For extra exoticism, just add tanning lotion.
Like most character design decisions in anime, colors are often chosen to reflect personalities more than to be realistic depictions. Although dark skin is not a particularly alien choice, it's more often used to reflect a bouncy, energetic, fiery personality than actual nationality. This probably has roots back to the ideal of Japanese beauty including pale skin, as opposed to the chain of association with tanned people being outdoorsy, and thus lively and adventurous. Add in Western associations with red hair, and you get a boisterous adventure-seeker. Bonus points if they have gold eyes.
Naturally, this includes Hard Drinking Party Girls and Tricksters of both genders. The most common combination with this skin tone is a vibrant and noticeable light color. Red is very popular, associated with all sorts of playful Japanese spirits as well as the kabuki wig, so it's also a common (and deliberately unusual looking) palette choice for demons and Cat Girls. Red's a popular hair color for other reasons as well, of course.
Note, dark skinned characters with dark hair (olive, purple, black) tend to have muted personalities.
This trope can be Truth in Television in Asian countries like Pakistan, where dyeing hair red with henna dye is common (while natural redheads in Pakistan — and there are many — usually have light skin). Dark skin with natural red hair is often seen in Oceania, especially Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. In the West, you generally only see this in cases of Mixed Ancestry. For example, the Afro-American activist Malcolm X earned the nickname "Detroit Red" due to the reddish tinge in his hair that he inherited from a Scottish ancestor. Likewise, basketball player Blake Griffin has tan skin and red hair due to having a black father and white redhead mother.
Sister trope to Dark-Skinned Blond. Contrast Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette and Raven Hair, Ivory Skin. Also quite likely to be Ambiguously Brown. But sometimes. You Gotta Have Blue Hair.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Pictured to the right: Gene Starwind from Outlaw Star.
- Perhaps the prototypical Dark-Skinned Redhead, Kei from Dirty Pair.
- Marie and several other characters from Haré+Guu.
- Shayla-Shayla from El-Hazard: The Magnificent World.
- Daisuke/Davis Motomiya from Digimon Adventure 02 unlike his sister and mother so he might have a tan. Must be all the soccer training.
- Tanya from Battle Athletes gets the dark skin and straight red hair treatment. Despite the Olympic-like premise of the series explicitly telling us she's supposed to be African, she actually comes off more as
◊ a quasi-Cat Girl.
- Ed from Cowboy Bebop, whose behavior is all over the map. She could be of Turkish descent, as her father's name translates into Turkish, and her real first name is French (no doubt a tradition started at the Napoleonic Wars, which involved the Ottomans).
- Petite Princess Yucie's demon princess Greta fits the typical description, but has lavender hair, since she's also an Ojou.
- Similarly, Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena has dark skin and deep purple hair. She's the "muted personality" type. It's implied that she and her brother are from India.
- Wangari, the Kenyan Large Ham Announcer from Little Witch Academia.
- A male version of this trope is Tasuki from Fushigi Yuugi, the energetic fire-fan-wielding bandit.
- Karen Joshua from Gundam's OVA The 08th MS Team, the fiery CPO of the titular military unit.
- Winia Chester from Scrapped Princess is a more subdued version of this, though she perks up quite a bit around Pacifica.
- The princesses Tatra and Tarta in Magic Knight Rayearth. They're both from the foreign country Chizeta. So is the first-series antagonist Caldina, who has dark skin and pink hair and uses trickery and illusion to fight.
- Naruki Gelni from Chrome Shelled Regios. She's usually fun-loving and friendly, though she takes her job very seriously.
- Kirche, the bouncy vamp from The Familiar of Zero.
- There was an "athletic" Nurse Joy◊ in Pokémon like this, with a tan/dark skin as an indicator of her personality not being like the others. That and muscles.
- Yoko Nakajima from The Twelve Kingdoms upon returning to the Twelve Kingdoms from Japan. In her case, she is a "taika", a person from the Twelve Kingdoms world who got carried away to Japan, and thus a shell was covering her to make sure she resembled her "parents". To be fair, the novels specifically mention that she starts out much paler, but after roughing it for several months without shelter, her skin's gotten a very dark tan. The same transformation also gives her green eyes.
