what's your opinion on using anime like colored hair in fantasy?

[valiant12]

And not natural eye colors too. In my WIP I plan on having some characters with unnatural hair colors- either dyed with magic or with potions made by alchemists. Maybe some nonhuman characters who try to pass as a human may use the same magic (or tech I haven't decided if I want the hair dye to be magical or mundane) as part of their disguise. Another idea I have is to rewrite my last short story and make everybody with colorful eyes and hair. It's part of the lore of that particular story that humans in that world have slightly different physiology than humans on earth so why not make them visually different.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I have no problems with it if it makes sense in the context of the story. So, if the hair dying meant was a result of societal impulses or something that would be interesting to explore. Eye color changes don't matter much if you have a reason for the changes.

 

[Mythopoet]

My opinion is positive since I'm doing this as well in my work.

With my world I'm trying to avoid the idea of "races" at all, so I'm also avoiding physical characteristics of races such as certain hair and eye colors being associated with race. Every single person in my world is a member of an order of god-like beings and their physical characteristics are more dependent on their individual divine nature than anything else.

 

[Penpilot]

Sure. Works for me. And apparently it works for GRRM, too. Here's a description of Daario Naharis taken from a wiki.

Daario keeps his beard cut in three prongs, all dyed blue. His eyes are blue and his curly hair is dyed blue. His mustachios are painted gold and he has a large, curving nose. He is lithe, smooth skinned, has a golden tooth and dresses in loud colors and finery.

 

[Jay_Ehm]

Considering this is the genre of fantasy you're talking about, anything's really possible! Give your characters whatever hair color you want.

However, as for my personal opinion on anime hair colors in fantasy I prefer more natural hair colors you would find on Earth, dyed or not. If dying their hair bright blue fits the character, I'll be okay with it though. And that's not saying I can't enjoy stories/series/anime where the characters have weird hair colors- I've started watching One Piece this summer and there are quite a few examples of characters with weird hair colors. That hasn't prevented me from enjoying it, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite animes I've seen. There really isn't much of any other reason for my feelings on the subject other than personal preferences, I just tend to prefer more subdued color palettes over brightly-colored ones in most cases.

 

[X Equestris]

I don't mind it, as long as it fits the tone of the story and world. If your main character is the only person in the world with an unusual hair color, there may be a problem.

 

[Queshire]

Frankly I'm against it in general. Anime and manga are primarily visual mediums so it takes no extra effort to give them an unusual hair color. Prose isn't a visual medium so giving them an unusual hair color adds yet another descriptor in addition to everything else you have to tell the reader, and generally a person's hair color just isn't important enough to warrant that.

If the hair color signifies something then that could be different. If say red hair means someone is a fire mage and someone with blue is a water mage then yeah, there's no problem with that. However after you explain that it'd probably be better to just refer to them as fire mages or water mages and leave it to the reader to fill in the hair color based off what you already told them. Hair color just isn't that important.

 

[valiant12]

I don't mind it, as long as it fits the tone of the story and world. If your main character is the only person in the world with an unusual hair color, there may be a problem.

I'm not sure it fits the tone of the story. The story is pretty dark- it revolves around the murder of a wealthy noble and the main character is accused of it. And the lore is definitely dark- it features strange monsters appearing from nowhere and killing people as the main attraction and also wars, nasty disease, scheming nobles, crazy necromancers, etc.. The main character is the only person with brown hair and brown eyes. That combination is very rare in his world.

 

[Miskatonic]

Not a fan. To each their own.

 

[valiant12]

Frankly I'm against it in general. Anime and manga are primarily visual mediums so it takes no extra effort to give them an unusual hair color. Prose isn't a visual medium so giving them an unusual hair color adds yet another descriptor in addition to everything else you have to tell the reader, and generally a person's hair color just isn't important enough to warrant that.

If the hair color signifies something then that could be different. If say red hair means someone is a fire mage and someone with blue is a water mage then yeah, there's no problem with that. However after you explain that it'd probably be better to just refer to them as fire mages or water mages and leave it to the reader to fill in the hair color based off what you already told them. Hair color just isn't that important.

That's not a bad idea, but there are no mages in that world, and I personally never use people who specialise in one kind of magic so much that they dress in colors associated with that magic.

 

[Gurkhal]

For myself I hate it, but I will try to avoid judging others for it.

 

[Tom]

Same here. But, as others have said, it's your choice, so more power to you.

Just keep in mind that giving your characters anime-like hair and eye colors may dissuade some people from reading your work. Generally, when I pick up a book or find a story online, I put it down or hit the back button if the characters have unrealistic hair or eye colors. Nothing wrong with that inherently, but it's a pretty big trope among Mary Sue stories to give the Sue in question unusual physical features so she's that much more Speshul. Though your characters may not be (and most likely are not!) Sues, just seeing that association would be enough to turn me off the story.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Same here. But, as others have said, it's your choice, so more power to you.

