Troperville
Help us survive. All donations are anonymous on the wiki and unacknowledged, as we don't wish to create a hierarchy among Tropers.
Editing
Tools
Toys
|
Kitsurubami of FLCL is one of the saner examples of this trope
Cousin of the Dark Skinned Redhead, opposite of the Pale Skinned Brunette. If the series is matching Hair Colors to personalities, the DSB is often The Ditz if female (whereas the DSR is often hotheaded). The trope may have some relation to the Ganguro fashion trend that took over Japan for part of the 90s consisting of bleached hair and an artificial tan, but the Dark Skinned Blond is usually part foreigner, as opposed to a Ganguro, who is almost invariably native Japanese.
The addition of a DSB in the cast often adds a foreign flavor to the show, and it is not uncommon for the DSB to be of uncertain or dubious origin. The fact that very few people in real life have this natural combination of hair and skin types helps to create this impression. It's also common for a DSB to be of mixed heritage and have their appearance handwaved through this, but more often than not it just goes unexplained.
May overlap with White Haired Pretty Girl or White Haired Pretty Boy. See also Hair Colors.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- BlackRose and her Expy, Rena, of the .hack// series. Zefie even lampshades it by calling Rena a ganguro.
- Lieutenant Kitsurubami of FLCL (see above picture). Note that her name is also another way of writing brown, referencing her skin color. She also has a visual Expy of another DSB, Lal'C Mellk Mal from the later StudioGainax series Diebuster.
- Triela of Gunslinger Girl, a girl of uncertain origin. The manga strongly implied that she was from Eastern Europe early on, but recently revealed she was from Tunisia.
- Dearka Elsman of Gundam SEED, a male example. Ironically, he's the least exotic-looking of the Gundam pilots...
- Another one is Rolan from Turn A Gundam. His hair is technically white, though.
- Integra Hellsing of Hellsing, explained (in the first anime series) by her being half-Indian. Also Church Militant Alexander Anderson is one of these, and has his appearance Hand Waved via his uncertain origin. The fact that he speaks with a Scottish accent in the English versions just makes this more confusing.
- This troper always thought of Anderson as a suntanned Irishman (stereotypes about Irish Catholics would explain his accent and his fierce hatred of Anglo-Protestants).
- The manga states that Anderson, when not doing the whole BadAss vampire/heretic/anything-that-looks-at-him-funny-slaying thing, works at an orphanage outside Rome. I don't think I could live in Rome for X years and NOT get a tan. And I also always pictured Anderson as a suntanned Irishman.
- Per the cover of volume 8, he also seems to have grey hair in the manga, not blond.
- I wouldn't trust manga covers, Hirano doesn't know what the word consistency means.
- Angol Moa of Keroro Gunsou. It is revealed at one point that she modeled her non-magical form after an implied ganguro girl who'd left quite an impression on her.
- Kaolla Su of Love Hina, a girl from the island kingdom of Molmol, and her sister, Amalla Su. She's usually mistaken for Indian by other characters, but the blonde hair and other details show otherwise.
- Mahya Blythe of Mai-Otome. Laula Bianchi, from the same series, has dark skin and cyan hair.
- Kuu Fei of Mahou Sensei Negima, an Expy of Kaolla Su and a Chinese Girl, though whether anyone from China actually looks like her is a good question. Zazie Rainyday of the same series is also worth noting. It's anyone's guess for this or any other characteristic of hers, though.
- Kuu Fei's skin coloring could be explained as a natural tan and her hair as a dye job both of which is plausible for people from China to have.
- Jack Rakan kind of counts.
- The entire Kuramitsu family of the Tenchi Muyo series, perfect examples of The Ditz, most notably Mihoshi. (One of the supplemental novels makes it explicit that the Kuramitsu family are descendants of Washuu. Though they all look like her (presumably long dead) ex-husband, with none of her own physical traits. And Mihoshi, for all her apparently stupidity, is actually much smarter than she seems.)
- Bikky from FAKE, explained by his mixed heritage.
- Kalia of El Hazard The Magnificent World, who technically has white or silver hair but fits in with the trope.
- Athena Glory from Aria is one of these, despite the fact she has purple hair - she's a bit of a Genius Ditz, part CloudCuckooLander, and very much in line with the trope otherwise.
- Malik in Yu-Gi-Oh.
- Aisha Clan-Clan in Outlaw Star is a Dark Skinned Blond Cat Girl...
