Rachel Moore (AKA Ran Mouri) is one of the main characters in the hugely popular Case Closed (AKA Detective Conan). Her hair is bizarre.
It’s bizarre, because she’s a regular person and not some character from fantasy or another planet. Those wild coifs are excusable. But hers? It should confirm to regular laws of hair. Yet…
[Image: GirlsChannel]
[Image: Logsoku]
This is why the character can be tricky for cosplayers.
[Image: SquallChannel via Twipple]
Oh. Hrm. It’s like a hair cone.
[Image: Rui Kumae Blog]
Even official cosplay looks off. Here, we have model Rui Kumae dressed as the character at a press event for a Detective Conan app.
[Image: Mkun588]
See how Kumae’s cosplay stacks up against the character?
@takumitoxin そうですかね… pic.twitter.com/sPdQXqhdgH
— ツシガ 田中辻臥 (@tu_si_ga) April 24, 2016
This official outfit is literally a cone stuck on the character’s head.
No wonder people often make fun of Mouri’s hair.
[Image: Koala]
But the character’s hair wasn’t always like this. When the Detective Conan manga debuted in 1994, the character had a fairly normal ‘do. But then it evolved, as you can see in these image via Twitter user Takumi.
[Image: Takumi]
What caused the change? Maybe her hair became patterned after pop star Shizuka Kudo‘s style? In Japan, Kudo was incredibly popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.
なんか「耳に絡みつく髪の方が気になる」って言ってる人がいたけど、それは工藤静香みたいに若干後ろに流してるって事を表現してるんだと思うよ。 pic.twitter.com/8IuKgFRttK
— TAKUMI™ (@takumitoxin) April 24, 2016
So, that isn’t a hair cone on the character’s head, but a popular hairstyle of the time. Takumi redrew the character in a more realistic fashion, showing how the ‘do actually works and that Ran Mouri isn’t a conehead.
今更だけど、蘭の髪の尖がってる部分って、こういう事だよね？#コナン pic.twitter.com/fHvD9nZqPP
— TAKUMI™ (@takumitoxin) April 24, 2016
Phew. Good to know! But wait. In the anime, her hair has a highlight, which confuses things, indeed making it look like there is a hair cone on her head.
[Image: Takumi]
You know what could be the answer to this puzzling hair?
[images: Naver]
[images: Naver]
[Top image: Dengeki Online]
Comments
5 responses to “Trying To Explain A Strange Anime Hairstyle”
I always thought it was pretty obvious it was a pointy wave? Yeah the highlights in the anime can be misleading, but you have to consider that the Conan anime is suuuuper low budget. There’s also the fact that Kumae has one of the plainest and most forgettable faces in anime so I can see the animators going ahead and exaggerating that feature to give her something to be recognised by.
Some of those images have it changing sides.
Trying to explain anime hairstyles? You. Will. Fail. (let’s not even get started on card game anime, Yu-gi-oh anyone?)
It’s hard enough trying to explain some real world hairstyles without delving into fictional worlds.
Surely it’s just a graphic flourish to make the character more recognisable/readable at a glance?
Cartoons can take all sorts of shortcuts, such as the fact that many characters are drawn with only 4 fingers. People don’t normally go to the trouble of counting fingers or analysing hairstyles while they’re focussing on the story.