- Sailor Moon:
- Akane Karasuma, aka Sailor Lead Crow, a 5th season villain/Quirky Mini Boss Squad member. As she's an alien, it's impossible to tell if this combo is the norm for her people. In the manga the only other people from her world are Phobos and Deimos, who aren't this.
- The Passionate Sports Girl Elza Gray, a one-episode character from the Sailor Moon anime. She was an old rival and friend of Haruka's and introduced her and Michiru to each other.
- Jeannie from Rune Soldier Louie, though she's actually The Stoic. She is, however, a very physical warrior type, so she's not too far off.
- Exedore/Exsedol's original design from Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Robotech had the colors, but his personality is the opposite of the usual type, being The Spock instead.
- Sousou (Caocao) from Ikki Tousen, though his personality is quite darker and more conflicted than the standard. Besides, he starts as a brunet and is only shown with red hair in the second season (Dragon Destiny). In Great Guardians, also, when Saji Genpou (Zuo Ci) drops his Saji facade and retakes his true identity of Ouin Shishi (Wang Yun), his blond hair turns into a blazing red.
- Kintarou Tooyama from The Prince of Tennis.
- Naruto
- Karui was shown to have red hair in a color page of the manga and, later on, in the anime.
- When using her Curse Seal, Tayuya also became this. With horns and black sclera.
- Chocho, the daughter of Chouji and Karui, is a dark skinned redhead and is Sarada's best friend in Boruto.
- Saiyuki:
- Kougaiji is a noble bad guy and seems to deliberately be in color contrast to his Evil Empress stepmother, Gyokomen Koshu (who is pale skinned with green hair). Possibly to emphasize that their personalities are complete opposites—Kougaiji is devoted to his nakama, while Koshu is prone to killing her followers on a whim. Rather than having a fiery personality, he's matched to the element and uses mostly fire attacks.
- Gojyo could also be considered an example, since he's rather tan compared to the others. Also has bright red hair.
- One of the female pirates in Vandread: the Second Stage has red hair and tanned skin. It's implied that she's a high-ranking officer and didn't come along on the Nirvana because she and her crew had business on Majer. She shows up just in time to spring the crew from jail. I believe her name was "Vera" or something like that.
- Libra Dohko from Saint Seiya was a *gorgeous* one when young.◊ And he still is. Since his old form is actually a Sleep-Mode Size, once he recovers his youth...Squee!! It shall be noted that Dohko was originally a tall and equally gorgeous brunet in the original manga. He's only a Dark-Skinned Redhead in the anime version,
- Ed◊ from Meine Liebe.
- Rurouni Kenshin is an interesting case. In the TV series Kenshin is not shown with particularly dark skin, but his hair is explicitly red. People actually say that his hair is red, instead of it just being a visual design element. In the OVA series, he's closer to a Dark-Skinned Redhead in a way that's fairly accurate for a Japanese person. (Dark red hair is very rare but does occur among native Japanese.)
- Raphael from I'm Gonna Be an Angel! has red hair and a fairly dark skin (especially when contrasted with Mikael's) and a matching bouncy and energetic personality, although he's not really hotblooded. In fact, he is pretty mellow, maybe because he wasn't doing much in the series, besides playing guitar and molesting Mikael.
- Kyou Sohma in the anime version of Fruits Basket, though the dark-skinned part is pretty much just in comparison to the other characters. It's presumably due to the amount of time he spends outside, and his hair color is a result of the curse.
- Trinity Blood: Lilith Sahl.
- Victory Gundam: Kate Bush from the Shrike Team
- Rami of the Unemezoku from Arata Kangatari has pinkish-hair paired with tan skin.
- Toujou Hidetora from Beelzebub has ginger hair and a darker skintone than most of the cast.
- Kagura Demuri from Aquarion EVOL has both red hair, dark skin, golden eyes and a hotblooded personality. Apollo, from the previous series Genesis of Aquarion, is one too.
