When it comes to whether or not you like someone, usually the first thing you take into consideration is their looks. Now it may sound like that’s a little shallow, and well, it kinda is. However I don’t think looks should just be pushed to the side because its a touchy subject. Looks are something that should be celebrated and people should be able to share their preferences of what they find pleasing to the eye. Aesthetic is a major contributor to art in itself and its high time we try to look at it with more consideration. I’m just trying to put some artistic merit into a topic that otherwise would be void of any. So anyway, seeing that Anime is recognized for its visuals more than anything else I think that its sometimes okay to divulge (maybe a little more than need be) into certain aesthetics and why we like them so much. Of course this is a totally subjective topic so I’ll try to make this sound less like a justification and more like an appreciation. So to start it off, this weeks anime aesthetic I will be looking at “hot tan girls” and why they’re so damn hot.
So there is a very particular reason this article is about “tan” girls and not “black” or “dark-skinned” girls. Honestly its just because “tan” fits better and isn’t as much as a mouthful as “dark-skinned”. Also because while there will be black girls mentioned I think that would be a little misleading. Okay I think that’s enough emotional and political buffer, let’s get into it.
Now generally across the board in anime most of the character skin colors are white/cream. Sometimes they have shades of pink or one notch darker on the white scale, but it’s usually very consistent. So I don’t have to tell you that seeing a darker skinned anime character is a commodity in and of itself. It’s almost like seeing a four-leaf clover, once you find it you want to hold cherish it and make a wish. Basically that’s how I sum up my feeling for tan anime girls. Firstly because its such a rarity that its nice to see a change in aesthetic every once in a while. But don’t worry because I’m even more picky when it comes to my tan anime girls.
When I look at a girl like Miyuki here, I tend to find it less appealing among tan anime girls. The simple reasoning I have is that her hair is black. Now I know that black is the natural hair color for someone with darker skin, but anime doesn’t have to be held down by our genes. The reason a girl like Miyuki (with black hair and dark skin) doesn’t work for me is because her hair seems to blend in with her skin color too much. Yep I’m getting that shallow. While I still get that “four-leaf clover effect” every time I see Muyuki her hair and skin combination isn’t exactly what I’m looking for. I often feel the same way about white anime characters with white hair, just too much of the same on one face isn’t all that interesting. However this can sometimes be remedied by the character’s eye color. This is because for a tanned character the eyes stand out more because the Sclera is white and naturally draws you in because it contrasts with everything else.
So having nice colored or well designed eyes are maybe more beneficial for tanned characters… Or maybe I’m just crazy. Choi Mochimazzi is another good example of a character whose eye design and color seem to benefit from tanned skin. The same for Miyuki, while I dont necessarily like her hair I can appreciate how her skin color helps bring out the color in her eyes and makes them her defining feature (that and other things boobs *cough cough*). It seems that contrasting colors right next to each other seem to make each individual color stand out while still mixing together nicely. If I was any kind of artist I probably would know if there was a term for this, but I don’t. So moving on.
Now you might have already come the same conclusion that I’m about to make. If that’s the case I can already tell we’re kindred spirits when it comes to appreciating tan anime girls. If the contrast for the eyes works and the blending of the hair doesn’t, the only answer must be to have the hair color contrast. Ding ding ding, that’s exactly right! When it comes to tan anime girls I find that if you slap on a different hair color other than black/brown you get something special. Now while this is usually true there are some exceptions. Mainly the fact that dark shades and red for some reason don’t seem to help and end up just mixing in like black hair. Down below I have two examples of this.
The perfect sort of combination that I seem to have concluded is, tan skin with either whitish or pinkish hair. If its white it usually has to have some other shade in it but there is also the rare occasion where just plain white works as well. Then there’s also the rare case where you find a blonde tan girl, but those are even more rare than four-leaf clovers. We’ll call them double rainbow girls. So just know that if you see one you’re gonna have a good day.
So my reasoning for why a tan characters eye’s stand out is sort of the same reason that her fairer hair may stand out as well. You see, most of the time girls have longer hair which sort of encompasses all the best parts of her face. When you put a color like white around something like black, it draws your eyes in and keeps it focused. So I suppose if you have a girl with fair hair and dark skin you’ll be drawn into appreciate her dark skin for the contrast and take everything in more. At the same time you can appreciate the fair hair for bringing out the dark skin and how they may contrast but seem to complement each other (Yet another explanation that could be improved if I actually knew art terms). So now that you have an idea of what I’m getting at, take a gander down below and see if what I’m saying makes any sort of sense to you.
Now I don’t know if any of this is getting through to you except that I like tan girls with light-colored hair. But even if that is all you get out of this, then its a success. Personally I don’t really see this as any different than talking about different genres of tv or music and why you like those. Like I said before, anime is more than just storytelling and cool action scenes. Sometimes something as simple as a character design/aesthetic can be all someone needs to watch a show. It may not mean they’ll watch it all the way, but its something that gets them in the door. The world of anime is full of unique aesthetics worth looking at and rambling on about and I’ll be sure to do more articles like this in the future. Oh and before I forget, here’s your double rainbow. Now go on and have a wonderful day.
