
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BaroneBuster



Joined: 09 Jan 2017
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:28 am Reply with quote
I do recall seeing photos of Russians and some Northern Europeans having near-albino looks (not actual albinos). Like this Russian guy for instance; http://imgur.com/a/HgDMD

Here's a quote I found in one forum from before; "People from Iceland, I played against a team from Iceland once, I was 12 or 13, and I was shocked how pale they looked, specially their eyebrows.Some looked borderline albino."

Near Albino-looking characters like Worick, Erica and Delico from Gangsta.

Koko Hekmatyar and her brother Kaspar from Jormungand are insanely pale. The albino Russian model, Natsya Kumarova https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/86/90/8a/86908a42a59cfd928d724a63e6aed220.jpg, http://imgur.com/a/hf0Ca happens to look like Koko
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Dragonsandphoenix



Joined: 21 Jan 2015
Posts: 82
Location: Malaysia
PostPosted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:23 pm Reply with quote
I didn't realise how many Russians there were in anime. And the fact that they're Russian isn't focused on so much so I don't really notice.
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Suena



Joined: 27 May 2012
Posts: 289
PostPosted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:47 am Reply with quote
I feel like German characters also tend to have silvery hair, but I can't think of a lot right off the top of my head.
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