- In the Pokémon anime, Skyla has notably darker skin than in the games or other media, turning her into this.
Comic Books
- Alicia Masters was portrayed as one of these in the Heroes Reborn (Dork Age) version of the Fantastic Four.
- Ember from ElfQuest. Dark skin and auburn hair is seen in quite a few elves of the Sun Folk, including Leetah (Ember's mother), Shenshen, their mother Toorah, and Behtia. This does not seem to be connected to characterisation, though.
- Jezebel Jet, from Batman R.I.P.
- Marvel villainess Mystique - dark blue skin, red hair. (Same in the movie version.)
- "F***ing" Oyuki-chan from Empowered has light brown skin and red-orange hair, despite being one of the few Asian characters. She's tomboyish and free-spirited, but being raised in a ninja clan since early childhood has made her highly disciplined with a strict code of honor. She's foul-mouthed and socially-inappropriate to the point of creepiness.
- Kendra Munoz-Saunders, the Latina redhead Hawkgirl from Earth 2.
- The daughter of Archie from the main Archie Comics and Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats had her mom's skin tone and her dad's hair in her comics. She received her musical talents from both.
- Aster of The Witch Boy, since his mother is white with red hair and his father is Ambiguously Brown. However, he is far from a Fiery Redhead in personality.
- Wonder Woman: The Amazon Oenone has dark skin and dark red hair, though in her later appearances her hair was changed to black.
Fan Works
- The now human Kurama in Reverse has skin so dark that he’s mistaken to have Kumo ancestry and blood-red hair. He has very hot-blooded and impulsive and is going on a massive adventure trying to run from the various bounty hunters after him around the Elemental Nations.
- Natasha Martell in A Man of Iron is deeply tanned since she lived in Dorne - a desertic country - and has Tully red hair. Her father Oberyn proudly declares she's a skilled Action Girl and talented in the "bedroom arts".
Film
- Another non-anime example is Sikozu from the Farscape movie, though her series form doesn't count.
- Megara from Hercules. If you look very closely, you can easily tell that Meg's hair is actually a dark red color, and that her skin is slightly darker than that of Herc's.
- Thank to a Race Lift, Barbara Gordon is this way in The LEGO Batman Movie. She's half-black and half-white but keeps her standard red hair, which she inherited from her dad.
Literature
- Finnegan Hob from Abarat.
- Brier Iron-thorn in P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath is an example in Western fantasy fiction. A big, strong warrior woman raised among soldiers in the sun-drenched south, she's permanently tanned dark from those long years in the sunlight and her hair is a "sullen red", an indicator of the passions and hatreds and intensity of her innermost nature, under the stern exterior.
- Holly Short from Artemis Fowl.
- Ce'Nedra from The Belgariad is a dryad, and so has red hair and olive skin.
- Vincent Katherinessen from Elizabeth Bear's novel Carnival.
- In Codex Alera: Cursor's Fury, Invidia Aquitaine disguises herself as a slave with deep, red-brown skin, and coppery hair. It's justified, though, since this is a world where anyone with sufficient talent at watercrafting (magic using elemental spirits present in water) can change their appearance. And, well, the slave she was supposed to be wasn't exactly the kind you used for sweeping stables...
- Alia, Leto, and Ghanima Atreides from Dune.
- Princess Demetria in Emerald Prince.
- Collan in Melanie Rawn's Exiles Series is noted for being darker than most natural redheads.
- Hazel in The Heroes of Olympus is this plus gold eyes, thanks to her Divine Parentage.
- Quite a few of the mortok tribe in Phenomena have red hair according to Jolsah's spin-off series. Jolsah himself has purple with red stripes, and his great-great-grandfather had a dark purple.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, the Ghiscari of Slaver's Bay have a dark complexion, but many have a mixture of black and red hair, like a tortoiseshell cat.
- Josepha Walsh from the Venus Prime series has dark skin and red hair, the result of her mixed heritage.