Just keep in mind that giving your characters anime-like hair and eye colors may dissuade some people from reading your work. Generally, when I pick up a book or find a story online, I put it down or hit the back button if the characters have unrealistic hair or eye colors. Nothing wrong with that inherently, but it's a pretty big trope among Mary Sue stories to give the Sue in question unusual physical features so she's that much more Speshul. Though your characters may not be (and most likely are not!) Sues, just seeing that association would be enough to turn me off the story.

But doesn't this depend on if it makes societal sense, so a rich person has gold dyed hair, a wizard blue, a warrior red, and a commoner has no change in hair color? Because if the OP is doing something like that I would accept because if everyone is Speshul (maniacal laugh) no one will be.

 

[Svrtnsse]

You can do whatever you want as long as it fits the setting. Here's a semi-relevant excerpt from my WIP:

“Basically, they saw me coming there looking like a successful business professional instead of my usual punked out self. They thought I'd lost my individuality and succumbed to the curse of the city – whatever that is.”

“Oh, I see.” Enar laughed. “They thought you'd been assimilated or something.”

“Yeah, I had to make up some excuse about how I'd had to attend a business meeting in Hemsfil on the way here and hadn't had time to fix myself up afterwards.”

“Ah, fair enough, and then you didn't make the same mistake the next year?”

“Well, yeah, except I didn't get away quite that easily...” She heaved another big sigh. “I had to get Lilac to help me do my hair. She shaved it into a mohawk and enchanted it to glow green.”

“Wow, really? That sounds a bit extreme.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Have you ever tried to sleep while your hair glows bright enough to read by?”

“No I can't say I have.” Enar tried to keep from smiling too wide, but failed and started laughing.

“Shush! It was not funny.” Amanda slapped him over the knee.

Okay, so it's semi-humorous in nature, but it's not meant to make fun of the question. In my setting, this works, because there's a reason for it. Sure, the color is artificial, but it's definitely there, and it's something the characters have experience with and have seen and dealt with.

 

[Tom]

@Brian: Ahh, I see what you did there.

My objections to it are purely personal. If the screwy hair color is an established part of the OP's world, then I have no objections to it as a narrative device. Not everyone's going to hate it, after all. I just don't like crazy hair colors because I've grown cynical and hateful from reading too much bad fan fiction.

As an aside, I know it's dumb to keep reading badfic even though I hate it. I just can't stop! Once you give in to the Trainwreck Syndrome, there's no going back.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

@Brian: Ahh, I see what you did there.

My objections to it are purely personal. If the screwy hair color is an established part of the OP's world, then I have no objections to it as a narrative device. Not everyone's going to hate it, after all. I just don't like crazy hair colors because I've grown cynical and hateful from reading too much bad fan fiction.

As an aside, I know it's dumb to keep reading badfic even though I hate it. I just can't stop! Once you give in to the Trainwreck Syndrome, there's no going back.

I get that. I have the same problems with youtube comments, people talking law and politics that really shouldn't, and the comment sections of any vaccine article.

 

[valiant12]

But doesn't this depend on if it makes societal sense, so a rich person has gold dyed hair, a wizard blue, a warrior red, and a commoner has no change in hair color? Because if the OP is doing something like that I would accept because if everyone is Speshul (maniacal laugh) no one will be.

In my short story the colorful hair is naturally occurring. And yes nobody is special, people on that world are so accustomed to the hair and eyes diversity that they dont pay any attention to it, and they don't think about the differences between there world and our earth - that would be weird and unrealistic.

 

[valiant12]

but it's a pretty big trope among Mary Sue stories to give the Sue in question unusual physical features so she's that much more Speshul. Though your characters may not be (and most likely are not!) Sues, just seeing that association would be enough to turn me off the story.

What's with the hate on Mary Sues? The Mary Sue trope can be combined with unreliable narrator- for example, if a character describes himself as a perfect and flawless that is a clever way to show off his flaws like how arrogant, narcissistic and proud he is and why some people hate him

 

[Miskatonic]

What's with the hate on Mary Sues? The Mary Sue trope can be combined with unreliable narrator- for example, if a character describes himself as a perfect and flawless that is a clever way to show off his flaws like how arrogant, narcissistic and proud he is and why some people hate him

Then I imagine it would no longer fit the description of Mary Sue.

 

[Nimue]

Definitely something fun to play around with, and it could add spice to the visuals of your world! It wouldn't work in a strictly historically-based fantasy, but since you have a lot of non-humans or alternate humans, I don't see why not.

The caveat here is that you don't want to make it seem like only Important/Interesting/Special characters have brightly colored hair and eyes, and everyone else is normal and "boring" because that has been done to death. Otherwise your story might stir up shades of bad fanfic and anime cliche. Time for a rousing game of Spot the Anime Protagonist!