- The Arrancars Halibel, Ilfort Grantz and Findor Carias of Bleach.
- Hot Scientist Rakshata Chawla of Code Geass is officially from India but has blond hair. This is never really explained, but considering that green and purple heads also appear in that universe without much explanation it may not be such a big deal. Likewise, Ace Pilot Villeta Nu has blue hair and dark skin.
- Wendy Earhart of Read Or Die looks like this because of her mixed English/Indian heritage.
- Kei from the anime version of Shin Shirayukihime Densetsu Pretear (his skin is lighter in the manga).
- Chelsea Muir from Coyote Ragtime Show, a ditzy ex-cop and sidekick to an Inspector Javert that looks like Angelina Jolie.
- Lisa Vanette from "Scoop Chase", episode 8 of the original Bubblegum Crisis, may be one of the earliest examples. While a city in Japan, MegaTokyo is a multicultural melting pot, and Lisa probably counts as a "foreigner" because she has both a French name and an uncle who is black (Chief Todo of the AD Police).
- Janet "Greenback Jane" Bhai of Black Lagoon, a blond Indian woman who's also a Dojikko.
- Monique from Blood+.
- Momo Adachi, the main character of Peach Girl. In fact, she's often bullied because people mistake her for a Ganguro.
- Variation on this trope: in the FullMetalAlchemist manga, the Ishbalans/Ishvalans all have white hair, a dark skin, and red eyes. In the anime, they have black hair but Scar's has turned white for some reason (strongly implied to be of traumatic origin).
- Akio Ohtori from Revolutionary Girl Utena is a dark-skinned man with light lavender hair. His actual ethnicity is unknown, although he certainly fits in the definition of foreigner, in the truest sense of the word.
- Bu-ling from Tokyo Mew Mew. Her hair gets a little bit darker when she transforms.
- Barbara, one of Anna's partners in the second season of Kaleido Star.
- Pyunma aka Cyborg 008 from Cyborg009.
- The Pokemon Jynx is apparently based on the Ganguro trend. There's also the legendary Darkrai, who looks more like a White Haired Pretty Boy (as far as Pokemon go, at least).
- Minato Ōba from Hyakko.
- In Naruto, Killer Bee, his brother the Raikage, and some other people from the Hidden Cloud Village seem to have dark skin and white hair. (The only one of them depicted in a full color panel is Killer Bee, who has a pale blonde hair)
- Koshio Karako, self-proclaimed Yamato Nadeshiko of Deadman Wonderland. It's safe to say her assessment is largely inaccurate.
- Sela D Miranda from Basquash!.
- Twellen from Toward The Terra.
- Urd of Ah My Goddess, who's a half-demon Goddess.
- Urd bears an extremely strong resemblance to her mother Hild, who also qualifies.
- Zafira of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, an alien Ridiculously Human Program. Hayate was able to pass him off as a foreign relative together with the other Wolkenritter possessing wildly colored hair.
- Gloria from Daphne In The Brilliant Blue.
- Atsuko Jackson from Michiko To Hatchin. Michiko calls her "Jambo", apparently to tease her for her dark skin.
- If we count white hair, then Noble Demon Crisaor Krishna from Saint Seiya certainly counts.
Comic Books
- Connor Hawke, the interracial second Green Arrow, originally had blond hair and very dark skin. Since then, careless artists have tended to draw him much paler, sometimes apparently just making him white.
- In post-One More Day Spider Man comics, Harry Osborn's girlfriend Lily Hollister is one of these.
- Angel St. Grace/Devlin from Codename: Knockout.
Film
Literature
- Emberella from Witches Abroad. The text notes that this isn't uncommon in Genua (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of New Orleans), which was known for being quite "easy going" with respect to genetic combination, If You Know What I Mean.
- The Clayr, a clan of seers in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series, are described as looking this way, partly due to living on a glacier and having their skin be nearly constantly tanned by reflected sunlight.
- In the Warworld anthology book series, there's an entire race of Dark Skinned Blondes, the Frystaaters, whose ancestors were mainly white Afrikaners who moved to a planet with such intense sunlight that they had to darken or die. Since their high-gravity planet also bred super-strength, most people don't tease them about it.
- Mona Aamons Monzano, a character in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. She's of Finnish and black West Indian ancestry.
- Cadence Drake in Holly Lisle's Hunting the Corrigan's Blood, due to her mother's gene splicing as political statement.