- Many of the Aiel from The Wheel of Time.
- The Aiel aren't naturally dark skinned, they are tanned. The parts of their skin covered by the Caidin'sor are actually very pale.
- Zones of Thought: Phan Nuwen is a grey-skinned redhead with epicanthic folds, "a product of post-terrestrial evolution".
- In Prince of Wolves, Tara (or at least the penanggalan impersonating her after her death) has a skin tone like "crushed cinnamon" and hair like "spun copper."
- The Silerian Trilogy: Like most poor Silerians, Mirabar is dark-skinned, but also had bright red hair as a mark of her favor from their goddess (though most people initially believe this means she's a demon).
- Turtle Heart from Wicked is a traveling quadling glassblower that asks for Melena's help when he can't find his way. He's described as having "skin the color of roses at twilight: a dusky, shadowy red" and "hair [that] fell out in greasy hanks, sunset red". He's so handsome that both Melena and her husband Frexspar fall for him. Until he was murdered, Turtle Heart helped raise Elphaba and Nessarose. It's implied he fathered Nessa, but this is later shown to be wrong in a family tree.
- Eclipse has Kyrie Dreyvor, who is often called a Dark-Skinned Redhead in the story itself.
Live-Action TV
- Teyla from Stargate Atlantis is dark-skinned with auburn hair to portray her alienness.
Newspaper Comics
- Although most screen adaptations have portrayed her as more fair-skinned, the original Newspaper Comics version of Princess Aura from Flash Gordon was one of these. Of course, most Mongonians were portrayed as slightly dark-skinned, so it would have been odd if she had had a light complexion.
Professional Wrestling
- Although it wasn't always obvious, given she still had lighter skin than Jazz, Riptide had darker skin than most white people and had red hair, making her an example.
- Similarly it could be missed when she was in Mexico and Puerto Rico but while still an active wrestler April Hunter was otherwise tanner than most of her counterparts, especially noticeable with her Tag Team partner Nikki Roxx, who only seemed to get freckles from the sun. After Hunter's back injury in Canada however, she returned to the wrestling circuit noticeably paler.
- Alicia Fox, a look that most definitely was not stolen from Rihanna.
- Whenever Melina was a redhead she doubled as this.
- When Mercedes KV took up the name Sasha Banks, she sported this look.
Tabletop Games
- Given how certain parts of the setting of Exalted operate, it's not uncommon to find these types in the South. Dark-skinned types with hair colors that range from mahogany to copper to straight-up fire engine red aren't uncommon sights in cities like Chiaroscuro or Gem.
- Depending on the Artist, Chandra Nalaar. She's definitely a redhead, but whether she's dark-skinned or just exceptionally freckled depends on who's drawing her at the current time.
Toys
- The Sun is portrayed as a black woman with an orange afro in Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls.
Video Games
- An option in pretty much any game with a "Create-A-Character" mode. Even the rare ones like Fallout 3 that have a setting for race don't restrict hair colors based on it.
- Ganondorf and the Gerudo from The Legend of Zelda series, though some of the Gerudo from Breath of the Wild have light skin and pink hair instead. Midna from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess takes it Up to Eleven, with skin that is dual-patterned between black and grey (with bluish tints) and with hair that is a literal fiery orange-yellow, complete with giving off its own minor luminescence.
- The beast-taming bandit Moses from Tales of Legendia.
- Reid Hershel of Tales of Eternia is a Dark Skinned Redhead of the tanned variety, with his skin colour reflecting his athletic, outdoorsy disposition; his skin tone may also be a deliberate attempt to visually set him apart from other Inferians, of whom one of the distinguishing traits is pale skin.
- Jaffar from Fire Emblem 7, Tethys from Fire Emblem 8, and Fiona from Fire Emblem 10.
- Brave Fencer Musashi has Gingerelle, an arrogant beauty queen, and captain of the Thirstquencher Empire. While not so much the energetic type, she did have a powerful presence and tended to lord it over her little sister most of the time.
- Almalexia, a non-anime example from Morrowind, has dark gold skin and red hair.
