Why does hair color effect the way an anime character is looked at?

[Skitty1]

I ask because I find Pink haired girls [in anime] to be more fun to watch. So does hair color reflect personality at all?

 

[Meowthison]

I think so. Usually, more bubbly and fun characters have hair colors like pink or yellow, and I find more sinister characters have dark purple or blue hair.

 

[Skitty1]

^Ya I tend to notice that - although a lot of silver/grey haired girls/characters are opposite though.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Different colours give of different vibes, be it calming a calming blue, passionate red or whatever. It's only natural that the writer would give a hair colour that matches their personality.

Can't say I have a favourite though.

 

[Mystical Mermaid]

Hair color in anime is often used to depict traits about a character. This is by no means a complete list, nor does it mean every character to have these hair colors acts like this. I'll provide a few examples though.

Pink haired characters are often spunky, curious and bubbly (Chibi-Usa/ Rini from Sailor Moon, Sakura from Naruto).

Blue hair often signifies a calm, sometimes shy demeanor (Hanon from Mermaid Melody), but just as often signifies a character who can be over the top and hyper (Konata from Lucky Star).

Black hair, especially with spikes is a common trait of shonen characters, especially those who crave action and excitement (Ash Ketchum, Goku from Dragonball).

Red hair (as in the actual color red, not orange) is often found on boistrous, loud characters, or those with firey tempers (Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth, Jessie)

White, silver, or grey hair on characters who are not elderly often implies an air of mystery (Rei from Evangaleon), but can also signify a villain (Sephiroth, even if he's not from an anime, Sesshomaru from InuYasha; I'm leaving his brother out of it because he has more dog-like features, justifying the white hair in his heroic status).

Bald characters are almost always villains (Lordgenome from Gurren Lagen, Vargus from Negima), unless they are Chinese-styled monks (Krillin from Dragonball).

 

[Legobricks]

Full-spectrum hair colours apparently began as the easiest way for the characters to be differentiated at all in animation, along with height. Naturally archetypes would form over it based on what common culture perceives of various colours but there are no universal rules to the matter. Note as a start that that many anime opt for realistic colours; second that it is such a prevalent and recognisable theme that subversion is common; and so on.

White, silver, or grey hair on characters who are not elderly often implies an air of mystery (Rei from Evangaleon)

Rei's hair is blue.

 

[Skitty1]

^Oh hell no... no Rei - I hate NGE with a bloody passion... it has got to be amongst the most over [censored (hint begins with an "f")] rated anime's to ever have been spawned...

Rei character purpose: ooh look at me!!! I am a horny clone who wants to [censored (hint begins with an "f")] Shinji's dad. Also my other purpose is fan service and to be put half naked on dvd covers to make extra sales!!! ooooh.

Any waay back on top... hair colours in anime I guess are just for looks - but I don't think any one can tell for sure.

 

[Kura]

I think it's very important- colour is all about design so some of the characters probably wouldn't be the way they are trait-wise if not for their hair colour.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Yeah, that wasn't Rei's purpose at all, I'm not even a big fan of the series and I can see that.

 

[parallelzero]

I think a lot of the time, coloured hair is only to make it easier to tell characters apart and make them more unique. It's often reflected in their characters as well, and there are even cases where having a different hair colour means something like the character being foreign, or even inhuman.

^Oh hell no... no Rei - I hate NGE with a bloody passion... it has got to be amongst the most over [censored (hint begins with an "f")] rated anime's to ever have been spawned...

Rei character purpose: ooh look at me!!! I am a horny clone who wants to [censored (hint begins with an "f")] Shinji's dad. Also my other purpose is fan service and to be put half naked on dvd covers to make extra sales!!! ooooh.

Any waay back on top... hair colours in anime I guess are just for looks - but I don't think any one can tell for sure.

Do me a favor. Do an image search on Google and search "Evangelion DVD covers" and find one that has Rei wearing less than 95% of her clothing. You won't find any, not at all. At no point did Rei even show as much as a sexual interest in any character, and her relationship with Gendo was distant, but held together by trust. I have an extremely hard time imagining your post being based off of anything aside from your own dislike for the show - I actually have a hard time imagining you having watched more than a single episode.