- Telemakos, main character of Elizabeth E. Wein's Mark of Solomon books, because his father's British and his mother African. Genetically speaking, this shouldn't be possible (especially as his hair is almost silver- it's that light) but there's no mention of this.
- The Folk in Eloise McGraw's The Moorchild are a species of Dark Skinned Blonds; the half-human, half Folk main character inherits the appearance, which becomes a point of teasing and persecution while she's living in a human village.
Real Life
- Beyoncé Knowles.
- Strikingly light blond hair is very common among aboriginal Australians, although it always goes deep black before adolescence.
- Oddly enough, a mild form of this is found in many Germanic blondes who work outside. They just tan really well as their hair bleaches.
- Not to mention Tina Turner.
- This is actually relatively common in the West Indies where this troper lives.
- It's also been spotted in the South — it's a side effect of a shallow gene pool, which cause mutant genes, such as those which cause problems with pigmentation, to pop up more often. (This troper had an example of this for a classmate, and while the carpet was not checked, it ought to be noted that eyebrows tend to be more certain and less...intrusive to check.)
- Polar bears' skin is totally black.
Video Games
- Rikku from Final Fantasy X. The dark skin is more noticeable in X-2 since there's, er, more of it on display.
- Tidus, although he just might be incredibly tanned.
- Tidus bleaches; you can see his roots. Also in flashbacks to his childhood, young Tidus has brown hair.
- Archer in Fate Stay Night, of the silver/white variety, who, besides being of dubious origin has another twist: He's the adult self of The Hero Shiro, a pale redhead. It has been mentioned that this is caused by the strain on body from tracing, though if such really was the case, he'd probably look albino.
- Overuse of magic and magical tampering in this series is known to change peoples' appearance. Sakura Matou should be black haired and blue eyed, like her sister.
- Liquid Snake of Metal Gear Solid isn't noticeably dark-skinned in the game itself, but officially artwork shows both him and Fortune (of Metal Gear Solid 2) looking like this. Liquid's colouring is enhanced by spending about ten years in the Middle East being bleached and tanned by the sun (his brother is paler due to living in Alaska, and it's implied he dyes his hair dark); Fortune is your everyday naturally-blonde-and-blue-eyed black woman.
- Peppita Rossetti of Star Ocean 3. She's an alien.
- Vanessa Lewis from Virtua Fighter
- The Kirschwasser realians in Xenosaga, who also possess gold eyes, as does every single realian in the game.
- Glen and Cormag of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Hawkeye of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword and his daughter Ingrene from The Sealed Sword.
- Damon Gant from Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, and likewise Kristoph and Klavier Gavin from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
- It should be noted that Gant's hair is light-colored not because he's blond, but because he's a man in his 60's whose hair has gone grey.
- Another troper notes that Kristoph does not fit this trope while his brother does.
- Elena from Street Fighter III.
- Aion from Chrono Crusade.
- Boman Delgado from Rival Schools, an American who has his blond hair in a mohawk.
- Tetra, from Legend Of Zelda - Wind Waker. But only when she's Tetra, not Zelda.
- There's an entire culture of characters with dark skin and fair hair in Suikoden Tierkreis: the Magedom of Janam. Plotting the personalities and apperances of Manaril, Shams, Asad, and sundry supported characters between the DSB and the Dark Skinned Redhead is an exercise left to the reader, but the end result is undeniable: Janam and its swarthy, light-haired natives seem downright ''otherworldly''.
- Nao Nao, partner of the equally darkskinned Sota, in The World Ends With You, of course, they're ganguro, and it makes sense, considering Shibuya is full of quirky fashions. The game's dialogue plays up her ditziness.
- Vaan from Final Fantasy XII.
- Cid from Final Fantasy Tactics A 2.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A 2 artworks may indicate that Montblanc is a Dark Skinned Blond, or more as a Dark Furred Blond that is.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- Spyke from X-Men Evolution (and his aunt Storm, though her hair is white and given a HandWave by saying that it's a distinguishing trait of her people).
- The alternate-universe Hermes from the Futurama episode "The Farnsworth Parabox" has blond hair, while "our" Hermes is a brunette. Most other characters have color differences in their respective universes in this episode.
- Patti Mayonnaise from Doug. Though, this is a side-effect of the series' Amazing Technicolor Population more than anything else.
- Xandir from Drawn Together.
- Ren from The Pirates Of Dark Water.
- Alan "The Brain" Powers' mother from Arthur is supposed to be African American and has blond hair.
Web Original
|
|