- Lucia from Devil May Cry.
- Psyme from Sigma Star Saga is a purple-skinned redhead.
- Asad in Suikoden Tierkreis.
- Akuma (aka Gouki) of the Street Fighter series is a bloodthirsty martial artist with dark skin and wild red hair. His "Shin Akuma" form in Capcom vs. SNK takes it even further, with dark red skin and pure white hair.
- Crimson Viper, from Street Fighter IV, is darker-skinned than the other girls in the game, but not to the same degree as Akuma.
- Shauna - a bandit leader and the Hero version of the Gypsy class - from Soul Nomad & the World Eaters.
- In a rare western example, Ronny and Sally Dobbs from Backyard Sports.
- Nym from Black Sigil is a wild child with dark skin and red hair.
- Early concept art shows Alyx Vance as one of these.
- Jin of Yo-Jin-Bo, complete with a spunky personality.
- As of Dynasty Warriors 6, Sun Quan has an element of this, as compared to the rest of the pasty cast, he is quite swarthy.
- Half-Calishite (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture mishmash of Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and others depending on who you ask) Khalid of Baldur's Gate is shown to have short red hair if you remove his helmet.
- Pirate boss and snarky Fire Adept Eoleo in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn fits perfectly, being the tannest player character in the series to date, implicitly from a lifetime of doing pirate-y things, since he and his parents had a lighter complexion in The Lost Age.
- Every character in Evil Zone is an Affectionate Parody of a manga/anime genre or archetype; Cute Bruiser Midori is the Dark-Skinned Redhead.
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has Mistral. In her case, she's a maniacal Blood Knight who states that she only feels alive in battle.
- One of the dancing girl sprites from the "Beat it & Eat It!" level of The Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures.
- Star Trek Online: Elisa Flores, the Federation player character's XO starting with Season 8, has dark red hair and tanned skin. Coupled with her name and attitude, she comes off as a Spicy Latina.
- This combination, along with Dark-Skinned Blond, often occurs in The Sims, particularly among randomly-generated Sims. Nina Caliente is a premade Sim with darkish skin and red hair, and her sister Dina is a Dark-Skinned Blond.
- In Hometown Story, the blacksmith siblings and the hunter family have this. Personality-wise, the hunter father is a quite enthusiastic person and displays a somewhat inflated ego at times.
- Resident martial-artist and Gentle Giant Kanna Kirishima of Sakura Wars. She hails from Okinawa and, in later entries, loses some of her darker complexion and bright red hair.
- The rather hot-headed Reyn from Xenoblade Chronicles.
- You can invoke this trope in Arc Style: Baseball!! 3D by giving your character red hair and brown skin.
- Inazuma Eleven: Someoka has a reddish shade of pink hair and tan skin, but he's still got the attitude of a Fiery Redhead. Desuta also has auburn hair and tan skin, which can be justified due to being a demon.
Webcomics
- Marena of Keychain of Creation and her sister, Karen. Marena is definitely a fiery, emotional, out-there woman, who flaunts her sexuality.
- Ellen in older Questionable Content strips (exhibit A); now that the other characters aren't so pale, Ellen's skin is not significantly darker (exhibit B). Tai, on the other hand, is a more straight (no pun intended) example, as seen here. Later on it's revealed that she dyes her hair and she even lampshades the improbability of that color hair with her skin tone.
- Wapsi Square is in black and white, but we know from coloured artwork by the author that Monica Villarreal is supposed to to be a Dark-Skinned Redhead, due to her Mexican as well as Irish ancestry.
- Guy from Two Guys and Guy.
- Although there are many people that dye their hair red in Drowtales (mostly the Vloz'ress), Nel'ralka & Genaninote both seem to be natural redheads, there's another unnamed Sarghress in chapter 30,note to name but a few.
- In Dragon Mango, there are more than one -- a fact exceedingly annoying to a character who thought "dark-skinned redhead" ought to be an identifying trait.
- The immature ranker Quant from Tower of God. Here's◊ proof.◊ Fellow family member Quaetro, and likely the rest of the family, count too.
- Anvil from Grrl Power.
- LaBelle from Charby the Vampirate is revealed to have rich brown skin to go with her vibrant red hair once the curse she was born with is canceled out.
- Cobweb and Stripes has Prudence, Lydia's college roommate.
- Girl Genius: The Smoke Knight Varpa is a redhead like most of those related however distantly to the von Blitzengaard and Sturmvoraus family, however unlike most of the other redheaded members of the family she has a dark complexion and her hair is darker appearing dark brown or almost black under limited lighting.
- Dielle from Rhapsodies has reddish brown dreadlocks.
- Saffron from Saffron And Sage. Word of God states that this character design choice was based on the colors of the actual saffron flower.
- Mahalah from Undead Friend.
Web Original
- In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, Texan hero Firedrake is a black man with pumpkin-orange hair. It's a side-effect of his powers.
- Survival of the Fittest: Evolution gives us Holly Chapman, who fits. The tan part, according to her profile, is from living in the desert for most of her life, while the red hair comes from a habit of dying it and it just so happened that she was abducted while it was red.
- The Fate of Paul Twister introduces us to the enigmatic Amber, who Paul describes as having fiery red hair, green eyes, and "skin a fair bit darker than you’d expect on a girl with red hair and green eyes," working as the postmistress at a Bards College camp in the middle of nowhere. It's implied that she has a bunch of secrets, and probably some stuff in her past that she'd prefer to leave in the past.
Western Animation
- Ms. Sara Bellum from The Powerpuff Girls.
- Sari Sumdac from Transformers Animated. She also appears to have red eyes for some reason. Eventually justified since she's not fully human.
- Wuya from Xiaolin Showdown.
- Anna Maht from World of Quest.
- Starfire from Teen Titans is an alien with red hair and orange skin.
- Lua from Kong: The Animated Series.
- Kiva Andru from Megas XLR.
- Max from Batman Beyond, whose hair is dyed pink.
- Kelly from Stōked.
- Saffi, from Jimmy Two-Shoes.
- Otto, from Rocket Power. Well, same goes for his sister, Reggie. Most of the characters are some shade of orange with bright hair and could fit into this trope.
- Wakfu: In a strange acquired example, the redhead Sadlygrove goes from fair-skinned to darkly tanned after wandering a desert shirtless near the end of season one. He stays like that for the rest of the series, even after a multi-year Time Skip.
- Yoko from Team Galaxy has red hair with blonde streaks.
- The Girl of the Week in the Johnny Bravo episode "Buffoon Lagoon".
- Darren and Ginger's baby, in the last episode of As Told by Ginger.
- Lars from Steven Universe has somewhat dark skin and red hair. His prototypical pilot design had darker skin and brown hair. In the episode "The Good Lars", it's revealed that he's half Filipino on his father's side, with the red hair coming from his mother.
- Luna from The Hex Girls has dark skin and red hair in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. The media between the two lightened her skin though.
- Will from Witch is biracial and has red hair. She's lighter than her Ambiguously Brown mother but is somewhat darker than the white characters.
- Princess Goleeta and her brother Zorn from Galtar and the Golden Lancen.
- Ginger from The Legend of Korra has medium-brown skin, a common thing for The Water Tribe. She's also the first one to use Varrick's dye products, so her red hair is only possible because it's dyed.
- Jazmine's hair has an orange tinge in The Boondocks' cartoon. Her mother is a blonde and white while her father is a brunette and black. In Jazmine's case this is due to Hair Color Dissonance. The original comics make it clearer that her hair is actually light brown, not light red.
- In The Amazing World of Gumball, the human version of Darwin the goldfish Sarah drew in "The Shippening" has brown skin and orange hair.
- The eponymous character from Carmen Sandiego, unlike the previous versions of herself from other installments in the franchise, which usually had pitch black hair, has dark auburn hair and brown skin. She's supposed to be Argentinian, but since her biological parents are unknown, it's hard to say.
